have a unique situation.

J

jojobaloofa

New member
I'm doing some home recording...obviously...I don't have the right equipment by any means. I'm not a drummer and the drummer doesn't know anything about recording. He's got a pretty basic setup; snare, kick, three toms, hi hat, ride, crash, cowbells and a woodblock. we play music somewhere between Ryan Adams and Dave Matthews.

here's where i need help. I've got a blu snowball mic, 2 rockband USB mic's, and a Behringer XM8500. Obviously not much of an arsenal, but...i'm trying to make the best of it. can anyone help me out on what the ideal placement of these mic's would be? would i better off just scrapping the rockband mic's and doing something with the snowball and 8500? I've used the snowball by itself before and it actually does a pretty decent job of picking up the sound, but it's in an unfinished basement and it picks up a lot of clashing soundwaves.

HELP PLEASE??
 
Start reading here at this site, and don't stop until your eyeballs hurt!

You need an interface device. Forget the USB mics. Sound treatment of the basement is needed - those unwanted reflections won't go away by themselves.
 
Thank you for your responses. I'm sorry I did not mention that i've got an M Audio mobile pre usb interface. It's not the best, but it makes my guitars and bass' sound a lot better than just micing the amp or trying to plug direct in to my mac. With the drums, though, I'll only be able to plug my XM8500 into it it, as the snowball and rockband mic's are usb.

Believe me, I KNOW i need non-USB mic's. unfortunately that's not an option right now. That's why i was asking what the best possible setup might be with what i've got.
 
jojobaloofa said:
Believe me, I KNOW i need non-USB mic's. unfortunately that's not an option right now. That's why i was asking what the best possible setup might be with what i've got.
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One problem with USB mics is that they have separate A/D converters that can't be clocked together. Using two at a time, their clocks will be running at slightly different speeds, but on playback the samples will be played in perfect sync. The difference between the two situations will lead to drift.

Another problem is that the only way to monitor them is through software. That takes time which means latency. An interface with hardware monitoring bypasses the trip to the computer and through the software, so latency is reduced. It's much easier to play in time when you hear yourself without delay.
 
I'm not too worried about the delay. I don't need playback in the headphones. They're drums. he can hear them over the tracks playing through the headphones. I know WHY and interface is helpful and I know WHY usb mic's aren't the best. what i don't know is how to get the most out of the equipment i have. Let me put it this way. I know a pretty fair amount about recording from a software standpoint. I know how to take a crappy recording and make it sound pretty awesome. I don't know much about microphones. I don't know how about placement and i don't know about the hardware itself. I don't know the difference between a condenser mic and my rockband mic's. I'm a musician, not a sound engineer. Ive been recording for a long long time, but never drums, as I've never had a drum set of my own to record until now. I just need some help figuring out where to position the mic's in the room. Pretty please:D
 
jojobaloofa said:
I'm not too worried about the delay. I don't need playback in the headphones. They're drums. he can hear them over the tracks playing through the headphones. I know WHY and interface is helpful and I know WHY usb mic's aren't the best. what i don't know is how to get the most out of the equipment i have. Let me put it this way. I know a pretty fair amount about recording from a software standpoint. I know how to take a crappy recording and make it sound pretty awesome. I don't know much about microphones. I don't know how about placement and i don't know about the hardware itself. I don't know the difference between a condenser mic and my rockband mic's. I'm a musician, not a sound engineer. Ive been recording for a long long time, but never drums, as I've never had a drum set of my own to record until now. I just need some help figuring out where to position the mic's in the room. Pretty please:D
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Sounds like your best bet then is to either hang that non-usb mic above the drums or position it somewhere in the room and get the best possible recording you can with it.

You're really gonna need to use that experience you got making crap sound awsome cause until you take the time to read up and learn about recording,placement,etc...that's what you'll end up with.

You don't have to become a sound engineer but you'll need to learn some basic skills and invest in few better mics if you want at least somewhat tangible results.
 
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