OG_Dave

Thanks for picking that up Dave - I wonder if we're talking about the same piece of gear. The Se Dynamite DM1 is a FET in-line preamp that runs off phantom power, basically the same as the Cloudlifter CM1 (which is JFET). I haven't picked up on it being either noisy or colored and the marketing doesn't pitch that way. Also, SOS has great reviews of both products. I bought the DM1s because I couldn't justify the extra dosh for basically the same result...>25dB quiet, clean gain for the ribbons. In my experience, they've performed very well. I haven't tried them on dynamics, maybe I should, it's definitely worth a go! I haven't looked into the impedance aspect of either though. Everybody quotes different specs if they bother to disclose and converting is a bloody nightmare. Makes my brain go "ow."

Total gear head but not a hoarder. Anything that realistically won't get touched ever again goes back into the world. Odd what does and doesn't go into that bucket but I've moved mountains of gear over the years. When it comes to physical gear, I encourage a broad experiment and have scads of stuff. Not just for music, I'm a carpenter and have a huge collection of tools. I never hesitate to buy a tool and I avoid crappy ones. Same with instruments. I don't buy things above my station though, like a Neve Summing amp or Burl Mothership. Guitars, drums, and mics are weaknesses though. I just love microphones in all their glorious idiosyncrasy and want lots more. I did fall prey to the plug-in marketers for sure. I thought having the ability to instantiate 100 tracks with LA2A's would be cool. Plus I could EQ everything, twice!! That was a waste of money. I've found I really hate the design of pretty much every plug in I've used. I hate mousing to set parameters and if I use 100 plugins my mixes sound like caca. All that money on plugins could have bought a really nice piece of analog gear to help keep my rack toasty in winter, like a 33609/N even if it IS above my station. Good thing unused plugins don't take up closet space!

Let's see here... Dynamics (1) Electro Voice RE20 (3) Shure SM58 (7) Shure SM57 (1) Shure Beta 52A (1) Rode M1 (1) Audix OM5 Large diaphragm condensers Neumann TLM 102 (astoundingly great mic, my number 1 for nearly everything) AKG C414 XLS II AKG C214 AKG Perception 200 Avantone CK7 Small diaphragm condensers (2) Line Audio CM4 (gives the new KM84's a run for the money at a fraction of the price) (2) Oktava Mk012 (1) Shure KSM137 (either sounds great or really harsh depending on its mood) Ribbon matched pair Royer R10. (I should have bought one R121 or the Rodes, but live and learn. They do get used now and again but I have to use a line lifter for them. Right now I'm using Se Dynamites but have been eyeing the Couldlifters for too long now)

Hi. New here so, greets! I love reading about drum mic setups and figured I share my tuppence. Right now I have a set up that's working pretty well though it's taken a bit to dial it in. I'm just a home recordist - the last time I was in a pro facility was a loooong time ago, but I went to a recording school in the mid 80's and have built a rather nice little project studio over the years. I have a 5 piece Yamaha Absolute Hybrid Maple kit with a mix of K Zildian and Sabian AA brass hanging around. Oh and a 5 1/2" Ludwig Black Beauty snare tuned pretty high with some nice annoying ring to it! Cuts through everything or sits back and shuffles along quietly. Nice bit of gear that. Anyway, I've been using a pair of Line Audio CM4's that I took a flyer on that sound great as overheads in a spaced pair both exactly 42" away from the snare, cause that's where the room told them to be. Tiny little mics that to my ears image more crisply than the Oktava MK012's I had been using. Don't me wrong, the Oktava's sounded pretty good, but the CM4's are flatter and less harsh. I use the good old '57 on snare (top only) and toms and close mic everything using stands, not clip-ons. All of my 57's are aligned directionally, i.e. facing the same direction and at the same angle approaching the tom. I got this idea from reading an interview with Sylvia Massey. I'm sure I misunderstood her technique but this approach has pretty much wiped out phase issues on toms for me. The big change for me recently was with the kick. As a drummer I got tired of the dead whump that everyone seems to love so much. I want my kick to have a true acoustic resonance - a slow blooming boooom that seems totally out of style these days. Anyway, the type of music I've been writing and recording lately wants a more intimate acoustic drum feel. So, I recently chucked my ported head, put the pillow back on my bed, lightly damped the resonator head with a felt strip and now mic exclusively outside the kick. I had been using a Beta 52 inside the kick with the old set up but am now using an RE20 about 6 inches away from the head, slightly off center and off axis about 15 degrees. Still a bit of tweaking to do to settle it in but I'm really liking the way it captures the kick. I also hooked up the speaker from a Yamaha HS10 sub woofer just for kicks and it really adds a lot of character at about 50Hz. I know that I'm basically getting a speaker IR and not technically a microphone image of the sonics but so far it's been an effective way to support the low fundamental. Not every speaker works for this but I'm liking this one. The speaker is mounted in a snare stand tilted parallel to the head. The other thing that's important to me for drum tracking are the mic pre's. I record a lot of stuff solo and I'm lucky enough to have an Audient ASP880 racked right next to the kit so I can control levels while setting up the tracking template. I use exactly 8 mics on the kit and given that they are very different mics, I like the ability to change input impedences to suit the set up and the pres are simply killer on drums. Ok, I guess I have to go register on the site now. Ta