Recording acoustic drums on Tascam Dp32

Rustypig71

New member
Just wondering if anyone has any advice regarding the recording of acoustic drums on my Tascam dp32. I’d like to record each drum mic on separate tracks to give me more freedom to mix or bounce the tracks. I had a quick go with 4 drum mics and 2 overheads with very disappointing results. The signal from the mics was very high and some peaked even with the inputs turned completely down. The recorded drums sound very dull and messy with the bass drum sounding awful. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Recording drums can be difficult for several reasons: the room the drums are in, the microphones and mic placement, the tuning/quality of the kit/heads, and of course the player. I would first say that nobody get's great drum sounds with " a quick go...". It sounds like you had phase relationship issues with the multi tracks along with a lack of time spent getting best mic placement. Start with one mic. Either mic the kit from over the drummers head or out in front high enough to get the whole kit. Once you get that sounding pretty decent add an kick drum mic, doesn't matter whether inner or outer. Pick one and get the best sound you can possibly get with those two mics. NOT quickly , take your time, move the mics around and you should be able to get a good sound down. Don't forget to always try flipping polarity on the new mics track when adding a second , third, or more mics to make sure you don't have heavy comb filtering, if you do move the mic. Yes , you can leave the offending mic flipped but it gets more and more likely to have phase issues if you have polarities all over the place on multiple mics. I don't know what mics you are using so I wont make a bunch of useless suggestions. Plus not having heard what you have recorded it would be doubly useless. So try taking your time with what you have first is my advice.
 
Hi Rusty - David here (from the Tascam forum). I'm not going to be able to help very much with advice on recording drums - as I just don't have much experience with that. But I did want to encourage you to share as much information as you can regarding your setup, room, gear, etc. so that those who do have experience and advice for you will have more information with which to help you. I do know for sure that recording quality drum tracks can be quite tricky.

(Also - not sure if a moderator can move this - but this question would probably be best posed in the "Recording Techniques" forum)

Share with us what mics you have - and how have you placed them on and/or around the drum kit? Tell us about the room the drums are setup in. Is it a decent drum kit? The more info the better.... ;):)
 
Just wondering if anyone has any advice regarding the recording of acoustic drums on my Tascam dp32. I’d like to record each drum mic on separate tracks to give me more freedom to mix or bounce the tracks. I had a quick go with 4 drum mics and 2 overheads with very disappointing results. The signal from the mics was very high and some peaked even with the inputs turned completely down. The recorded drums sound very dull and messy with the bass drum sounding awful. Any advice would be appreciated.

Just to get this one out of the way.. There are some mics -condensers typically, that are sensitive enough to put out damn near line level up close on hot sources. That, and some mic pres begin around +10 or more at their min setting. In-line pads sometimes to the rescue..
And/or perhaps back the distance off a bit to address the 'too dull thing (.. directional mic's natural / typical low end hype up close?
 
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