Help with recording drums

  • Thread starter Thread starter dturcotte
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dturcotte

dturcotte

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I have a starclassic and am having troubles getting a good sound while recording. When we play live, I tune the drums loose to get a deep sound but when recording it doesn't sound good at all. I am looking for power and depth and I just can't seem to get there. Should I be tuning them higher to get some ring? Then eq to get them where I want? Just very frustrating.

Any help would be appreciated...
 
dturcotte said:
I have a starclassic and am having troubles getting a good sound while recording. When we play live, I tune the drums loose to get a deep sound but when recording it doesn't sound good at all. I am looking for power and depth and I just can't seem to get there. Should I be tuning them higher to get some ring? Then eq to get them where I want? Just very frustrating.

Any help would be appreciated...
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You'll probalby want to tune them high enough to get a clear tone, which may not be very high at all, depending on your tom sizes.

You also may want to think about which side of the tom is being mic'ed and what it sounds like from that particular side. Like, the overheads will mostly get the sound from the top of the tom, whereas a mic in front of the kit will mostly get the underside of the toms.

BTW, I have no experience close mic'ing toms, only experience with overheads.

And of course, it couldn't hurt to experiment.
 
tamas are usually decent on recording as a kit...
it could be the heads, the tuning of the heads... where do you mic when you record?
some people prefer to take off the back head and put a mic up in the inside of the drum for a nice thwack sound. mic up every drum maybe.
i prefer to have loose heads, moon gels, and mini emad dampener strips for a nice punch sound on recording. It should work for u...
Thats just my opinion tho, and im a noob recorder.
good luck with it all
 
I usually like to record with my tom heads a bit higher pitch than usually and then pull out some of the mids in the mix and it mellows them out.
 
Read everything on this site: http://home.earthlink.net/~prof.sound/

Spend some time experimenting with mic placement and what area of the head you aim it. That's about all you can do.

Then, if you continue to be frustrated, buy a copy of Drumagog or Soundreplacer.
 
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