Which Mics For Non Stealth Recording?

[lunatic]

Okay so I think I"m settled on a new minidisc - either the RH10 or the NH900, whichever I can find for a better price. Now I'm looking for mics.

Here's my situation:

I play West African drums. Twice a week I play in a gym - once for a dance class where there are anywhere from 5 - 10 drums played and once for a drum lesson where the teacher plays each drum part separately and then all together (and there can be 15 people in the class).

Also, once a week I play with a performance group. There are five of us and we rehearse in someone's living room. We perform in a variety of places including outside.

So I am almost always recording drums but in different arrangements and in different environments.

I was looking at these mics which are omnis:

Flexible & Adjustable Mini-Tripod Omni-directional Stereo Microphones ( 20-20Khz.)

pros: separated, on tripod, omnidirectional, cute (sorry but that's appealing)

cons: being omnis they'll pick up street noise, crowd noise (can sometimes be good), kids running around the gym screaming, etc.

This one also really caught my eye:

http://www.reactivesounds.com/dt1.php

pros: cardiod so no sounds of kids screaming, can be separated from unit with micPOD, is hella cool looking (yeah, that's appealing)

cons: cardiod, so no nice rich omni sound, have to buy micPOD accessory

all in all they come out similar in price (when buying the micPOD).

So given my situation would it be better to have one over the other? Cardiod over omnis?

Would love to hear ya'lls well informed opinions.

Edited June 30, 2005 by lunatic

[greenmachine]

If i were you, i'd get myself an additional separable omni pair and use them at least for a while along with your current cardioids and exeriment a lot to get a idea what works better in which situation, considering that none of these pickup patterns being the holy grail, each having its own pros and cons.

Forget all these cool looking, fixed distance mics unless comfort is your main priority.

[lunatic]

Thanks for your response!

The mics I have currently are beginner mics. I think I've decided on the Sony RH10 and am hoping to upgrade my mics to something a little nicer. The teeny little mics I have now are clip ons and it is sometimes a pain to get them situated right. I thought the ones listed above with little stands might do a better job as well as have an easier setup.

I will definitely be using current mics until I can figure out what to upgrade to.

Thanks!

melissa

[Reactive]

Hi,

I can offer you a host of personal experiences, particularly with recording of singular African drums and group drumming circles.

I play a few different sized djembies (depending on the group size), and often take along my recording gear.

I can tell you that is both frustrating and rewarding to record group drumming sessions. Your biggest enemy will be the overwhelming SPL (sound pressure levels) that peak and drop as sound waves converge together. It will most likely take a few practice sessions to get the desired recording. Things to avoid:

Recording a group indoors- It's just too loud, unless you want to invest in more than a microphone (pre-amps, external power supplies ect).

For a solo drum recording I have had GREAT success with a dual mic system, ie Auris mics, one placed near the drumming pad and the other clipped to my body. It took a few attempts to get the volumes balanced correctly, but was well worth the effort.

For simplicity the Delta mic and Midpod (designed by us and copied by our competitors over at Microphone Madness) will be best utilized by having the drum group form an arc, the recording microphone would be placed in front of the group facing them at a distance of approx 6ft-10ft. Being omni's they are not directional, BUT Given the housing that we mount them in i can tell you that i have recorded in many a busy street location and they just do not pick up sound from the rear as much as you would think. We have a good sound sample on the Delta product page (steet performance).

I hope that helps, without pushing our own great products the above advice will work for other manufacturers microphones (your results may vary).

Let us know how what you decided?

Gerry

www.reactivesounds.com

Okay so I think I"m settled on a new minidisc - either the RH10 or the NH900, whichever I can find for a better price. Now I'm looking for mics.

Here's my situation:

I play West African drums. Twice a week I play in a gym - once for a dance class where there are anywhere from 5 - 10 drums played and once for a drum lesson where the teacher plays each drum part separately and then all together (and there can be 15 people in the class).

Also, once a week I play with a performance group. There are five of us and we rehearse in someone's living room. We perform in a variety of places including outside.

So I am almost always recording drums but in different arrangements and in different environments.

I was looking at these mics which are omnis:

Flexible & Adjustable Mini-Tripod Omni-directional Stereo Microphones ( 20-20Khz.)

pros: separated, on tripod, omnidirectional, cute (sorry but that's appealing)

cons: being omnis they'll pick up street noise, crowd noise (can sometimes be good), kids running around the gym screaming, etc.

This one also really caught my eye:

http://www.reactivesounds.com/dt1.php

pros: cardiod so no sounds of kids screaming, can be separated from unit with micPOD, is hella cool looking (yeah, that's appealing)

cons: cardiod, so no nice rich omni sound, have to buy micPOD accessory

all in all they come out similar in price (when buying the micPOD).

So given my situation would it be better to have one over the other? Cardiod over omnis?

Would love to hear ya'lls well informed opinions.

←

[lunatic]

Hey sweet, thanks for that! Unfortuantely, most of the drumming I do is indoors, and twice a week it's in a gym so the acoustics pretty much blow for a recording. With my current set up (Sharp MT877 and giant-squid-audio clip cardiods with a battery box) I got *decent* sound recording from across the room.

Anyway, when researching the Reactive Deltas on this site I saw one of the members suggest creating the Delta with a mic on all four sides - have you folks considered that?

melissa

p.s. I could only get one recording of the Delta on the site to work - the one of the seagulls. The others wouldn't play for me.

Edited June 30, 2005 by lunatic

[reefbeef]

For non-stealth, I use a Rode NT4. Very good results have been had.

[Reactive]

Hi Melissa,

you can order both the Delta and Micpod from minidisco, they will extend our money back satisfaction guarantee. Why not give us a try.

Gerry

www.reactivesounds.com

PS I am taking my drums on a rd trip this weekend, would a recording help?

Hey sweet, thanks for that! Unfortuantely, most of the drumming I do is indoors, and twice a week it's in a gym so the acoustics pretty much blow for a recording. With my current set up (Sharp MT877 and giant-squid-audio clip cardiods with a battery box) I got *decent* sound recording from across the room.

Anyway, when researching the Reactive Deltas on this site I saw one of the members suggest creating the Delta with a mic on all four sides - have you folks considered that?

melissa

p.s. I could only get one recording of the Delta on the site to work - the one of the seagulls. The others wouldn't play for me.

←

[lunatic]

PS I am taking my drums on a rd trip this weekend, would a recording help?

←

You betchya!!

I just ordered the Sony RH10 (american - couldn't afford the japanese upgrade if I want to upgrade my mics too) and it should arrive on Wednesday. I'm going to try it out with existing mics a couple of times and then I'm headed to Northern Cali and my old drumming group and would love to get really good recordings of them since I don't see them too often.

Let me know when you get some recordings together - I would love to hear them!

Cheers and thanks for the offer!

Melissa

*edit* that rode nt4 mic looks really nice and waaaaaaaaay out of my budget. Thanks for the suggestion though! Maybe I can save up for one someday.

Edited July 2, 2005 by lunatic

[lunatic]

Me again. I was doing some more reading and searching around and found this deal on ebay from Visivox:

click here

Combines a mic with a preamp/battery box. But I couldn't find any specs either on that website or on their own website:

product website

Anyone have any experience with these folks and can share some info with me? Is this deal too good to be true?

thanks!