Hyper-sensitive microphone

[Jakester]

I've been tinkering with a little recording recently on the drums, using a basic set of kit mics augmented here and there with a couple of add-ons. 

I've noticed that despite positioning and judicial use of gating etc, there's a load of bleed through, and I've narrowed it down to one particular microphone, which seems hyper sensitive compared to the rest. It's a dynamic mic - the 'snare' one of the drum set, so in theory it should be fine with all the others. I've tried padding it and using a really aggressive gate on it, but it still seems to pick everything around it up. It's not actually essential as I have a different mic on the actual snare, but it would be good to use as an extra mic or on an auxiliary snare, so I wondered if anyone had any advice on taming the beast?

[itu]

What is the pattern, omni? A hypercardioid might help. If the level of the channel is very high, put the mic closer and compensate by reducing the volume (or gain).

[Jakester]

Hypercardiod, and I've already reduced the gain to below unity (so cutting) - hence my reference to 'padding' it. 

[Dan Dare]

That's surprising if it's hypercardioid. Given that a snare is loud and cuts through, you often don't need a particularly great mic' on it, especially for live use. That's why the good old SM57 often gets used for the job. It's pretty insensitive to anything that happens more than a couple of feet away and the response falls off sharply at both frequency extremes. They're not expensive second hand. Worth trying one?

[Phil Starr]

Is it hypercardioid though? If it is picking up sounds from all around then it's omnidirectional by definition. There is no strict definition of what cardioid, super-cardioid and hyper-cardiod means anyway and my experience is that the actual directional nature of mics described as  cardioid  varies a lot. If it's part of a cheap set shipped out of China quality control can be problematic and who knows what capsule is inside. It's also possible that part of the mic is broken, directionality is achieved by cancellation. The omni directional part of the mic is joined with a bidirectional signal and the sound from behind in the bidirectional element cancels the rear sound from the omni part. If the capsule is broken or blocked by damage/poor manufacture then the cancellation won't happen. 

You can test the directionality by talking your way around the mic and checking the sound level falls off at the sides of the mic.

[Jakester]

 

52 minutes ago, Phil Starr said:

Is it hypercardioid though? If it is picking up sounds from all around then it's omnidirectional by definition. There is no strict definition of what cardioid, super-cardioid and hyper-cardiod means anyway and my experience is that the actual directional nature of mics described as  cardioid  varies a lot. If it's part of a cheap set shipped out of China quality control can be problematic and who knows what capsule is inside.

It’s supposed to be, but it ain’t- that’s the problem. I suspect you are correct though in that it’s part of a cheapy set. 

Edited January 26, 2021 by Jakester

[EBS_freak]

Pool noodles!