How many tracks do you use to record drums?

How many tracks do you use to record your drums?

  • 2 Tracks?

    Votes: 39 8.5%
  • 3 Tracks?

    Votes: 51 11.1%
  • 5 Tracks?

    Votes: 67 14.6%
  • More than 5?

    Votes: 303 65.9%

  • Total voters
    460
It all depnds on how over or under produced you want things to sound... as well as genre. For instance, jazz, I can go two ways. If it is more old school sounding, then three mics and forget it. (OH L/R and maybe kick.) Overly produced elevator or fusion, put a mic on anything that moves and then mic things that don't move for good measure and gate/compress the snot out of it. Same with rock tunes.... New metal... see the over produced jazz example above and maybe add some triggers. Old school punk... maybe just a 57 in the room is enough. It all depends.

For general purpose I go kick (D6), snare (SM7, not 57, maybe an LDC or i5), one on each tom (i5s of late), OH L/R (At4050s... sometimes M/S, somtimes spaced pair), Hats (SM81), and snare bottom (which is only used once in a while... i5, SM57, any old piece of junk laying around.) That's 8 channels for those who are counting. I am half tempted to put another SM81 on the ride to adjust the amount of ping in the mix.
 
andycerrone said:
Hey Rezn8, what's your opinion on the Peluso CEMC6's as overheads? Are they worth the $600 for the pair, seeing as you've used them?

Edit: Yay 100 Posts!

The Peluso CEMC6s sound stellar! Very detailed and clear. I love working with these mics as overheads and on acoustic guitars. Six hundred for a pair is well worth it IMO.

Depending on the type of music you're recording, I would look into Peluso, Avenson, or Josephson C42s.
 
12 :eek:

TD10 Main Out Left - Kick
TD10 Main Out Right - Snare
TD10 Direct Out 1 Left - Hats
TD10 Direct Out 1 Right - Ride
TD10 Direct Out 2 Left - Hi Toms
TD10 Direct Out 2 Right - Lo Toms
TD10 Direct Out 3 Left - Left Crash Cym
TD10 Direct Out 3 Right - Splash Cym
TD8 Main Out Left - China Cym
TD8 Main Out Right - Right Crash Cym
TD8 Direct Out 1 Left - Top Row Hart Multipad (Woodblocks, Bongos, etc.)
TD8 Direct Out 1 Right - Bottom Row Hart Multipad (Cowbell, Tamborine, etc.)

I also have saved setting variations on each Brain to scale down the outputs to utilize 8, 6, 4 or just 2 tracks depending on how 'quick and dirty' I need to be...
 
Depends on the kit and the room. I'll almost always record each tom to a separate track, unless I'm really limited on tracks. If I'm limited on tracks, I'll bus the toms to 2 tracks. Snare will be 1-2 tracks. If I use a bottom mic, I prefer to keep the top and bottom on separate tracks so I can blend them while mixing. Again, if I'm strapped for tracks, I'll bus the top and bottom to 1 track. I also like 2 mics on kick. One inside, close to the beater and the other mic outside anywhere from 1-8" from the head. I also prefer to keep these on separate tracks as well. 2 mics for overheads. 1 for hi-hat. At least 2 mics for the room. Occasionally 1 for ride, but usually not.

So on a 5 piece kit, I generally use about about 12 tracks.
 
I usually wing it bacause I'm just recording myself, and time is not an issue. I'll go through a few minutes to a couple hours of trial and error with placement until it sounds good to me on playback. Then, with the song memorized and other future overdubs in mind, I'll record the track all the way through with no metronome or scratch track. I think this gives the end result a more human feel. When I'm satisfied with a take or two the overdubs can start.
Lately on the drums I use three or four mics. Spaced pair c1000->phantom->ampex mx-10->Tascam 388. 57 angled toward the side of the snare->rca ba-31a->388. D112 inside the kick close to the shell angled toward the outside of the front head and away from the beater->388.

Overheads generally are hard-panned. Snare hard-left, kick hard-right, then I can balance in the other intsuments with complimentry timbres to their respective place of the stereo field. Guitar right, bass left, and so on.

Three mics is the same but I just use a l.d.c. in cardoid where it sounds good.

