Drum miking & building up Mic collection

[trancedental]

Firstly thanks to everyone for all the great info on this site!

I am looking to record drums very soon,I have plenty of experience with vocals,guitar amps/acoustics Bass even tambourines! but have never recorded drums before.

The mics I have are:

Shure SM57
Audio Technica Pro5 (similar to a Shure SM58 )
AKG 525s (hyper cardroid vocalist condenser freq response 80-20khz)
Rode NT2 cardroid/omni
Audio Technica AT4047 cardroid.

Is there any chance of getting decent results using the above mics,for example the AT4047 &/or Rode NT2 as overheads,SM57 for snare etc; & buying a Bass drum/kick mic?

Or do I need to buy a pair of small condensers & a Bass drum/kick mic as well?

I'd perfer to record drums without too many mics as I like 60's/70's drum recordings over using 20 tracks on a drumkit like the 80's!

Any advice?

Cheers

 

[Warhead]

Dude, if you dig the 60's drum sound...

throw that 57 on kick and AT4047 overhead and compress to poo out of it...

if you like stereo get another 4047.

War

Warren Dent
www.frontendaudio.com

 

[CMEZ]

I've been doing minimalist drum miking on some stuff I've been working on.

I think you oughta have a stereo mic set-up, though, for overheads. You CAN get a good drum sound with a mono overhead, but I haven't been able to do it.

You've got a 4047, which should be a good front-of-kick mic. (Be sure to pad it down if you need to).

But I've had really pleasing results with just a front of kick mic and a pair of MXL 603s as OH's using the 'recorderman' 3 mic technique. You can pick 'em up for $200 matched pair, with shockmounts.

Or you could go to a GC and try and hand match a pair of Oktava MC012's. You may be able to get the pair for $99 still.

OR you could spend the bucks and get another 4047 and use the NT2 in front of kick.

I dunno. Stuff to think about.

Chris

 

[chessrock]

Dude, what's up with that gargantuan image of the Byrds?

 

[DJL]

trancedental,

You need a good kick drum mic... and some overhead mics.

 

[trancedental]

Dude, what's up with that gargantuan image of the Byrds?

The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, Small Faces, The Who.....way to go!

Anyway I found out that I could buy a bassdrum/kickmic & use a "Decca" style recording method like mentioned below on the SOS forum.

"Originally posted by Hugh Robjohns: SOS Technical Editor: You could also try a three-mic technique that was very common inthe 1960s and still is used for jazz bands sometimes. A mic for the kick drum in the usual way (although probably in front of, rather than inside, the drum); plus two mics in front of the kit about the height of the snare drum -- maybe a little higher -- but below the cymbals. One around towards the snare and the other off the other side towards the floor tom. Positions adjusted to get the best balance of drums and stsreo effect. Think of them as 'underheads'!

What Hugh suggested is the "Decca tree" mics configuration since used by Decca. The original set up was made using Neumann U47 and U49. I tried it with other mics (I haven't enough Neumann but I found a little difficult in finding a good stereo balancing. "

There are a few different ways to record with 3 mics out there!

Another AT4047 would be cool if I can get a good deal.

Going to try & get a Sennheiser MD421 used(useful for Vocals /Amp miking as well?) for the Kick or a Audio Technica ATM25.

Small condensors pairs I'm looking at are Beyer Opus 83, Beyer M201 (dynamics but supposed to be good for overheads?)Audio Technica ATM33A/3031/4041,Rode NT5 etc;

Not sure about the overheads though as I don't want much of the room sound on the kit, only got 11x9x8 or 16x10x9 rooms to record in!

I wonder how much difference using large or small condensers makes on a drumkit. I'm not sure that a cheaper quality pair of small condensers would sound as good as buying another AT4047 for recording drums?

But hey! what do i know?


Cheers JK