Dude this is a great comparison. I have noticed switching to SDCs there more bleed but I’m not gating anymore. It’s way more pleasing. Seeing this reinforces my observations! Thanks dude!
So true! I always put condenser everywhere I can, except for the kick IN which is usually either a RE20 or a 421, paired with a cheap ribbon mic in the front or a large condenser. SDC are less expensive than classic dynamic nowadays. TBone SC140 are good candidates for snare top/bottom, HH and overheads. All together they make the sound more coherent than having 8 different frequency responses with tone and phasing issue from mismatched dynamic microphones. Thanks for the video !
So far I've had great results using the Oktava Mk012 on snare top. Tried them on rack & floor tom, I still prefer 421s. I'm going to do more experiments with positioning for bleed rejection
I have a matched pair of the Oktava m12s actually. I never tried them on the toms but that might be something I try. I did try it on the snare and honestly it just did not give me more than a SM57 on top and bottom would.
Good comparison! Loved it! I also use small condensers in snare and Toms, usually the sE Electronics sE5. And for some reason the cymbal bleed throug the sE5 is way less than throug the SM57.. which I use as a wall mic for compression.
I think the dynamics sound "bigger" and have a more rounded sound, on the close mics. But, the condensers have a less harsh sounding bleed on the cymbals. I'd personally use a good gate plugin, to take the cymbals out of the close mics. But, I can see where this would be useful, in some applications.
This is amazing because I have recently been using four of the slate ML2 small diaphragm condenser’s on drums, and I immediately noticed a difference between my last recording with dynamic mics. 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
That is something I’m very curious about. If you use a ML2 with a profile of a 421, do you get the cool tonal character without the horrible bleed? Or did Slate model the sound of the bleed too?
@@hoborec You get the nice tone without the bleed. I would imagine it’s because it’s still a small diaphragm condenser. Even before the mic modeling, I noticed how nice the drums sounded with the SDC‘s. 👍🏻👍🏻
Since i've tried to mic up my toms with SDC's I never want to look back on dynamics, especially with loud cymbal hitting. Maybe it's stupid but i've tried a mono LDC setup and the two SDC's on the left and right toms to give it a more or less "stereo" image, the bleed looks (sounds) very workable.
Love all your videos! Those milabs sound awesome! Wish we had them in the states. I find in the A-B that I’m missing the mids from the milabs though. They’re surgical in a great way :)
The toms specially sound a lot better with the SDC. With the dynamic mics you would have to EQ them harder to match the sound, but still, the toms would sound more "stiff" compared to the condenser mics. I've seen a few people using both a SDC and a dynamic 57 on the snare, have you ever tried that?
super good video!.. because it shows the actual difference: dynamics will give you are more compressed in your face sound, but also narrower in the stereo perspective. SDC will give you a more airy natural sound, but not with quite the same punch. Now: with EQ and compressions and so forth the differences can be hugely minimized. But again: dont fix it in the mix, fix it at the source, so choose the mics that fits your song and sound. Milab are great mics, but also very expensive. You can use way cheaper SDC and get pretty much the same result. Drums are easy on the SDCs. I use Slate ML-2 for SDC on toms and snare.. and HH and ride. In my country they cost about 1/6 of a Milab. Yes the milabs are a tad better, but on drums I would claim that only the mix engineer will be able to hear it ;-)
I love small diaphgram condensers on toms, very natural sound and the bleed sounds pretty ok. I picked a pair of Line Audio cm4 mics quite recently that are super cheap but stupid good. Maybe you know the company as I think it’s swedish..? Thanks for the nice video!
@@hoborec The CM4 replaced the CM3 but is intended to do the same job, I think it was changed due to capsule availability. Both are great mics and I would strongly doubt one having higher SPL rating than the other.
@@microkit this made me curious so I checked the line audio website. It seems like the cm4 has a max spl off 140db and the cm3 was at 130db. That should be able to handle drums, but maybe right on the edge depending on how hard hitting the drummer is.
