Decent sound with recorderman mic positioning.

F

fendersk8911

New member
Hello all,

Not a drummer, but I've been looking for decent videos/clips of a 2 mic recorderman setup. I found a few, but not too many...so I'll post mine here, for future reference to anyone looking.

untitled by Christian Coler on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

drums start about 5:30. Used a AKG perception 170 over the snare, and a nady cm90 over right shoulder (until I feel like spending the money for another 170.)

Not the best sound, but it is definitely possible to get a passable sound with 2 SDC's in the recorderman mic placement.
 
I think that it's really interesting and occasionally admirable that some folks can get passable results from using only a mic or two on an entire drum kit. It reminds me of the early days of recording when there weren't multi-track recorders. It's fun in the same way that hunting with black powder and flintlocks can be fun and I can see the nostalgic charm to it.

In this day and age when we have so many sophisticated pieces of equipment available that will allow many simultaneous tracks to be recorded at once at a price that is a fraction of what a vintage recording set-up would cost, my question is: why?

I play a six piece kit and I have simplified my recording set-up, but I am using 5 mics on my kit (sdc pair overhead, kick mic, snare mic and floor tom mic). In the past I used 9 mics (and on occasion I may again for effect). It's easy enough and our technology makes it even easier and economical. So I ask what the big appeal is to cutting down to two mics?
 
To be honest, the main reason is I am not a drummer. I only want to be able to record drums to demo songs. More money is spend on other instruments/accessories for other instruments. A second reason is I am a poor college student :) A third reason is although I have a mixer with many inputs, the USB is 1.1, and mixes down to stereo before sending it to the computer (although I could always do a rough EQ on the board.) 4th, I'm just interested in the challenge of trying to get a good sound out of a minimal setup.

Honestly, I'd love to use many mics on my drums. What it comes down to (for me, personally) is mostly that I have a limited amount of money to spend, and I'd rather spend it on things that are not related to drums. I just wanted to demonstrate that you CAN get a decent sound out of 2 mics, although it isn't the best way to do it :)
 
Lol. I'm sorry bro, but that's not a decent drum sound. That's a sound, but it's not decent. It sounds like dead drums in a box and the cymbals are ear-splittingly shrill. All you proved is that you can record drums with two mics, but everyone knew that anyway. You can record them with one mic if you want. You've proven that you recorded drums. You haven't proven that they can sound good with 2 mics.
 
Greg_L said:
Lol. I'm sorry bro, but that's not a decent drum sound. That's a sound, but it's not decent. It sounds like dead drums in a box and the cymbals are ear-splittingly shrill. All you proved is that you can record drums with two mics, but everyone knew that anyway. You can record them with one mic if you want. You've proven that you recorded drums. You haven't proven that they can sound good with 2 mics.
Click to expand...

Haha. Fair enough greg. However, you'll recall that I didn't say they sound good, I said they sound passable. For demos. I'm aware of the...emptiness of the drums, and the harshness of the cymbals. I suppose this would be the place to add that there isn't any EQ on this. I'll maintain my previous argument, possible to get a decent drum sound with recorderman (at least for demos)

:P
 
Yep. Any suggestions on EQing? ( can always add more mics...only problem is if I do that some of the EQing will have to be done on the board due to the fact that it mixes down to stereo before the USB.)
 
That's far from "decent". All it is is a "sound", which any mic placed in front of anything will produce. Forget about EQ'ing. The DRUMS sound like shit. Those cymbals hurt. I'd worry more about the tuning and the room than trying to band-aid it with EQ.
 
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