Room was an AT2050 set to omni actually. It does have a slightly midrangey character.

I will try expanding rooms in the future. I stayed away from it because I figured the loudest thing was the cymbals anyway... in fact in my own mix the room was lower than I originally planned it to be because it was giving me unwanted hi hats.

In the future my hats will be clusterfucked with baffles.

When did you get the 2050? I don't recall. How did you have it placed?

Hats are bastard things. Sort of a necessary evil. I've actually heard a few people suggest cheap/shitty hats (B8s, specifically) because they tend toward the quieter side and are trashy, which you may sorta want in a hat. I think all of us on here who record realdrums want to baffle the crap out of the hats but never get around to it.

The expanding the room thing was just an idea that happened to work because of how the track sounded. If you want to go that direction, it's really just mic choice + placement to get you there. Well, that and the drummer- which, in this case, was you. I should upload just the drums later so you can hear how they sound with everything else removed.

Shitty hats can work. Also, 13" ones can have the same effect. I have been wanting to go 13" for a while. My cymbals are definitely my biggest problem though, great for live, shit for recording. Well, the cymbals and the space i have to record in, are the problem.

I am getting kind of behind on all my listenings here and abouts. Will have to catch up with a bunch of shit soon.

I pretty much always baffle my hats. It helps a lot with the snare shell mic, which I now sort of use as a snare/rack tom shell mic in conjunction with a snare top. Speaking of which, I need to get a dedicated snare top dynamic mic with a real tight pattern. The SM58 works pretty well but I know I could do better.

Speaking of which, scheduled to record a couple of bands when I get back. I think I will also offer up the tracks for a fun little forum remixing experiment. Particularly the hardcore band I am real excited to record.

Tight pattern? Snare? Dynamic? I think you're looking at a Shure Beta (tight) or Audix (aww, dicks- even tighter). Beta 57A or i5 would do the trick, methinks. As would a Beta 58A or OM-2, but the former are really meant as instrument mics. If nothing else, the grille shape and narrower profile would help getting the thing in there. I've used both on snare with good results though. Any of those four would work for general porpoise dynamic mic duties.

If you had a few buxx, I've heard the Telefunken M80 is a pretty killer mic on snare. It's cardioid, though, so YMMV on the bleed thing, same with a Shure SM7B, though the latter rejects pretty well off-axis. I can't speak for the M80 though never having used one meself. SM7B, yes, I have, and it's cool.

All of these are good mics you can use for a bunch o' stuff.

Noted. I have been thinking i5 myself for the specially tight pickup pattern and it's top end characteristics, which I feel would blend well with a PR40 on a guitar cab in the likely event that I will be using it there for aggressive guitar tones. However, them Betas have always intrigued me as well, and I am admittedly very fond of what 57s do.

I got it around March. Did some experimenting with M/S not longer after I got it...

The hats were B8s, actually! Not that quiet a hat, from my experience. I have some of those SOLAR hats, brass dirt cheap things by Sabian, made from the same mould as the B8 hats but out of some stupid banana yellow metal. They are a good deal quieter, but damn do they sound lame.

I do recommend the i5. It rejected enough hi hat. Hats in the room were my issue.

Cam, what do you use to baffle the hat?

Went to the ol' Home Depawt and looked for some proper type foam, which I found in the form of sheets of this pink shit that is like, probably an eighth of an inch thick or so. Cut that up, layered it up and taped up the ends. I gotta a couple of those made up, I put it standing vertically on an extra cymbal stand with ghetto rigged taping action sticking out between the snare/rack tom and the hi-hat. The way I have been setting it up now, it works for both the top and shell mice. It cuts a ton out of the shell mic and a fair bit for the top given how silly cheap and stupid easy it was to make them.

Definitely recommend doing the same for your future recordings.

The hat bleed on Geoff's snare track wasn't bad at all. I've encountered some where the thing is basically a snare + hat mic- even with a good drummer. We used the i5 the last time we did Garda stuff, too, and that worked well. IMO it's a very good snare mic- lotsa rejection, brighter than a 57 and a little more bottom to boot. I can't really speak for it on other sources- I know I've tried it on a guitar cab but can't remember if it was any good (though I'm sure it's not bad) but I could see one being useful to have around even if it lived permanently on the top of the snare.

The B8s surprise me occasionally- though they really shouldn't at this point- by actually being usable cymbals; I've occasionally preferred them to "better" cymbals for certain sounds on certain kits.

Oh yeah, it is not bad or anything at all. BUT, were he to want even less hats and some more room to play with stuff without worrying about getting too much hat action in there, dem ghettogobos sure am effective.

Oh I forgot to mention, the AT2050 was about two meters away from the front of the kit, waist height.

I've been planning on building a large hi hat to room mic gobo, out of the side of a garbage can, the inside of which is lined with various absorptives. I believe Mr. Ballou did something like this (according to Chris) before he went and got that fancy SE thing for vocal mics. Also to block hi hats I have a broken lamp with a goose neck which I intend to repurpose.

I wish i could find that Ballou photo again. It must have been in the tape op interview i guess?

aHA!

Holy fuck, that thing is way bigger than I thought it'd be. I was picturing basically a section of a garbage can dimensioned a lot like the thing he's using lately: