Drum Recording

[copper96]

Besides mics, compression and mic pre's, what other outboard gear is essiental to record a good drum sound? Will I be needing gates, ect..?

[This message has been edited by copper96 (edited 01-27-2000).]

[DALtune]

It sounds like you have everything you need for a good drum sound. Unless you're looking for a "non-standard" kind of thing. You can add all kinds of effects to drums to get some pretty odd sounds (phase, flange, a little delay on the hi-hat has a neat effect). I'm a little curious about the type of mics, though. You'll want to make sure the mic is suited to the task. 57s are always usefull for toms and even snares, but to get that good, fat bass drum sound that causes irregular heart beats, make sure you have an AKG D-112, AT 25, of something that has a low freq. range and can handle high SPLs.

Tuning is very important also, based on the sound you're looking for. Jazz kits have the tendancy to have a more open sound (more ring) whereas rock kits tend to look more for punch than spedific tones. This is just a matter of preference. I would also experiment with the placement of the mics. I like to keep tom mics about 3.5 to 4 inches away from the drum with a slight angle to the player. This seems to allow the kit to sound like one unit, a controlled bleed. If you really like that individual control, keep the mics closer and directed more at the head and think about getting some Beyer TGX-5s for the toms and such: very uni-directional.

Boy, I'm really rambling...

[copper96]

That is good news knowing that I don't need to dish out any more jing. Thanks for the reply