Putting Drums Through a PA

[Greykitkat36]

Ok. I have a show on sunday (its outside). Now, We have 2-3 mics we can use to mic The Drums so we can put them through the PA. What is the best possible way I could do this to make it sound good? Perhaps one on the snare one overhead and one kick?

[fritzmusic]

First, how big's your kit? If it's a 5 piece kit for example, for two mics, I'd have one overhead, one in kick. I suggest you Mic your kick before anything but that's just my opinion.

For three mics, I'd do one smack in between toms pointing as much as possible at the snare drum, one on floor tom and one in the kick. Alot depends on how hard you hit your snare too. If you're a light tapper on the snare, then maybe mic the snare instead of floor tom and move your tom mic to overhead. Snare usually shouldn't need micing as it cuts through just fine naturally. This isn't gospel but just what I would try first to keep it simple.

[mikeh]

I will assume you only have dynamic mics. I would commit the 1st mic to the kick. If I only had one other mic I would likely put it about 3' in front of the drums, maybe 6" -1 ft. higher than the top of the kick, but below the top of the mounted tom(s) to try to capture the general sound of the kit.

If I had a 3rd mic I would either try to use 2 mics as overheads or possibly place both mics in front of the drums (coming from each side) to capture the snare/hat/high tom on one side and the low toms/ride on the other side.

Normally the crashes can come through with no mic'ing (or the vocal mic's may capture part of the crashes.

[spankenstein]

Kick is the first always.

After that snare.

Those two carry the drums live in my opinion. If you're going to use and over head take it over the right shoulder and point it at the snare. I've had really good reults with that.