any advice on drums

destorctr

New member
any sugestions on gettin some balls" in my kick it seems to be papery i have tried a mulitude of things moving mic back buting them in drum addin lots of pre and some compression knob spinnin its just not full enough and also any ideas on brining some acoustic guitar more out front it sounds kinda distant in mix down?
 
Might wanna' try the mixing forum. It's just due south from here a ways.

Usually, though, I would say it has a lot more to do with the sound/quality of the kick drum itself, how the head is tuned, and the way the drummer is hitting it than any issues with the mic. Unless your mic completely sucks, that is. :D
 
What do you have for mics and do the drums sound good in the room? Personally, I've taken to mic'ing the kick conventionally (a D-112 inside the kick positioned to taste) and a large diaphram condensor (in my case, a GT AM-52 in cardiod) about 2'-4' out in front of the kick about 12"-18" high. The inside tight mic gets the snap and the mic out in front gets the WAP! Mix to taste.
 
if money is an issue, go for the atm pro 25. that's they only kick mic i own and have no once been disappointed with the sound. At first i was getting less than satisfying results, but with adjustments on placement and eq, the kick was pounding my chest during mixdown.

One thing that really helped my sound was in the drum itself. Try to take off the front head, place the mic closer to the shell away from the direct hit of the beat about halfway inside the drum. And damp the head just a little bit by putting a pillow or something similar slightly inside the drum. Than eq to taste.

hope this helps,
Brandon
 
Don't forget get that sometimes a head that is too tight can have a very thin sound. I personally like a double ply head on the batterside of a kick that is a little on the loose side. I also use a quilt or a towel instead of a pillow because you it is easier to manuever inside and gets less in the way of the mic. Also don't forget to muffle the head opposite the batter head. If you are looking for some click you might try flipping the pedal over, if it is the type with a foam side and a hard rubber side. Some people say you can get the click by taping a quarter to where the drum beater hits the head.

Hope some of these techniques help you out
Beezoboy
 
Well, volumes could be written on getting a good kick drum sound not to mentioned there is an almost infinite variety of kick drum sounds to be considered good & there are a million little things that can be wrong & screw it up even if everything else is right. Everything mentioned so far is good advise. 2 things you must have from the start though is a decently adjusted/tuned kick drum & a mic that can capture it. The kick mics already mentioned will suffice. After that it's all technique.

In the category of properly tuned kick drum I'm including all things & options that go into that to get the sound you're looking for such as head tension front & beater head, hole in front head, no hole in front head, no front head, Size & constituency of beater, Beater surface on beater head (how much padding or not), How much damping in kick drum & of heads, etc......

Then you have mic placement not only of the kick drum mic but all other mics on the set affecting the final sound in the mix because often there will be bleed of the kick into the other mics & it can occasionally be loud enough & out of phase enough with the kick miced sound to cancel the kick considerably. This can be compensated for generally by reversing the kick track phase &/or adjusting a proper time offset of the kick track relative to the other drum tracks in the editing software.

Their are just so many factors from equipment to setup & technique that it's best for you to state exactly what mic's your using & your complete drum kit micing setup, then describe the result your getting & the result you want & someone would have a better chance of zeroing in on what will get you there from where you're at.
 
im using auido tecnica drum mics for toms snare and kick and sm81's for over heads as far as drums go there 6 pc premier bass wood heas are evans hydros and the kick is eq3 batter and the res.head is a mesh
 
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