Recording a Djembe

K

KamikazeKyle

Sound Junkie
I have two friends coming in to record an acoustic album project and I'm doing it as a favor. The only thing is the vocalist plays a djembe and I don't recall ever reading/hearing of a technique for micing a djembe. Should I treat it like a tom drum or perhaps use a room mic?

I have a decent sized mic cabinent but since its not a paid gig I have no budget for new microphones.
 
I normally go top with a dynamic and bottom with a condenser from couple feet away. As long as you get those to individual tracks, you can "fine tune" it later.

What you'll keep and how the balance between the mics winds up will be up to the mix... But if you capture it that way, you'll have options later.
 
Massive Master said:
I normally go top with a dynamic and bottom with a condenser from couple feet away. As long as you get those to individual tracks, you can "fine tune" it later.

What you'll keep and how the balance between the mics winds up will be up to the mix... But if you capture it that way, you'll have options later.
Click to expand...


I normally go on top, and allow her gyrating bottom to condense on my feet. Then you can use the individual cracks to lime juice her crater.
 
I use an SM57 on the top and a Beta52A around the throat of my djembe. Mix to taste. The djembe creates two distinct sounds, and micing it with anything less than this won't do it justice.
 
If you have time expeirement, try everything possible, have fun. Remember recording has no rules. Oh do try mounting a pzm in the shell sm57 on top and a condenser 5 feet away about shoulder height. :D
Peace
 
I just recorded a Djembe for a song of mine a few weekends ago. I simply put a KSM 27 above the head of the drum. The sound from that is awesome. It was a simple approach that yeilded wonderful results.
 
Alright cool I'll try all of these. I'm not sure when we'll get to it since I'm finally in construction of the studio but It'll probally be one of the first projects done here.

Thanks guys,
Kyle
 
life is much easier if you, like massive said, back the top mic up a few feet.

o'course this is room dependant.
 
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