The Delay tip is such a fine tuning addition people never even think about. Most sound checks don't have enough time to go through and make these small adjustments.
It's a balancing act for sure. But the good news is you can do all this fine tuning during the gig with the headphones. Just get everything set up, get the mix roughed-in, and THEN you can worry about all this stuff. And then once you get it the way you like it, make a note of what you did and then you can repeat that going forward! Personally I've never had a need to use overheads for live as there's enough bleed into vocal mics and stuff that it's never been an issue, maybe some day if my band starts playing large clubs and Arenas, then we'll worry about that kind of thing lol.
good video, most 'improve your snare' videos only touch on compression and eq and maybe a little on the bottom mic, but most totally miss on the OH part. matching the actual distance from the snare center to the OH mics will also clean up the image and improve definition. once the snare level is identical on both mics together with identical arrival times, everything changes! another tip that is a bit more of a bandaid if you can't make the snare work well with the OHs (and also have a very specific sound to it, so YMMV) is to use a sidechain compressor over the OHs bus, and trigger it with the snare (this also works with snare bleed into the HH)
Can you elaborate on that, that sounds interesting. Because in dealing with inexperienced drummers especially, sometimes a bandaid is the best you got lol.
ah man, the polarity vs phase got me. hahaha I'm glad I'm not the only one who preaches this. I dunno if you had Cory 1rst cycle at school or not, but man he went to town on that topic. him and allan's topics are some of the few etched in my mind hahaha
I´m so fortunate, that my drummer is just as much a tech nerd as I am, so he sets up his mics, measure distance and relay to me so I can compensate with delay. 🙂
Exactly. I’m the drummer and I just bought the X32 Rack. Im trying to get the best sound out of my kit, maybe by adding another mic the the snare and mixing them myself. Just trying to learn all about it here. What is the purpose of reversing the polarity. I don’t really understand what it does to the mic physically. I hear what happens but I like to know what the mic is actually doing different and why it’s important.
very valid point @Drew Brashler.... Is there a way I can get the your multitrack for the song used...if copyright allows you to share... it's strightly for practice purpose...Love the song❤
Would you apply delay on other shells? Such as toms and kick drum to optimise the frequency spectrum of those close mics along with the OH? Thanks for these videos.
Drew. I was told the over heads are frequency response mic. Designed for high frequency sounds so the just pick up cymbal sounds I guess like 80%. Over all . .
Hello! im the sound guy at my church aswell ,can you do a vid of eq for kick drums and toms.. I also have trouble on feedback ,how can I clean all my audio to have a strong a full audio with out interference problems,good vid💯
Cool vid! Tip: do not let sound engineer to delay any instrument for you inear mix. Live sound overheads shoud not amplify frequencies, those cancel each instruments. You can experiment this way in studio, byt for live sound, this is eye surgery done thru anus. 🤨
Do you know if when running delay in the X32/M32, that is running FOH and monitors, will that delay transmit through the monitors as well. I haven't test it yet, but that's a very good point.
I've been doing sound in cover bands at a pretty good level every weekend for 18 years and I CANNOT get a snare drum to come through the mains. Signal is -18; Boost 1K as far as it goes; and on an on. Tried dozens of mics and dozens of cords. I'm convinced snare drum has to be triggered in a band mix to heard.
Isn´t it just starting out with the snare, find a good strong output for it and then turn up the rest of the mics to match the volume? I´m only asking because that is what I do when I mix my own bands music.
What's your PA like? If it's small to the point where you're mostly just pushing vocal through it but want some snare, try doing just a bottom mic. Don't boost at 1k. Try 5-8k. You'll get the body of the snare acoustically, but you'll get some snap and wires through the mains. Compress at will.
Question… If your wanting to have the overhead mics in phase coherent position… most traditional snare locations are often “left” of the kit.. I can see where you can place the stage right overhead.. but where will you be placing the stage left overheard..? If phase coherent is what you are aiming for.. then the snare would have to be dead in the middle of the kit, right?
one school of thought is to approach it this way: draw an imaginary straight line that goes through the center of your kick drum and the center of your snare. It's likely slightly diagonal to the stage. Draw a second imaginary line perpendicular to the snare-kick axis line. Place your OH mics on that line, equidistant from the snare. For live shows on small stages, this may not be an option. But you're likely getting so much brass through the vocal mics that OH is not a big concern if that's the case.
I've been doing the cord-as-measuring-tape trick for years on live shows and it's so validating to see some corroborating it. I put overheads symmetrically over the center of the kick and raise (vertically) the one on the snare side to time-align the pair.
The problem is that the snare doesn't need to be delayed, the other channels need to be moved forward. Not possible live, but easily done post production.
Lool phase memes again? Don't You mind If I phase invert your bank acount? For you it will only be a "time" and I just wire some flipping transaction 🤣 okay? 100% wrong? 🤗
The Delay tip is such a fine tuning addition people never even think about. Most sound checks don't have enough time to go through and make these small adjustments.
It's a balancing act for sure. But the good news is you can do all this fine tuning during the gig with the headphones. Just get everything set up, get the mix roughed-in, and THEN you can worry about all this stuff. And then once you get it the way you like it, make a note of what you did and then you can repeat that going forward! Personally I've never had a need to use overheads for live as there's enough bleed into vocal mics and stuff that it's never been an issue, maybe some day if my band starts playing large clubs and Arenas, then we'll worry about that kind of thing lol.
Awesome explanation, Drew.
good video, most 'improve your snare' videos only touch on compression and eq and maybe a little on the bottom mic, but most totally miss on the OH part.
matching the actual distance from the snare center to the OH mics will also clean up the image and improve definition. once the snare level is identical on both mics together with identical arrival times, everything changes!
another tip that is a bit more of a bandaid if you can't make the snare work well with the OHs (and also have a very specific sound to it, so YMMV) is to use a sidechain compressor over the OHs bus, and trigger it with the snare (this also works with snare bleed into the HH)
Can you elaborate on that, that sounds interesting. Because in dealing with inexperienced drummers especially, sometimes a bandaid is the best you got lol.