@@hoborec I always wonder about this, I have Blue Hummingbirds, I think max SPL is 135db and no pad, and I assume they're OK for toms but maybe not snare.
Hey man I have actually be considering some condensers on my drums for close mics.. however these puppies are expensive!! Do you have any recommendations for a more budget friendly? I have read good things about the CAD M179s. Also do you have any band examples you have recording using this technique?
I've been using SDC's on toms almost exclusively for the past 2 years and it's been great. I almost don't care about gating the toms when using them. Do you ever mic the tom bottoms? I've also been doing that and been loving it. (but with dynamic mics)
I tried bottom mics a couple of times. But I usually tune the bottom head higher to get less sustain in the toms, and I often feel like it just sounds strange. Should try again, and with different tunings.
![Recording Drums With Steve Albini [Third Circle Recordings]](/img/1.gif)
Dude this is a great comparison.
I have noticed switching to SDCs there more bleed but I’m not gating anymore. It’s way more pleasing. Seeing this reinforces my observations! Thanks dude!
So true! I always put condenser everywhere I can, except for the kick IN which is usually either a RE20 or a 421, paired with a cheap ribbon mic in the front or a large condenser. SDC are less expensive than classic dynamic nowadays. TBone SC140 are good candidates for snare top/bottom, HH and overheads. All together they make the sound more coherent than having 8 different frequency responses with tone and phasing issue from mismatched dynamic microphones. Thanks for the video !
Imagine double miking the shells with a 57 and an SDC!
Best of both worlds!
Or a good idea is to use both a dynamic and a small condenser on the snare, like Steve Albini, and blend them in mix.
Honestly I still mostly use dynamics on the snare. I sometimes feel like the condenser picks up too much of the weird ring in the snare.
I really love using SDCs as overheads
I scored 7 small diafragm mic as a package and i miced the whole kit with them and im loving it
Wow. For the kit pieces I thought it was a matter of taste for me. But the cymbals though, I definitely hear what you mean by natural!
So far I've had great results using the Oktava Mk012 on snare top. Tried them on rack & floor tom, I still prefer 421s. I'm going to do more experiments with positioning for bleed rejection
I have a matched pair of the Oktava m12s actually. I never tried them on the toms but that might be something I try. I did try it on the snare and honestly it just did not give me more than a SM57 on top and bottom would.
Which capsule do you use? Hypercardioid or regular cardioid? Im considering getting one as a dedicated Snare mic
Good comparison! Loved it! I also use small condensers in snare and Toms, usually the sE Electronics sE5. And for some reason the cymbal bleed throug the sE5 is way less than throug the SM57.. which I use as a wall mic for compression.
Is the sE5 super cardioid maybe?
Nope, cardioid.
Thanks for great quality video
Thank you for watching!
@@hoborec I watch every single video on RUclips every day
I love SDCs on drums - particularly toms. The cheapest of my SDCs, my noisy old Rode NT5s suit toms for some reason - very "boingy"!
I think the dynamics sound "bigger" and have a more rounded sound, on the close mics. But, the condensers have a less harsh sounding bleed on the cymbals. I'd personally use a good gate plugin, to take the cymbals out of the close mics. But, I can see where this would be useful, in some applications.
This is amazing because I have recently been using four of the slate ML2 small diaphragm condenser’s on drums, and I immediately noticed a difference between my last recording with dynamic mics.
🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
That is something I’m very curious about. If you use a ML2 with a profile of a 421, do you get the cool tonal character without the horrible bleed? Or did Slate model the sound of the bleed too?
@@hoborec You get the nice tone without the bleed. I would imagine it’s because it’s still a small diaphragm condenser. Even before the mic modeling, I noticed how nice the drums sounded with the SDC‘s. 👍🏻👍🏻
Since i've tried to mic up my toms with SDC's I never want to look back on dynamics, especially with loud cymbal hitting. Maybe it's stupid but i've tried a mono LDC setup and the two SDC's on the left and right toms to give it a more or less "stereo" image, the bleed looks (sounds) very workable.
