Drum mics and miking. GMS Snare.


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This is the second installment of our sound recording presentation focused on the drum kit where we will share information, sounds and photos about recording snare, kick and other drum parts that will make it easier for clients and producers to plan their drum recording sessions, choose their snares, mics and micing (miking) strategy way ahead of their time in the studio.

Drum micing Part 1: Joey Jordison snare

That said, our primary objective with this presentation is to demonstrate the capability of Sound Weavers recording studio to create different drum sound recordings utilizing our selection of snare drums, microphones, preamps and processors. Secondly, we hope that these drum sound examples and information presented will help clients and producers in their quest to record the sound in their heads in a shorter period of time.

Our second installment on this series of Drum Mics and Miking of Snare, Kick and the Drum Kit will focus on the GMS CL Series Snare drum by GMS Drum Company. This is a 5″x14″ snare is made of 7-ply 100% rock maple shells with precision cut 45 degree bearing edges; featuring 20 strand heat treated high carbon steel snare wire. The drum heads are Evans coated.

GMS snare drum
GMS snare drum flanked by 5 microphones

The snare drum gets the star treatment due to the fact that its sound covers a wide spectrum. It has to have body and sizzle, allowing for a snare crack sound that will truly drive a beat and carry a tune. The snare drum, due to it’s loud sound (high SPL) capability usually gets picked up by every microphone in the room – from the kick drum mic to the overhead mics, thus – the snare sound will be present even further in the drum kit’s sound. For this test and samples, we provided the following:

  • direct snare sound
  • direct kick sound (we’re skipping the direct kick sound to avoid redundancy, please refer to Part 1 for individual kick drum micing sounds)
  • overhead mic sound
  • mixes of direct mic with overhead mic sounds

Drum Miking signal chain & Mic positioning.
Please refer to Part 1 for info on microphone positioning and drum micing signal chain for the reason that the main difference is we switched a different snare for this batch of soundfiles. Same mics and mic positioning on the snare and kick. For the overhead mics, we chose to use 3 different sets of mics.

Direct mics on GMS Snare drum .

  • Shure Sm57 to Chandler Germanium preamp (thick switch OFF).
  • Sennheiser MD421 (dynamic) to PurpleAudio Biz
  • AKG C414 in cardiod position (condenser) to A Designs P1
  • Beyerdynamic m160 (dynamic dual ribbon mic) to Great River MP NV 500 format
  • Royer R121 (ribbon mic) to AEA TRP (The Ribbon Pre)

Now that you’re heard the GMS snare drum through a variety of mics, listen to the sound of the entire drum kit as captured by the overhead microphones. Still using the same GMS snare drum, still the same drum performance.

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