How can I get a more powerful tom sound?

M

MightyPOOsticK

New member
I was wanting to know how I could get a more powerful tom sound. Mine are just lacking. I'm using:

2 overheads 1 kick mic
mackie 1202 vlz - pro
delta 66
cool edit pro

I was reading earlier and someone had a set up similar to this and he said he used a compressor or something to bring the toms up in the overhead mics. If I read that correctly could anyone show me how to do this? Are there any other ways (short of buying new mixer/more than 1 mic).

Thanks!
 
Mic placement, very careful mic placement. Or you can get more mics on the kit. Try getting those "overheads" down near the toms and pointed so they reject more of the cymbal and snare sound.
 
Get some 57's or even some cheap mics and close mic using noise gate and compression on every tom. This will drastically improve the sustain and presence and make your toms sound really fat. Noise gate is a real effective tool on drums especially getting a good kick sound. I know this will cost you a little and take some time tweeking but well worth the investment. I have never been able to get drum sounds that I found acceptable with 3 mics. I know some people can but it just hasn't worked for me.

Joel
 
The compression can definately help but tight mic'ing the toms would go the farthest to get them more agressive in the mix. I normally use 7 mics on an average kit. I don't gate but I do send a sub mix of the kick, snare and tom tracks as a stereo pair to a compressor and bring that back to two channels in the mixer and push it up under my existing drum mix to add some punch and power.
 
Tuning them properly is #1 priority....... (I'm not assuming your not, just saying whats important in your delema)

#2-Get some mics in close.....'57s....
 
quiet cymbals

you should be able to get a good tom sound from overheads as long as the cymbals are killing them...

try some quiet dark cymbals....
 
Track Rat said:
The compression can definately help but tight mic'ing the toms would go the farthest to get them more agressive in the mix. I normally use 7 mics on an average kit. I don't gate but I do send a sub mix of the kick, snare and tom tracks as a stereo pair to a compressor and bring that back to two channels in the mixer and push it up under my existing drum mix to add some punch and power.
Click to expand...

The gating keeps the ringing and humming of the drum heads under control and may also help with mic phasing problems. Track Rat, are you combining your compressed sub mix with all of the uncompressed drum mics? Do you compress your final drum mix again later? Just curious.

Joel
 
What I do is set up a normal mix of the drums and I'll put a compressor on the kick and one on the snare. Then I'll also assign the kick, snare and tom tracks to a sub group and send that to a compressor as a stereo pair and step on it hard, bring it back to two more channels and push it up under the mix I had going on. I don't send the overheads to the compressor usually as i don't care for the way it can make the cymbals sound.
 
get the drummer to totally smash on the toms. i'm not kidding. it works like a damn, especially if you're stuck without close mics.
 
Track Rat said:
What I do is set up a normal mix of the drums and I'll put a compressor on the kick and one on the snare. Then I'll also assign the kick, snare and tom tracks to a sub group and send that to a compressor as a stereo pair and step on it hard, bring it back to two more channels and push it up under the mix I had going on. I don't send the overheads to the compressor usually as i don't care for the way it can make the cymbals sound.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I can see how that would work. I have always compressed the overheads at least some. Not compressing I would assume would reduce the cymbal decay time, which may be desirable depending on the kit.
 
I know it might not be possible with your particular mic cabnet, but if at any point get your hands on a whole lot of 57's... Mic the top and bottom heads, and reverse the phase of one of the mics... It'll give you the biggest sounding toms youve ever recorded.
Ohhh but... just to reitterate what was said befor... this isnt at all neccisary with a good set of well tuned drums, and a good drummer... that is most important.
 
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