drum question

M

MGS

Member
When limited to 2 drum tracks is it advisable to position 2 overhead mics or a single overhead and snare. This is a traditional jazz recording and the drummer complains of too little snare/ too much cymbal in my older recordings which used a single overhead mic and only one track.

Mark
 
Drummer Complaints

A drummer that complains...c'mon... ha ha ha...
Haven't met one yet that wasn't a pain in the tail !!!
Beg, borrow or steal a board that you can put at least 4 mics in place. Snare, kick, toms, and overhead.This is the best way I have found when you are limited on your inputs.
Are you recording live or is that the limit on your inputs to your puter?
 
Although I totally agree with Gidman that generally 4 mics is a minimum... you can, for acoustic stuff being cut live-off-the-floor with limited resources, get a good sounding drum kit with 2 mics in a reasonable sounding room.... you need to find the room's sweet spot, then place an XY pair of condensers at that spot - essentially capturing the sound of the drums in the room.

You may need to dampen the room a bit (to minimize unwanted resonances) - carpeting - thick old drapes, but you should get usable results. It's especially useful on acoustic-oriented material like jazz since what counts is a good sound right in the room it's played in (ie - you're going for the natural sound of the drum kit - minimal effects - and of course, the kit's setup is absolutely critical in this situation).

Bruce Valeriani
Blue Bear Sound


[Edited by bvaleria on 09-13-2000 at 07:52]
 
gidman,

I use a 4-track cassette multitracker (does 4 simultaneously) at our rehearsal facility. I live record the drums (one overhead), guitar, and bass to a track each, and reserve one for the vocal which I do later. Then I mix-down to PC (which only has 2 inputs). Now I'd like to record some instrumentals with this group (hence freeing up the track I normally reserve for vocals) for a second drum track. We like to record as much live as possible (to capture the essential spontaneity so crucial to jazz) otherwise I'd be using your 4 mic strategy.

Mark
 
What gidman meant was using a separate board as a submix mixer for drums. Plug the 4 drum mics in this board (actually, 3 mics should do because you're not going to mix it in stereo anyway ... so no need for stereo overheads) ... and then take the output of the board to the one track on the 4 tracker. You can probably rent a small board and a couple SM57s and not break the bank to bad. I can't guarantee that your drummer won't still complain, though. :)


[Edited by BigKahuna on 09-13-2000 at 12:01]
 
Re: Yup

Dougie Johnson said:
What gidman & Kahuna says..
DJ
Click to expand...

Hey!!! What about what the Bear said???

Careful Dougie, or I'll start pickin' on the NS-10s again!!! ;)

Bruce Valeriani
Blue Bear Sound
 
Mark,
Can you "ping" down to one track then that way you can use 3 tracks to record the drums...

Gidman
 
In the current issue of EM there's an article about microphones, and in it one of the two authors suggest using a single SM-57 on the bass drum and a condenser above the whole kit for the rest in budget situations... never tried it myself so I can't vouch for it as a useful tip...

-AlChuck
 
Sorry Big Bear!
Your 2 cents were more than adequate..
And the Yahmaha NS-10's are only in studios because The Price Club had a bulk sale on them...:D
DJ
 
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