NegadivOne
Alchemy slut
Let me start by saying that Im not looking for a pat on the back or anything, I just wanted to try and help to show how important proper mic placement is. Ive been drumming for about 7 years, recording for 3 or 4. Ive only been serious about recording for the past few months though. I always heard people talk about how important mic placement is, but I never understood how someone could spend an hour setting up one mic...untill a couple days ago. My girlfriend was out of town and I had nothing to do so I decided to spend the day in my studio and try to work on improving my drum recordings. There are clips here http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=500073, OldMicPlacement, and NewMicPlacement. I used the same drums, mics, recorder, room, everything the same for both recordings. I didnt even retune the heads from the old one to the new one. The only thing that is different is I used a different snare for the new clip. I encourage you to listen to the old clip first.
My Setup:
Drums: Taye StudioMaple 6 pc.
Mics:
Kick - Shure Beta52
Snare - Shure SM57
Toms - Shure SM57's
Overheads - AT P650R's (I think they are discontinued)
Recorder: Fostex VF160
OLDMICPLACEMENT: This clip is the result of about a months worth of work on these drum tracks. I had to do a lot of eq, and a lot of general tweaking to make them sound this good. I even did the trick of really compressing a submix of the drums and bringing them up under the uncompressed drums. I cut out all the parts of the trackes that werent needed, ie: i cut out the tom tracks when the toms werent being played, to try to get it as clear as possible. This is the best I could make these tracks sound. The overhead mics I just put up in L and R spaced pair. I didnt even really experiement with them, just threw them up when i got them and left them in the same place for all my recordings. The Beta52 is right in the hole on my bass drum head. The snare and toms are all close miced with 57's about an inch from the heads.
NEWMICPLACEMENT: This clip is the recording I made after a whole day of working on mic placement. The only things I did were: I tracked with a LITTLE bit of compression this time. I added just a little bit of reverb to cover up the sound of my bad room (same reverb and same amount as in the other drum clip). I added no other effects and no eq except for pulling a tiny bit of mids out of the kick. I didnt do anything to the toms and they sound killer. I used to have to eq the crap out of them and they always used to sound hollow and cardboard-y. This is the best my drums have ever sounded on a recording and I didnt even tune them before I recorded. The overheads I have in an XY pattern, and the snare is still really close miced, but now the 57's on the toms I put about 3 or 4 inches from the head. The Beta52 is about 3 inches from the beater side head, pointed at the beater.
I just wanted to share my personal revolation about the importance of mic placement. The guys on these boards really do know what they are talking about most of the time. I learned everything I know on these boards. Thanks everybody!
My Setup:
Drums: Taye StudioMaple 6 pc.
Mics:
Kick - Shure Beta52
Snare - Shure SM57
Toms - Shure SM57's
Overheads - AT P650R's (I think they are discontinued)
Recorder: Fostex VF160
OLDMICPLACEMENT: This clip is the result of about a months worth of work on these drum tracks. I had to do a lot of eq, and a lot of general tweaking to make them sound this good. I even did the trick of really compressing a submix of the drums and bringing them up under the uncompressed drums. I cut out all the parts of the trackes that werent needed, ie: i cut out the tom tracks when the toms werent being played, to try to get it as clear as possible. This is the best I could make these tracks sound. The overhead mics I just put up in L and R spaced pair. I didnt even really experiement with them, just threw them up when i got them and left them in the same place for all my recordings. The Beta52 is right in the hole on my bass drum head. The snare and toms are all close miced with 57's about an inch from the heads.
NEWMICPLACEMENT: This clip is the recording I made after a whole day of working on mic placement. The only things I did were: I tracked with a LITTLE bit of compression this time. I added just a little bit of reverb to cover up the sound of my bad room (same reverb and same amount as in the other drum clip). I added no other effects and no eq except for pulling a tiny bit of mids out of the kick. I didnt do anything to the toms and they sound killer. I used to have to eq the crap out of them and they always used to sound hollow and cardboard-y. This is the best my drums have ever sounded on a recording and I didnt even tune them before I recorded. The overheads I have in an XY pattern, and the snare is still really close miced, but now the 57's on the toms I put about 3 or 4 inches from the head. The Beta52 is about 3 inches from the beater side head, pointed at the beater.
I just wanted to share my personal revolation about the importance of mic placement. The guys on these boards really do know what they are talking about most of the time. I learned everything I know on these boards. Thanks everybody!
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