From the course: Real Recording School Weekly

Listening to different snare mics - Pro Tools Tutorial

From the course: Real Recording School Weekly

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Listening to different snare mics

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- [Narrator] For this listening experiment, I set up three different dynamic mics on a snare drum at the same time. Using the exact same type of mic preamps and converters. It might look kind of crazy, but the results are interesting. This wasn't meant to try and say that one of these mics is better than the other or anything like that, but it's informative to hear how mics that are ostensibly of the same design can sound quite different. So let's listen to these mics soloed. First is the Telefunken M80‑SH. (light drum beats) The second mic is an Audix i5. (light drum beats) And the third mic is a Shure SM57. (light drum beats) And listen back again. I feel that the Telefunken M80 has a nice crack and kind of the brightest tone and let's hear that against the other mics. (light drum beat) But listen again and listen how the ring of the snare is being brought out differently by the mics. (light drum beats) You'll notice the Audix i5 has significantly less ring and that has just due to the way that it picks up sounds. Listen again and listen for how much kick drum we hear on these individual mics. (light drum beats) In the case of the Audix i5 you also hear a little more kick drum. It's got a more pronounced bottom end in general, I've found. Now, one more thing to listen for is the nasally tone of the mics. They all have a little bit different tone. Think of the sound of kind of, honky, nasally, bark of sound. (light drum beats) And you can kind of tell that the SM7 has a little bit more of a bark and a different tone. They all bring out something different in the snare. Now let's hear what's really important and let's hear how it works together with a kick in the overhead mics. Let's start with the Telefunken again. (light drum beats) Now let's go to the i5. (light drum beats) Let's go to the 57. (light drum beats) And it's kind of amazing. You hear quite different results from using the different close mics on the snare in conjunction with the overheads and the kick. They all work in different ways. Choosing mics that work together with the other mics you've chosen for the drum kit recording is really important. And if you don't know how the mics you have compare to each other in general, the mics that are close on the snare, you'll have a harder time making choices. So, going through your mic walker, trying experiments like this out in the space you record in and making good choices is how you make great recordings.

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