2 port audio interface drum record

Z

zipline7020

New member
so My audio interface only has 2 ports,
is there anyway to record a live drum set decently with 2 well placed mics?

or would i need to mic certain drums, then move the mics and have the drummer play it again?
 
Decently? With two mics? probably not. Right off, I don't record acoustic drums, but from everything I've read you need at least 4 mics to get a good capture of a drum kit.

I can tell you, recording with two mics then moving the mics to record again sounds like a recipe for disaster. Remember, your drummer is going to have to claim that that was him playing the drums on the song. He probably won't be happy if the drums aren't in sync and sound like crap.

If you're going to record acoustic drums, do it right and get at least a 4 input interface, mics and cables, etc. Drums are so important in any rock song, they've got to be done right.

Alternatively, you can use virtual drum software; EZDrummer, Steven Slate Drums, etc.... There are a few good ones to choose.
 
Do you HAVE or can borrow 4 mics?

If so, buy a cheap mixer. Something like the Behringer Xenyx 802 (avoid the USB version if poss') will be fine for drums cos them's loud.
That at least would give you a two track mix of kick/ snare and two overheads. You will also I am sure find other uses for the mixer, never a bad buy.

Oops! You need the 1202 for 4 mic inputs!

Dave.
 
If you are married to two input interface, get a mixer with at least four channels and then output left and right stereo as two tracks to your interface. You're essentially creating a stereo drum mix. So for four channel mixer, it would look like:

Left overhead (panned left), right overhead (panned right), kick drum (center), snare drum (center). Your overheads will pick up your toms fine (but not great) and will provide a decent stereo image (boosted of course by the kick and snare channels).

Additional channels on your mixer, provided you have them, would be:

Rack tom (panned left, start with 20% and work left from there depending on how much width you want) and floor tom (panned right 20%... as described for rack...)

And if you have more tracks and toms... And so on.

Two notes, above is player perspective, reverse everything for audience perspective. Also, if you're actually buying this extra equipment (vs borrowing it) you might as well save up and just buy an interface with more inputs.
 
On the contrary, if you absolutely cannot get your hands on a mixer and you are just plain stuck with two channels, there are a lot of options for two-mic'ing a drum kit that will give you "acceptable" results provided "acceptable" (vs professional studio) meets your needs. Try googling minimum drum mic'ing and you'll find all kinds of articles and even some pretty good YouTube demos. One technique that worked for me in the past is a large diaphragm condenser out in front of the kit, about a foot out and three feet up pointed straight at the kit, and a medium diaphragm condenser right on top of the ride cymbal next to rack tom, center of the kit, aimed at the snare. Pan them both center, or maybe 10% left and right, but not too much or it will sound really weird with kick and snare opposite off-center. Just a nudge of panning to get you away from mono but not too much so that you are separating the beat.
 
I disagree with all of this.

You can do this with two mics as long as you are willing to play around with placement.

This article has a video that proves it...but I can't post it so google over the shoulder drum technique.

Over the shoulder technique.

If you want a lot of low end put a mic on the kit.
 
ecc83 said:
Do you HAVE or can borrow 4 mics?

If so, buy a cheap mixer. Something like the Behringer Xenyx 802 (avoid the USB version if poss') will be fine for drums cos them's loud.
That at least would give you a two track mix of kick/ snare and two overheads. You will also I am sure find other uses for the mixer, never a bad buy.

Oops! You need the 1202 for 4 mic inputs!

Dave.
Click to expand...

Usually Dave and I agree on things but I think this is bad advice. If you can't afford a 4+ input interface yet, save your money until you can and just use two mics for now. Putting bass/snare together with 2 pre-mixed overheads isn't going to be that much better than your two mics as they stand.

With only two mics I'd immediately put one on the kick drum and one overhead of the rest of the kit. However, at this point take a LOT of time tweaking the mic position by an inch or two at a time. You want the kick to give you a good thump yet still have come of the "click" of the beater. Similarly, you want your "overhead" to, in fact, be a combined snare/tom/cymbal mic. By moving this one around you can set a mix that's probably almost as good as trying to pre-mix snare and O/H. I have to stress that position is critical (as it would be with ECC's scheme). You have little possibility to change things later.

