Drum overheads for cymbal bashers

Just looked up those mini k47s. You really can buy m160s for not much more right now

I have a ton of ribbon mics and have for years. The only ones that have needed new ribbons here and there are the ones who see guitar amp duty. Maybe others will chime in, but unless dudes are hitting them with their sticks, you should be good.

Also, ribbons are great on OH even for non cymbal bashers. You could pair a single ribbon with an XY or spaced pair of condensers and lean on the ribbon more or less, depending on the drummer.

This was my first thought, too. A pair of Fatheads would be another great choice.

Ribbons were my first thought as well. Either Coles 4038's, or the AL95 Samar's which you can get for $350-ish this weekend. They sound very similar to the 4038's. There's a comparison video floating around. Also, as previously mentioned, the Beyer 160's would be an excellent choice. Robust and NOT fig 8 - but still ribbony. The low ceiling could be a problem with the fig8 mics. I'd have to try to know for sure, but that could nix some of the ribbons. That said, I'd probably go Samar first, and 160 second if I was gambling without trying.

Never had any issue with oktava mk012s. The pad gets screwed in between the capsule and the amp.

I usually have M160/M130 in MS in my 7'6" room. I have 3 stereo Samar options, vintage RCA's, Fatheads, and the Beyers are just usually the thing that works best. I bought my Beyers around 1997, never reribboned. They spend time on guitar amps occasionally too. When I was still trying to deal with SDC's, I frequently had them very much off axis shooting across the top of the cymbals and out into the room to try and tame them, never very good. I've been fighting an ancient remix with my old KM140's as OH recently, having to do lots of dynamic equalizer tricks to make the cymbals sit down and shut up in the mix. I'll use a condenser OH only after the drummer proves to be appropriately light touch on the cymbals. I can't imagine SPL killing a ribbon as OH. I recently for the first time had the pressure hole in the kick drum causing plosives in the M160 4 feet above it, perfectly positioned for a little air blast. Serious outlier there. There are a number of people I've heard comment about certain ribbons not being meant to face perfectly downwards parallel to the floor, like RCA 44's and 77's, opinion being they always sound better with some angle on them. I haven't pursued evidence of that.

OH. Sometimes I also put a stereo Samar set out in front of the drums.

It's good to remember the tales of producers taking away drummers cymbals, or putting giant stripes of gaffe tape all over them.

As you might have gathered by glancing to the left, I am a fan of the M160. Being one of the few non-fig 8 ribbon mics, I think they'd be great for your application. However, if you're concerned about drummers knocking them over in a confined space I'd think twice. 160s are reasonably hardy as ribbons go, but I wouldn't want to drop one- they're not Shures, after all.

What mics are you using now?

I use M160s as overheads 90% of the time. They just work, and are extremely robust… all kinds of drops and stick hits and phantom power oopsies and no issues in the past decade I’ve used them.

I think it’s worth mentioning that cymbal harshness is generally in the 2.5-4khz area, and M160s actually have a presence boost there, so you may have better results with a mic that has a bit of a dip there like a Neumann U89 (or possibly an MD441 set to flat), although I’m basing that on frequency response charts; never used them for that purpose.

I’m generally fine using a bit of multiband compression or Soothe2 on that area when I’m using the M160s.

Two AL95 ribbons would sound great. They aren't wooly or dull like some ribbons. The top sounds very natural, just a tad warm/smooth. If I had 2, I'd use them on OH myself. I currently use Beesneez LuLu FETs. They two are very natural. I can't recall editing harshness out of them either.

Also, I'd put my XY or configure my split over the snare, rather than over the toms/cymbals. I find I get a better kit picture and am never lacking cymbals. It does make the OH much more useable in the overall tone, than just for cymbals sounds.