newbie with questions about mics etc

[rhythmkitchen]

hi all,

i am looking for some opinions and hints.

my first projects will be to record teenagers playing drums and percussion. by drums i mean mostly african djembe and djundjun (bass) drums. sometimes we will have congas as well. percussion will include all manner of shakers, bells and woodblock type instruments.

my situation for the most part will be to record in much less than optimal conditions-loud rooms with several drummers. these are kids in group homes, treatment facilities etc. one of my goals is to get them to have something that has their name on it. i want to record them through their process and progress in order for them to learn to have a more critical ear while instilling in them the desire to improve and perservere. they are the creators. i am their drumming instructor and this will pretty much be my first stab at the recording aspect.

my work is about to purchase a mac book pro for me to use. i have a couple of oktava mk219 mics already. i bought them a number of years ago and never really got into recording. i didn't really research much before i bought them. from what i can gather people say that they are good for the hand percussion and high end sounds in general.

i also have a small sony stereo condenser mic that i bought with my minidisc recorder. it has a setting for hi and lo zoom and stereo. i don't pretend to have the best ears but i have been fairly pleased when i used it to record some live sessions. it might prove very useful.

i would mostly like to keep things simple and have mostly an ambient type sound with some ability to foucs on a particular student or two during a session.

what kind of mics do you folks recommend? i am thinking that it would be nice to have something particularly good for the low end of the djembes as well as the big bass drums.

does anyone have much experience recording drums such as these? in an ensemble atmosphere?

what kind of audio interface would be appropriate?

i am sure that that my owrk will purchase the audio interface. most likely i will purchase a mic or two out of my own pocket for the situation

people may cringe but i am thinking of just using garageband that is loaded on the mac as a means to get started. i am working full time teaching and going back to school so i don't really see myself having the time for the learning curve involved in some of the more pro software. i am open to suggestions.

peace
dana

[mixsit]

Seems like you could get some milage out of the Qctavas.

[hungovermorning]

I second that on the Oktavas. Just position creatively, a lot can be done in the positioning of instruments.

[rhythmkitchen]

i will start experimenting as soon as the mac etc come in. i am looking forward to this process, lots of learning.

[slobbermonster]

I recently had to record a djembe (a pretty big one) and needed it to sound larger than life so I put plywood under the stand so the sound coming out of the hole would reflect. Then I put a SP b1 down by the hole about a foot out, then a couple of Baby Bottles on the skins panned out (you could use oktavas)

Had to play around with the phase a bit but it sounded pretty beefy.

[rhythmkitchen]

most of the time i will be recording a group of drummers (my drumming students). i am imagining that this will be a little different animal than recording a single drum. the way you went about the miking for the single drum certainly makes sense to me. alot of the challenges will come from the rooms that i will be in never mind my paltry level of competence and experience. time, perserverance and an open mind (ear) are the answers i know.

[slobbermonster]

when weather permits - going outside and recording can be really interesting

[killthepixelnow]

Maybe you should post in the newbies section. Sorry for being rude but this is the kind of question that fits perfectly in that section.

My advices? Read a book about recording, it will give you some backgrund to work with. There's a lot of options at amazon. I personally recommend: "Guerilla home recording"

[Gamelan]

I'll also second the motion on the oktava 219's. It's a decent hand drum sound with a nice round bottom (I even use it on bass drum) and you can whack them with sticks or whatever and they keep on ticking. Consider sm57's if you need to add some general purpose mics. They have a rather hot sound and are good for slappy stuff. I'm also doing some part time work with group home kids and kids on probation with a company called Drumming for Your Life (DFYL.org). Might be interesting to compare notes!