After bouncing the drums and overdubs to two-track I can leave it all hard-panned, or experiment with the stereo spread. I tend to end up with 9 o'clock and 3.
 
it all depends on what the track requires. recently, i was tracking a hardrock band, and used 12 tracks for the kit:

kick inside
kick outside
snare top
snare bottom
hihat
rack tom 1
rack tom 2
floor tom
2 OHs
2 room mics

put sometimes i'll use much less...

kick
snare
2 OHs

it all depends on the drummer/kit/musical context..
 
number of mics

My favourite drum sound was recorded with 2 mics (in my time of dying by led zep) but the room, the kit & the player were as much a part of that as the mics used

However I use generally 12 tracks up to 16 (as that is the number of inputs I have)

I don't always use all the tracks all the time for instance I'm using mics I had in different places for ambience to high-light the bridge section of track I'm in the middle of, & then it cuts back to the dry mics

I use 2-3 mics on the kick!!?? an EV PL88 3inches from the beater, a D112 in line with the front hoop & an AKG solid tube about a foot in front

It's all trial & error & much fun in the process

Happy micing
Slidey
 
Bass Drum - AKG D 112
Snare - Shure SM 58 - Put a lot of chain on so it doesnt sound like a tom
Tom 1 - Shure SM 57
Tom 2 - Shure SM 57
Tom 3 - Shure SM 57
Right Side Cymabls - Rode K2
Left Side Cymbals - Rode K2
Hi Hts - Rode NT2
 
5 or more

The most common drumkit I get through my studio is a five peace kit.
snare-sm57
kick-d112
high toms(two on the top with one mic in between them)-sm57
low tom-samson qkick(this mic is only good for low toms nothing else)
overhaeds-2 samson co1's
1x room-mxl v67 gold
I guess that is 7. with no compression. this works for me.
 
2 O/H and a kick drum mic. The O/H's go to one channel and the kick to another channel, then I bounce those to one channel,adjusting the amount of kick drum, leaving 7 more to record on. (Tascam 388 ) .It's amazing how sometimes the O/H's alone have everything right there!!
 
I usually use 5: 1=Kick (AKG egg mic)
2=Hi-hat (SM57)
3=Snare (SM58)
4&5=Overheads (Acoustic-technica condensers)
The kick always sounds pretty good, but the overheads add a lot of hiss and the hi-hat is hard to get right. Sometimes I add a 6th mic for toms. The more mics the better in my opinion.
 
rweiss said:
When I can get hold of a decent bass amp, I'm going to reverse the polarity and use it to pickup the low end of the kick by placing it in front of it and recording through it (search the forums for this technique).
-Ryan

You might try using the Yamaha Subkick! It's awesome for a Kick, or a Bass Cabinet! I usually use two myself, one of the kick (along with a 'regular' kick mic), and one on the Bassist's cabinet!
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metal

usually i record metal, and if you want a fat tom sound, you got to mic it up. at first i was using 2 overheads, 1 kick and i snare, now i mic my whole kit. depending on how many imputs you have i guess. if i record the whole band with the 8 channel firepod, i might 4. its all about what you are going for. but if you miking the toms with the overhead's brign the overheads down a little to pick em up better. good luck.
Josh
 
1 AT 4060 or Peluso 2247
place 2 feet in front of kick at about the hieght of the top of bass drum. hit it with about 4 db of compression through at 1176, cut 300-400 hz 4 db with thin Q.
Sounds fuckin raw in my room
 
Drum Mics variety

Depending on project and drummer:

I use SM57's on snare and toms (4 total) clip mounted pointed at head
2 Earthworks TC 20's for overheads
AKG D112 for Kick drum.

(Alternate)
2 earthworks TC20s behind drummer as overheads
AKG D112 Kick

This suprisingly sounds great. The first set up listed allows me to pan the toms and makes the stereo image a bit more evident if that is what the project requires. I cannot say enough good about the earthworks mikes.
 
use as many as needed depending on the kit. Also the type of music. I like to have all drums mic'd that way I can really get the sound of the kit to stand out. Also good drums make all the difference in the world, along with good tuned correctly heads.
 
For my own kit, I am planning on micing in this manner:

1 hihat
2 overhead
1 snare
3 toms
1 bass drum

On an 8 track analog multi of mine, the toms and the overheads (and maybe the hihat) will be bussed for a total of 5 tracks, with a guitar, bass, and vocals or something similar.
 
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