drums, 4 mic's and a delta 44.....possible?

G

GhettoWayz

New member
is it possible to get a good sound from a
5 piece drumkit, plus hi-hat and three cymbals with 2 overheads and a sm-57 and senhiesser 421 going into a mackie then into a delta 44 w/cubase?

the drummer keeps complaining - he envisions about 15 mics.

is it possible with 4? any albums you know done with only 4 mics on drums?

i wanna throw my hands in the air.

can this be done?
 
I got a good sound with 3 mics, going into 2 inputes, in a sblive. And they were cheap mics. Took about 3 hours of mic placement and make shift room treatment though.

Yea you should be able to get a good sound if you put some work into placement, levels, minor room treatment, etc... It might not be pro but if you really wanted pro you'd go to a pro studio.
 
yeah, you can...the sm57 on snare and the 421 on kick.....those overhead placements will be critical.......which mics are you using for overhead?
 
GhettoWayz said:
is it possible to get a good sound from a
5 piece drumkit, plus hi-hat and three cymbals with 2 overheads and a sm-57 and senhiesser 421 going into a mackie then into a delta 44 w/cubase?
the drummer keeps complaining - he envisions about 15 mics.
is it possible with 4? any albums you know done with only 4 mics on drums?
i wanna throw my hands in the air.
can this be done?
Click to expand...

yes, it's absolutely possible...

whether or not it meets your needs depends on the drum sound that you are looking for...particularly for the toms

I have a delta44 and routinely record my kit with 4 mics with good results...
 
I do not there there is a studio in the world with an engineer crazy enough to use 15 mics on a drumset with a mic on each drums and cymbal and expect a good sound. Unless of course they were room mics. Some of the best drums sounds ive heard were done with 2 overheads and a kick even. But the standard is about 7 or 8. Kick, snare, 1 on each tom, 2 stereo overheads, and sometimes the hi-hat.

you gotta let this drummer know that 15 mics is way overdoing it. Infact it may even be impossible to do it with that many. Also, always remember that it only takes TWO ears for us to hear, not 15. Less is usually more.

danny
 
have you already started tracking- and is there a problem with the sound?- the last session i did wa with 4- would a been nice to have a couple more on the toms- but not crucial- do you even have a mixer big enough to accomodate 15 mics? jeez. heres the premise as i understand it-

1 mic for kick
1 mic for snare
1 for each tom (optional)(could be accomplished with just overheads)
2 for stereo overheads (this is where most of your cymbol will come from)
1 for the high hat if it really lacking

more mics DOES NOT mean better or more full sound- it DOES however, give more control for adjustment after trackin, while you're mixing down... if, that is, your talented and expereinced enough to know what to do with 15 tracks of drums from various angles while your mixin (Im not so that wasnt a slam) i could almost gauranty that if i recorded 15 mics- i would eliminate half of them by the time i was done mixin the final.

with a delta 44 only havin ins for 4 seperate tracks- youd have to mix em before recording- not good- offers little control or advange of having more mics

-jeff
 
I have a Delta 44, and I've been getting great drum sounds. I use the ECM8000s as overheads, a 57 on the snare (I've tried the MXL 603, the Oktava MC012 and the CAD M37 and they all sucked compared to the 57), and my AT Pro 25 on Kick. Sometimes the toms are a little bit quiet on fills, so I just turn up the volume of the overheads during the fill using the automation in Sonar.

I would say for most styles of music, 4 mics is more than enough. If your music is particularly tom-heavy, and/or you need the toms to sound huge, you may want to invest in an 8 channel sound card.
 
Oftren times, i run my setup one of 2 ways.


kick (at pro 25), into DMP2, into Delta44-1
snare (sm67), into DMP2, into Delta44-2
2 Overheads (mxl 603s), into mixer, into Delta44-3,4

OR

kick (at pro 25), into DMP2, into Delta44-1
snare (sm67), into DMP2, into Delta44-2

2 Overheads -capturing cymbals (mxl 603s), into mixer
2 tom mics (one in the middle of the smaller toms, one on floor tom) (sm58s - all i have left!), into mixer as well
then, i pan on the mixer as needed, and put the L/R through to my Delta 44-3,4.

so you can experiment. it depends if you want a lot of toms i suppose.....
 
I recently did a live recording of the praise band of my church and was only able to use 3 inputs for the drums, so I used 2 overheads and 1 for kick. I thought it would be very difficult to mix, but it was completely otherwise, a lot easier than when I use 6 or 7, and sounded great.

You can hear the recording here:

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=1251&alid=-1

It's in spanish, so just listen to drums :p
 
i wanted to mention really quick though that using less mics usually only works wonderful in nice sounding rooms.

danny
 
I used two akg c-1000's for OH
and a shure 57 for kick (which i won't go again)
but the kit sounded overall very good (expect for kick of course)
 
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