Drum Miking With 4 Mics

  • Thread starter Thread starter Whyte Ice
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Whyte Ice

The Next Vanilla Ice
I've been doing some drum recordings lately and its been very tough getting a good sound (especially out of the snare). I can only use 4 mics since there is only 4 inputs on my mixer.

The mics that I have are Shure SM57, Unknown Really Good Kick Drum Mic, Superlux CM-H8A Condenser, Studio Projects C1 Condenser.

I setup the SM57 on the snare, the kick drum mic on the kick drum (of course), and the condensers as overheads (one on each side).

My drum set consists of a Snare, Kick Drum, 2 Rack Toms, Floor Tom, Hi-Hats, Crash Cymbal, and a Ride Cymbal. I can get a really good sound out of it when I'm playing but whenever I listen to a playback of what I recorded it sounds like total crap.

I spent almost two hours tweaking the levels, mic positioning, etc. and I still wasn't getting the sounds I was hearing when I was playing. The biggest problem is the snare, it sounds great when your playing it, but when you listen to the playback it sounds like a big thump.

I don't know any more information I can give, but all I want to know is what am I doing wrong?
 
FIRST ADVICE.....Dont get discouraged......ask some of the big boys here and they'll tell you they spend 1-2 DAYS getting a drum sound before they even attempt to roll tape......

the sm57 is pretty standard for a snare so I would guess that it isnt your culprit.....it could only be positioning, the room, the mixer, or the recording medium......

have you tried these...

http://www.geocities.com/shailat2000/MixingDrums.html

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23824&highlight=drums
 
First - the o/h's are going to be responsible for giving you a significant portion of your drum sound. The close-mics on the kick and snare will add color and accentuate what is already present on the o/h's.

Second - the kit needs to sound good before you even throw any mics up.

Third - check for phase issues between the close mics and the o/h's.

Fourth - take the room out of the equation a bit by putting up damping blankets around the kit and even more importantly, on the ceiling over the top of the drums (staple-gun...)

Fifth - play with positioning to get the sound you want first, but you may still need to use EQ (a little bit!) to tweak the sounds...

Also - you never mentioned what you're recording onto and what kind of mixer or mic pres you were using... these will also be factors.

Bruce
 
Not only what Bruce said above, but I would suspect any "DRUMMER"!!! that claims it actually sounds good when they play!!!! ;)

Ed
 
I dont totaly agree with Bruce on getting the major part of your sound from the OH if the drums are close miced.
It depends on style of music as well as how imporant a part is the snare in your song.

Every thing else he wrote is solid.

Discribe for me more - how does the snare sound as compared to what you want. "Big Thump can mean a lot of things.
It might be a small problem of distance from snare.
And it might be a big problem with EVERY THING else.....
Record the snare drum alone with out the kit and listen. Then tell me.
 
Well, if you've only got 4 mics, we won't be talking about close miking :)

And not that there's anything wrong with 4 mics...

Little tip I've found useful, at least for a start: find a friend who can pound the drums for you a bit, and a good set of headphones. With only the overheads on, turn up the phones so you can hear them clearly from the kit itself, and move the overheads around while listening through the phones (take 'em off every few moments to remind yourself of the sound your going for). Repeat adding the snare, then the kick to the mix... this should give you a good start.

cwillu (my bi-annual post :) )
 
Shailat said:
I dont totaly agree with Bruce on getting the major part of your sound from the OH if the drums are close miced.
It depends on style of music as well as how imporant a part is the snare in your song.
Click to expand...
I agree completely! (but thought it was implicit that it always depends on the situation, so I didn't think to add "...in many cases, 70% of the sound... etc..."! ;) )

:D

Bruce
 
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