recording drums

[discordJF]

I currently have 3 shure 57's, 2 58's, and and akg d-112. I want to get a killer metal drum sound with my vs-1680. I don't have the expansion boards and the built in effects. Is there anything else i need to recording, like mic preamps. Also, if I really don't need anything else, could somebody walk me through recording the drums. I'm kinda new to recording and the vs-1680, so I'll need ALL the help i can get. Thanks.

[tmcbrinn]

I wouldn't go crazy with your first few recordings, cause by the time you are done you'll know what you're doing, and want to go back and do it better. I highly reccomend purchasing one effects card. Anyway...drums. First decide how many tracks you will use on other instruments, add one or two (for bouncing if you decide that you need another guitar at the last minute), and the remaining tracks can go to drums.
Try this:
overhead L & R...57s
toms L & R...58s
bass...akg
snare...57
You can get a much tighter sound out of that...if you use noise gates.
If you'd like a more detailed answer, tell us how many tracks for drums you think you'll have, and what kind of money you can spend. Good Luck!

[discordJF]

I only wanted to use eight tracks, the most. I'm only willing to spend about $1,000. Please give me the lowdown on what I can do with this price range. Thanks.

[tmcbrinn]

YOu can do alot with 8 tracks. Try the mic technique I suggested above. (ooops, forget to mention that you should use close micing so the drums won't bleed into each other). You'll have to experiment with the exact positions, but get a good sound and save eq's for fine tuning. You'll probably want a noise gate, compresser, and maybe a reverb device. Also, a bass drum mic is essential for a crisp sound if you don't already have one. You should be able to keep well under $1000 with that. With the noise gate, you should turn the threshhold up high enough so that when you hit a drum which is not the one that a particular mic is in front of, you won't here it. This will give your drums more individuality, and prevent bleeding. After recording, apply some eq and reverb to create space. If you want a drum up front, cut the low's a bit. If you want it in the back, cut the high's. Now try some reverb. You can add some to the whole set, or to individual drums. If you get the Roland effects cards, select the reverd for the appropriate drum. It will give you a good starting point. Then go into edit, and agujst the controlls as you see fit. ONce you get a good sound, save your settings as your own reerb for future projects.
There is really no single way to fo this, I'm just giving you one way that I like. Listen to your favorite bands, and try to emulate their placement, and levels as best you can until you decide on your own. If you have any questions specifically on the 1680 (I think that;s what u use), go to www.vsplanet.com I am by no means an expert on the 1680. Hopefully this should give you something to go on. There are also a coupl eof other topics of drum recording floating around here somewhere...try searching for them.

[crEEk]

Try experimenting with hanging a single mic in the room in various places for different sounds. I realize you may think of this as unconventional, but I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the results if you are persistent. Good luck.

[phatstadt]

regarding tmcbrinn answer, I got the following question:
How do you apply a noise gate to multiple microphones at once? Do you need one gate per mic? The VS1680 can only insert one gate, not multiple?
What's the trick?

[tmcbrinn]

No trick invoilved, I just use noise gates as a send/return effect. Now you can apply it to all of the tracks at once, and you can easily set the threshhold where it needs to be without guessing. Need to free up the fx card or tracks. Send the 8 recorded tracks to a stereo track with the noise gate as an insert...you can use 2 gates with 1 card.