how do YOU get fat drums?

argh. I've had a lot of trouble with fat drum sound...like some kind of punk rock stuff.

mostly, lots of compression and mic everything seperately - and be able to put individual effects on all the different mics is huge i think. but, I can't do that (only 4 inputs!) haha.

a thick kick and snare is big.

I EQ the hell out of the toms to make up for my lack of what I can do later. hahaha...not really good, but better.ha.
 
I don't EQ toms, not when recording, not when mixing, I just use MD421's on toms. :D

And although I have 78 mic inputs, the number of inputs has nothing to do with the fatness of a drum sound.

You can make a fat drumsound with only one mic, just try, try again and try harder. It's difficult to explain, but you will find out what's the relation between the kind of mic and the placement of it.

The more mics you use, the more problems you will find on your way to a fat sound.

Even a RS PZM on the sweet spot can give you a killer drumsound and you won't have any phase problem with a single mic.

Led Zeppelin's John Bonham was recorded with two ribbons.

BTW, make sure the drumkit and drummer sound 'fat'.
 
Having big sounding, properly tuned drums with fresh heads is the place to start. And realize that other things in the mix have to compensate, by sounding smaller to fit in around the drums. And what Shackrock said.
 
Han said:
although I have 78 mic inputs, the number of inputs has nothing to do with the fatness of a drum sound.

You can make a fat drumsound with only one mic, just try, try again and try harder. It's difficult to explain, but you will find out what's the relation between the kind of mic and the placement of it.

The more mics you use, the more problems you will find on your way to a fat sound.
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for a studio like yours, I would agree with you!
But for us owners of the Delta 44 and maybe some sm57's 58's only at their disposal....recording in a basement with cheap carpet shags all over the place - well, phat drum sound comes from the ways that people shouldn't REALLY be recording. haha!
 
shackrock said:
for a studio like yours, I would agree with you!
But for us owners of the Delta 44 and maybe some sm57's 58's only at their disposal....recording in a basement with cheap carpet shags all over the place - well, phat drum sound comes from the ways that people shouldn't REALLY be recording. haha!
Click to expand...

In the early eighties I was recording in the attic of my very small house, with my first real mic, an MD421 at some 2' from the drumkit.

It didn't sound bad at all. Later I had a killer drumsound (by coincidense) with a Radio Shack PZM that was laying on a plank at the opposite side of the kit. It really sounded huge.

You just have to find the sweet spot. It happans all the time, for example, you suddenly hear a killer bass sound when you solo a channel on the board. You walk to the tracking room and look what mic is on that particular input and it turns out to be a mic somewhere in a corner.

The advantage you guys have is that you can experiment as long as you like, since you don't have to pay for the studio time.

Believe me, you can get a killer sound with one or two decent mics.
 
You might think of drum replacement (something like alesis d4, dm5 or even dm-pro). Do not use the sound of the module alone but use it in addition to get a fat sound... It is often MUCH easier than using compression and EQ and....

aXel

I'll prolly be grilled for that comment :D
 
put an old guitar speaker in front of the kick drum and wire it into the preamp - you'll get a huge thump from it
 
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