Drum What? What Do You Mean Drum Mics?!

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mikeeb

Whats the best RAP MIC??!
Hey everyone. My question today is a pretty noobie one. I want to record a full band. It can be seperate tracks but i want all the drums on one track together.
Here is what I have to use

-DMP3
-SM7B
-Pg58
- A few hundred dollar budget.
-A shitty standard PC Soundcard
- A soundblaster soundcard, if i took it out of one computer and put it into the basement one

Is there any way for me to record a 5 or 6 piece drum set with the 2 XLR inputs on the DMP3? How would this connect to the computer? Basically, what can I do to make it sound best for what i got. Thanks and i appreciate the answers!
 
its good to get a nice stereo image for the drums. sometimes you could get away with just using overheads positioned correctly. i'd say use the sm7b for an overhead and the pg58 as a kick or snare mic. its all about experimenting. try different placements and see what works the best.
 
its good to get a nice stereo image for the drums. sometimes you could get away with just using overheads positioned correctly. i'd say use the sm7b for an overhead and the pg58 as a kick or snare mic. its all about experimenting. try different placements and see what works the best.

Alright. I mean if I have to I have no problem getting a set of drum mics for like $200...Ill just make my drummer pay hahah :D..How would i get all these sounds into my computer though with just a DMP3 and a shit soundcard? Do i need to buy a mixer or something?
 
you would need some sort of mixer. any mixer with enough inputs so you could just use the main outs from the mixer to your dmp3.
 
use the main outs from the mixer to your dmp3.

Why would you do this? If anything, use the DMP3 as preamps to the microphones which would then to into the mixer. then the output of the mixer would go to the soundcard.

mikeeb, can you answer a few quesitons so we can help give you advice? What's your budget (few hundred is a bit vague)? How many instruments in the band are you looking to track? Did you want to record the full band all at once, or record each instrument individually?
 
Why would you do this? If anything, use the DMP3 as preamps to the microphones which would then to into the mixer. then the output of the mixer would go to the soundcard.

mikeeb, can you answer a few quesitons so we can help give you advice? What's your budget (few hundred is a bit vague)? How many instruments in the band are you looking to track? Did you want to record the full band all at once, or record each instrument individually?

Hey. My budget for everything like if I need a mixer and a mic or 2 or w.e would be like 500 dollars. The ideal thing to do would be to record a full band at once but I have no problem going separately if it will save me enough money. What do most people like you do though? How would i go about doing it all separately? Thanks man!
-Mike
 
i would be tempted to skip the soundblaster and do something like this

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product?sku=184133V

pair that with your dmp3 and you have 4 channels of audio available. add a set of small diaphram condensors like the samson C02s and you would have a very decent beginner system for recording drums using the recorderman method.

and the interface plus mics would only run you around 320.
 
Why would you do this? If anything, use the DMP3 as preamps to the microphones which would then to into the mixer. then the output of the mixer would go to the soundcard.

mikeeb, can you answer a few quesitons so we can help give you advice? What's your budget (few hundred is a bit vague)? How many instruments in the band are you looking to track? Did you want to record the full band all at once, or record each instrument individually?


it would work both ways. but i thought that DMP3 was a usb preamp.
 
i would be tempted to skip the soundblaster and do something like this

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product?sku=184133V

pair that with your dmp3 and you have 4 channels of audio available. add a set of small diaphram condensors like the samson C02s and you would have a very decent beginner system for recording drums using the recorderman method.

and the interface plus mics would only run you around 320.

Yeah...the OP would need an interface like this unless he wants to use the soundcard, which by his own admission sucks. The DMP3 is just a preamp though, so he's still only have two analog channels available. It's completely possible to get a great drum sound with two channels, no doubt about it. There are probably some Firepods used on ebay for $300 or $400, and that would leave enough channels for a full kit...doesn't leave much for the drum mic budget though.

Frank
 
I've found that Naiant X-T mics are pretty good for drum overheads (and they're cheap). You have to be careful with them because they're omnidirectional, so you'll get a lot of bleed, but depending on how you like to mix, that's not always a big deal. For instance, I used them live recently and the only other mic I used to supplement them was a kick drum mic. Everything else sounded just fine (it helps if the drums are tuned well, of course).

Recording them separately would save you money as you would need fewer mics. You could just get an SM57 and use it on just about everything. It's not the best mic for any instrument, but if you want a "good enough" mic to use on a lot of different sources, it's a good choice.

Obviously, you're also going to need preamps for each of the new mics, so I would look into getting an interface, like others here have suggested. I recently sold my Focusrite Saffire Pro 10 i/o for like $270 on eBay, which is a lot less than what I wanted to get for it, but the preamps in that are pretty nice and you might be able to find it equally cheap now that it's an older model.
 
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