Drums: stereo or mono?

[4tracker]

Probably a stupid question, but when recording overheads in stereo do you mic them to their own tracks or both on one track?

 

[gecko zzed]

When I record drums I use a pair of overheads and they get recorded onto a stereo track. Kick and snare each get their own mono track.,

 

[JimmyS1969]

I personally use mono tracks for everything. There are times when one of the overhead mics needs a touch of eq that the other doesn't. In one case a china cymbal that sounded like a harsh trash can. Damn broke drummers...

Just makes more sense to me to have individual control of tracks. Only time I ever use a stereo track would be for something like dumping down an old cassette to CD.

 

[4tracker]

Cool glad that wasn't a stupid question. My intuition said the overheads to one stereo track. Jimmy brings up a good point about how much control you want/need--is there any downside to that?

 

[Greg_L]

Each overhead in mono. Bam.

 

[JimmyS1969]

The question for the poll is odd. I mix drums in stereo but record to mono tracks...

 

[bouldersoundguy]

When using X-Y overheads I record them to one stereo track since I won't be narrowing the image or using different eq. With spaced overheads I would record them to separate mono tracks since I am more likely to pan them in and use separate eq.

 

[ido1957]

I get individual mono overhead tracks from my drummer.

 

[Rod Norman]

Now that we all have more than four tracks, stereo drums seems reasonable. I agree that hard panning on close miking sucks but I like to place stereo overheads and then use those for the stereo spread. The rest I do in mono. The overheads create the sense of space. i once tried small diaphragm condensers down low left and right. I preferred the six foot or higher overheads, though.
Rod Norman
Engineer

 

[Rod Norman]

"The Seize" Very Gerry and the Pacemakers. Nice. The drums in mono are fine.

 

[mjbphotos]

"The poll" is 3 years old ....

 

[YanKleber]

Always stereo when possible.

I remember though, in the 80s when I made my first recordings I didn't have too much options. My gear was limited to a Tascam Portastudio (4-tracks cassete), an Yamaha RX-17 drum machine and an Alesis Microverb. At that time my 'technique' was to pan all the drum pieces to the right and the snare to the left (where I hooked the microverb) and recorded everything in the track one of the Portastudio. Although it wasn't the ideal the result was not that bad. Specially at that time because it was so amazing you be able to record a good sounding stuff in home that nobody used to pay attention if the drums were in stereo or not! LoL!

 

[mixsit]

Cool glad that wasn't a stupid question. My intuition said the overheads to one stereo track. Jimmy brings up a good point about how much control you want/need--is there any downside to that?

I track them dual mono but in the template they are grouped -and their pans are reverse grouped; pulling one of the pair's pan fader left moves the other farther right- i.e. single fader points for level or width control.
And FWIW in my case the 'O/H's are the primary kit pair, and their width is definitely up for playing with in the mix.
Down side of 'dual mono, for example you want to eq them, you're messing with two eq's - or a sub group.

 

[James K]

"The poll" is 3 years old ....

Indeed. I have a 16 track now and mainly record in stereo.

 

[Mark7]

Crikey, you started young.

Incidentally, I'm using an 8 track and I prefer mono drums simply because they leave me more tracks for other stuff.