Micing Drums

[JoelP2600]

I'm stepping into new territory with this question.

I'm looking int miking a set of drums and bringing it into my Mackie 1604 mixer.

I'm thinking of buying something like a Mic 5 pack or 7 pack from Nady.
They are cheap and get good reviews.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/...se_pid/277126/

Then running it into a small mixer, probably a Bheringer.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/...31224X/c_lv=1/

Here's What I Have Questions About

1. These Nady Drum Mics, do they have XLR plugs on them, or are they special and use 1/4 inch jacks or something.

2. The kit mentions micing Toms and Bass drums, how do you mic cymbals and hi-hats??

3. I've not used one of the Beheringer mixers, they sound to have two 1/4 outputs on them.. Would I just bring them then into a stereo channel on the Mackie, or use two channels... Something like that. Or is there going to be a Balanced/Unbalanced conflict of some kind??

[crowderfan]

Our church started out using one of those "value" packages of mics like that, and they were okay. I think you'd really want to invest in a decent kick drum mic though....the one's that come in these packages can't seem to handle the low end all that well.

If you have some Sure 57's around, that would be my suggestion for micing the toms.

As for micing the cymbals, a couple of condensor mics placed on boom stands over each side of the drum set should suffice.

Our drum mic set up is as follows:

snare: SM57
high hat: SM57
kick: AKG D 112
cymbals: AKG C 1000S on booms
toms: AKG mics (small, and clip to the rim)

[JoelP2600]

Do you mix all into your main mixer or do you have a small mixer in between??

Also do all the mic's have XLR plugs?

[crowderfan]

Originally Posted by JoelP2600

Do you mix all into your main mixer or do you have a small mixer in between??

Also do all the mic's have XLR plugs?

We have a 32 channel mixing console, so each mic goes to the main mixer. They all have XLR inputs. I think it's fairly common to run to a smaller mixer, before running to the main board, in order to free up more channels.

[Guyute]

Just my $0.02. You don't necessarily need to mic ALL the cymbals. In most club venues where I used to run sound, we'd mic the hat with a condenser mic, sometimes the ride with a 57 (or a condenser) and leave the splash and crash cymbals unmiked. Then run through a 16 channel mixer with each mic going into its own channel. Usually, that used 6 or 7 channels on the board, leaving the rest free for the other instruments and vocals.

Oh, and for the kick drum, the AKG D112 or the Sennheiser E602 are good and not TOO expensive.

The crash, splash and sometimes the ride are usually loud enough that you don't need to mike them for them to cut through the mix. But you do need to mic the hat or you'll loose a very important part of the rhythm section. Without the hat mic, for some reason, the whole thing starts sounding sloppy.