La Bête Blooms Drum Microphone Techniques (Snare)

According to Tingen (2005) Steve Albini's favourite snare microphones are listed as;

• Altec 175 (top)
• Sony C37p (top) 
• Shure SM98 (bottom)
• Altec 165/175 (bottom) 

It also states that he only occasionally mikes the bottom of the snare, so my main focus will be on my microphone choices and placement for the top. Neither the Altec 175 or Sony C37p are available choices to me, so I felt it was necessary to review the choices that are available, as well as informing choices based on the choices of the aforementioned producers Tony Visconti and Glen Kolotkin. 

I found the following source http://www.coutant.org/sonyc37p/ (Coutant, 2000) with information regarding the Sony C-37P with useful specs such as the frequency response and polar pattern information. Based on appearance alone, I decided to compare this microphone to the AKG C3000 AKG C3000, a large diaphragm condenser microphone available to me at the college by reviewing the following source http://www.akg.com/pro/p/c3000-b (AKG, 2016) . Below are images of the two microphones frequency responses.

Sony C37P 

AKG C3000B

The Sony C37P has a relatively flat frequency response which tails off towards the high end at around 4kHz when placed at 90 degrees. The AKG C3000b however has a slight dip around 2kHz but promotes high end frequencies around 5kHz. This may be an issue as a lot of important frequencies given off by the snare occupy the high-mid range where there is a slight dip.

I recall in Stackpole (2013) that Steve Albini sometimes uses two microphones when recording the tops of the snare drum, one dynamic and one condenser. After taking this into consideration I wondered If I could perhaps use a dynamic microphone to make up for what is lost in the frequency spectrum when recording with the AKG C3000B.

Referring back to Senior (2008) and Buskin (2003) as well as my own empirical knowledge I have decided that I will use the Shure SM57 to record the top of the snare as well as the AKG C3000B. Below I have included the frequency response chart for the SM57, which has a flat frequency response around 1kHz-2kHz, much like the Sony C37P, making up for the frequencies lost by using the AKG C3000B.