Micing a full band in a small room...drum shields?

Z

Zeppelin456

Banana Co
Hi, lately I've been having trouble keeping the bleed from the drums out of the mics for the guitars, is there any way to possibly avoid or reduce this problem with one of those drum shields? I've seen them in various stores, including musicians friend, and they seem a bit steep at 200-400 bucks....Does anyone have any experience with how well they work for keeping a ridiculous amount of drum bleed out of the rest of the mics? Thanks!
 
It won't help enough to be worth the money.

You would have to be in a rather large room with partitions around your other gear, for it to work and the shield itself screws with the recorded sound of the drums with all the high reflections.

My experiance anyway. Someone else may have a different story.

It does however relieve a little of the drum assault on others in the room which was why it was created in the first place.
 
You're a Bonzo fan, they're on their own! :D

I love seeing drummers today influenced by Zepp/Bonzo, we are a dying breed. I'm sorry this wasn't much help, but hang in there big guy!

Edit: ... A couple hours later (sorry, I'm still celebrating the holidays, and have had a few beverages)... I know drums, but am still learning the recording side. I seriously doubt one of those screen things will help much in a recording environment, and wouldn't spend the $200+ without exploring other options first.
 
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I Saw Led Zeppelin in 1969...Jon Bonham rules! I'm also glad to see Ludwig come out with the vistalite re-issue drum set...kicks butt. As far as the drum shields, from my experience they work great in live situations, in a small space you, isolate yourself behind the PA speakers if your systems big enough, put up a moving blanket, the drum shield is like vistalite and like some else said you'll create a lot of high end, if you build a 4x8 plywood shield it would have a better effect in a small space jmho.
 
You could put the guitars and bass direct,and put the singer in the controll room.(or any room that would seperate him/her from the drums)Let everyone monitor thru head phones.
This way you would get a live feel to the drum track without
bleed from other sources.You can treat the guitar tracks as scratch,and over dub them later.Same with the vox and bass.
 
I would agree with the others. The drum shield is not going to reduce the noise like you will want. Especially for the money you will have to spend. If you are able to, I would try to isolate the guitar amp (I am assuming it's electric guitar and not a mic'd acoustic) by putting it in a closet or covering it with a heavy blanket. If you can't isolate the amp, close mic the amp (less than 1" from grill) and position the amp and mic away from the drums as best you can, you should be able to do okay. Then just gate the noise during mixing for any places where the guitar isn't playing to remove the drum bleed during these passages.

Good luck
 
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