Best mike for a singing drummer

[johnson79]

Mike D?

 

[Up the dose]

After trying several different mics including a headset, our drummer is now singing on a Beta 56 and it has yielded the best results. We needed to attach a goose neck extension to his mic stand for it to be in the right place for him.

 

[DavC]

get a mic with a narrow pattern and good backside sound rejection ... and i always used gates on my singing drummers and all drum mics ...

 

[Smogcity]

Generally if the drummers vocal mic is picking up drums, you should fire the drummer

 

[eadg98005]

Subscribed...

 

[eriky4003]

The Beta's are more expensive, no way around that if you stick with Shure.
I just bought two Electrovoice 767 mics at a blow out price as they are introducing a new line. This mic is a supercardioid and our drummer uses it to good effect. YMMV

 

[P-oddz]

Is he singing all the time?
My drummer uses a Shure SM58 with an on/off switch to turn off when he's not singing...

 

[4Mal]

My front line vocal mics are Audix om-6. I use it on singing drummers as well. It's a very smooth hyper-cardioid. It goes a little deper than a lot of other dynamic mics if you let it (hpf always on vocal mics). Much, much more forgiving than the om-7 in terms of placement and also at the board.

If a guy has a 'husky' voice, I may swap the om-6 for an om-5. Slightly brigter and doesn't have the low end extension.

If you use an om-7 you have to gain your mics around it as it is very low output by design. It's a really nice sounding mic but you really have to be right on it.

As all three of these are hyper cardioid, monitor placement is angled, off to the side which makes fitting around a kit pretty easy.

 

[unbridled]

I don't understand your reasoning about why he can't use a head mic. Even if he comes out front to sing a couple songs, can't he just take a head mic off and use whatever mic is out front? Some folks just don't like them, and that's OK. Your reasoning behind not trying one just doesn't make sense to me. Of course, it's hard to just "try out" a mic, so that's understandable.

 

[fokof]

If your drummer is OK with headset , the Shure beta 54 is supercardioid.

Or beta 58 with a foot switch (don't remember the Radial model)

 

[LiquidMidnight]

If the problem is primarily cymbals, then you may be able to low pass filter his vocal mic channel, which will really clean it up. The new digital mixing systems allow you a lot of control over low and high pass filtering.

Oddly enough, the last drummer I worked with used a Beta 58 and we never had any serious problems at all with drum bleed. He tried the headset version of a Beta 58 and it was unusable. It was like a second, louder snare mix going on. Once in a blue moon we'd get an issue with the singer's Beta 58 picking up the kick drum. Usually the only fix was a carefully set gate on the vocal mic.

 

[bebass]

Try a PR35.

 

[drummer5359]

I find that a 57 is better than a 58 (you can get closer to the element) and otherwise they sound identical - he could get right up on the mic (and then the gain on the mic channel can be set lower for less drum bleed)

I would not do compression - that is the opposite of what you want to do - compression is an automatic gain control that raises the gain when the signal gets quieter ... so that would be pumping the volume up when he isn't singing and grabbing more of the drum bleed and then turning the gain down when he is singing.

Shure used to make a mic (forget the model number) that was essentially an SM57 in chrome with a switch. Then the drummer could just switch the mic off for songs he isn't singing.

The old chrome Shure similar to a SM57 with a switch was a Shure model 545SD.

I sing (backup vocals mostly) and play drums, I use a Beta 58 with decent results.

 

[Luke19Boarder]

You can always rip the microphone out of telephone and attach it to the inside of a mask like this dude:

 

[fokof]

Generally if the drummers vocal mic is picking up drums, you should fire the drummer

What if the overhead mic pickup his vocal ?

 

[musicman7722]

Ha - I thought I had the solution but the no luck. Plus we have to play quiet most times. i have to keep reminding to use his hot roads nat least in the beginning of the evening. Thanks all.

 

[Barisaxman]

If you're not averse to the investment...a Crown CM311 has been by far the best tool for this in my experience, but it comes at a price. Pair it with the wireless system of your choice and he can sing wherever he wants on stage. Lead singer of my band used one for several years with great results, and I've mixed a few of them myself. Great at rejecting the content you don't want and they sound really great.

 

[imnotded]

If you're not averse to the investment...a Crown CM311 has been by far the best tool for this in my experience, but it comes at a price. Pair it with the wireless system of your choice and he can sing wherever he wants on stage. Lead singer of my band used one for several years with great results, and I've mixed a few of them myself. Great at rejecting the content you don't want and they sound really great.

This is what I was going to suggest. I use a CM311 when I sing and play drums. I bought one after too many drum riser that were not rock solid and a boom stand would shake too much. Lots of rejection out front and sounds great. Biggest issue is you cant turn away from the mic to cough or talk to a band mate without everyone else hearing. Not a big deal between songs however.

 

[Basshappi]

Several drummers I've played with over the years favored the SM57 which makes a lot of sense due to its narrower pattern compared to the SM58.