Single Mic to Capture Snare and Hi-Hat

I know a great FOH man who uses on 57 about ten inches from the snare side, under the hat, facing up just a bit, and he gets some wonderful sounds (tours with world class musicians).
I have not done it, but I imagine it requires some creative EQ.

 

I’ve used an Audix i5 for this. Very much like a 57. Mounted on snare but pointed between snare and hat. A little bit of eq is also needed.

 

As you know, there are all kinds of ways to mic drums and drum sets. As you are putting up mics for live-in-the-studio shows, you don't really have the time to explore many different options, so IMO you should keep it simple. Hi-hats are usually plenty loud, not requiring close miking. There aren't many options for close-miking the snare without interfering with the human being playing it. I like the method of pointing the snare mic a little off parallel to the top or bottom head, depending on whether you want the snare sizzle emphasized, and I choose the Beyerdynamic M201 over the SM57. YMMV of course.

 

This is how I've been doing it (live) for decades. Usually don't need any EQing at all, but that's really a function of the snare tuning and mic position. Give it a try and if you have time, try moving the mic a bit.

 

Try setting up a Glyn Johns mic array or a Recorderman array. You'll get a balanced kit from either. Personally I prefer Recorderman and have used it numerous times with great satisfaction.

 

not so much for live use. in the studio: frequency limitations of the 57s could be an issue for some music/genres. usually, it's the cymbals which 'suffer'.

two condensers + one kick mic of choice = great, natural 'sound capturing'! not so great if the drum instruments sound terrible to begin with.

OP: good luck with your in-studio, live broadcasts!

 

When I'm micing drums for stereo, I nearly always use the same technique as you - kick, share, and an overhead pair. To my ears, the overheads do just fine with capturing the sound of the entire kit and I EQ them that way. The kick and snare mics are necessarily EQed for their specialized sounds. The snare is extremely sensitive to EQ notching and its sonic character changes significantly with some tweaking in the midrange. I usually, roll off most of the highs to avoid harshness. The microphone used also makes a huge difference, for me, a dynamic uni is a priority.

On the occasions when I've had a mic on the hi hat, it's always with a mind toward mic choice and EQ appropriate to cymbals. This is necessarily very different from the snare sound.

The bottom line is having one microphone doing double duty for snare and hi hat is always going to be a serious compromise in sonic character of one or both.

Having said that, there is no reason not to experiment when you have the opportunity, and if your unconventional technique happens to sound good, then who am I to say it's the wrong way to do it?

 

Second the Glyn Johns approach.

Last drum tracking I did just that... and added a room mic and also a Sennheiser e609 on the hh.

Ended up with an amazing huge-sounding kit (was a budget vintage kit that had aged well). Sadly the session was scrubbed due to drummer's health issues... (drummer had not aged nearly as well as his kit)

 

You wanna no what works really great? A bi-direction mic. I prefer ribbons but you could use a condenser as well. You set it with the null facing the shell (front pointed up, back pointed down. The best thing about this is it combines the top and bottom of the snare so you don't need two mics. You also get a nice amount of hi-hat and some of the beater side of the kick. It's an old school technique, but it really works. It might be too bright using a condenser (I've only tried it with royer and cascade mics).

 

Was doing some ad-hoc recording of our band practice once, just a kick, single mic for snare/hi-hat, and an overhead. Was stunned how good it sounded. If I needed more sizzle on the high-hat, brought the overhead up a skosh. Will probably go that way live as well.

 

I am using two of these on smaller kits - sometimes as low overheads - sometimes even mic from under..........
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they were orginally reference mics. VERY omni directional. I actually posted about them a while back - but I don't guess anyone had run into them. I also have a friend who is on the road with a national act (pretty well known I guess) and he turned me on to using these.

A lot of gigs, smaller rooms etc. I will use on on the snare - get the hat, along with a Kick mic (beta 52)

 

I use a pair of similar Behringer Omni reference mics for some things. I have done a kick and stereo pair on a kit and thought it worked well in a jazz / bluegrass, mostly acoustic setting.
Not sure whose technique but the mics are spaced equidistant from an imaginary line drawn through the center of the snare and through the center of the kick. Hat side forward, fl tom side rearward.

I tend to get a lot more acts where close mixing is the thing and often dedicate 9 inputs to drums. Being a control freak, I personally prefer mixing close mic’ed ;-). I also like the sound of a socked 57 pointed down at the hat, inside the edge of the hat. You get a lot of the stick / hat interaction. Which can be a nice busy percussion thing to play with ...

 

I ran sound a month ago where the headliner ate up enough inputs that I only had 3 left for drums on the opener. I did kick snare/hh and an overhead above floor tom angled a bit toward the rack toms. I think it worked better than the close mixed set behind it.

 

At the station I work at, we have the Cincinnati Reds Winter Caravan stop in each January. We do a live broadcast that is picked up by MLB.com, and simply for easy's sake, I run the four mics into a small behringer mixer, and send one output to one of the wall mic jack to the main control room board, so I only have to work one fader when the broadcast happens.

 

4 mics seems wildly luxurious Try this:
One Mic Two Mic Drum Mic Room Mic – Soundfly

 

SM 57 has been the standard for a long time. There are so many great mics out there now, you just have to give them a try. Behringer XM 8500 is pretty amazing at $ 19.00. Audix i5 is a sleeper too.

 

If you really want to get some bang out of that one mic on snare/hat, try using a ribbon. Point the top directly at the shell with the front side facing up. It will pick up the top AND bottom of the snare and combine them. Plus you'll get a nice tone from the hat and a bit of the kick beater head. You could try it with a figure 8 condenser, but I like the ribbon sound better.

 

For several bands we used a Shure VP88 stereo overhead and a Beta 91a in the Kick that was it. Always had compliments on the drum sound.