First time recording, a few drum questions

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c64954

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Hello, I am new to this forum, and to recording as well. I am going to be recording my band's demo soon and I don't really have the best equipment but I am trying to make the best of it. I have some sm 57's and some audio technica drum mics and a pair of MXL 993's for overheads. I've got a few questions.

1. The mixer I'm going to use doesn't have a phase reverse switch, so should I not try and use 2 mics on the snare? (one on bottom, one on top)

2. I don't have a great interface and only have 2 tracks to record at a time, I am using a Tascam US 122, so I can't record each mic onto a separate track. How should I EQ the drums since everything I do will be applied to all of the drums?

3. I'm using a copy of Sonar someone gave me, are there any good plugins I should get that will make the drums sound bigger? I'm going to probably record them in a small bedroom and the room is pretty dead and I don't have room mics so I want them to sound big.

Sorry if my questions seem dumb but I am trying my best to make everything sound good until I can afford some better equipment. Any help will be appreciated, thanks!
 
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Thank you, I was actually reading up on the Glyn Johns method and I figured I would give it a shot, less mics means less stuff to worry about. I think I am throwing out the 57 under the snare deal and just micing the bass drum and maybe the snare with some overheads.
 
you really only need the two mxls for overheads a bass drum mic such as an akg112, and a snare mic which the shure 57's are good for. Since you can only record two tracks at a time i would suggest getting a good mix on the mixer a just record the stereo output. I had to do this for years until i got enough money to buy some good equipment. Make sure you turn the highs down on thoses mxls though they are really bright.
 
what i used to do when i was this limited was get a good mix with two overheads and a 57 on snare ... then pan that hard right, and pan the kick mic hard left. then i would seperate the stereo track (in good ol cool edit 2k hehe) and have one track that was "drums" and one track that was "kick"


of course you don't get stereo overhead this way ... but you get seperated kick.


to me, when i KNEW my recordings were going to obviously limited by the two-track curse .. i always thought that having kick seperation on my cheap-ass recordings was more important than having stereo overheads.



but yeah ... trying a BOTTOM snare mic couldn't have been further from my mind in those days.
 
I used to record my drums through a mixer and into a US-122. It can work fine, but you have to be patient and do lots of trial and error. Keep the kick and snare centered in the mixer. Pan the O/H's L and R in the mixer. From the mixer, run the L and R channels into the 2 inputs of the US122, and record as 2 mono tracks or one stereo track. MAKE SURE the drums sound good because your EQ'ing will be very limited. Record lots of test runs to get everything dialed in. Once it's recorded, you can't bring out more more kick or whatever, so get it right in the mixer before you record for real.
 
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