How should I setup my mics for recording drums??

[jimthepisces]

I don't have very many mics and I'm looking for advice about how to get the most out of my setup.

I have 2 shure sm57's, 1 beta 52 and an AKG Perception 100. What would be a good solid way to setup these mics for recording a drumset??

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[miroslav]

There is no one correct way...it depends on the room, the type/size of kit, the sound you are after...etc...etc.

But just going at "face-value" with what IS known here...you have 3 dynamic mics and one condensor.

You might try a 57 on the Snare, close-miked, and then either the other 57 or maybe the 52 on the Kick...inside/outside...?

And the third dynamic maybe near the hats...or between the top toms..., maybe out right in front....experiment.

And then the condenser I would put above the the kit, dead center, almost over the drummers head with it's front facing down and slightly forward, and about 3-4 feet up off the kit for a whole-kit sound and some room ambience.

But this is just a basic starting point...you may need to try a few different positions once you hear what you are getting.

 

[NinthHour]

i totally agree.. there have been countless discussions on how to mic drumkits up and get "the right sound" but it depends on the genre of music for example a jazz drummer can be suited well with just a dynamic at the kick drum and two sdc's in xy form over the kit and get great results! but a metal drummer would mud up that configuration and essentialy sound like muffled crap with what you are working with i would say as previously stated try getting your snare and hi hat sounds with one of your 57's kinda halfway between the two put another of your 57's in the kick drum close to the beater is my preference (picks up the slap of the beater) then throw the other out front or maybe off the shell of the kick drum. and when you have one condenser i agree... dead center over the kit. i did however pick up a tip from a article on ross robinson (korn's engineer) and that was to place the over head mic(s) behind the drummer in such a way as to make the diaphragm at about a 35-45 degree angle to the heads of the kit seems to make things blend out a lil nicer but play around with different things and see what suits your needs best good luck!

 

[miroslav]

i did however pick up a tip from a article on ross robinson (korn's engineer) and that was to place the over head mic(s) behind the drummer in such a way as to make the diaphragm at about a 35-45 degree angle to the heads of the kit seems to make things blend out a lil nicer...

Yeah...I found that trick about 8 years ago, though it wasn’t from Ross Robinson…I just got it freom experimenting with different OH setups.
That's what I meant about placing the mic down, but tilted slightly forward....though I don't place my OH mics *behind* the drummer, but they are "inside" the kit right over the drummer, rather than outside in-front or to the sides.
I do that with an M/S pair...for a sweet stereo kit sound, and I find the cymbals are much tamer and blend in better with the mics in that position, plus you get the toms and everything else real nice too!
Out in front just never sounded right to me....unless it was some distance thing where I wanted the big room ambience instead of the actual kit sound.

 

[jimthepisces]

Hm. Well I definitely want to use my Beta 52 for the kick drum rather than a 57...and one 57 will be for the snare drum. Really I'm wondering where to put that extra 57. I'll probably put my condenser mic over head on the inside of the kit, kind of behind the drummer to capture the whole kit. I would like a nice stereo sound, so maybe I should put the 57 on the side opposite of the snare? Maybe inside by the toms? idk!!

 

[jimthepisces]

oh yeah, btw, I'm recording a metal band. They want a killer kick drum sound. Also, maybe should i mic the top and bottom of the snare w/ my 2 sm57's? then beta 52 on kick drum and condenser OH?

 

[mattr]

oh yeah, btw, I'm recording a metal band. They want a killer kick drum sound. Also, maybe should i mic the top and bottom of the snare w/ my 2 sm57's? then beta 52 on kick drum and condenser OH?

Metal drums with 4 mics (and not an ideal pair of overheads)? You're going to have a fairly hard time getting that right. I think even the most experienced of engineer would struggle to get what people consider to be 'killer metal drums' from that kind of mic setup.


You see... normally when mic'ing a kit, you want to try and capture a pretty good image of the whole kit with a pair of stereo overheads, then everything else (spot mics, room mics, etc) are for reinforcement or embellishment. For this, an overhead + kick + snare setup is very common and works well for a huge variety genres and drum sounds.

However mic'ing up a kit for a stereotypical metal drum sound on turns this on its head - most of the drums are captured by close mics and then the overheads become more like 'cymbal mics'. This allows for the greatest separation between drums, more processing to be done on each individual piece of the kit, and an overall less realistic, more metal sound! That doesn't mean to say that they have to be recorded in this way - I'm sure there are some very talented people who can get a great drum sound from a stereo pair of condensers (as a result of a really good kit and drummer), however we have to be more realistic here on a forum about home recording!

In fact, lots of drums parts for metal songs are done with samples or triggers (a popular thing to do is to trigger or blend samples for all the drums but keep the real cymbals) - even then you still need mics or triggers on each individual drum. Electric trigger pads / V-drums? Heck, you could even go the whole way and do it all in MIDI - most of the people listening to the song would probably never know. A lot of commercially produced metal songs use programmed drums.

That is; unless the drummer is insanely good at playing his kit with the right balance required for them to mix well - i.e. thwack the drums and go light on the cymbals. Unfortunately your average-joe-drummer-in-an-amateur-metal-band (sorry any drummers amongst us!) loves to have the largest. loudest crash cymbals available to buy, and also loves to keep hitting them really loudly throughout a song, drowning out everything else.

So if you really have to stick with the 4 mic setup, the two things that will probably affect the outcome of the recording more than minor details in mic positioning are probably...

• High quality and well tuned drums / cymbals that are suited to the sound you are after

...and most importantly...

• A good drummer