Earthworks DK50 series User Manual - Closer Overhead Miking

In Figure 1 the microphones are positioned about two feet above the drummer’s 

head.  This placement will provide excellent results in a drum booth or an acousti-

cally treated small room. If you do not have a drum booth or are in a larger room, 

you can also use another variation of the X/Y pattern by facing the microphones 

straight down (see Figure 2). In this case the microphones should be one or two 

feet above the drummers head and about one foot in front of the drummers face, 

looking down.

Closer Overhead Miking

There is a closer miking approach that we also used in our sessions. This method 

would be ideal for those who do not have a drum room or drum booth. Closer 

miking will reduce some of the ambient room sound while picking up more subtle 

details of the drum set. This method is shown in Figures 3 and 4. In Figure 3, you 

can see the positioning of the microphones from a front view and Figure 4 shows 

where the microphones are pointed. This was the miking technique used on tracks 

27 and 28 of the enclosed Earthworks DK25 DrumKit

TM

 System Demo CD. All 

other recordings of the drum set on the DrumKit

TM

 Demo CD were done using 

the horizontal  X/Y positioning shown in Figure 1.  

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