Single Overhead for live playing

[JohnoWorld]

try a rode nt3 in between the floor tom and snare.

If you're on a 4 piece setup, this should rise out from underneath the ride cymbal.

Then, point your snare air hole at the mic, jobs a good un.

Picks up kick, ride, toms, crashes, hats, and the snare is quite surprisingly punchy.

Might want to add just 1 extra mic to the kick drum though

 

[daledrums]

Here's a counterintuitive idea - a boundary microphone. I have an older Shure boundary mic that resembles a Beta 91A. Instead of putting it inside my kick, I park it just in front of the front hoop of the kick, pointed back at the front head. From there, I get a lot of kick in the mix, but it also easily picks up the snare and toms which lie well within its field (imagine an open grand piano lid's dimensions laterally and vertically). The cymbals are just audible and don't overpower the mix as is possible when using a single overhead.

I've used this trick in all sorts of settings, most recently in a large outdoor venue where two drumkits were in use, but we only had one set of mics. Since we were the openers, I didn't get the mics, but I just threw my secret weapon out front. Reports from our guys in the audience were that my drums were easily heard through that one boundary mic.

EDIT: The model of my microphone is Shure 819. Discontinued model.

Hmmm. Thinking of trying a variation of this in a small venue this week. I’ll keep my 91A in the kick but run my Sennheiser E-901 either sitting on foam ON the kick or otherwise positioned within the kit (in the HH/snare/ride-tom neighborhood...?).