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About Sennheiser

Miking Techniques

hand Percussion:
There are many different types of hand percussion and different techniques are required for them. You can generally break them down into three main categories: drums you have to close mike, drums you have to mike from a distance, and shakers and bells that have to be close miked. Hand percussion such as congas are usually close miked at a distance of 6-10 inches. A dynamic cardioid mic is placed above the head out of the way of the player, pointing towards the center of the head. A closer miking will produce more skin sound, while a farther miking distance will capture more attack. For added depth on the low frequencies a second mic is sometimes used to mike underneath the drum, outside of the rim of the drum, pointed towards the center of the hole, at a distance of 10-14 inches. On drums such as the djembe or dumbek, with lots of high and low frequency, a room mic is also needed to create a more cohesive sound. Without the room mic, the one drum can sound like two different drums. Usually, an omni-directional condenser mic is used for this. On hand-held percussion such as shakers and bells, a single small condenser microphone, or an XY pair is used at a distance of 4-8 inches. The closest placement you can get without overloading the mic preamp usually results in the best sound. With chimes, maracas, temple blocks, and certain drum 'toys' a spaced pair of small condenser mics can be used, with the two recorded tracks panned hard left and hard right. Some world percussion instruments might have too much unwanted noise to close mike. You can try using an omni-directional condenser mic placed a few feet away, either to the side or below the player.