3 mic on drums, advice needed

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A1A2

A1A2

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hi, i have just recorded a drum track, and need some advice to imporve it.
http://nowhereradio.com/a1a2/singles
it's called "drum take1"


questions: 1) Is the kick drum too weak? not enough bass?
2) Are cymbals too loud?
3) Did I achieve a good/balanced stereo sound?

Thanks you very much
 
Did you overdub on this? Cause there is some weird stuff happening. Maybe its just the delay and verb you've put on it but it sounds like an overdubbed snare at about :04. It would probably be easier to judge the sound of you mic setup if you didn't put all that reverb on it. The whole thing sounds kinda strange - did you cut and paste stuff together?

Never the less. The kick doesn't have much punch to it - sounds kinda dead. Experiment with some different placement or try messing with the EQ. The balance sounds fine to me although you didn't really play the whole kit. Cymbals sound OK to me. I like the snare sound, besides what I mentioned above. The tom(s) could use a little tuning.
 
you know...it sounds like a couple of room mics capturing the drums which could be good or bad...depends on what you are going for. If you had a jazz group with some wailin' players, I would say the sound would be great...just fine. Nice 'woofy" kick and an ambient kinda room sound to the whole kit. the drummer controls the dynamics...not the engineer.
On a pop/rock tune...or contemporary sounding song...they would suck...No beef to 'em....or power...whatever you want to call it. Get the kick drum sounding good first, before you even think about hitting the record button. Kinda the same for the whole drum set. You need a good source first, if the listener is wanting to enjoy hearing the sound of GOOD recorded drums.
cymbals a bit too loud too.
Or...like the old potheads of the 60's would say (like possibly me), beat the shit out of those drums so they make a sound...quit being a wimp on them, or it'll just sound like whimpy playing..eh?? If you wanna move some air and get a good sound, you have to move some air when you're hittin' 'em. You don't even see old time pieces like Mick Fleetwood being a sissy on them either now:D ...for all the simple [but rock steady] stuff that he plays. The old man hits 'em too.
 
ok, firstable, thank you guys for listening.

gnarled:
no, we didnt overdub the drum, but I did cut/paste and put some reverb/delay to attempt creating some "jungle" sound at the end of 4th major. The reason I did cut/paste was that I hit the record botton while the drummer was warmming up as I was checking the signal levels. About 3 mins into playig, our neighbor knocked on my door, so, all I had was 3 majors recorded. So, cut and paste to get a full 4 majors of drum. (yeah, living in an aartment really sucks)
We placed the kick mic, D211, inside the kick drum. I have no idea about the placement for mics....is there a better way to get a good bass sound on kick by the placement of mic? say, more pop-ish kick sound.

mixmkr:
What do you mean by "room mics"?? My setup was, D211 for kick, 57 for snare/high hat, C1 overhead. In a tinny room that barely fits the drum set...
did you imply something about the compression when you said, "the drummer controls the dynamic, not the enginner"?? Sorry, I didn't quite understand what you meant...but, I did put a little compression over the whole track.
I agree about the symbals being too loud, I think I should place the C1 on the left of the drummer instead of right, point it differently maybe? What would suggest?
About not hitting hard enough, it's the neighborhood limitation, otherwise, we normally have to SCREAM at the drummer to quiet down to match the volume with us when jamming.

Questions:
What kind of EQing are suggested on snare/symbals/kick?
What kind of effects should I try to imitate as I had a good sounding room? or studio sound?
Mic placements?

Thank you very very much for taking your time with me. Thank you
 
Nothing to do with your question..

Listened to some other songs at your site http://nowhereradio.com/a1a2/singles . Very nice music!

But, I think you have to turn off the ...what is it called...this feedback thing in MIDI.....You get double sounds in which one is delayed. It's a disaster to your music...Someone, help?

Hans,
www.hagen.nu
 
A1A2 said:

mixmkr:
What do you mean by "room mics"?? My setup was, D211 for kick, 57 for snare/high hat, C1 overhead. In a tinny room that barely fits the drum set...
did you imply something about the compression when you said, "the drummer controls the dynamic, not the enginner"?? Sorry, I didn't quite understand what you meant...but, I did put a little compression over the whole track.
I agree about the symbals being too loud, I think I should place the C1 on the left of the drummer instead of right, point it differently maybe? What would suggest?
About not hitting hard enough, it's the neighborhood limitation, otherwise, we normally have to SCREAM at the drummer to quiet down to match the volume with us when jamming.
Click to expand...

by "room mics", it sounds like your C1 is possibly contributing too much to your drum mix...as it sounds like a "room mic" is doing most of the work here.

by controlling the dynamics...no...not implying a bad use of compression...but trying to say that the drummer controls how loud/soft things are in the context of the song [once levels are gotten for their loudest hits], and the engineer doesn't need to tame the drummer by running thru a compressor {which btw, is still ok, imo}. To me, a sign of a good drummer is one that can do that.
 
Hans,
Thanks for listening to them, Really glad that you liked them.
Now, I am not sure what you mena by MIDI delayed sound? Could it be just over-use of delay? Can you tell me which song you were listening to? By the way, A Summer Air has a really nice guitar solo. Can't wait for my POD pro to arrive, so I can start recording guitar!! lol

Mixmkr,
Ah, i think I know what you mean by room mic now. I guess I didn't take the full advantage of using 3 mics and didn't achieve a good stereo sound. I will go back and mak sure that the whole track is not dominated by any particular mic. And, yes, I think our drummer sometimes loses control of the volume when he gets into a song, lol.

Thank you guys
 
A1A2 said:
Mixmkr,
Ah, i think I know what you mean by room mic now. I guess I didn't take the full advantage of using 3 mics and didn't achieve a good stereo sound. I will go back and mak sure that the whole track is not dominated by any particular mic
Click to expand...

There ya go...but remember, you won't necesarrily get a stereo sound with your kick/snare~hh/OV setup, unless you pan 'em, which 'might' be weird in this setup. I'd think a pair of OV's [for a total of 4 mics] might suit a stereo style track better, and leave the other guys towards the center.
 
Did you try the 3 mic setup that I posted in the drum clinic? A stereo pair would be nice, but do what ya gotta... give it a shot.. a dry drum sound is way better than an over effected one.
 
tubedude:
My setup was actually, 1 kick mic, a snare, and 1 overhead. I have read about your suggested setup, however, I don't have a paired mics. So, I haven't tried your way yet.
How do the Behriger's ecm8000 sound on your setup? I can't afford another C1 for the overhead at this moment, so, unless the Behringer ecm8000s will do the job, I can't come up with a pair of matched mics.

Mics that I have: C1, sm57, D211.

AL
 
The Behringers will work fine, but they will get tons of room, I'll bet. Thats good or bad, depending...
 
AIA2,
I listened to the song "Enter the Subconcioussness". I hear now that it's no Midi there, guess I just fell "on the first feeling" meaning I've heard that delay before in Midi..sorry.

With a little less delay you could get that Lennon sound on the drums..it's a Lennon feeling in the song...Again, think your music is great, this relaxed feeling, it's close to what I'm doing beside the band. Listen to "Remember" or "Mountain Song" on our site, think you'll like it.

tubedude,
I've tried your setup, sounds very good, Im surprised, used two ADK A51's over and a AKG D112 for kick. Thanks for the advice!!

Hans:)
www.hagen.nu
 
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