Recording Drums w/ two mics?

P

palz.

New member
Hey I just got a dynamic mic (SM57) for Christmas and have been trying to record my band's drums with it and a condensor (NT1-A), to somewhat mixed results. I'm not big on the technical stuff -- we're kinda just figuring all that out as we go along by trial and error -- but we run the mics into a mixer and then into my Tascam Pocketstudio 4-track. A band that recorded us over the summer used two mics, an overhead condensor and a dynamic by the kick and they got a pretty slick, studio sound out of it. Ours is an upgrade from when we just used the one mic, but it still has this damp, dingy sound with lots of room noise. We've tried turning the gain on the mixer down and moving around the condensor-- last we tried it, we hung it really low on the right side of the drumset. The sound still wasn't great, and since I'm not incredibly knowledgeable I've been wondering if the difference between what we get out of 2 mics and what the band we recorded with got was their laptop program in contrast to our 4-track. I know most people recommend more mics, but we'd like to see if we could get better results with what we have before we explore that option. I don't even have incredibly high hopes-- if anyone's familiar with Slanted & Enchanted by Pavement, if we could get a drum sound like that I'd be psyched. But the sound we're getting now isn't even good lo-fi. I'm bad at describing it so I'd be best just providing a link to the song we were working on:

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=D1EB1C7C3A097533

I realize the guitars aren't so great either, BTW. I think thats cause they weren't loud enough though, cause I really cranked the amp for the overdub around 2:40 and it came out great. If anyone has any advice on that too, though, it'd also be appreciated.

Really I'm just trying to get a really good lo-fi sound out of what I have, and if that's possible (or not possible, for that matter), I'd lappreciate any help or advice anyone had to offer. Thanks in advance.
 
the irony.

I hate to be a jerk but I've had this relatively lengthy thread I've been trying to post for the past half hour and nothing would go through. The only times the submit button worked, it'd just prompt me with a message about how I'm posting duplicate threads. Kinda pisses me off.

edit- there we go
 
It happens sometimes. There are a lot of people posting and lurking here. I guess the server gets bogged down. Try changing the title of your thread.
 
TravisinFlorida said:
It happens sometimes. There are a lot of people posting and lurking here. I guess the server gets bogged down. Try changing the title of your thread.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think I have it now. Thanks.
 
yeah pretty much ;)

but.

i read the first sentance and the rest was all blah blah blah.

nt-1a above the set, 57 in the kick drum.

play with the nt-1a to get a decent sound and pick up evrything well.

good luck.

maybe having just one more mic would be good, any dynamic really would help, even some stupid nady or behringer just to put in the kcik and then put that 57 on snare.
 
Kick sounds too tight to me. Snare isn't very defined. Old head? It sounds pretty loose. Some room treatment wouldn't be a bad idea. I know you didn't ask about it but that vocal has some level issues. :D

The guitar off to one side, all alone, kind of doesn't settle with me but I'm not you. A bass wouldn't hurt either. If you're not using one, maybe try to add a little low end to the guitar.

One more thing, Pavement's kick has a good balance of slap and body. Your kick has zero slap.
 
Yeah I made a mistake with the guitar doing that, realized that as soon as I uploaded it onto my PC. And we have a bassist but he never comes to practice, haha. I forgot to step back from the mic during the louder parts and given our lack of successes that night couldn't be bothered to do them over.

As for the drums, we made the mistake that time of keeping the condensor too far from the snare, and our drummer's playing with a taped up head. My friend suggested next time that we put a blanket over the kick.
 
palz. said:
Yeah I made a mistake with the guitar doing that, realized that as soon as I uploaded it onto my PC. And we have a bassist but he never comes to practice, haha. I forgot to step back from the mic during the louder parts and given our lack of successes that night couldn't be bothered to do them over.

As for the drums, we made the mistake that time of keeping the condensor too far from the snare, and our drummer's playing with a taped up head. My friend suggested next time that we put a blanket over the kick.
Click to expand...

Your kick sounds too muffles as is, imo. I hear absolutely no upper frequencies in that kick, which you need if you're going for that Pavement sound. Well, maybe zero is a little extreme but the kick sounds constrained.
 
Any advice on this one? Like I said, I'm still trying to pick up on a lot of this stuff, but I also noticed Pavement's drums sound a lot dryer (if that's how you'd describe it) than ours. We sound like we're playing in a cave.

edit- this was supposed to be in response to the slap/body post.
 
palz. said:
Any advice on this one? Like I said, I'm still trying to pick up on a lot of this stuff, but I also noticed Pavement's drums sound a lot dryer (if that's how you'd describe it) than ours. We sound like we're playing in a cave.
Click to expand...

Room treatment will kill some of the reflections. What's your room like now? Carpet, size, etc.
 
TravisinFlorida said:
Room treatment will kill some of the reflections. What's your room like now? Carpet, size, etc.
Click to expand...

It's the drummer's basement, there's carpet under the set but nowhere else and the room's shaped weirdly-- kinda like an L, almost. There's also a laundry room with an open doorway thats just accross from the set.

His dad has these separators that are lined with cloth, I really wanna use them but he's too lazy to help me take them out. If I could convince him to stop being a dork about it, do you think that'd help make a difference?
 
As a side question (since you gave the song a listen), do I have the right idea with where I went wrong on the guitars? Cause I think the only thing we really got semi-right in that recording was that overdub.
 
palz. said:
It's the drummer's basement, there's carpet under the set but nowhere else and the room's shaped weirdly-- kinda like an L, almost. There's also a laundry room with an open doorway thats just accross from the set.

His dad has these separators that are lined with cloth, I really wanna use them but he's too lazy to help me take them out. If I could convince him to stop being a dork about it, do you think that'd help make a difference?
Click to expand...

I don't know what those separators are made of. They may help. Try and see. :p

Do a search here for room treatment, bass traps, and broadband absorbers. What you're hearing from your drums is frequencies reflecting off the walls, ceiling, and floor and creating a short reverb and mud in the lower frequencies.

The carpet is probably just dulling the highs.
 
palz. said:
As a side question (since you gave the song a listen), do I have the right idea with where I went wrong on the guitars? Cause I think the only thing we really got semi-right in that recording was that overdub.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you mean about 'wrong with the guitars'. I must have missed that. :D

To me, unless you're shooting for some kind of statement, you should have mono guitar if the drums are mono. When the guitars are panned stereo left and right and the drums are sitting in the middle mono, the drums end up sounding small. That's just me and my opinion.
 
TravisinFlorida said:
I don't know what those separators are made of. They may help. Try and see. :p

Do a search here for room treatment, bass traps, and broadband absorbers. What you're hearing from your drums is frequencies reflecting off the walls, ceiling, and floor and creating a short reverb and mud in the lower frequencies.

The carpet is probably just dulling the highs.
Click to expand...

I only searched room treatment so far, but from the threads that came up and a google search I did, these came up:

http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--AUR2WD01CG

Would they be something I should keep in mind?
 
palz. said:
I only searched room treatment so far, but from the threads that came up and a google search I did, these came up:

http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--AUR2WD01CG

Would they be something I should keep in mind?
Click to expand...

Those might help with some of the high frequency reflections but they won't do anything for the low frequency mud. Look up broadband absorbers...........basically the idea is to take pieces of Owens Corning 703 insulation or, any other insulation with similar sound absorbing properties, wrap them in cloth, and strategically place them. There's probably alot you should read about room treatment before actually purchasing anything. Use the search function here, google, and dig thru these sites: http://www.johnlsayers.com/ and http://www.realtraps.com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top