Drum Mixing

  • Thread starter Thread starter jgourd
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jgourd

jgourd

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When recording drums I tend to use two omni overheads, snare, kick, hit hat and tom mics. I figure it is better to have tracks that I won't use than wish I had them later on.

When setting up my drums sub mix I:
1.solo the overheads and get them to sound good.
2.solo all the others and set up compression, eq,etc.
3. Mix the kick and snare with the overheads
4. bring in any other close mics if needed and pan them to the right places.

Is this what you guys do? What would you do differently?
 
I have a different outlook on the OH's part in the kit.

You might take some interest in reading an article I wrote on mixing drums using somewhat of the same configuration you use.

http://24.61.136.253/index.html
 
Re: conga

LI Slim said:
Shailat, how would you eq a single conga (the only percussion in a song with acoustic guitar and vocals)? Like the Tom?
Click to expand...

It depends somewhat on your concept of the song and what sound you are looking for.
But... here are some general lines....if you cant hear it well and its being masked a bit, then try to boost the upper mids.
Search for it by boosting and slowly running through the freq's.
What you are looking for is the sound of the hand hitting the conga. The strike part and not the body part of the sound. That will bring it out.
if it's to muddy then cut some lower mids and if to boomy then cut lows searching up to 100Hz.
If you want them crispy then check out the 5-8k.
Now just ask yourself what you want to hear and go for it.

Here is a trick I use - I send the conga to a gated reverb. This gives me some depth but with out the unnecesery tail. So you get a "Boom...ka" sound. Check out a room reverb with a gate.
 
Thanks kind Sir. As always, useful advice....


I do like to put a little 'verb on it; why gated?
 
LI Slim said:
I do like to put a little 'verb on it; why gated?
Click to expand...

You dont have to gate it but you might not want the reverb to tail off and muddy up the mix as in "Boommmmmmmhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" kind of sound sound. Remember its a percussion instrument and not a pad :). This way you get the depth the reverb adds but a cleaner sound and with defenition.
However a room type reverb with out a gate can work nicely in many cases.
 
Or you could just gate the hell out the verb and pretend you are Phil Collins or an 80's pop band.
 
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