Preamp for Drum mics...

[AumStudioBrian]

I'm tottally in the dark reguarding preamps for recording drums. I'm currently running 10 drum mics into a Mackie mixer into soundcard into computer. I heard someone mention they used a preamp for their drums and I was wondering what are the pro's and con's of doing so and which are good prospects? I know the importance of vocal mic preamps and the huge difference they make in recording vocals or even guitars ect... But why is it that I haven't really heard of this being done with drums? If it makes as much as a difference as the preamps for vocals do for vocals, I'm definetly interested. Anyone have experience using preamps on drums????

[littledog]

Aum,

If a given preamp provides an improvement in the sound of a vocal track, chances are it will improve anything else as well.

Since in most commercial music, the vocals are the most critical part of the song, it stands to reason that if you only have one good preamp, that's where it gets used. So maybe that's why you have only noticed talk about outboard preamps in the vocal context.

In my situation, I use only outboard preamps, but I've had a few years to accumulate a large number of them (like about 23 channels worth). But as you gradually add pres, you can start running other tracks through them, more or less in order of importance. In the case of drums, you might start with kick and snare, then overheads. Outboard preamps for toms and HH's might be less critical, (assuming you are mic'ing everything) since a lot of their sound will be coming from the overhead mics.

Specific recommendations depend largely on your budget. In my case I often use an API 3124 and a Vintech (Neve 1272) for my basic drum tracks. But that's well over $3000 for six channels worth of preamps. But I think most people would notice a difference between those preamps and the Mackie.