MANY drum questions

[alecmcmahon]

so i just got enough mics to start recording drums through my Digi002r. ( sm57 on snare, beta52a on bass, and two 603's as overheads.. )

and i tell you its been a head ache of a day... i just cant get anything to work right..

first off, when i pluged evreything in i couldnt tell what was what , evreything was just peaking off the charts.... even at small volume i couldnt tell what track was the bass even when just hitting that... WHAT A LARGE " BLEEDING " problem.....
its a tama drum kit. dont know what model. But anywho, what do you guys do about avoiding bleeding... the bass wasnt such a problem , although it DID pick up evreything else, not so much though... Also with the beta 52.. i just really couldnt get a good sound, maybe he needs new drum heads... or some wd40 on the squeky ass pedal of his...i really couldnt get a nice sound from it... i had to eq the snot out of it, cut all highs and mids until it was just bass thumps.

the snare with the 57 wasnt that bad... i had it pointed at the rim at times, and toward the center... about 2-3 inches off.... and it still picked up alot of the high hat and toms.

the 603's... ahhhh, they are just so sensitive... i felt like i had to keep them 6 feet away for em to just pick up the cymbals.... when i had them over the kit it was just chaos... evreything was being picked up by em..... i really need to work on exact " starter " placement for just a basic sound, i realize that i have to experiment... but i dont know what i should base it off.


also, i heard about a program called drumagog , from what i hear it takes the sound miced ( bass for example ).... doesnt matter how bad it sounds, but then it replaces it with a sample ? ???? can anybody explain how this works, but most importantly is it compatible with Pro Tools 6.4 ???????????

thanks

-alec

 

[Wireneck]

Welcome to the world of Drum Recording. It can be a headache but very rewarding once you learn to capture the drums accurately.

first off, when i pluged evreything in i couldnt tell what was what , evreything was just peaking off the charts.... even at small volume i couldnt tell what track was the bass even when just hitting that...

This really should not be a problem. Mute your channels and handle them one by one. Start with you snare, set the gain where its not clipping, mute it and move onto the next mic (kick) then repeat the process untill you have all the levels set.

the bass wasnt such a problem , although it DID pick up evreything else, not so much though... Also with the beta 52.. i just really couldnt get a good sound, maybe he needs new drum heads... or some wd40 on the squeky ass pedal of his...i really couldnt get a nice sound from it... i had to eq the snot out of it, cut all highs and mids until it was just bass thumps.

More info on your placement would be helpful. If your doing rock, you want to get the mic inside the Bass drum close to the beater side head. I normally take the front head completely off but that all depends on the sound your going for. You should be able to get usable results with the 52. Having to Remove all the mids and highs with EQ makes me think that you have a placement issue but I can't really say without more info. I normally end up boosting the highs and mids with my 52.

the snare with the 57 wasnt that bad... i had it pointed at the rim at times, and toward the center... about 2-3 inches off.... and it still picked up alot of the high hat and toms.

Some bleed is usually acceptable. If you want more control just use a gate or draw some volume envelopes on your snare track. I think the best bleed free place depending on the drum setup, is right in between the highhat and the first tom. Some mics have better rejection than a 57 as well (sennheiser 441 comes to mind) but the 57 will get the job done.

the 603's... ahhhh, they are just so sensitive... i felt like i had to keep them 6 feet away for em to just pick up the cymbals.... when i had them over the kit it was just chaos... evreything was being picked up by em.....

Yes they are pretty sensitive and easy to clip. The overheads are supposed to pick up the rest of the kit as well. Try to think of them as the glue that holds the kit together. Depending on the style you may only need to use them as "cymbal mics" but there will still be other parts of the kit being picked up by them. If you just want the cymbals, roll off the lows.

also, i heard about a program called drumagog , from what i hear it takes the sound miced ( bass for example ).... doesnt matter how bad it sounds, but then it replaces it with a sample

Yes drumagog can replace sounds after the fact. If you have the space and the equipment to record drums I would just keep working at it. Drumagog might be an easy fix but being able to mic up and record a kit is going to be a more usefull skill as an engineer in the long run.

Hopefully this will help you out some.

 

[alecmcmahon]

thanks for the info man, appretiated...

the kick , it was ussually about 6 " away from the beater head, center - pointed at like 3 o clock.... toward the rim area...

2 in the morning, work at 7am, gotta go- i'll use your advice... thanks

 

[darnold]

Its probably more with the tuning on the kick then anything. If your having to roll alot of highs out it sounds like youve got it tuned to high so your not really getting a kick sound but a low floor tom. Try getting the sound you want with the kick before you try micing techniques and eq.

The overheads should pick up everything on the kit especially if thats all the mics your using. Get the snare mic closer for less bleed. Dampen if its too resonate, but dont overdo it.

Danny