drums in small room, treament?

  • Thread starter Thread starter corban
  • Start date Start date
C

corban

New member
I'm a home recorder, I've recorded drums before, but not much, and not for a recording that will receive some decent distribution, which I am now attempting to do. My floors are carpeted, and I have the option of recording in a large, untreated room or a small room with sleeping bags all over the walls. The room is not much larger than a large kit. I was wondering if anybody has any suggestions for room treatments or anything I can do to maximize the sound of my drums. Thanks tons.

p.s. I've got a few AKG C1000 for overheads and hi-hat, SM 57s for snares and toms, and a Shure Beta 52 for kick.
 
Try recording in both rooms and see which complements the drums better. Building a couple of gobos and recording in the bigger room may work reasonably.

As far as mics go, if youve spent anytime on any board you would know that the C1000s are basically worthless and will end you up with a thin, harsh, unusable drum sound that will fall apart the second you try EQing it.
Pick up a pair of studio project B3s, or MXL 990s and IMO they will kill any of the cheap SDCs regularly recommended on this board for OHs as they typically pick up alot more room than you want.
 
If I had to choose, I would go for the large untreated room rather than the sleeping bag padded cell.

In the big room you may end up with more reflections, reverbrations etc than are desirable, but with a little eqing, you can remove unwanted frequencies and overtones.

In contrast, the padded cell will abosrb a lot of desirable, as well as unwanted frequencies, so you're left with a very dry sound.

As a general rule it's better to record more than you need and remove the unwanted frequencies later with parametric eq, than try to use eq to artifically boost an inadequate signal
 
thanks for the help everyone. I switched the hihat mic for an Octava, it improved a lot. It looks like the only option will unfortunately be the smaller room. Any tips on mic placement/room treatment that will improve my sound?
 
if you dont want to mess with the whole kit in different rooms even just messing with a snare you can hear a difference... I had my kit in the corner of my room and now its in the center of my studio and i can hear a whole universe of difference. There is more clarity and less reverberation.... just try and see what sound you want.
 
Hey Corban, if you can, use the bigger space, you'll get more acoustics from your kit. Add a couple Gobos for low freq absorption and mid/high freqs. rigid fiberglass is good for the lows (Corning 703) and Auralex works good for the mids/highs. I have found in a small space if you record the snare and bass drum first and then go back and over-dub the toms and cymbals you'll get a better sound. Good luck, have fun experimenting. Ralph
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top