Recording live drum with BR-8

B

BHead

New member
Experienced BR-8 users who have recorded live drum ... please help here! :)

I have 2 Shure SM57's and want to record some live drum with them.

1. How should I place the 2 mics?

2. Should I record DRY? Or with effects?

3. What kind of EQ tips can you offer me? :)

Please reply as I'm a total BR-8 newbie!

Thanks! :)
 
One on the kick and the other above, record with effects 'off' and ajust the EQ to your ears. I do like a like a little reverb on the final mix.
 
72fender,

Thanks MAN! :)

Before I try it out this weekend :) ... one more thing ... how good was the result of your drum recording? Can you get the "stereo" feel? Got enough bass? Got enough cymbals? etc ......

Hmmmm ... can't wait to see how I'll do.
 
The live drum recording was just a test with my band's drummer, it came out pretty good but not good separation of drum heads.
For stereo 'feel' you must use more mics on the drum kit with a mixer. You need at least six mics mixed down to 2 chs via a mixer to the BR-8. The BR-8 is really for 'bedroom' recordings, I usually use a drum machine (DR-5) and record the drums in stereo. Here is a example: http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/152/the_primetime_blues_band.html.
 
First of all I did the 250MB ZIP conversion (to have more recording time) and I recorded all the backing tracks, bass, guitar, vocal and drums (using a DR-5 drum machine). I placed four mics on the drums and sub-mixed them using a Mackie mixer because I wanted a stereo mix on the drums. I used a patch cable and plugged them into the BR-8's R&L Line-In, I disabled the Effect option on the BR-8.

My drummer used headphones, to be able to hear the song and I lowered the volume of the e-drums (he found that the e-drums gave him a good 'click' track). I armed a set of V-Tracks to record to and recorded him playing. Later I had the bass player record his track, again to v-tracks and the harp player recorded his track. I later went back and erased my original tracks, to free up more time and re-recorded my rhythm guitar and a lead guitar track.

It sound like a lot of work but it really wasn't, the song we recorded was one of my songs and I always record a demo on the BR-8 first anyway. The other guys in the band did their takes in one or two takes, it really worked out well, so well that we brought a used VS-880EX and decided to record our second CD ourselves.
 
BHead said:
I have 2 Shure SM57's and want to record some live drum with them.

1. How should I place the 2 mics?

2. Should I record DRY? Or with effects?

3. What kind of EQ tips can you offer me? :)
Click to expand...

Stick one above the drummer and find a spot that gets a good picture of the whole kit. Your mic placement and the drummer will determine the kit balance so find a good spot and work with the drummer if he needs to ease up on the hat or hit the snare harder etc. Then add the kick mic in the bass drum a few inches away from where the beater strikes the head. The kick mic will only get the slap and not much beef because it is a 57. It's too bad you don't have a condensor mic for the overhead because they give you better bass and treble response.

Don't use any EQ or effects while recording. During mixdown try some compression on the overhead mic to give you a bigger sound. You'll probably end up using a bit of EQ to get rid of any mud in the low mids and to possible add some sparkle to the cymbals and pop to the snare.

The 57s will give you a fairly dull drum sound so make sure the snare is tuned for a really high snap. Loosening the snare spring will help.
 
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