Best way to mic my behemoth drum set? Have pics!

[MAUDIO AUDIO BU]

Just for the samson co2 pair and the akg d550 it will be 99+ shipping
or I am looking around I can get a whole cad-7 set of mics :KM212 kick drum mic, 3 TM211 tom mics, one SN 210 snare mic, and 2 CM 217 O/H mics for 99.00 + shipping
or i could get the upgraded versions CAD 7-Piece Drum Mic Pack includes: one KBM412 bass drum mic, 4 TSM411 mics snare/tom, 2 ICM417 o/h mics for 120+ shipping.

Would that be a better way to go?

Thanks!

 

[dreib]

My advice would be to shit can about half of your gear for recording purposes. If it doesnt get played during the course of a song , or even if it only gets played rarely, take it out. Vanity can be heard on recordings and it never sounds good, trust me, I know!

 

[bdenton]

Recording the bass direct, will save you some cash. I rarely even bother with a bass mic anymore. I get better results from an Eden Bass DI/preamp.

I'd personally go with 2 Samson CO2's for overheads in your budget.

Lest everybody get all confused...

I think the OP was referring to a bass drum, not a bass guitar or whatever.

And while a lot of people refer to it as a "kick drum", a lot of us, especially those who did the marching band thing, use the term "bass drum"...

 

[bdenton]

And getting back to the original question, you're best bet is to get an acoustically good room, the use a mix of overheads and room mics to record the drum set as a whole as opposed to trying to mic every piece in your drum kit.

The more mics you have the more phase issues you are likely to have...

 

[JimmyS1969]

Lest everybody get all confused...

I think the OP was referring to a bass drum, not a bass guitar or whatever.

And while a lot of people refer to it as a "kick drum", a lot of us, especially those who did the marching band thing, use the term "bass drum"...

Yep, I dropped the ball there. My bad.

 

[FreeMe]

I would go with a six mic configuration there. One for the kick, one for the snare, 2 in front of the kit to get volume from the tom-toms and roto-toms and 2 overhead. The overheads should be condensers if you have them so you pick the timbre of the symbols. With the front pair and the overhead pair, give enough space to cover the whole kit, you can always adjust volume when you mix and it is easy enough to normalize the audio track or automate the volume for any anomalies like loud cymbal crashes.

You should however, really consider removing some of the drums. That's a good live setup to be sure, you have enough drums to be flashy and it looks cool. For recording though, most them will probably be in your way especially in such a small room. Remember that drums resonate, so if you are not using a particular drum in the song, you are still hearing it, usually in the form of resonate tones, buzzes or clacks.

Good Luck!

 

[Rod Norman]

OK, I'm a drummer and a recording engineer. Given that your set is so tightly arranged, I would put up a left and right small diaphragm condenser mics overhead, a Bass Drum mic and a snare mic. If you need to, put up one more as a room mic centered and pointed from as far away as possible. Here's why. To use many mics, your isolation is based on turning the mics down as far as possible to avoid bleed and hitting as hard as you can. Not the best approach in an apartment. The second best solution is an electronic kit. They're about three thousand but they're worth every penny for a drummer recording tracks in an apartment.

 

[ideaph]

I don't see a microphone whole in the front skin of that kick!

First of all, I think you mean "Hole".

Second of all, some of the best bass drum sounds come from a well tuned drum with a closed front head. (John Bonham, anyone???)

Third of all, could the OP add even more "lol's" to their next post? Thanks!

#KillMeNow

 

[Simman]

Best advice I've seen so far is from the dude who recommended to shit can whatever gear is not necessary for the song you are recording.

From what I gather you have little experience recording so I'd recommend keeping it as simple as possible. Minimum number of mics (2 Oh, kick & snare) until you get more experince . More mics equals more problems .

OH: mxl 603,
Kick: audix 6
Snare: telefunken M80 (awesome)

 

[dreib]

Best advice I've seen so far is from the dude who recommended to shit can whatever gear is not necessary for the song you are recording.

From what I gather you have little experience recording so I'd recommend keeping it as simple as possible. Minimum number of mics (2 Oh, kick & snare) until you get more experince . More mics equals more problems .

OH: mxl 603,
Kick: audix 6
Snare: telefunken M80 (awesome)

I know right? your already dealing with inexperience and a less than stellar room acoustically, keep it simple.

 

[Vinnie Charity]

I agree with the majority of what these guys are recommending. Start off with as few mics as possible and add mics only as needed. More mics = more drum bleed = phasing issues. Phasing is when two or more mics pick up the sound of a drum at different times causing that drum to sound thinner in your mix.

When I miked up my first kit, I had a less than stellar room and less than stellar mics (SM57's as overheads, SM58 on the kick, and CAD22 on the snare) but I was still able to get a great drum sound because of proper mic placement and proper EQ technique. There's a guy on here who has "Any mic you use is perfectly suitable until you use it long enough to find out it's not" as his signature and that's a great statement. Once I upgraded my mics, I was able to combine everything I had learned with using the previous setup with the better sounds of my new mics and really made my drum tracks shine.

Removing drums that are rarely played is also a good move because they WILL show up in the recording in the form of "sympathetic resonance" and potentially cancel out the sound of the drums you do want (think of that Hanes tagless T-shirt commercial with Michael Jordan and that annoying tag).

Once you get everything setup, post your recording so we can all hear it and give you constructive criticism to help hone your micing and mixing skills.

Good Luck!
-Vinnie Charity

 

[MAUDIO AUDIO BU]

got mics now are they set up right?

got mics now are they set up right?

 

[Vinnie Charity]

Well there's no right or wrong way to setup mics, what's important is how they sound to you.

Your overheads should be setup so they give a nice stereo image of your entire kit.

The kick drum mic will give you different sounds depending on placement. For example, for more "attack", place the mic closer to the batter head, aimed at the beater. For more "boom", place it closer to the front head.

For the snare, or pretty much any percussion instrument for that matter, aiming the mic towards the center of the head will give you more attack and aiming more towards the run will give you more tone. Moving the mic closer maximizes focus, and moving it away will add more room sound.

Try experimenting with mic placement BEFORE turning EQ knobs. The desire to boost certain frequencies using EQ can usually be remedied by moving the microphone. Let us know how things work out for you and don't be afraid to ask any questions.

-Vinnie Charity