Three Mic Drum Techniques?

Nate74

Nate74

HR4FREBR
A friend of mine who has a few decades of recording and live sound experience has been pushing me to try a 3 mic recording technique when I do my band's demo next month.

He's suggesting a ribbon mic 2 or 3 feet out in front of the kit, a hypercardiod mic on the snare and a 112 or Beta52 on the kick. He's sent me some tracks he's done that way and I'll say the kit has a great full and organic sound to it. But he's in good rooms, with pro drummers on great kits. The real kicker is he says that the ribbon mic is about 80% of the overall sound and the other two mics just supplement the overall balance where needed. And obviously, it's a mono drum mix.

I get the idea, but I'm wondering how it will translate into my home recording setup. Has anyone here ever had any success with this setup in a home recording environment?

I'll mention that my band consists of acoustic guitar, upright bass, fiddle and mandolin along with a drummer who plays a small 3 piece kit. Organic is fine, but I'm so used to having 6 or 7 drum channels to mess with this approach has me hesitantly scratching my head...
 
Hey man!

Dude, I record like that all the time and I actually prefer the sound I can get with fewer mics. Thing is...with fewer mics you need to take care of two things: Mic placement and performance. Also when it comes to mix you cant tweak it and edit the hell out of it...and that is the beauty of recording like that...you actually pratice the art of recording, not the art of editing and tweaking in the mix.

The main deal is the Overhead placement, IMHO, you'll need to capture a nice balanced sound of the kit with it. You should take time on the kick and snare too...but the overhead is crucial in this setup.

The performance of your drummer is an important factor...you'll need to coach him in order to get a specific sound. If he smashes the cymbals like a maniac...you are going to have trouble when mixing...so you may need to tell him to go easy on stuff like that.

I recently posted a song that I recorded using only two mics to capture the drum kit...you can check it out in the mp3 mixing clinic part of the forum!

I hope you have a good time recording man and good luck to you!!!
 
Fortunately, our drummer is a pretty reserved player at this point in his life/career. I suspect his style will work well with this approach. thanks for the advice!
 
I fall in with what Cmolena wrote. I am a total newb on drums, both in terms of recording and playing, and I have odd-ball taste in drums so take anything I say with a grain of salt. I either use a single overhead, or an overhead with a mic on the kick.

+1 for Overhead placement is key. Basically it is your mixer. Moving the overhead up and down on the pole, and in and out, left and right in the space takes time to play with. I just jump behind the kit and record a fragment, then listen and re-adjust.

+1 for the player. Since I don't have any habits I use playing to mix as well. The comment about smashing the cymbals really hit home. I will re-track until I get the balance right between playing and position. For example I have a sweet spot between mic position and how I hit the hats that gets just the right amount of hat /snare balance for me. I just marked off the stand position and height with black tape :-)
 
I always record drums with 7 mics and almost always end up using the overheads (X-Y) and the kik mic. Also, 90% depends on the drummer.
 
My old band got our best drum sound with 3 mics set up similar to what Nate74 suggests, although we used 2 SM58's (kick and snare) and an Oktava219 nearly 2 metres away.
Bass amp was turned down very low and DI'd - we recorded guitars and vocals separately.
 
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