A question about recording drums

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FoulPhil

FoulPhil

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Over the years I've taken a lot of courses on recording and basically studied the different techniques for micing drums. I never actually had drums to test things out on...

So, anyway I recorded a demo for a local cover band here and simply applied what I've learned and it actually worked although I have alot of tweaking to do.

I used my mics on the kick, snare, and overheads, but we used his live mics on the toms because we ran out of spare stands and were cramped into my very small room. His live mics are attached to rim clips which just made it easier.

Everything sound very workable, but the toms tracks have a constant vibration through out the whole song. Especially when you hear the kick bleed you can hear the toms vibrate and it sounds like a loud "OOOOMMMMM". That's the best way I can describe it.

The overheads captured the toms good enough that I can just mute the tom tracks, but I'm left wondering what I did wrong. Is this something that is common? Is there any tricks to remove that sound? It's like the toms are reverberating, making a note, or making a sound with out actually being struck by a drum stick.

Later when I have some time I'll upload it so you guys can hear it. I just wanted to get some advice for future reference.
 
Hey dude...
Sounds like the rim clips are transmitting the "oommm" sound. Maybe sympathetic vibration. I dunno. But the clips sound like they could be the culprit.

How would it sound if you just erased everything that's not a tom hit on those tracks? Then just bring the faders up to taste?


:drunk:
 
Last summer I was recording with a friend from Zambia that was over and when we set up my kit for him to play, we found the same thing. When he'd hit the snare, there'd be this "OOOOOMMMMM" ringy sound on the smaller tom. I hated the sound. We tried to isolate it to find out what was causing the tom to vibrate because I didn't want to mute or dampen the tom and in the end, it was the snare that was causing it. So we rolled up some paper and taped it to the edge of the snare and hey presto ! No more OOOOMMMM. It happens each time I set up the kit and the answer is always to slightly damp the snare, either above or below. It reminds me of the days when if I hit the A note on the bass, if my acoustic was around, the strings would just vibrate. No other note caused it. It was a great sound, actually.
 
I put a gate on the toms and the sound cuts off until the toms are hit. I set it not to cut any of the actual tom sound. It worked great and was an easy solution to the problem. They actually sound really good now.
 
Was gonna say, I'm new to micing drums too after years of reading about it and I too am limited for space. I've been using tom clips for about 3 weeks now and a gate was the first thing I reached for. Cured my problem too. Glad you got it sorted.
 
It's normal. It happens. It's not the clips. The same thing would happen with mics on stands. If your toms are tuned to be open and resonant, this is unavoidable. Instead of damping the snare to stop a tom from ringing, using a small piece of moongel on the tom(s) would be better. Gates work well too. And most times the sympathetic tom ringing is inaudible in a full mix.
 
I see. I wasn't sure if it was that I did it wrong or it was normal lol
 
+1 on the moongel...added that to the arsenal last week
 
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