Overheads

Overheads refer to a set of microphones used for pickup of a widespread sound field above a source. Overheads are most commonly used in drum kit recording for capturing the sound of the cymbals along with a stereo image of the drums while adding a spacious sound to the drum recordings. Overheads may also be used in any application where capturing a wide stereo field is desired such as chorale recording, string quartets, etc. For drums, a common choice is a pair of small-diaphragm condenser cardioid microphones and common configurations are XY Stereo pair or ORTF.