Much love from Nigeria
ah man, the polarity vs phase got me. hahaha I'm glad I'm not the only one who preaches this. I dunno if you had Cory 1rst cycle at school or not, but man he went to town on that topic. him and allan's topics are some of the few etched in my mind hahaha
Too good! This delay technique I did not know.
This is excellent Drew! What a great video.
that's brolic dude thanks a lot, i do this in recording but never thought about it for the live gigs
Tip: don’t let the drummer touch the mics after you set them up.
LOL...huh?
I´m so fortunate, that my drummer is just as much a tech nerd as I am, so he sets up his mics, measure distance and relay to me so I can compensate with delay. 🙂
Exactly. I’m the drummer and I just bought the X32 Rack. Im trying to get the best sound out of my kit, maybe by adding another mic the the snare and mixing them myself. Just trying to learn all about it here. What is the purpose of reversing the polarity. I don’t really understand what it does to the mic physically. I hear what happens but I like to know what the mic is actually doing different and why it’s important.
Thank you Drew 🎯
Master class, Drew!
Many thanks drew...this is a very good tutorial.
I wont be like me now if there's no you ❤️❤️👍👍🙏🙏
Muy bueno, Saludos desde Arequipa - Perú!!!
very valid point @Drew Brashler....
Is there a way I can get the your multitrack for the song used...if copyright allows you to share...
it's strightly for practice purpose...Love the song❤
I like the way you show us hw to use that x 32.
🇧🇷😮Woooooooowwwww!!! Awesome class!!! 💙💙💙🇺🇸💙💙💙👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🙌🏻🙏🏻🔥
Awesome!, very helpful
Would you apply delay on other shells? Such as toms and kick drum to optimise the frequency spectrum of those close mics along with the OH? Thanks for these videos.
Thanks Drew
Drew. I was told the over heads are frequency response mic. Designed for high frequency sounds so the just pick up cymbal sounds I guess like 80%.
Over all . .
Hi Drew great tips. Would using a delay on the the toms in the same fashion with the overheads also help their sound? Thanks.
@drewbrashler i would love to know this as well
But i see the drum is cliping there that can't make a trouble or distortion?
Some good tips here
U help me in many things.
Hello! im the sound guy at my church aswell ,can you do a vid of eq for kick drums and toms.. I also have trouble on feedback ,how can I clean all my audio to have a strong a full audio with out interference problems,good vid💯
Brother. How to reduce the bleed of high hat from snair mic 😒😒😶😶
Do you have any videos on how to EQ the whole drum?
Cool vid! Tip: do not let sound engineer to delay any instrument for you inear mix. Live sound overheads shoud not amplify frequencies, those cancel each instruments. You can experiment this way in studio, byt for live sound, this is eye surgery done thru anus. 🤨
Do you know if when running delay in the X32/M32, that is running FOH and monitors, will that delay transmit through the monitors as well. I haven't test it yet, but that's a very good point.
How will or can you save the changes being made, to that individual channel selected vice saving the entire scene????
I've been doing sound in cover bands at a pretty good level every weekend for 18 years and I CANNOT get a snare drum to come through the mains. Signal is -18; Boost 1K as far as it goes; and on an on. Tried dozens of mics and dozens of cords. I'm convinced snare drum has to be triggered in a band mix to heard.
Isn´t it just starting out with the snare, find a good strong output for it and then turn up the rest of the mics to match the volume? I´m only asking because that is what I do when I mix my own bands music.
What's your PA like? If it's small to the point where you're mostly just pushing vocal through it but want some snare, try doing just a bottom mic. Don't boost at 1k. Try 5-8k. You'll get the body of the snare acoustically, but you'll get some snap and wires through the mains. Compress at will.
Hey Drew thank you for your tips, we are have issues with too much overtone (ringing) from the snare drum mic, how do I adjust this on the x32?
Noob here….. when micing the snare and you only have one mic… is the top of bottom the one to go with. FYI I have two over heads
I noticed the master fader clips,wanna know if it does matter or not?
why compressing bottom mic ?
Súper!!!
Kinda confusing that you said it doesn't change phase, but the manual says, "press the ø button to reverse the channel’s phase"
It’s the phase and it works trust me
Question… If your wanting to have the overhead mics in phase coherent position… most traditional snare locations are often “left” of the kit.. I can see where you can place the stage right overhead.. but where will you be placing the stage left overheard..? If phase coherent is what you are aiming for.. then the snare would have to be dead in the middle of the kit, right?
one school of thought is to approach it this way: draw an imaginary straight line that goes through the center of your kick drum and the center of your snare. It's likely slightly diagonal to the stage. Draw a second imaginary line perpendicular to the snare-kick axis line. Place your OH mics on that line, equidistant from the snare.
For live shows on small stages, this may not be an option. But you're likely getting so much brass through the vocal mics that OH is not a big concern if that's the case.
I've been doing the cord-as-measuring-tape trick for years on live shows and it's so validating to see some corroborating it. I put overheads symmetrically over the center of the kick and raise (vertically) the one on the snare side to time-align the pair.
Thanks! if i may ask bout setting delay FOH with guitar amp mikings as well as drums miking.. Thank you!
The problem is that the snare doesn't need to be delayed, the other channels need to be moved forward. Not possible live, but easily done post production.
Lool phase memes again? Don't You mind If I phase invert your bank acount? For you it will only be a "time" and I just wire some flipping transaction 🤣 okay? 100% wrong? 🤗