Harvey Gerst
New member
Recording drums - Things to think about
I have some time so here goes the start of this section:
Drums: One instrument?
There are two schools of thought on this. Since each drum and cymbal basically produces just one note each, it may be thought of as simply one large instrument.
You can mic a drum set with just one mic, but it's tricky. You pretty much move the mic around till you find the right balance between the snare, toms, kick, cymbals, and high hats. That's usually about 6 to 8 feet away, and about 6 to 8 feet up in the air.
BUT that means you're also picking up a lot of the room, and if you have a shitty room, the drums won't sound all that great. So how do you get around that? It's actually the same problem as miking an acoustic guitar or a grand piano. Move into the instrument's near field (get closer), but when you do that, all bets are off.
In the near field, you have to use more mics, watch for phase problems, and realize you're gonna hear resonances a lot louder than normal. To keep phasing problems down, try just two mics (above the drummer's head, aimed at each end of the drum kit), then see what needs more oomph. You may need to add a snare mic, or a mic on the kick drum, but at least you won't be fighting the room.
If you have a lot of available tracks, you don't even need to commit to a particular drum balance right now - just put a close mic on every tom, the snare, kick, even the high hats, and worry about balancing everything out at the mixdown. (We'll talk about phasing problems that can occur in a little while.)
The snare and kick - the heart of the drum set. Ok, so it has two hearts. In actual fact, the snare is the heart of the set with the kick a close second. Everything revolves around the snare. When you set your overhead mics to pick up the cymbals, use a tape measure so that each mic is exactly the same distance from the center of the snare head.
Miking the snare up close - decisions, decisions.
I use a hypercardioid mic (the Beyer M201) to mic snares, since it has some nulls at 130° off axis, so I can angle it to reduce hihat bleed into the snare mic channel, but even the Shure SM57 kills for snare if placed right.
One of the first places I try is the spot between the high tom and the hihat, aimed at the center of the snare, about 1" above and 1" inside the snare rim. If that doesn't sound good, I then check the actual sound of the snare to make sure it's tuned right and not creating a lot of problems. Sometimes, a little butterfly of duct tape on the snare head, right in front of the mic, will reduce ringing and spurious resonances enough to get a usable sound.
If that doesn't work, I'll check different mic placements, even to the point of pulling the mic back a few inches and moving it up and down the height of the shell, looking for a good balance (yes, actually pointing the mic at the shell, not the snare head).
Finding the right place for the snare mic can actually take upwards of an hour, but it's well worth the time spent. Once I have the snare sound about 80% nailed, I'll go to the eq and do any trimming that's needed, roll off some bottom, add a little mid crack, or some high end.
I usually add some short plate reverb to the sound of the snare, even if it's just in the headphones for now. I don't get "super anal" about the final sound, since I know it'll hafta change a little bit when I have all the other instruments mixed in.
Then I move on to the kick, which I'll cover in the next post on drums.
I have some time so here goes the start of this section:
Drums: One instrument?
There are two schools of thought on this. Since each drum and cymbal basically produces just one note each, it may be thought of as simply one large instrument.
You can mic a drum set with just one mic, but it's tricky. You pretty much move the mic around till you find the right balance between the snare, toms, kick, cymbals, and high hats. That's usually about 6 to 8 feet away, and about 6 to 8 feet up in the air.
BUT that means you're also picking up a lot of the room, and if you have a shitty room, the drums won't sound all that great. So how do you get around that? It's actually the same problem as miking an acoustic guitar or a grand piano. Move into the instrument's near field (get closer), but when you do that, all bets are off.
In the near field, you have to use more mics, watch for phase problems, and realize you're gonna hear resonances a lot louder than normal. To keep phasing problems down, try just two mics (above the drummer's head, aimed at each end of the drum kit), then see what needs more oomph. You may need to add a snare mic, or a mic on the kick drum, but at least you won't be fighting the room.
If you have a lot of available tracks, you don't even need to commit to a particular drum balance right now - just put a close mic on every tom, the snare, kick, even the high hats, and worry about balancing everything out at the mixdown. (We'll talk about phasing problems that can occur in a little while.)
The snare and kick - the heart of the drum set. Ok, so it has two hearts. In actual fact, the snare is the heart of the set with the kick a close second. Everything revolves around the snare. When you set your overhead mics to pick up the cymbals, use a tape measure so that each mic is exactly the same distance from the center of the snare head.
Miking the snare up close - decisions, decisions.
I use a hypercardioid mic (the Beyer M201) to mic snares, since it has some nulls at 130° off axis, so I can angle it to reduce hihat bleed into the snare mic channel, but even the Shure SM57 kills for snare if placed right.
One of the first places I try is the spot between the high tom and the hihat, aimed at the center of the snare, about 1" above and 1" inside the snare rim. If that doesn't sound good, I then check the actual sound of the snare to make sure it's tuned right and not creating a lot of problems. Sometimes, a little butterfly of duct tape on the snare head, right in front of the mic, will reduce ringing and spurious resonances enough to get a usable sound.
If that doesn't work, I'll check different mic placements, even to the point of pulling the mic back a few inches and moving it up and down the height of the shell, looking for a good balance (yes, actually pointing the mic at the shell, not the snare head).
Finding the right place for the snare mic can actually take upwards of an hour, but it's well worth the time spent. Once I have the snare sound about 80% nailed, I'll go to the eq and do any trimming that's needed, roll off some bottom, add a little mid crack, or some high end.
I usually add some short plate reverb to the sound of the snare, even if it's just in the headphones for now. I don't get "super anal" about the final sound, since I know it'll hafta change a little bit when I have all the other instruments mixed in.
Then I move on to the kick, which I'll cover in the next post on drums.