Microphone Mixing

D

danrawl29

New member
Hello,

I have 3 mics(one MXL v63m and two nady cm-88). I'd like to use all three to mic a drumset but my interface(Presonus AudioBox) has only two mic inputs. My two pencil mics will be on stereo. Is there anyway I could use all 3 and still use this interface?

Thanks
 
Hi there,

The answer is yes and no. you wont be able to plug all 3 of these mics directly into this interface because as you have said it only has 2 inputs. You have two options, you could do is buy a small mixer like this. Powersound | 6 Channel mixer do all of the necessary mixing with this mixer, panning, EQ ect. Then plug the stereo output of the mixer into the 2 channels of your interface. This gives you no control over each of the individual microphone after recording and isnt the ideal solution to your problem.

You would be better off buying a more suitable interface with more preamps.

Hope this helps, Good luck.

Trout
 
Like the post above said you'll need a mixer then take the outputs of the mixer to your interface. With only three mics total it's really not worth it. I would take the two pencil mics and record a stereo overhead. That will give you a decent overall image of the kit. Then you can listen to what you have and see what it needs more of. If it needs more kick (probably will) then you can go back and record the kick. Or you could record a few samples of your kick, snare, whatever else you need and then add those to the overheads. A lot of work, but will do the trick.

The easiest thing to do would be buy an interface with more inputs but if the budget doesn't allow for it you can still find a way to make it work.
 
I almost never recommend mono overhead, but in this case you might want to try one overhead and a kik mic. You probably won't be happy with any drum track that doesn't have separate mic on the kik.

Another option is 2 overheads, but not right overhead. Try them a few feet in front of the kit and experiment with placement until you feel you're getting a good mix.

Of course, the best solution is to get an inter-face that will alow you to plug at least 3 mics and go 2 overheads and a kik.....and then buy another mic and mic your snare.
 
Alot of this is dependent on the kind of music/songs you'll be recording, how many other elements {instruments and/or voices} they'll be competing with how prominent you want the drums to be and how you want your drums to spread in the stereo spectrum. You might not want stereo drums, you might want 'mono' drums, or lets say 'single point focus' drums, in which case recording as RAMI suggested {with one of the mics specifically on the kick} is the way to go.
But you know, it's worth experimenting with different ways because our preferences may not be yours. You might be a jazz or folk drummer, in which case you might have a slightly different perspective. There again, you might be tired of what is seen as the limitations of drums in those genres.That all said, personally speaking, if you can stretch to it, looking at a 4 input interface hits paydirt.
What are the variables you have to juggle {style, genre, willingness to compromise/experiment etc} ?
 
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