Mic placement on drums

K

kyler323

New member
I've been battling the problem of mic placement on the drums lately. I have a dynamic on the toms, sm-57 on snare top, a mic for the kick, and then two overhead condensers. Now I also have a cheap set of CAD mics I got for like 300 or so. Is it possible to get real good full rich sound with these with good placement and mixing? I am running pro tools 8 m-powered with the m-audio 8r interface.

Thanks
 
kyler323 said:
I've been battling the problem of mic placement on the drums lately. I have a dynamic on the toms, sm-57 on snare top, a mic for the kick, and then two overhead condensers. Now I also have a cheap set of CAD mics I got for like 300 or so. Is it possible to get real good full rich sound with these with good placement and mixing? I am running pro tools 8 m-powered with the m-audio 8r interface.

Thanks
Click to expand...

It certainly depends on a lot of things...

The drums need to sound great to begin with, (the right heads and the right tuning.) Put them in a room that also sounds fabulous. Find the sweet spot in the room and place the kit there. Experiment with different mics because they all sound different.

Only then are you ready to experiment with different positioning. EQ and effects are just as important, but if the drummer doesn't play with a technique that works well for recording, he can ruin your efforts.

There is no single piece of advise we can give you. Great sounding drum recordings usually happen because everything worked out perfectly throughout the entire process. Sometimes cheap mics can work perfectly. If they are used at the right place at the right time.
 
Greg_L said:
It wasn't sarcastic. I answered his question.

Original poster: "Is it possible to get real good full rich sound with these with good placement and mixing?"

Greg: "Yes"

Where's the sarcasm?
Click to expand...
Straight to the point, but not very helpfull.

G
 
Yes that seems like a fine set up, but as mentioned before you need a good source ie good drums to get a good recording. So spend time tuning the kit and use skins that are in good condition, then you can play about with mic placement.
I would start with the OHs, set them up so there is no phasing between them and so you capture the whole kit. If you notice the cymbals being really loud compared to the other drums then you may want to look into getting the drummer to either hit the other drums harder or to hit the cymbals less hard to get a good balance.
Then try out the close mics. It is a good idea to try to eliminate as much hi hat bleed as you can in the snare mic as with all the other mics.
For the snare try positioning the SM57 so the back of the mic is pointing towards the hats, this makes good use of the SM57s cardioid polar pattern as it is relatively good at rejecting sound from the back of the mic.

Good luck, and post some recordings when you are ready.

G
 
Greg_L said:
I just answered what he asked without making assumptions. You, on the other hand, insulted his intelligence.
Click to expand...

Right on... the poster didn't specify what mics he was using aside from a the snare and the CAD mics... he spoke nothing about where he had tried placing them, he didn't specify what technique... he didn't tell us the kick mic... which a bad kick sound can ruin the entire kit sound.

Without these details its hard to make a precise analysis to begin with.

Eck you gotta get over yourself... sure.. gregs a bit rough and i thought he was an asshole for a while... but then i realized that all the arguments i had with him... once i got better at recording, i found out he was right, so he was actually trying to help me.

so why are you trying to guess and check? you haven't heard his recordings so how can you even give the advice about hitting less cymbal or hitting the drums harder... good advice in certain cases, sure... but without hearing his recordings, how can you make that assessment?

G (there is no G in my name.. I'm simply mocking you)
 
Kyler, did you want a yes or no answer along with explanations or tips or just a flat yes or no?

Just curious.
 
When you get directional mics really close to a source, you get a build up of bass frequencies called proximity effect. So, when you have your mic on the snare or toms, subtle 1/2-1" movements closer to the drum head will produce more low end, and further away will thin it out. Very helpful when micing multiple toms and trying to get consistency. Be carefully of course, because as mentioned, when you get further away you get more bleed from the other drums/cymbals.
 
yea it was a while back about kick drum mixing and EQ/Compression chains.... and there was a couple of other times about phasing.

And yea, you took a shot at mixing one of my songs once, you did a good job but it wasn't the drive we were after, which is no fault of yours, just preference.
 
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