How many drum mics do you record with

  • Thread starter Thread starter buryher17
  • Start date Start date

How many microphones do you use when recording drums

  • 4

    Votes: 70 23.6%

  • 5-6

    Votes: 51 17.2%

  • 7-9

    Votes: 136 45.9%

  • 10-12

    Votes: 32 10.8%

  • 13+

    Votes: 7 2.4%
  • Total voters
    296
Well I use a baby Gretsch, only a 20 inch (or is it 18?) bass drum, but wow what a sound! Only use 2 toms - one high and one floor tom, so only 4 mics. Two overheads, one for the high-hat, clave and crash, and one for the ride and toms.
 
I actually did a rough drum take just to test a room the other day, and using 1 sm58 as an overhead, positioned based on one of the Recorderman placings I think. (2 sticks away from snare, towards bass drum.)
The snare and the kick were pretty weak, but everything else sounded amazing. We were just tracking guitar that day, but the drummer wanted something recorded of him, so I thought I'd humor him. I was dumbfounded. When I start doing actual drum recordings, I'm just going to use 3 and go mono. 1 overhead, a kick, and a snare.
 
It depends on how big the drum kit I'm recording is, but for a standard 5 piece...

2 Naiant X-Ms as overheads (Usually in recorderman)
1 Shure SM57 on Snare Top
1 Shure Beta57a on Snare Bottom
3 Cad GXL3000s on toms
1 Audix F-14 on kick
1 Cad M177 as Room mic

I'm thinking about adding an Apex 210 ribbon as a room mic, and close micing the high hats. I've got an e609 and another SM57 free to use for that. I think I get too much high hat in my overhead mix as it is now, so it would be nice to play around with overhead placement a little better.
 
Last time I mic'd a drum kit it was:

Kick - e901
Kick - Beta52
Snare T - 57
Snare B - 57
Hats - SE1
Tom - Beta98
Tom - Beta98
Tom - Beta98
OH - C414
OH - C414
 
3 wasn't an option

I use 3 mics on drums.

B52 on kick
Sterling Audio ST-33 (x2) on overheads.
 
batterista said:
I use 3 mics on drums.

B52 on kick
Sterling Audio ST-33 (x2) on overheads.
Click to expand...

Nice. that's refreshing after reading everyone's 21,000 mic set-up. I record with 4, but have been not using the snare track lately, since it sounds just fine with 3.:cool:
 
I record at live gigs with a light drummer and settled into a very simple twin overhead arrangement. The mics are low over the set.
 
if i get the money i think im getting, ill be getting a Neumann U87 for a room mic and two Neumann SKM184's as over heads... but that's just "IF"
but for now its,
D6 kick
D2 and D4 on the rack and floor.
57 top snare
i5 bot snare
mxl603s on the hats,
and 2 LDC as over heads...for now
some times i dont do over heads and i just use them as room mics. :)
 
two

I Use Two Mics.

www.waterfrontjazzproject.com/songs

:eek:

MXL 604's. I usually use the cardioid capsules, but have tried the omnis. I mainly use the omnis for choir recordings at church.

The above recordings, from the first sessions I ever did with a DAW, use a modified recorderman setup, basically putting a mic near each of the drummer's ears and hoping that they're equidistant from the snare and kick. Close enough.

It helps to have a tasteful, talented, and experienced drummer.
 
two older sennhieser overheads
a cad bass drum mic
a es75 (sm57) copy on snare
 
So today, I just upped my number. Recording a drummer for an indie/ambient band.
1.jpg

2.jpg

3.jpg



this last one is of a Rode NT1a that we decided to put upstairs facing down into the staircase next to where the drummer was playing.

4.jpg


For this session we used:
Audix F14 - kick
Sm57 - Snare top
Beta57a - snare bottom
Audix F15 - Hats
Naiant matched X-M's - Overhead (spaced pair configuration)
Cad GXL3000 x2 - toms
Apex 210 Ribbon - Front of kit
Cad M177 - Distant Room
Matched pair of Superlux CM-H8B - Behind drummer/Room (XY configuration)
Rode NT1A - top of stairs

I had a lot of fun doing this one.
 
i use dr-stx1's for toms and snare and a dr-kx1 for my bass drum and some vocal mic for overheads...

all digital reference....

im new...
 
i use 5 mics:

Kick: Nady DM-80
Snare: Nady DM-70
Tom 1: Nady DM-70
Tom 2: Nady DM-70
Floor Tom: Nady DM-70
 
I make sure i have good sound from my kick and overheads and then i add a snare mic after that it depends on whats needed the less mics for the job the better but i usually end up with about 5 to 7 if its a huge kit i will do 8 or 9
 
1 kick
4 toms
1 snare
1 HH
2 overheads
for a total of Nine
 
The last recording I did (last Thursday, out at our "big" studio), I used

O/H: AKG 414 (x2)
Ambient Mic (4 feet infront of the kick at a height of about 3 feet): Neumann TLM 49
Snare: SM57
Kick: Audio Technica Pro 25 (cheap as chips, but I just love the punch it brings out!)
Toms: Sennheiser e604 (x2)

Normally I'd go for AKG 451s as the overheads as I feel they sound more fucussed and "Zingy", but I couldn't find them! The Neumann worked beautifully as room mic. Normally I just whack a 58 up and compress the living snot out of it, but the Neumann...well...it's just a different league. Which isn't really surprising...and I'd generally use an RE20 for the Kick, but both of ours are broken. Which sucks!

At home, I'll use a Sure PG Drum mic kit for toms & kick with a 57 on the snare and a pair of Groovetubes GT55s for overheads.

Actually, I'm planning to mod one of my 57's to make it transformerless this afternoon if I can just find my soldering iron...hoping for good things from that one!

Oh, and the studio's built into a warehouse, so oftentimes we'll leave the door to the live room open and stick a C1000 in the vehicle bay. Can't beat that natural reverb!
 
EV RE20-kick
SM57-snare
Sennhieser 421- toms
AKG C3000- Overs
Blue baby bottle- room
 
Did some drums yesterday with...

NT1000 overheads
D112 and subkick
e903 snare top, M3 snare bottom
2x MD421 on toms
2x NT3 (hats and ride)
C1000 on china
SM57 on splash
Boundary mics as room mics
 
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