How to mic open face drums?

[MeanMrMustard]

Hey All,

Im not a drummer, but Im recording a demo for my band and I was looking for some advice on how to mic my drummers kit and get the best possible sound. His drums are old and not in the greatest shape. He has no skins on the bottoms of his drums, there all open face. Is their anything I can do to make the drums sound fatter on my 4 track recording? I have several mics but their not all very good.

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated, Thanks

[Track Rat]

Lately I've been getting great results with two AKG C-1000's on the rack toms, a C-3000 on the floor tom, a SM-57 on the snare, AKG D-112's in the kicks (double bass)
and a pair of Octava MC-012's as overheads. Also out in front of the set, about six feet and about four feet off the floor, a pair of 4033's. Sounds VERY big. As far as tight mic'ing the toms, any decent dynamic mic (read SM-57's) will do nicely. New heads will go the farthest on getting a decent sound (old heads suck. Garbage in, garbage out). With the C-1000's, I put them about nine inches from the tops looking down at the rims on about a 30 degree angle. With something like a 57, about two fingers width in on the heads and two fingers high with about the same angle. The same for the snare. You just have to listen and move the mics around a bit until it sounds right to you. Also you will want to go over the set and tighten any hardware that's rattling as that shit will record as well and it ain't pretty. Good luck and experiment with whatever mics you have.

[Tim Brown]

The same that applies to regular toms applies to single headed drums.
Sometimes, guys stick the mic inside the drum from beneath, and that will give you good separation, but you're still better off mic'ing from above.


What do you have gear wise?

don't be ashamed, I'll promise you, I started with alot less than you have right now!We all start somewhere, and you'd be surprised what you can achieve....with the right tuning of the kit, and a few decent mic's, you can get a really good drum track.


Tim

[MeanMrMustard]

My drummers kit is an old Trixen kit. Anyone ever hear of these drums. Their really old and to be honest are shit. He won't get new drums though he thinks there fine. Drummers I don't know.

The rest of the band has sweet equipment but I feel his drums make us sound and look unprofessional.

[Tim Brown]

Originally posted by MeanMrMustard
My drummers kit is an old Trixen kit. Anyone ever hear of these drums. Their really old and to be honest are shit. He won't get new drums though he thinks there fine. Drummers I don't know.

The rest of the band has sweet equipment but I feel his drums make us sound and look unprofessional.

Does he have that oddball shaped Kick drum?
Trixon drums are collectors items, if they are in good shape, he should be able to get enough out of them through a collector to buy a halfway decent new kit.

http://www.trixon.de.vu/


Tim