Recording Drums: 4 Channels and 6 Mics. How Would You Handle It?

[JG96]

So recently my band started recording bass, guitar and drums simultaneously. I am used to recording drums with 6 mics and I like the sound it yields but it does not top the sound of a live performance. Unfortunately my interface only has 6 channels. These are my potential solutions:
A. Route the tom mics with the overheads
B. Record the tom mics to a zoom H4 and time align each hit.
C. Play the toms pre eq'd and processed into a PA and let that bleed into the overheads.
What would/wouldn't you do?

[witzendoz]

What are the 6 drum mics usually on?

Alan.

[JG96]

Sorry, should have added that. 2 mics for overheads, 1 mic on the snare, 1 mic in the bass drum, one on rack tom, and one on floor tom.

[Track Rat]

In the olden says when I was 8 tracks, I mixed the toms with the overheads.

[dreib]

Your set 2 OH's Kick & Snare, play as a band only recording drums and then go back and dub in the other parts. Close mics on toms are not really necassary.

[CMB Studios]

Your set 2 OH's Kick & Snare, play as a band only recording drums and then go back and dub in the other parts. Close mics on toms are not really necassary.

only works if they guitar/bass rigs are in different rooms and you're hearing through headphones.

I'd create your drum beat on tempo with fake drums.. have your guitarist/bassist play a scratch track to that fake drum beat... once perfect, delete the fake drums and record your real drums TO the scratch track untill perfect... then retrack bass/guitars to the real drums.

I would do kick/snare/OH's ... im pretty sure everyone will tell you that.

[dug dog]

B. Record the tom mics to a zoom H4 and time align each hit.

I've often wondered about this approach and have considered using it myself. There's probably no way to lock the Zoom to the same time clock as your interface so there's likely to be some time drift between the 2 units. However, it's probably not too hard to synch up each tom hit or tom fill in your DAW. Might be a bit time consuming if the drummer hits lots of toms.

[dreib]

only works if they guitar/bass rigs are in different rooms and you're hearing through headphones.

I'd create your drum beat on tempo with fake drums.. have your guitarist/bassist play a scratch track to that fake drum beat... once perfect, delete the fake drums and record your real drums TO the scratch track untill perfect... then retrack bass/guitars to the real drums.

I would do kick/snare/OH's ... im pretty sure everyone will tell you that.

Ive recorded with everyone in the same room with the guitar player and bass player playing thru practice amps faced away from the drums with a ldc stuck in between em for a scratch track with hardly any bleed at all. What was there was buried by the finished tracks. I was really surprised, but you can make it work.

[bouldersoundguy]

Use four mics: kick, snare, OHs. If the kit is properly tuned and played (and the room is tolerable) it will sound fine.

[BrentDomann]

Is it rock? Three mics (2 OHs and a Kick mic or OH, snare, kick) or even two mics (OH, Kick) will open up other channels.