4 tracking drums

[emomusician]

I've got 4 tracks to use.

I'm going 2 overheads, 1 on snare, 1 on kick.

I have a MXL 990, a few Nady/Audio technica dynamics. I may have access to some sm57's, 58's. I was thinking about buying one more mic. (thats all my wife will let me get lol), should I get another overhead and use a dynamic on the kick? or buy a kick mic? are these dynamics of any use at all for recording drums? we need it to be loud and punchy (screamo/hardcore/punk type stuff). I have 6 ins and outs.. but only 4 preamps on my mixer.. so thats why I am using only 4 mics.

 

[Tim Brown]

Wait, are you recording these onto 4 separate tracks, or is it 4-channels of a mixer, but being mixed down to 2 tracks, or stereo?


What are you recording these tracks with? a Computer? a 4-track recorder? what are you using, because that will help.


Since you guys are playing this type of music, I would tune the kick up fairly tight, put a huge pillow in it or some heavy blankets and muffle the heck out of it, then use an SM57 aimed directly at the mallet strike. That way you'll get a nice tight smack from the kick drum. Use a 57 or a 58 for the snare, and then place the MXL 990 on a boom mic stand, and put it BEHIND the drumkit. From behind the drummer, place it so the element is facing straight down, and then aim it for the drummer's kick drum knee. That will put the mic in the approximate middle of the drums.(as long as it is a kit with 1 kick drum.) Try to have this mic as low as possible, but have it so the drummer won't hit it with a stick.

Now, the key here is - your drumkit needs to be tuned EXTREMELY well, and the drummer has to be able to control the dynamics - otherwise, you will have to compress th heck out of the overhead, and it will kill all of the dynamics.






Tim

 

[emomusician]

I think I might be confused.

I am recording with adobe audition, via a M-audio delta 66 coming out of a Yamaha MG 10/2 mixer. Basically what I want to do is this.

Mic 1 (oh) = Track 1
Mic 2 (oh) = Track 2
Mic 3 (snare) = Track 3
Mic 4 (kick) = Track 4

I'm not sure what you mean by stereo and stuff. If that will make it sound better please explain how I might be able to do that with the gear I have.

 

[Tim Brown]

I am recording with adobe audition, via a M-audio delta 66 coming out of a Yamaha MG 10/2 mixer. Basically what I want to do is this.

Mic 1 (oh) = Track 1
Mic 2 (oh) = Track 2
Mic 3 (snare) = Track 3
Mic 4 (kick) = Track 4

I'm not sure what you mean by stereo and stuff. If that will make it sound better please explain how I might be able to do that with the gear I have.

Then you need to buy either another MXL 990, or a pair of Condensers to use as overheads.


Some people are limited to recording 2 tracks at a time, so they will plug a mixer into their PC and pre-mix the drumkit down to a live stereo pair of tracks.

 

[emomusician]

yeah

Yeah, I don't want to do that.. I want to have the ability to mix after its recorded. Too much room for error for a newb. I bought an interface with 6 ins/outs just for that very reason. Can I mic the kick with a sm58? and just buy another condensor as an overhead then?

 

[Tim Brown]

Yeah, the 58 shlould work fine, but the kick really needs o be dead. 58's don't tend to work too well for boomy kick drums - or at least that has been my experience.

What you can do is build a "kick drum tunnel" where you take a card table chair or something like that - I use a pair of $12 plastic folding sawhorses that I got at Lowes DIY center - and put it in front of the kick, then put blankets over that and the kick drum, so that you form a tunnel in front of the drum...you need a few layers of blanket for this to really work.

Then you stick you mic under the tunnel. That helps keep all the other drums and cymbals out of the kick drum mic's signal.


Another trick you can use, and this will work in conjunction with the 58 as a kick mic - is to get a stereo speaker - like a 6.5" to 8" speaker, and wire that speaker to a cable, and plug the speaker directly into your interface just like it's a microphone. You might even be able to plug this into one of the 1/4" inputs since the signal is fairly hot - I'm not sure.

But this speaker, will give you a lot of thick low end to mix in with the regular kick mic.


Tim

 

[drossfile]

Yeah, I don't want to do that.. I want to have the ability to mix after its recorded. Too much room for error for a newb.

all it really takes is some trial and error to do this effectively. i have no way to do any mixing once my drum tracks are down, and it's taken some serious effort, but i finally have what i'm looking for. you can put more mics on fewer tracks and end up with an incredibly concise mix if you get a cheap mixer to run "x" number of mics into 2 stereo tracks. if you have a dedicated room for recording where you can leave your setup once it's to your satisfaction, and you also have limited track space, i highly recommend it. it will give more flexiblity in the long run than being stuck with a paltry 4 mics on the set (although i do realize that some people get great sound with only 3 mics, but i'm not one of those people--i've tried), which really won't give you a whole lot to tweak by mixing later anyway. just mho...