From the course: Real Recording School Weekly

Omni or cardioid drum room mics? - Pro Tools Tutorial

From the course: Real Recording School Weekly

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Omni or cardioid drum room mics?

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- [Instructor] For this test, I set up two mics across the room from a drum set to capture room ambience, and I tried them in omnidirectional and cardioid pickup patterns. I was curious if this would make much difference from across the room. First we're gonna hear the E47 in omnidirectional mode and then cardioid mode, and it's soloed. (drums beating) Note that you'll hear more room ambience coming from the omni mode, a deeper low end, and that the hi-hat is just slightly softer. In the cardioid mode, the hi-hat bites just a tiny bit more, and it could cause more problems when compressed. Let's hear that again. Listen for those, the room ambience, the hi-hat tone, and how much low end we're hearing. First of all, in omni mode. (drums beating) Cardioid. (drums beating) Omni. (drums beating) Quite different, we also find the same results with the 251, a different mic set in the same two modes, starting in omni. (drums beating) The same low end and the different tonality is coming through. Now let's hear how those work when they're combined in with the rest of the kit. So here, we're gonna hear the mic, the E47 in omni, with close mics on the kick, snare, and of course the overhead mics. (drums beating) This is when we went with cardioid. (drums beating) Back to omni. (drums beating) Cardioid. (drums beating) The omni mode makes the mix sound a little darker but roomier with its deeper low end capture. Either way, there's sort of a trade-off in my opinion. The cardioid can get a clearer room sound and not fill in the bottom end, but omni softens the cymbals and picks up more room. This is important information to keep in mind when setting up mics on a drum set and when looking for usable room tones.

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