Emeric: About Your Drum Recording Technique

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CMiller

CMiller

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Hey Emeric...I notice that you record your drums in the same room that your control room and monitors are in. Am I right about this? If so, how do you go about setting up a decent drum sound, just experience? Do you rely on headphones and then play back a section to see if you like the sound? I'm very curious about this since it looks more and more like I'll be having to do the same thing here unless I can rent a snake and set up the kit in another room or something.
 
What he does is this...

He works with a drummer until they split up, and then he finds out what a pain in the ass it is doing drums alone, and so he talks the drummer into working with him for a while, and then... :D
 
I'm just guessing here, but I think he uses a combination of mics and drum triggers.
 
Buck62, triggers! no never. Ages ago I've triggered an alesis D4 but don't have that setup anymore. Not a big fan of sampled drums, unless it's dance music. Dobro... yes your very close there.

Anyway.

Cmiller,

Yes, everything is in the same room, which sucks. But, it's workable just not ideal. The drums are so loud in here I can't tell a thing listening on headphones, I only put headphones on to block out the sound! Lately I've been going one step further and putting earplugs in, and then headphones. For tracking acoustics or vocals I can tell to some degree what it sounds like with headphones.

So, yes. I record a bit and then listen to it. If it's good enough then I'll proceed. Usually when it's another drummer I'll adjust mic's during warmup takes, and listen back during smoke/beer whatever breaks. Othertimes I'll just setup the mics and hit record and hope for the best! (blasphemy, I know).

One big problem of having one room is that your hearing will get killed, hence the earplugs/headphones. It can really mess your perspective up.

I'll state the obvious things. I always tune the kit as best I can before recording. Get rid of anything rattling, not just on the kit, pocket change sitting on top of an effects unit, two beer bottles 1/32 inches away from each other etc.

I think you already know the mics I use. Either C1000s for overheads or MXL603's. The infamous AKG D112 on kick, usually combined with either a rode NT1, or a Sennheiser 421. SM57's for snare and toms, sometimes 421 on floor if I'm not using it on kick. Front head off, pillow with half a patio block on top. Tom mics 5 or 6" up, angled accordingly. Overheads I usually do spaced pair.

Played around with XY and ORTF but migrated back to spaced pair. I try to get them as high as possible, my ceiling height being the obvious limitation. Usually pointing straight down, somewhere over the ride, and somewhere over the hihat and cymbals. Ride side a little lower, seems to pick up the ping a bit better. Overheads somewhat equidistant from the snare, and in a straight line to one another. Cymbals are average height from toms, about a foot for the high tom, 10" or so for ride. More than that and the drummer gets upset. Same with highhat, I put it as high as possible so I can angle the snare mic in (and give it better distance from the snare - 6" or so) and get a blend of hi-hat, but not too much.

After recording, it's all send to a sampler and fed back out synthesised. :)

I don't know if any of that is of any help. Every kit is different, every player, every room. Some of my drum sounds I'm happy with, but it's a bit of hit and miss (as is my playing technique).

It's a drag tracking drums in the same room as your playback, but it's not impossible.
 
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At least you record drums and not use a groove box or something.

Drums are a real project to record !

Did you ever think of making a room in a room for the drums?
 
Damn! Thanks for the detail, I love hearing it! Yeah, I knew what you used for mics, I was just curious about how you handle monitoring in the same room. I figured I might have to do the same thing, but I asked a local gear rental place and a 16 channel 100' snake is very reasonable for a weekend, so I'll probably just do that. Of course I'll need to find a drummer first! lol

Thanks again for the detail though, it's always appreciated!
 
Shailat, it's such small room as it is, a room within a room would make this too small(without big $$). I did have a seperate control room where the drum kit is now (referring to pictures on the home studio's site whatever the address is), but it was sooo small. It was hell. I tore that down, and built a wall about 70/30. 30 for the playback, 70 for tracking. That worked ok. I tore it down again for some reason or other. I remember now, I wanted to put speaker bins hanging on chains so we could play LOUD. And we did.

Drums are a lot of fun to record, and maybe one of the hardest instruments to record, all depends on the song and the sound your after.
 
Okay, so I was wrong.

I knew I should've polled the audience or used a lifeline or something. ;)
 
It really is amazing the sound you get without having the benefit of a seperate monitoring situation. Just amazing, regardless of your situation...but then you already know I'm a big fan.

I agree that drums are probably the most fun instrument to mic up. I'm getting stoked about the possibility of finding a drummer to record!

Thanks again!
 
Yo Drummers of Drums, etc.

Emeric does FINE WORK. Believe it.

Green Hornet
 
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