Drum Mic Placement

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EthanRHunt

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I have 5 mics (4 for drums specifically) and i usually place the shure58 as an over head, 1 tom mic on the snare, 1 tom mic to take in the 2 smaller toms, and the last tom mic to get the 3rd tom. Obviously i put the bass mic in the bass lol.

My question is about bleeding, is there supposed to be bleeding of the bass drum in the snare mic?

And also, how to I cut a hole in my bass drum head? I'm scared to do it because it is so...beautiful haha

thanks
-Dave
 
I think I can help.
First if you're worried about bleeding in the mics then you're going to have to spend money. So just forget about that. try and focus your hearing on the over head mic. Use that as the main "energy" of the recording. Now use the kick drum without a front head if you don't want to cut a hole in it. aim the mic at the impact point of the beater. You'll have to experiment with how for from the skin you should place the mic. Those are your two main "energy" tracks.
Now all you need to do is blend in the other mics to catch the point of each drum and some body. Your overhead will do most of the work so don't worry about cranking up close mic levels, except for the kick.
To cut a hole use a small 4-6" disc as a template and a very sharp exacto knife. An old CD will do fine. remove the skin from the drum. use a workbench that you don't mind cutting into. Draw the circle off center. As close to the edge of the skin as you and the skin can bear. I personally leave about 2 1/2 inches between the bearing edge of the skin and the edge of the hole. and I place it at either 4:30 or 7:30. Just High enough for a desktop mic to slide in, just low enough not to be noticed by the stage manger. The point is to leave the center of the front head intact. THEN CAREFULLY CUT ALONG THE LINE.
Good Luck.
MM
Good luck
 
Cutting the hole in the bass head is mostly for live shows where you need to be able to get inside drum and mic it without taking the head off. But for recording it is best if you take it off completely and maybe stick in a few pillows, blankets, etc....

-tkr
 
I don't have a front head on my kick, and it's totally empty...sounds good that way (as long as you have a Remo PowerstrokeIII head, or something with similar built-in damping).
 
Whoopysnorp said:
I don't have a front head on my kick, and it's totally empty...sounds good that way (as long as you have a Remo PowerstrokeIII head, or something with similar built-in damping).
Click to expand...

heh... one of the best kick sounds I ever heard was on an old (70's era) Gretsche kit... the kick was completely empty, and no front head.

In the live room it sounded just hideous! BOOOM BOOOM!

But, working with the engineer, we stuck a 421 in the drum, and then about 4 or 5 feet back put a U87 about 3 feet off the deck, and facing the kit. The kick was amazing... we used a plastic beater and the sound we got was tight, excellent low-end and just amazing tone.
 
cool, I'll give all of those a try, thanks for the feedback.
 
Well, as far as bleed goes, there are some pretty easy - and inexpensive - ways to deal with it. If you really want that metal drum sound, you really need to either gate all of the close mics, or go in and do a lot of editing. Just zoom in on the individual drum tracks with whatever editor you use and remove everything but the drum(s) its intended to mic. Personally, I'm not a big fan of this sound, but YMMV. I'd consider getting a condenser or two for overheads as well - it would be a big improvement on the 58.
 
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