Your drum overhead mic recommendation(s)?

[bgavin]

Harvey Gerst is the only other guy I know that still has a pair of those same RS electrets.
They are cardioid with a AA size battery inside. You can juice them up with a higher voltage battery for even better sound.
I keep the batteries removed except when they go into service.
+48v phantom doesn't make any difference... they require the battery.

I ran into Harvey at NAMM and we had a chuckle about still using those old mics.
I think they were Sony OEM'ed for RS.
Dunno why RS ditched 'em... they even recycle the part number for something else.
I have the original boxes for them, and the part number points to something totally different today.

[BrentEvans]

Dunno why RS ditched 'em... they even recycle the part number for something else.
I have the original boxes for them, and the part number points to something totally different today.

Take it from an ex-manager, RS is little better than Pyle in that respect (in other words, way behind the times). They buy in huge lots, repackage (and sometimes relabel) them in their own facility, then when the lot runs out, they buy something else. In the case of some of the electronics parts, those lots can last decades. When they change products, they change SKUs. Sometimes, if they feel like it today. And they're not horribly consistent ont the packaging either, look closely in almost any store and you'll find a hook with at least 3 generations of packaging of the same SKU, and sometimes two packages of the same general style but in different sizes. You'll also note that many of the packages are quite damaged, which comes from the warehouses cramming them into boxes to save shipping.

As far as the catalog numbers go, that's a remnant of a veeery old PC system. You may or may not remember the old Tandy 2000? Those were the very first in-store terminals years ago, and not all stores had them. They ran customized software on Xenix. RS at some point fired the company that actually wrote that software, and now pays another company to revise it as needed. The current revision now runs in a VM on Server 03, and all of the cashlanes are terminal emulation. From an IT standpoint, it's a pretty respectable cluster. Anyway, the original software was only set up to use an SE-ITE (Series/Item) numbering system. Even though the system now supports SER-ITEM numbering system, many of those SKUs are dedicated to RS' internal supplies, and other ventures (Sam's Club Kiosks, Sprint Kiosks, etc). Additionally, each series can only have a theoretical maximum of 9999 items, and a series covers a lot of things, so there has to be some SKU recycling at some point. Still doesn't explain it, right? Well, what we were told at some point or the other, is that instead of 9,999,999 possible SKUs (the theoretical maximum, based on the SER-ITEM system) the system is really only capable of handling about 20,000 SKUs or so, and only about 250 per series. Those numbers aren't definite, but apparently the performance of the old NIX system is directly related to the number of SKUs in the system, so they keep it down as much as they can. Basically, after a product is cleared from the warehouses, it starts to cost-devalue. This happens for an indeterminate, somewhat flexible period of time until the cost is valued at 0, and then is removed from the store systems about 3 months later. Anywhere from 3 to 12 months after that it may be recycled. The parts system, however, is entirely seperate, and entering some SKUs into it (computers particularly) will bring up random parts for several different computers, making it lots of fun to select the right one.

Oh, and just for shiggles, the inventory in the stores isn't 100% synced to the perpetuals in Fort Worth, and sometimes they get out of sync pretty bad. This is partially caused by the store systems (the old Nix software) only feeding an inventory update once daily to the (slightly) more modern warehouse system in Texas. For instance, Fort Worth used to think that my old store had 6 32" TVs that we didn't actually have, and nobody knew how to fix the problem. Same thing happens with at least 5% of the SKUs in the store every 6 months, you never know what, how many, or when. These things just kind of happen, quite randomly. If you call IT support about it, they just shrug it off and say "Have your DM adjust it, you won't be billed on your P&L for errors like that, so don't worry about it." Most DMs won't be bothered with adjusting something small, so it's usually not worth the manager's time to ask, but if you don't ask, you'll get ripped a new one if they find an inventory error in your store. And, to cap it off, during inventory, some of those SKUs that fell off the deck months ago? They still show up, and sometimes they'll show up after being gone for over a year. Sometimes, you'll have a darn-near-new (not DISC or DVL) product that's NOT on your inventory at all! Interestingly, they don't tell you when things actually DO fall off the inventory, so sometimes you could go to sell something, and it not be in the system.

You'd think that a store pretending to be a technology leader would at least have a modern inventory system, wouldn't you?

That's my Shack-Rant for the day. Thank you all for joining, and we now return you to your regularly scheduled thread....

[bgavin]

Other than fuses, etc, I haven't bought anything from RS in years. I don't see that changing anytime soon.

I have to RS sound meters, both the analog and digital versions.
Each agrees with the other, which agrees with my ECM8000 and TrueRTA.
I wonder if my ancient electrets and those sound meters were the only decent products made...

My electrets were expensive in 1970 dollars, probably why they disappeared.
Harvey keeps his in use for the same reason I do: they work well.
I'm not afraid to take these to outdoor events... my Studio Projects C4 don't go outdoors.

[mloretitsch]

Hmmmm Drum micing...always a hot topic!

Currently I only use 3 mics live.... Beta52 on kick, and two Audio Technica at-2020 for overhead. I run my overheads a little behind the drummer each aimed at the snare drum. The key is to keep them equally spaced from the snare drum to prevent phasing issues in the snare sound. This is more of a recording setup I suppose but it works for me in many scenarios. For Metal/Loud Rock you gotta mic up close with dynamics too. Then I use an Audix I5 on snare and e605 on the toms. I have ECM8000's for overheads too and they are really pretty decent. I've also pushed the AKG 535 into service as overheads and they can work as well.

I have to live with that I get and that can be pretty low end old stuff. You can generally make it sound good though.

-Matt

[producerd]

Has anybody used M-audio Pulsar II for overheads. Just thinking of buying a set. Anybody?

[heavybdrums]

I know this is an old thread, but figured someone perusing may find this info useful. I have been recording drums in studio and done live sound reinforcement for quite a few years and have used many mics for overheads. My personal favorite all around mic is the Audio Technica pro 35. I have recorded acoustic guitar, mandolin, hammer dulcimer, piano, accessory percussion and 5 piece drum kit with these used as overheads, as well as used them for the same in live sound. They have a clear, realistic sound without hype in the high freq. which won't make your cymbals sound harsh. They aren't the cheapest small dia. condensers I own but compared to many, at $175 ea they are worth the $$. I have also used the Rhode NT1a (large diameter condenser about $220 ea) and the MXL 993 (small dia. cond.@$200/pr.). The Rhode is not the best overhead mic, because it is a large diameter condenser and will lose those fast transients and sound a bit too rounded, unless your project requires a "soft" (less attack) drum sound, but works great as a vocal recording mic. The MXL 993's are a bit too hyped in the high frequencies and will make cymbals sound harsh, but works well for a snare bottom mic, or when recording a rock band with an acoustic guitar in the mix, it helps to make the guitar stand out above the rest of the mix due to the high frequency boost @ 4k hz. Recordists and sound guys/girls should consider the mic and placement the way an artist uses different brushes for different effects, there is practically no mic that cannot be used in some circumstance, you just have to find that circumstance and know the character of your mics to achieve the desired effect. And no I don't own any "boutique" or otherwise expensive/rare mics, got an extra 100 or 200 bucks, see a mic ...buy it, you will be able to use it somewhere. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Pro37