Drum recording

[harv]

Hi folks, new to the site, looks great, anyhow I'm just getting into recording to make a demo, I have guitar, bass, lead vocals and back-up vocals recorded, and keyboards, having trouble getting a good drum recording, I'm using a Yamaha AW16G that can record 8 tracks simultaneously, the drums I have an AKG D112 for a kick drum and sure PG 56 drum mics for the rest, I'm setting each drum, hi-hat and ride up seperatly on their own tracks and bringing the input levels of each track to zero as stated in the manual, but can hardly hear the kit through the headphones, everything else is coming through great, then when I play back the drums, they aren't clear , some static aspecially on the bass drum, I have been using the EQ and dynamics after the recording, but can't clean it up enough, just looking for any assistance from some more experienced folks, should I lower the input level, we can hardly hear them now in the headphones, I have everything else sounding excellent, just the drums. Thanks folks for any advice.

 

[Chibi Nappa]

Sounds like the primary problem is that you have the other tracks way too loud. Keep the drums where they are and turn everything else down.

You also shouldn't be setting your converters to peak at 0. Maybe peak at -12. Drum transients are lightning fast and very unpredictable. You need that head room.

You might also have phase problems. Try this:
Instead of micing everything individually, first just put up a single room mic. Maybe 6 feet out in front of the drum kit and 4 feet off the ground to start. Then get the drummer to play and listen back. This will give the drummer a gauge for his own balance. Does the high hat completely drown out the snare? If so, that's on the drummer to correct in his performance. Yeah, you can multi-track and adjust the balance pretty severely in the mix, but it always sounds better if the balance of the performance is correct.

After you have everything sounding good in one room mic, put up some overheads. Listen back both with the room mic on and the room mic off. If things get weaker with the room mic on, you have phase problems. Move the mics or flip the phase switches until you don't.

After that add individual drum mics one at a time as you see fit. If a drum is loud enough, don't close mic it. For each new mic you place, do the same "track-on/track-off" phase test. Nothing should sound weaker when you add in a new track.