In the long term you want a bigger interface and more mics though--and I wouldn't stop at 4 inputs. Something like the Tascam US 1800 would future proof you a lot and, the way pricing works, it's not much more than a 4 channel interface.
 
Mrizzo1 said:
I disagree with all of this.

You can do this with two mics as long as you are willing to play around with placement.

This article has a video that proves it...but I can't post it so google over the shoulder drum technique.

Over the shoulder technique.

If you want a lot of low end put a mic on the kit.
Click to expand...

Which part do you disagree with when you say "I disagree with all of this"? The part about try running kick/snare/overheads through a mixer into a stereo drum mix or the part where it says try googling minimum two-mic'ing drums for all kinds of options on two-mic placement for drums?
 
I've had acceptable tesults with both of these less-than-ideal situations (mixer and two-mic'ing) in past experiences. Yes, more inputs (MINIMUM four) for acoustic drums is best, but depending on the purpose/goal, a stereo mix or two-mic'd drums may yield acceptable results. Now that I have an eight input interface would I choose mixing a stereo bus or two-mic'ing the whole kit? No chance. When you gotta make due with what you got, can it be done? Sure.
 
Bobbsy said:
Usually Dave and I agree on things but I think this is bad advice. If you can't afford a 4+ input interface yet, save your money until you can and just use two mics for now. Putting bass/snare together with 2 pre-mixed overheads isn't going to be that much better than your two mics as they stand.

With only two mics I'd immediately put one on the kick drum and one overhead of the rest of the kit. However, at this point take a LOT of time tweaking the mic position by an inch or two at a time. You want the kick to give you a good thump yet still have come of the "click" of the beater. Similarly, you want your "overhead" to, in fact, be a combined snare/tom/cymbal mic. By moving this one around you can set a mix that's probably almost as good as trying to pre-mix snare and O/H. I have to stress that position is critical (as it would be with ECC's scheme). You have little possibility to change things later.

In the long term you want a bigger interface and more mics though--and I wouldn't stop at 4 inputs. Something like the Tascam US 1800 would future proof you a lot and, the way pricing works, it's not much more than a 4 channel interface.
Click to expand...

And I agree with your disagreement! I got the impression that the OP only had access to 4 mics for the foreseeable and that the devil of impecunity was biting hard.

On another forum, virtually the same question was posed but framed in such a way that I suggested a jump straight to the US1800 and not to faff with 4 input devices. Handily this poster already had a spare headphone amp!

Dave.
 
Try this...

Like others have mentioned, get a 4 channel (at least) mixer and do some stereo overheads, a kick and snare. You can pre eq a bit on the mixer (ie, roll off some lows on the overheads, maybe get rid of some ring or boxiness on the snare and low pass the kick to a certain degree). Get everything at a good volume where you might think "yeah this will be cool for a full mix". Then record it as a stereo track into your daw (from the outputs of the mixer into your interface). Now...come mix time, if you need more kick or snare, duplicate that stereo drum track twice. On one of the duplicate tracks, manually (or use a tool in your daw) isolatye all the snare hits. Now on the other duplicate, isolate all the kick hits. Now use a drum triggering/replacement plugin on both of those tracks to "enhance" the kick and snare and make them do what you want them to ie: more volume, add room ambiance, eq/compress individually, etc.

If the original kick and snare hits end up being in fact TOO loud on the initial stereo drum track you recorded, use a compressor to bring down the peaks.
 
Given that the room is decent, the drums are decent, and the drummer is decent, two (decent) mics should work ok. I would generally prefer to have a separate kick mic just in case, but here you're going to have to decide if you want a stereo image or more control over the kick. I guess it would depend what sort of music you're trying to record.

Edit - I think the big issue here is that both you as engineer and the drummer are going to need to hear what you're doing in the context of something close to the final full-band mix in order to make appropriate decisions. I think that's true for most things, but especially here where you really won't have much room to fix an imbalance after the fact.
 
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