Unhappy With Tom Sound

[Whyte Ice]

Whenever I'm playing with my drums, my tom drum always sounds really good, perfect if you ask me but whenever I'm recording onto my pc, it always sound like something else, something to cover your ears to.

I have tried different mic placement techniques and it isn't my sound card since everything else sounds just fine with it (i have a m audio delta 44 24/96). I've read about people putting a microphone inside the tom drum but I can't do that because there is no way out for the mic cable to come through.

The best sound I've gotten with it while recording is when instead of miking the tom drum, I just let one of the overheads pick it up and it sounded a little better but not fitting my needs.

If you have any tips, tricks, etc., please reply.

[Emeric]

Do you have a short mp3 sample? What mic are you using, and what distances/angles have you tried from mic to tom?

[balls1299]

Yeah, more specifics on what you don't like about the sound would be helpful. Here's a few tips. I am a drummer. The first thing I notice about my Yamaha's is that for live sound a clear batter head that is allowed to ring sounds great, but in the studio it sounds like hell. The overtones bleed into everything else and it can be a disaster! So for studio stuff, I use Remo pinstripes which deaden the ring quite a bit and reduce overtones. It's also a softer attack. You might want to try using a wood tip stick. Plastic on plastic sound crappy!! And of course using descent cardiods on the toms can only help.