One Mic, One Drumset, Best Place?

  • Thread starter Thread starter AbleGiant
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You'll need a boom stand. Set up the mic a foot or so in the front of the drummers face, then lift it straight up just a little above his head, pointing it straight down at the kick so that if you could *see* out of the mic, you would be looking down at the kickdrum head.

Tell him to play the kick really loud. Depending on how the drummer plays, try moving the snare and toms in as close as possible. If the cymbals are too loud, just scoot them out. Scoop out 250K and EQ more as needed (since it's a 57 you'll probably want to cut around 4K to get rid of that 57 honk). Throw some light compression on there, maybe a tad of distortion, EQ some more, maybe a touch of shortish room reverb, you're golden.

You can get a totally descent drum recording like this, although I would consider trying something other than a 57 in the future. You can certainly get a much more interesting and organic drum sound like this than you would get in a home sudio with each and every drum close-mic'd with midlevel mics going into midlevel pres mixed with midlevel effects, making the drums sound isolated, cold and sterile... merely reminding the listener of what a really "nice" drum recording sounds like without actually delivering any of the goods.

(How's that for a run-on sentence?)

Sorry for the rant. I just don't understand the the whole "do it right" mentality. Waiting until you can "do it right" usually translates into "wait around and never actually do anything because you're more worried about 'doing it right' than making some **** music."
 
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I do not remember the article. It was probably an EQ article though. But IIRC the writer mentioned a placement for a one mic setup involving putting the mic behind the kit at shoulder height looking at the kit with the performers body in between the mic and snare (since the snare is pretty loud). The placement was also designed to keep the cymbal level at a decent level.

Anyway you are going to need to experiment with this. I imagine having the mic up front and a few feet out in front of the kick would work in a similar fashion to what I described above.
 
saads said:
I've heard that a lot, but I'm not too sure about it. Shouldn't the point of recording a band be to capture their sound?
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Yeah...I loved hearing "Sargeant Pepper's" when the Beatles played it in their live shows...

(Sarcasm OFF)

Back in my "one overhead" days, even though there were a lot of drugs around, I never heard of anyone suspending themselves upside down from the ceiling to listen to my drums!

But, because I knew how to play in a studio, even though there was only one mic upside down over my kit and I wasn't playing the cymbals as loud as I did live, the sound coming off the tape was an extremely close approximation of the way my drums sounded live (absent the natural stereo).

As far as the overall "philosophical" thing goes, consider the case of one very big but now-defunct country band. They toured something like 340 days a year, yet still managed to put out an album or two every year.

How?

The music tracks were cut in the studio by session musicians. Then, when the band's tours took them close to Nasville, they would fly in and cut the vocal tracks, then fly back out for their next show. When it was time for the album to be released, the band would learn the parts that had been cut by the studio guys.

Then, we come to "live" albums. It's now very common to go into the studio and re-track a vocal or guitar part that wasn't letter-perfect during the live show.

So, in truth, "the point of recording a band" is to capture whatever the powers-that-be (whether the band, the producer, or some sleazy fat guy with a lot of money) want captured...
 
funnygames said:
You'll need a boom stand. Set up the mic a foot or so in the front of the drummers face, then lift it straight up just a little above his head, pointing it straight down at the kick so that if you could *see* out of the mic, you would be looking down at the kickdrum head.

Tell him to play the kick really loud. Depending on how the drummer plays, try moving the snare and toms in as close as possible. If the cymbals are too loud, just scoot them out.
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As someone who routinely records drums with one or two mikes, my first advice is to try stuff out and listen carefully and then do what you like.

However, I would concur that the above technique works about as well as anything for me, with the caveat that I'm using a SM80, which is a flat, true omni condenser and that I record with at least a dozen Studio Traps around the kit, so I have superb sonics at the mike. Even so, the kick sound may need reinforcement from a second omni out in front of the kick. Generally, it doesn't take much processing though, as the Quick Sound Field creates a sort of compression at the mike with short delay diffuse sound.

Anyway, experiment and have fun!

Cheers,

Otto
 
ofajen said:
I'm using a SM80, which is a flat, true omni condenser and that I record with at least a dozen Studio Traps around the kit, so I have superb sonics at the mike. Even so, the kick sound may need reinforcement from a second omni out in front of the kick. Generally, it doesn't take much processing though, as the Quick Sound Field creates a sort of compression at the mike with short delay diffuse sound.
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Indeed, a kick mic would be ideal. I'd love to hear what that sounds like with the SM80 and all the sound traps! A good mono drum sound is a beautiful thing :)
 
The only answer I can come up with that makes sense to me without actually hearing what you're up against is "it depends". Nonetheless I like the FOK mic placement. Front of kit, somewhere over the kick/at the rack tom(s), 2 to 6 feet away. (Not exactly what I would call "room mic", but others seem to...) There are quite a few variables so this is by no means an absolute but it often sounds pretty balanced overall. SM 57 probably isn't the greatest but you could do a lot worse. You should be able to get something decent at least.

As for balancing the cymbals and everything, that can change where you want to put the mic but it's an important thing to think about with any number of mics and placement variables. How hard do you attack the cymbals? What kind of cymbals? A's? K's? Medium? Paper thin? It changes things. Try a bunch of stuff and go with what works. Hitting the toms like you mean it can help a lot too.
 
Before I had a mixer and just had my vocal mic, I had the cymbals overloading everything until I put it outside the room around the corner of the doorframe. The mic was in the hall, the drumset was in the bedroom. I won't say it sounded great but it sounded better than crashcahcrash(snare)crashcrashcrash(snare)crashcra(snare)ashcrash which is what I got in the room.
 
When I used to home-record, I'd position the mic right between the tow rack toms pointed straight at the drummer's chest (often myself). While it isn't the greatest sound, in my opinion, it gives a slightly more accurate sound.
 
RAMI said:
If you super-set flyes and bench press, you'll probably get a better sounding chest.

:D
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I never liked flyes. The natural force of gravity goes away right when the movement should put you at peak contraction.
 
Greg_L said:
I never liked flyes. The natural force of gravity goes away right when the movement should put you at peak contraction.
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I agree. At the top point of the movement, gravity is actually helping you as opposed to working against you, which is what you want it to do. Same reason I don't believe in "Preacher Curls". You're only working against gravity for the first half of the movement.
 
RAMI said:
I agree. At the top point of the movement, gravity is actually helping you as opposed to working against you, which is what you want it to do. Same reason I don't believe in "Preacher Curls". You're only working against gravity for the first half of the movement.
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Exactly. Preacher curls suck too.

I like cable flyes/crossovers though. Constant tension.
 
Greg_L said:
Exactly. Preacher curls suck too.

I like cable flyes/crossovers though. Constant tension.
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Yup, you got it. I don't do them only because I train at home and only have free weights. But if I was going to do a "flye" type exercise, it would be with cables. :cool:
 
Steenamaroo said:
put it where ever the kit sounds balanced to your ears.

walk about, listen.....find a good spot..put the mic there.


If you're using one mic, you gota make sure your drummer's playing is balanced.
The kit is treated as one instrument in this situation (as it should be) so try to get him to play it as such.
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best answer
 
Actually, a "pair of diddles" is what keeps hitting said choir boy's chin.
 
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