I was fooling around with my snare mic and...

Hacksaw and duct tape? 

I have some of the Sennys and they are fine... but they get kinda big when you place them out over the snare.

I'm going to buy one of the Granelli mod'ed '57s today.

Now the question is, Am I going to add the Tab Funkenwerk transformer mod to it.


I haven't had my kit set up for a while and I set it up again last week. I had a lot of fun searching out mic placement last night.

I think I'm at a point where I can have a semi permanent drum kit set up and ready to track when I call up a SONAR template, so I'm willing to go the extra mile an get just the right mic set up.


Last week I tracked with Kick Snare HH and 2 -OH and I had wished I had spent more time on the snare. It was relaxing to have it set up and waiting for the guests.

I want to work towards making that situation optimal.


best regards,
mike

Is there any other mic that I might consider?

The 57 is ubiquitous because it works.

An AKG C414 B-ULS more often used underneath but I've liked them used on top too.

...removed as wasted effort

I've got a TAMA snare... is there anything special I might want to learn about it?

Nothing that I didn't already mention.  My old Tama just had a standard offset cam to throw the snare off and on, as simple and effective as you can get.

If I put a 414 on top, I would hit it and dent it.  LOL.  The 57 is my #1 go to for snares.

Rimshot

I have a first generation CAD E100 (about 15 years old I guess) and a Sennheiser e604 clip on.  I’ve used them both and like them both on the bottom head but always the 57 on top (for my basement budget studio).  Also, I have been fortunate enough to work in a couple of fairly prestigious studios and yes it’s the 57 on top and the 414 on the bottom.  I actually have a 414 (w/ transformer) but can’t bring myself to put it on a snare.

As a side note, I just started fooling around with my 2 new M160’s as overheads replacing my sm81’s.  They (the M160’s) capture the kit very differently than the sm81’s … and I think it is going to be interesting (after I become more familiar with them) to see how the snare recorded with the 57 will sit in the overall drum mix.

We tested my '57 against a Beta '57, a 98D condenser and the Senny 604.

The 604 was the last we tried and we had to place it closer to the rim because of it's clip system. It wasn't the place where I was enjoying the '57 and we got started by trying to use that same spot... so the 604 didn't really get a like to like comparison.

What we noticed and confirmed on a sprectragraph was that the old '57 seemed very controlled and had very little low end. It seemed to have a built in roll off and it was about 1" from the top head so the proximity effect seemed well balanced.

The Beta '57 had a very similar frequency response range but it had a pronounced amplitude at the primary frequencies. It was like more of the stuff I liked about the '57 without extra noise or room.

The 98 sounded like a tiny diaphragm condenser. It sounded like it had a low cut and that left the mids and upper mids which sounded sort of bland. My friend said he thought it was useful for live support as an accent. I'd probably try a different condenser if I wanted to go that route.

The 604 sounded good and we noticed that it had a quiet bed of low end frequency response that went all the way down to the lowest frequencies. It appeared on the spectra graph as if there was a shelf at a reduced level. It's not problematic and may be useful but the '57 seemed to capture most of the tone without any of that extra stuff. I wonder if the extra low end came from the clip on mounting system?


I think I'll go ahead and buy the Granelli 5790 mic and I'll also buy a Beta 56a.

It seems as if the Beta 56a is the closest thing to a Beta 57 with a right angle form factor.

The SM57 we tested sounded good, but the Beta 57 sounded good too. It seems like it would be nice to experiment with both.



Hi Rich,
 thanks for the link to the George Massenberg video. I want to try the ribbon mic on the shell technique he described. It was fun to see his passion as he described various ideas.




 best regards,
mike

Jonbouy


.. removed as wasted effort.

Jon, you could have left your posts, they would have provided excellent info for someone who was interested.