Sounds interesting. Do you mean a mono ldc as overhead, and then letting the sdc’s on the toms add some stereo feel?
@@hoborec exactly
@@miklosnagy7411 cool! Will definitely try that!
@@hoborec 🖤
For sure condensers sound amazing, but when you look at those pries... dynamics will work too I guess!
shure beta 98s are my go to!
Haven’t tried it to be honest. Maybe time to revisit this topic 😁
Love all your videos!
Those milabs sound awesome! Wish we had them in the states. I find in the A-B that I’m missing the mids from the milabs though. They’re surgical in a great way :)
Thanks 🙏 Milab has distribution through www.independentaudio.com in USA. Not sure exactly where they are sold though.
The toms specially sound a lot better with the SDC. With the dynamic mics you would have to EQ them harder to match the sound, but still, the toms would sound more "stiff" compared to the condenser mics. I've seen a few people using both a SDC and a dynamic 57 on the snare, have you ever tried that?
That sounds amazing, you get the best of both worlds and don't even need to boost high end, just raise the condenser level.
I imagine the dynamic mics to work better with additional tape saturation!
Im gonna test some akg c518ml, cheap enough, and I gonna try them on the bottom toms. Great video Ulf
super good video!.. because it shows the actual difference: dynamics will give you are more compressed in your face sound, but also narrower in the stereo perspective. SDC will give you a more airy natural sound, but not with quite the same punch. Now: with EQ and compressions and so forth the differences can be hugely minimized. But again: dont fix it in the mix, fix it at the source, so choose the mics that fits your song and sound. Milab are great mics, but also very expensive. You can use way cheaper SDC and get pretty much the same result. Drums are easy on the SDCs. I use Slate ML-2 for SDC on toms and snare.. and HH and ride. In my country they cost about 1/6 of a Milab. Yes the milabs are a tad better, but on drums I would claim that only the mix engineer will be able to hear it ;-)
The condensers are definitely a lot brighter, the clarity seems... Sharper?
A lot of it is the faster transient response that brings out much details.
Might have to get a condenser running parallel with my 57 to get the brighter overtones 🤔
I love small diaphgram condensers on toms, very natural sound and the bleed sounds pretty ok. I picked a pair of Line Audio cm4 mics quite recently that are super cheap but stupid good. Maybe you know the company as I think it’s swedish..? Thanks for the nice video!
Yes! I have a pair of Cm3 but they can’t really handle the loudness of the drums. Maybe the cm4 have more headroom?
@@hoborec I haven’t had issues with headroom with cm4 but then again the recordings I have done with those mics have not been very loud stuff.
@@hoborec The CM4 replaced the CM3 but is intended to do the same job, I think it was changed due to capsule availability. Both are great mics and I would strongly doubt one having higher SPL rating than the other.
@@microkit this made me curious so I checked the line audio website. It seems like the cm4 has a max spl off 140db and the cm3 was at 130db. That should be able to handle drums, but maybe right on the edge depending on how hard hitting the drummer is.
@@hoborec I always wonder about this, I have Blue Hummingbirds, I think max SPL is 135db and no pad, and I assume they're OK for toms but maybe not snare.
Hey man I have actually be considering some condensers on my drums for close mics.. however these puppies are expensive!! Do you have any recommendations for a more budget friendly? I have read good things about the CAD M179s. Also do you have any band examples you have recording using this technique?
I've been using SDC's on toms almost exclusively for the past 2 years and it's been great. I almost don't care about gating the toms when using them. Do you ever mic the tom bottoms? I've also been doing that and been loving it. (but with dynamic mics)
I tried bottom mics a couple of times. But I usually tune the bottom head higher to get less sustain in the toms, and I often feel like it just sounds strange. Should try again, and with different tunings.
@@hoborec You've got a nice big room so that makes sense. My live room is just in a home studio, so I don't mind the sustain
I tried it today with C451 on my top snare and I prefer it instead of my M201, my M201 is now my bottom snare. I really like this combo !!
What's that console behind you mate ?
That’s a Harrison!
@@hoborec she's a beaut!!