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

[JG96]

Dug Dog: This is the only technique I listed that I have experience with. Its a good approach when the drummer hits the drums rarely. But if the drummer is riding the floor tom in sections of the songs and whatnot its just not worth the work. And the kick, snare, overhead approach sounds pretty darn good but my drummer has a loud set of cymbals and I am already using the glyn johns approach so I don't know how to get a bit more toms in there without drowning the songs on cymbals.

[RAMI]

I don't know how to get a bit more toms in there without drowning the songs on cymbals.

I use 4 mics in the Glyn Johns (sort of). What I do to get isolated toms is copy my overhead track, and then cut out everything but the toms. I now have a stereo tom track I can do whatever I want with.

[bouldersoundguy]

And the kick, snare, overhead approach sounds pretty darn good but my drummer has a loud set of cymbals and I am already using the glyn johns approach so I don't know how to get a bit more toms in there without drowning the songs on cymbals.

That's a playing issue, not an engineering issue. His cymbals are too loud or he's playing them too hard. If a guitarist was playing some notes much louder than others would you tell him to play more evenly or spend your time trying to mic his amp differently?

[JG96]

That's a playing issue, not an engineering issue. His cymbals are too loud or he's playing them too hard. If a guitarist was playing some notes much louder than others would you tell him to play more evenly or spend your time trying to mic his amp differently?

That's a good point, his crash, ride and hats are all sabian b8's. They don't sound bad but B8 bronze is pretty darn loud even when hit gently in comparison to drums. I guess next time around some cymbal borrowing may need to be done.

[grimtraveller]

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

What would/wouldn't you do?

This is what I do. I use 9 mics {2 O/H, kick, snare, 5 toms} but use four channels in the DAW so I route the toms and overheads via a mixer and set my panning and levels there then feed them into the DAW on 2 tracks. The kick and snare have their own track.
I've found it works quite nicely.
I also put the overheads under the height of the cymbals so I don't get wild loud cymbal spillage.

[dug dog]

Dug Dog: This is the only technique I listed that I have experience with. Its a good approach when the drummer hits the drums rarely. But if the drummer is riding the floor tom in sections of the songs and whatnot its just not worth the work. And the kick, snare, overhead approach sounds pretty darn good but my drummer has a loud set of cymbals and I am already using the glyn johns approach so I don't know how to get a bit more toms in there without drowning the songs on cymbals.

Does the timing of the tracks recorded on the Zoom wander all over the place over the course of a single song? I haven't tried it yet but I figured you'd get them lined up at the beginning of the tune and you MIGHT have to make some small adjustments toward the end of that song which would just be a matter of sliding the Zoom tracks left or right a little bit.

[bouldersoundguy]

Does the timing of the tracks recorded on the Zoom wander all over the place over the course of a single song? I haven't tried it yet but I figured you'd get them lined up at the beginning of the tune and you MIGHT have to make some small adjustments toward the end of that song which would just be a matter of sliding the Zoom tracks left or right a little bit.

Most digital clocks are pretty dang accurate. I routinely fly in audio and video from different sources, like my HD24 (running at 48kHz) and my old Sony D8 camcorder. It seems I can sync the tracks at the beginning of the files and it stays right for as much as an hour, maybe more. I would think worst case you should be able to do a song without audible drift, and more likely an hour or more.

The HD24 is a special case because at 44.1kHz the clock is known to be inaccurate, so I always use it at 48kHz.

[JG96]

Thats interesting about 48 kHZ. I usually use 44.1 kHz just because that is the only way my interface allows latency free monitoring. But if it really lines up that much better that would be nice. I have to line up the toms at the beginning of the song but then again throughout the song at 44.1. The zoom can record 4 tracks at once which means I could probably lay down lead guitar and a room mic at the same time too if it is so accurate. Next time around Ill give 48 kHz a shot!

[bouldersoundguy]

The problem with 44.1 is specific to the Alesis HD24, not something common to all devices. Use whatever sampling frequency works for you.

[JG96]

Aw shucks I guess thats the problem with reading things at 2 Am. The drift between the two is not audible, its just a variation in phase coherence I fear. Grimtraveler: I'm interested in your approach to overheads. By under the cymbals do you mean like a room mic in close proximity. What is your placement like in that position? XY, Spaced Pair. Has anyone tried playing the tom mics into a PA so they bleed into the overheads?