Garage sounding drums

[Ponka]

Hi,

I know it's all about "try and error", but I still wanna' ask if any of you have had any experience with this...

I'm gonna' record my drumset in the rehearsal studio and I want that garage band kind of sound (wich is quite hot now, like The Hives and The White Stripes), some kind of 60:s sound...

I will use 4 tracks for the recording, so I guess I'll have to settle for kick, snare and two overhead/room mikes. Should I put the overheads abot 10 inces (well here in Sweden we don't use inch, and I dont know exactly how far one inch is, but still...)over the "highest" crashes or should I put them in front of the drum set instead (and use them as room mikes)? I've had them over the drum set before, but my cymbals tend to be a bit too loud and the toms a bit "dry" and not so loud... I would like some "ring" from the snare as well, more "shell-sound" if you know what I mean... I've had the mike about one inch from the rim, but I still would like some more of that "ring"... Since my snare rings quite a lot accustic, and I would like to put that on the track as well...

Thanx,

//Ponka, Sweden

 

[tmix]

My favorite way to get that sound is to put 1 mic on the kick , 1 on the snare (just off the shell pointed at the top rim from under the hi-hat) , 1 about 2 fingers width up from the top of my rack toms directly in between them and 1 by my floor drum.

The cymbols seem to always be loud enough and it gives more beef to the toms. The further away from the kit will give you more room sound, so if the room sounds good you may want to experiment with that.

Have fun! That 's what it is all about.

Tom

 

[CMEZ]

Ever tried Recorderman's 3 mic technique? Two OH's, one kick-that's it?

You'll get a real 'live drums in a room' kind of sound.

Basically, you need a pair of small diaphragm condensors and a kick mic. Put one of the small condensors directly over the snare, aimed at the center, 33 inches high. Now place the other mic over your drummer's right shoulder, also aimed at the center of the snare, also 33 inches from the center of the snare. (It'll LOOK lower, because of the angle). Now when you hard pan your overheads, the snare should stay in the center of your image, and you have a good, balanced sound. Add the kick mic in to fill in some thump and you're good.

For extra garagey-ness, use a '57 for the kick mic.

Give it a go! You'll like it!

Chris

 

[Ponka]

Hi again,

The date for the recording is now set. The mikes that comes with the hard disc recorder is one AKG D550 (kick) and two MXL 1006 large diaphram (overhead/room mikes) and then I'll add a SM57 on the snare. Do you think that could work?

//Ponka