Help with basic home recording drum mics to ZOOM R-12 setup

T

TonyCarbony

New member
Hello everybody, I'm new to the forum and hoping to get some pointers to make my setup work. I have dabbled in home recording before so am technically not a newbie. That said, it's been awhile and I am a drummer after all; all this pluggy in technical stuff is confusing to me! My setup so far is very rudimentary and intended to be used a sort of sketchbook just for fun. I realise drum miccing is a vast subject, but I believe I have the basic idea down, I could just do with some technical pointers as to the additional equipment I may need.

Equipment I have so far;

• Zoom R-12 8 track recorder

• AKG Session 1 drum microphones (4x dynamic tom/snare, 1 x dynamic bass drum and 2 x overhead condensers)


As far as I understand, I am going to need a mixer of some spec to connect all the mics to, which will then connect to my recorder. Will any mixer unit that has enough mic inputs and some phantom power for the condensers work in this setup? If so, what is a good entry level brand?

Also, does anybody have experience with the Zoom units? I wanted to just play around with the AKG condenser mics so plugged one directly into the R-12 recorder, assigned it to the correct track, switched on the Zoom's inbuilt 48v phantom power and raised the fader but cannot get any input sound from the mic at all. Of course the microphone could be broken, but I have been very careful to not damage it by connecting while power is on, or with the faders up etc. Could it be that the Zoom device does not have the "oomph"to power the condensers? I guess it should if it is actually producing 48v. Or could it be a cable issue; I am using 3 pin XLR (mic end) to 6.35mm Jack connection (into the Zoom)? Is 3 pin XLR to 3 pin XLR required or does it not matter?

Apologies for all the questions, and thanks in advance to anyone who can shed some light for me!

Thanks for reading,
Tony
 
Hey there @TonyCarbony, & welcome!

I am not an expert on recording drums, but I can point you to a couple resources that might help.

This thread here on HR has a ton of info on recording drums. Might be of use to you.

IMO the Bible of drum recording is Mike Major's book, "Recording Drums - The Complete Guide". The section on DAWs is the only slightly outdated bit, but everything else still applies. HERE is a video by Mike about mixing drums, which you might find helpful as well.

For the condensers you do need XLR to XLR cables for the phantom power to work.

As far as mixers - I have a different Zoom unit, but it works basically the same. You don't absolutely need a mixer; if I understand correctly, you do have enough inputs on the recorder. You can record a multitrack with the R-12 and do mixing in your DAW. That said, if you do want a mixer, I have a Behringer SX2442FX and it's probably the best bang-for-buck machine I have in my arsenal (Behringer is an awesome brand BTW). 24 tracks, tons of FX which I rarely if ever use, and also quite useable in live situations (which you might not be into, but whatever).

Hope this helps! Let us know if you need answers to anything else :-)
 
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Serendipity Records said:
Hey there @TonyCarbony, & welcome!

I am not an expert on recording drums, but I can point you to a couple resources that might help.

This thread here on HR has a ton of info on recording drums. Might be of use to you.

IMO the Bible of drum recording is Mike Major's book, "Recording Drums - The Complete Guide". The section on DAWs is the only slightly outdated bit, but everything else still applies. HERE is a video by Mike about mixing drums, which you might find helpful as well.

For the condensers you do need XLR to XLR cables for the phantom power to work.

As far as mixers - I have a different Zoom unit, but it works basically the same. You don't absolutely need a mixer; if I understand correctly, you do have enough inputs on the recorder. You can record a multitrack with the R-12 and do mixing in your DAW. That said, if you do want a mixer, I have a Behringer SX2442FX and it's probably the best bang-for-buck machine I have in my arsenal (Behringer is an awesome brand BTW). 24 tracks, tons of FX which I rarely if ever use, and also quite useable in live situations (which you might not be into, but whatever).

Hope this helps! Let us know if you need answers to anything else :-)
Click to expand...
Hey SR!

Thank you so much for this. I appreciate the Mike Major recommendation, I shall enjoy looking into that. And thanks for answering the XLR question, I think this could have solved my condenser issue.

The path is becoming clearer :-)
 
TonyCarbony said:
Hello everybody, I'm new to the forum and hoping to get some pointers to make my setup work. I have dabbled in home recording before so am technically not a newbie. That said, it's been awhile and I am a drummer after all; all this pluggy in technical stuff is confusing to me! I could just do with some technical pointers as to the additional equipment I may need.
Equipment I have so far;
• Zoom R-12 8 track recorder
• AKG Session 1 drum microphones (4x dynamic tom/snare, 1 x dynamic bass drum and 2 x overhead condensers)
Click to expand...
So uyou have 8 Microphones?
TonyCarbony said:
As far as I understand, I am going to need a mixer of some spec to connect all the mics to, which will then connect to my recorder. Will any mixer unit that has enough mic inputs and some phantom power for the condensers work in this setup? If so, what is a good entry level brand?
Click to expand...
There are a lot of good entry level mixers - Behringer Xenyx X2222USB Mixer is great for what you want - and it's about $300 - 8 XLR inputs to match your drum mics - lots of other things like eq on each channel - and you can submix the stereo outputs to your Zooms inputs - just want to watch the gain structure,



TonyCarbony said:
I am using 3 pin XLR (mic end) to 6.35mm Jack connection (into the Zoom)? Is 3 pin XLR to 3 pin XLR required or does it not matter?
Click to expand...
You need to go XLR to XLR -unless you are using a XLR to TRS - but I suspect you were using TS cable?
 
Papanate said:
So uyou have 8 Microphones?

There are a lot of good entry level mixers - Behringer Xenyx X2222USB Mixer is great for what you want - and it's about $300 - 8 XLR inputs to match your drum mics - lots of other things like eq on each channel - and you can submix the stereo outputs to your Zooms inputs - just want to watch the gain structure,




You need to go XLR to XLR -unless you are using a XLR to TRS - but I suspect you were using TS cable?
Click to expand...
Hey Papanate,

There are 7 mics in the “AKG Session 1” kit, but an 8 channel mixer would be great. I don’t see many 7 channel ones kicking around.

Re: the cable, it is a XLR to TRS (with the two rings below the tip). So this should work? Perhaps it doesn't work because it is actually a cheap cable I purchased from Amazon :unsure:

I have some standard XLR cables on order so will give those a go!

Thanks for the brand recommendation, I’ll have a look, it sounds exactly what I need :)
 
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TonyCarbony said:
Hey Papanate,

There are 7 mics in the “AKG Session 1” kit, but an 8 channel mixer would be great. I don’t see many 7 channel ones kicking around.

Re: the cable, it is a XLR to TRS (with the two rings below the tip). So this should work? Perhaps it doesn't work because it is actually a cheap cable I purchased from Amazon :unsure:

I have some standard XLR cables on order so will give those a go!

Thanks for the brand recommendation, I’ll have a look, it sounds exactly what I need :)
Click to expand...
XLR to TRS should work - the manual says the Connectors XLR/TRS combo jacks - so your are find with a TRS to XLR Cable.
 
Hey guys, thought I’d post an update and bring a conclusion to this thread. @Papanate, I picked myself up a Behringer Xenyx X2222USB unit, some decent XLR cables and got the mics hooked up and working nicely with the little Zoom unit. Everything working beautifully and lots of fun had so far.

Thank you all for helping to get me off the starting line. Now it’s time to start the real learning curve. I’ll keep my eyes open for a copy of Mike Major’s book on @Serendipity Records recommendation, although this seems to be a bit of a rarity.

Once again, thanks all. Look forward to chatting again soon.

TC
 
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