How many mics do i really need for this.....?

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cubanorocker316

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Hi, i need to know, to get a decent sound, how many and which mics and any other equipment would i really need to record drums, i have

1 bass drum
6 cymbals and a bell
1 snare
4 toms (i have 2 floor toms)

the set is backed into a corner, like when i sit down on the throne, my back is facing the corner, would this affect my sound ? i also have quite a small room, thanx in advance
 
cubanorocker316 said:
Hi, i need to know, to get a decent sound, how many and which mics and any other equipment would i really need to record drums, i have

1 bass drum
6 cymbals and a bell
1 snare
4 toms (i have 2 floor toms)

the set is backed into a corner, like when i sit down on the throne, my back is facing the corner, would this affect my sound ? i also have quite a small room, thanx in advance
Click to expand...



If all you have is drums and a room, buying mics won't help you very much.
You're going to have to be specific about what you've got and what you plan to do with it.

Acoustics matter. Details are key.
 
Supercreep said:
If all you have is drums and a room, buying mics won't help you very much.
You're going to have to be specific about what you've got and what you plan to do with it.

Acoustics matter. Details are key.
Click to expand...

well i specifyed and any other equipment i need, i have a eurorack with 4 channels, one cable, one stand and an mxl 990 which wont help very much
 
In a pinch, you can get away with (3) mics.

Kick mic
(2) overheads aimed correctly for everything else, XY or spread.

I would try a bunch of configurations out & see what sounds best.
 
cubanorocker316 said:
Hi, i need to know, to get a decent sound, how many and which mics and any other equipment would i really need to record
Click to expand...

IF you're a good drummer, on a decent, well-tuned kit, in a good sounding room... you only need:

Three mics - one for the bass drum and two overhead.

Or you can try one good LDC in Omni mode - find the sweet spot in the room and you're good to go.

cubanorocker316 said:
the set is backed into a corner, like when i sit down on the throne, my back is facing the corner, would this affect my sound ? i also have quite a small room
Click to expand...

Anywhere you place you're kit in the room will affect the sound. The corners CAN be a big problem, but corners CAN also be used to enhance the low end. But since you have a small room, my guess is you're going to have a lot of problems.

THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT IS THE ROOM!!! Period.

I suggest you pop on over to this site and start reading:

http://www.realtraps.com

Good luck, Rez
 
3 mics will do, but does your eurorack have 4 preamps or just 4 channels. this depends on alot,
A)what do you consider a decent sound, for example you may not mind the sound of the eurorack but alot of people wouldnt consider it a "decent sound"
B)the room, drummer and drumset matter alot. If they sound decent a recording can sound decent, if not, then a recording wont sound decent
C)in all honesty you can do what some would consider a "decent" recording with one mic. If the mic and the rest of the signal chain sounds ok, if the room and drummer and kit sound decent, then with a good engineer one mic would work in many cases so it depends on what the type of music and other instruments and such are like. it would be mono but you could do alot of tricks such as copying mic tracks and eqing them to more or less be tracks for different parts of the kit, for example running it through a highpass could give you a make shift kick track.

we need more infomation to help you with an answer, all the little details of the room, what is your entire signal chain, whats your kit, whats your budget and so on. the more info you give us the more detailed and answer we can give you
 
ok

ok i have a set, with one bass drum, 4 toms, 6 cymbals, one bell, it is backed into the corner of my room, my room is about 12'x12', i have one on stage mic stand, i have an mxl 990 that doesnt do very much, i have a eurorack with 4 "pre-amp" channels, my adobe trial ran out and i cant afford to pay 250.00$ for it so i have to find a crack for ti or something, i have one mic cable, the room is very compressed, the ceiling is some sort of foam that will absorb sound very well, i dont know if that is good or bad.

thats pretty much it
 
Is there any chance you can move the kit to a different room? With 12x12 (or any other square dimension) is not easy to get a good sound. You'd be much better off in another room that was, for example, 15x10.
 
cubanorocker316 said:
my adobe trial ran out and i cant afford to pay 250.00$ for it so i have to find a crack for ti or something
Click to expand...

If you are not bright enough to stop discussing piracy here, perhaps you are not bright enough to record. Just a thought.
 
get audacity or krystal they are free and pretty good
ok if you are playing more blues kinda stuff or older sound you can get away with one mic (place it maybe 4 feet away infront of the kick facing the corner of the room the drums are in) then you could copy and paste tracks if you need more cymbals or more kick that kinda thing,you wouldnt have stereo spread or anything. give the type of music you plan on recording so we know what sound you are after and budget and that should be enough info
 
Sorry if someone else has already mentioned this, but check out the Glyn Johns 3 mic setup - use sm57's if that's all you've got...who knows, could be cool. FWIW, if I'm dealing with drums recorded is less than optimal circumstances, I worry less about "fidelity" and more about "character", i.e, run 'em through a fuzz pedal, mangle them, butcher them - whatever it takes to get them useful.
 
If you splurge on some nice condensers you can get away without tom mics for the time being, and i kick mic, i recomend i think its called the shure pg52? and for snare mic go with a 57.
 
well instead of the 120 dollar pg get the 40 dollar fk2(its better) gls es 57 instead of a regular 57, also cheaper, and maybe a pair of 603s, you looking at about under 350 for that setup, you will probably want some better preamps and what not, but it is really ganna depend on what kinda sound you want, so musical style is a good piece of information we could use
 
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