StoneHousesHQ said:
I have a small home studio with a Behringer Eurodesk MX-8000, three Tascam DA-38's and tons of outboard gear. I constantly have problems getting a good drum mix / sound. I use a D-112 on the kick, SM-81's for the over heads, SM-57 on the snare and MD-421's on the toms.
First: Does anyone know how to get a really good, powerful kick sound with a good click and good punch? I have tried many different EQ settings and mic placement, but can't get that "commercial recording" big bass drum sound.
Second: What would be a good EQ setting for the kick drum, snare and toms?
Third: Besides compression, noise gates and verb, what other prosessing should I look into to achive a killer drunk mix?
Thanks a million!
Hi.
Okay. FDirst make sure that the Kit is tunred really well.
Kick drum:
Tune The Kick just a few tuens past the "wrinkles stage" of head tuning.
If you have a Hipass filter-turn it ON when you play back the track-but not when recording!
The Modern /"commercial" kick sound doesn't go as low as you'd think. I was trying to get it for ages-and found that I was trying to EQ too much low end into it.
Boost around 100-125 Hz, cut in the high mids (300-1000 range) Boost between 2-5 khz. for click/slap. (Kind of depends on whether you're using a hard mallet or soft mallet-you'll get a click with the hard mallet, and a "slap" with a soft mallet.
Mic at the mallet spot: about an inch away, and maybe off to the side a bit-but aimed at the point where mallet strikes
Mic from outside the shell: Aim it through the hole in thre front head.
TWO MIC technique:
Mic from inside with an SM57 an inch from the where the mallet strikes. Should be out of Phase. (This mic picks up the Click/slap)
Mic at front head with D112.(this mic picks up the Boom/Thump)
Compress the heck out of it!
Snare-make sure it's tuned well, and the snares are not to tight.
SM57 on top: 1 inch above rim, with about 1 inch in. Aim at center of drum.
Find any "ring" and just reduce it a hair don't totally remove it-in the scheme of things-it really won't be noticed.
Overheads-mic over the Drummer's head.
Toms: I personally do not close mic my toms-I just use an overhead. I find that the Toms and Cymbals "blend" better in the overheads.
I did switch to using Remo "Muffles" on the Toms-because I liked it better.
I record my drums (I 'm a drummer) using the following Mic's and processing. I am recording on two DA-38's using
a Mackie 1604VlzPro. (Actually, I had ordered a Behringer mixer-but It was taking to long; so after I was told I would have to wait 2 more months to get it-I cancelled the order and went to a local music store and walked out 10 minutes later with a Mackie-It's barebones for me-but works very well!)
Beyer M422 on Snare (Gate, Compression, Parametric E.Q.)
AKG D112 in each Kick (Gate,Compression, & Parametric E.Q)
The Kicks are wired together (you have to make sure they are in Phase) via an XLR-cable "Y" that I made, so that I only need 1 channel of processor.
RadioShack PZM for Overhead-mounted on the ceiling directly over my Drumthrone.
(Compression)
I use three tracks for the drumkit, and it sounds exactly like I want it to; It sounds like a drumkit-and not like a ton of processed stuff. I also have a sampler and ddrum2 Digital Drumkit-but I use those for Tympani and Orchestral sounds.
Tim
