GREAT way to get fat drums, fast, with 3 mics...

If you look around in the mp3 mixing forum for a post "First Effort" and download one of the songs off there.. it's the full band, but we used his drum technique..didn't spend a lot of time messing with it though.. :)
 
1) Too many people asking about minimal techniques to let this die
2) This is too good of a technique to let it die.
3) Try it if you havent already.
4) Send me money.
5) Kiss my ass.

Thank you.
 
I tried and I am very pleased!

Do to the lack of any decent condenser mics I set up with sm57's as overheads, another sm57 on the snare, and a 52 in the kick.
I am very happy with it. This is the best drum sound I have had.

I have a pretty bad room (15 by 15 with a frew sleeping bags nailed to the wall) and I had no problems. I think using the 57's might even help because it kills a lot of the reflection.

This method frees you up to concentrate on the sound at the board rather than the placement of the 8 or so mics on the set. Get the kick sound right and you are most of the way there.




Very, Very happy:)

Thanks

F.S.
 
I also tried this technique back when the thread first appeared,for a four song demo of my band.I used a pair of ECM8000s for the overheads,with an SM57 on the snare and an MXL V67 on the kick about a yard away under a blanket and a kitchen chair (my version of the tunnel).Here is a clip.
This technique gives you a pretty accurate stereo image inside the normal dimensions of the kit.I plan on experimenting with a wider overhead positioning outside the kit,but also measured to be equidistant to eliminate the phase problems as with the original idea.
 
Tubedude,

This sounds like a good technique, especially in my room which has bad acoustics.

How are your mics angled? The horizontal distance from the center of my snare to my right shoulder is only around 18 inches - not separate enough I think for a good stereo image unless the mics are angled away from each other.
 
Thanks to you tubey for the original post that got me started.I'm convinced its the close-inside the kit positioning which violates the 3:1 rule but gives a great stereo picture, and the measuring which keeps you out of phase trouble.
For pres I just used an 8 channel Ross mixer.But that's just because it was done in my drummer's garage.A "location" session.Had we been at my place,I'd have put the mics through the audiobuddy and c-port instead.
 
Tukkis said:

Do you think you could post a picture or drawing?
Tukkis

maybe this will help.
Put the Mic A right above the center of the snare, at a distance of two drumsticks, but suppose you replace the two drumsticks with a rope of the same length.
Now add another supposed rope from the center of the kick drum to the capsule of the mic.
To place the Mic B just start moving the ropes to your shoulder, keeping both of them tight all the time.
In this way you'll have both mics equidistant to both the snare and the kick. Of course you can use cable instead of rope.
 
For those that want a quicker way to match the overheads (and/or fine tune them)....

1. You need to have a way to reverse the phase of the mics *BEFORE* recording (ie. mic pre or mixer channel(s) with a phase reverse).

2. Set up your mics as usual using tube's method.

3. Reverse the phase on ONE of the overhead mics.

4. While hitting the snare try to position the overheads to get the "quietest" sound possilbe.

5. Flip the phase of that mic back to normal and the two mics will be almost "perfectly" in phase and the snare will be dead center.

You can also try to get the kick centered in the middle of the overheads also by alternating between hitting the snare and the kick and moving the mics around to get both sounds as quiet as possilbe. It'll probably take more time to get both centered but it'll be worth it in the end.

Hope that helps. :)

-tkr
 
I suppose it's probably not much quicker if you're by yourself and have to keep running back and forth to listen to it and then back to re-adjust the mics, and so on..... but it is definitely a great way to "fine tune" them.

But less satisfing results??.... Why is that? :confused:
It seems to me the whole purpose of measuring the distances is to get the snare to be in phase with both mics (dead center). So if you only hit the snare and try to get the quitest sound possible, then when you flip the phase back the snare is now (almost) perfectly in phase with both mics and is dead center. But maybe I'm missing something.... ;)

-tkr
 
Not used three mics, although one of the best sounds I ever got was with 2 (vintage D12E in the kick and a Rode NT2 overhead) - we were trying to get a "Beatles-y" sound, and it worked. OInly problem was that I had to play drums on it...still, the sound was good.

I'm just finishing mixing a demo for a local punk band. The kit was mic'd pretty conventionally...like this:

B/D - AT PRO 25
S/D - SM57
O/H - 2 x ECM8000
Toms (2) - 2 x SM58
Close ambient mic - AKG Solidtube
Distant ambient - SM 58 (I've read that U2 use one and compress the hell out of it)

It all sounded fine, and very "real", but as mixing has progressed, I've found that I've offloaded all mics apart from bass, snare & overhead - and both me and the band much prefer the sound.

The only problem has been that the drummer's crash cymbal is completely useless and didn't cut through at all...still, aren't samplers useful? ;)
 
do you think it would matter if the two overhead microphones weren't matched. I was thinking of using an NT-3 on the hi-hat side and then a Cad M37 on the other side. including a 57 on the snare, and a d112 in the kick. do you think that could get reasonable results?
 
The best drum sound I ever got was with "mis-matched" overheads - I didn't have any matched pairs, so I used an AT4033 and Oktva MK219 (with a 57 on snare and Pro25 on kick). Sounded absolutely brilliant.
 
Finally I find a thread that has to do with micing drums and everything I've read seems to be pretty good I plan on working on this technique over the weekend but with 3 mics for the toms. Hopefully I will have a success story on my hands like the rest of you.
 
Well it sounds really good on the first shot off I didn't even throw on my tom mics but I still want to mess with using those. What do you prefer when micing them, from the top or from the bottom.:eek:
 
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