Drum Problem

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systmovadown

systmovadown

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I don't think the sound is good enough.

I have
a pretty basic setup.

D112 on the Bass
Beta 56A on the snare
PG 48's on the toms (I recently just turned 16. No job)
MXL 991's as Overheads

The D112 and the 56A are straight through an M-Audio Audio Buddy Pre-Amp into My Delta 44. The Toms are through my cheap Behringer 4 Channel Mixer into one channel of Delta 44. The Overheads are through my Mackie 1402VLZ into one of the channels on the 44.

I'm using Adobe Audition.

First, the overheads sound way too harsh So I lowered the mid and higher frequencies on the Mackie Mixer.

It still doesn't sound too good.

I don't want to do a major fixup on mixdown. I want it to sound good raw so I don't have to do much in terms of EQ and effects to ruin the mix.


Any Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
 
systmovadown said:
I don't think the sound is good enough.

I have
a pretty basic setup.

D112 on the Bass
Beta 56A on the snare
PG 48's on the toms (I recently just turned 16. No job)
MXL 991's as Overheads

The D112 and the 56A are straight through an M-Audio Audio Buddy Pre-Amp into My Delta 44. The Toms are through my cheap Behringer 4 Channel Mixer into one channel of Delta 44. The Overheads are through my Mackie 1402VLZ into one of the channels on the 44.

I'm using Adobe Audition.

First, the overheads sound way too harsh So I lowered the mid and higher frequencies on the Mackie Mixer.

It still doesn't sound too good.

I don't want to do a major fixup on mixdown. I want it to sound good raw so I don't have to do much in terms of EQ and effects to ruin the mix.


Any Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Any chance of some clips?
 
Well, the kick and snare especially sound very,very cardboard box like. How have you originally Eq'd them?

And yes i find the cymbals very harsh still.
 
snare does'nt sound full bodied at all. it's all attack and no tone. bass is kind of the same. toms are muddy. sorry i don't know how to fix it though.
 
You can help out the bass by cutting at 400hz, possibly by a lot, like -10 or 12dB. A very little boost at 80-150 hz will make it meatier, and either get the mic closer to the beater, or boost at 1.5-2.5khz. All of the above should be swept around till you find the sweet spot. Also, when cutting, put a big boost on, and sweep till you find the most disgusting sound you can get, then cut there. Move mics first, then cut eq, boost last if necessary.

I bet the snare mic could be closer to the head.

The OH sound like the gain is too low somewhere.

Dare I ask (you mentioned you are on a short budget) do the drums just plain sound bad? You can put a truckload of U87's and vintage tube pre's on a First Act, and you will get a pristene recording of drums sounding bad. A bad sounding room will hurt the OH a lot, as well.

Just a thought.
 
It sounds like you are in a very small room.

The overheads are too loud.

tune the kick down, so it doesn't ring. Use a hard beater and take out 400hz and add 3k

It sounds like you were micing the bottom of the snare, if so, stop it. Mic the top or the side.

The toms just sounded like they needed some eqing.
 
I think it's really just not a good sounding kit. The cymbals and snare especially just sound cheap to me. Just my opinion. I don't think mixing skills or stellar gear could make that any better than what you've made it. It won't change the sound of the drums themselves, but if you have the means, I recommend finding a way to get the overheads and toms panned out.

The only thing that might help a bit would be to record more of the room the drums are in, the 'roomier' the better. Back the overheads way off, or use a large diaphram condensor in an adjacent room or far away from the drums and mix it in with the close mics.
 
The room is small.
No I did not use any EQ at all.
THe snare mic wasn't on the bottom...it was on the top.

Thanks guys.
 
peopleperson said:
I think it's really just not a good sounding kit. The cymbals and snare especially just sound cheap to me. Just my opinion. I don't think mixing skills or stellar gear could make that any better than what you've made it. It won't change the sound of the drums themselves, but if you have the means, I recommend finding a way to get the overheads and toms panned out.

The only thing that might help a bit would be to record more of the room the drums are in, the 'roomier' the better. Back the overheads way off, or use a large diaphram condensor in an adjacent room or far away from the drums and mix it in with the close mics.
Click to expand...


I have to go along here! The snare mic sounds too close - back it up, the bass drum mic too far away. Try different tuning and better cymbals. Do you have a compressor for the kick?

Why are you mixing 2 overhead mics to a single input of the 44? Just use one mic! You might be getting phase problems that are making the cymbals sound cheap. Better yet, nix the tom mics and do the overheads in stereo!
 
PhilGood said:
I have to go along here! The snare mic sounds too close - back it up, the bass drum mic too far away. Try different tuning and better cymbals. Do you have a compressor for the kick?

Why are you mixing 2 overhead mics to a single input of the 44? Just use one mic! You might be getting phase problems that are making the cymbals sound cheap. Better yet, nix the tom mics and do the overheads in stereo!
Click to expand...

so how would i go about that?
The OH and the toms in stereo?
 
systmovadown said:
so how would i go about that?
The OH and the toms in stereo?
Click to expand...

The thing is that you cannot do anything about phase problems if you're mixing down 2 OH mics in the mixer. So phase problems (frequecies acting strange, canceling or amplifying each other) can only be solved by mic positioning before recording. but you have 4 inputs, I'd go for 1 mic in the basdrum, one mic on snare and the famous 'Recorderman' trick for recording stereo overheads that also pick up the toms. The trick seems to work great for most people, and of course all depends on room, drumkit, heads, tuning, drummer and micpositioning. It should be possible to get a great and 'real' drum recording with only 4 mic inputs by using this system. Here is the link to the original thread. This tricks' focus is on getting a great sound with 2 overhead mics placed in an odd way and getting a good stereo image and overall drumkit sound. The basdrummic you'll need for sure, but the snare mic is only intended to add more snare to the overall image, which comes from the well positoned overhed mics. Spend 1 hour reading this stuff and learning the technique and 2 hours positioning the mics properly and you'll be not disapointed. :D

If it works out, let us hear the result if you will. Also images would be nice.
 
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