4 Mic Drum Recording ..

R

ripingitar

New member
I Tried A 4 Mic Drum Rec Setup I Saw On This Site...2 Overheads
Kick Mic And Snare Mic .....this Simple Setup Sounded Good....
My Question Is On Compressing The Overheads/toms Without Affecting
The Cymbals In A Negative Way??? Any Input ?? Im Using A Shure On
The Snare And An Akg On Kick ..with 2 Oktava Mk012s For Overheads.. Yamaha Mg16 Board And A Delta 1010lt Card//
 
Why do you feel you need to compress the overheads, are they causing problems? Or are you looking for a particular sound?


I typically never compress my overheads.

Tom
 
Since I Am Not Direct Micing The Toms Due To A Lack Of Quality Mics I Thought It Would Give Me A More "direct" Sound...
 
My 4-mic setup

Bass Drum: Shure 819, EV644 shotgun, GTam62 LDC, mxl603s, or ATM25

Left and Right: Oktava MK-219s, GTAM62's, or Oktava MK012s at whatever distance from the kit that I feel

Snare: SM57

Occasionally I mix in an overhead... maybe a C1000
 
I don't compress OH's either. Just kic n snare. Try it and see what your ears tell you and go from there. :cool:
I'm thinkin that'll be your decision maker.
Peace................Kel
 
I understand perfectly.
I have battled for many years trying to get the best drum sound with the fewest mics.
Dont get me wrong, I have PLENTY of mics and channels. But over the years I have found that the fewer the mics, the cleaner the sound.

That being said, IF you compress overheads, do so lightly with a mild ratio (2:1 no more than 4:1) where you are compressing maybe 2-5 db at the peaks only. Any more and you get a washy pumping from the cymbals.

As an alternate, try using the oktavas in a different position that will capture more of the toms and capture the cymbals only secondary.

One thing I do quite often is put one mic between my 2 mounted toms about 4-6 inches above , directly between just outside the rims about 3 - 6 inches pointed downward at a 30 or so degree angle. (ends up being about 13 inches from the center of both toms) and a second mic at the floor tom in a similar position, hopefully about 2-3 feet away from the first mic (to keep phase cancellation to a minimum).

What this does is pick up a great image of the toms etc, keep the snare mainly centered and allow the cymbals to be softer and lighter sounding due to recording them primarily off axis to the mics.

Believe me there will still be PLENTY of cymbals present.

As a third alternate you can set them up in a similar position around the toms but more in front of the kit, down lower and slightly pointed upwards.

Experiment... So much changes from kit to kit and from room to room.

Let me know how things go.

I hope I helped some, forgive my blathering.

Tom
 
Yes it does, particularly with brush work on the toms.
Sometimes I will throw a 5th mic overhead(when using brushes) just to capture the shimmer of the brushes on the ride.

I do quite a bit of newer Jazz / Funk (stick work) with just 4 mics .
I think you will be surprised on how good it sounds, particularly if the cymbals would typically need some taming. If your kit and playing style is really balanced I may raise the 2 mics back to a more traditional overhead position.
But I need them closer to the toms.

Tom
 
Ripinguitar,just think about it,if you are setting two, or more items together,(in the overhead mics), how are you going to compress the track without affecting all of the items at the same time,also the frequency of the Cymbals is different than the one from the toms,(for the purpose of equalization).Dr.Zaragemca
 
I actually pan them just I would regular overheads.
I start about the 10 o-Clock and 2 o-Clock positions. I'll spread them a little till they start softening the impact and then back them toward center a little.
 
WELL , I TRIED THAT SETUP THIS WEEKEND ..AND I AM VERY PLEASED WITH
THE RESULTS ....IT REALLY TOOK TONED DOWN THE CYMBALS TO WHAt
I FEEL IS A GOOD LEVEL ..IN THE TRADITIONAL OVERHEAD POS I ALWAYS FELT THEY WERE TOO STRONG....THIS SEEMS TO BE THE BEST 4 MIC
OPTION.....THANKS
 
zaragemca said:
Ripinguitar,just think about it,if you are setting two, or more items together,(in the overhead mics), how are you going to compress the track without affecting all of the items at the same time,also the frequency of the Cymbals is different than the one from the toms,(for the purpose of equalization).Dr.Zaragemca
Click to expand...

Multiband compressor. Set the split point somewhere below the fundamental of your lowest cymbal and above the fundamental of your highest tom. Won't be perfect, as the toms have overtones that go right up into the cymbals (and the cymbals produce noise that has a lower frequency than the fundamental, I think?). But it's a lot better than using a standard compressor that treats everything equally.

And the other key is what several people already mentioned---you really only want to compress the initial transients, not the meat of the sound.
 
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