micing drums 4 mics

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ripingitar

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MY last demo i recorded with kik mic ..snare mic...2 condensers between the toms .... turned out pretty good .... IM getting ready to self produce my bands full length cd for reproduction .. I WANT primo quality ....im limited on mics and $$$ ... has anyone else used the 4 mic method ..... and do you feel
its possible to get a good commercial quality with this method ... most friends individually mic everything..with overheads... i havent had the luxury of doing that because of limited / funds/ mics... just wanting input before starting trax.... thanks..
 
I prefer kick, snare, and two overheads. How you place the overheads is up to you. There is the recorderman method, or more traditional XY, OTRF, or spaced pair techniques. Here is a good tutorial on miking up a kit with different numbers of mics. There is another good one here.
 
I was afraid i would have too much cymbals overhead...between the toms made cymbals off axis .. but im gonna experiment , do you hard pan the overheads ???
 
You'd be surprised what you can do with just two overheads. Try this, get your overheads set up and get them really sounding good, it may take a few hours to get it down but do it, its worth it. Once you get that sounding killer, and you should be able to, then add the snare and kick. Like I said you'd be surprised what you can do with just 4 mics, or 2 really for that matter.
 
ripingitar said:
I was afraid i would have too much cymbals overhead...between the toms made cymbals off axis .. but im gonna experiment , do you hard pan the overheads ???
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I generally only hard pan with an XY configuration. Others get panned to wherever sounds best. If you are getting too much of the cymbals, either you have not placed the overheads correctly or your drummer is hitting the cymbals too hard or the toms too soft. You'll have to take to time to position the mics correctly each time you record (and it will vary according to the room and the drummer).
 
I have found that for me and in my room, that I've got to lower the overheads below the cymbals. I've got a 7-ft ceiling that isn't treated so there tends to be a lot of reflection. By putting the overheads below the level of the cymbals, I get good sounds from the toms and snare and a pretty good cymbal sound.

Another little trick I learned, if your room is large enough, is to have a pair of room mics about 10 feet out and three feet above the ground. This will pick up the toms really well too without the cymbals overpowering them.

JES

http://********.com/artist.aspx?ID=32722
 
The other day I was reading through this thread and I looked up the link to recorderman and I gave his method of recording a try, and wow! I think there was a real difference in my sound. The only thing that I had to change was that of one of my mics. My snare wasn't sounding too good so I took the clip on mic and put a sm57 on it and it changed the sound. I was getting a little bit of a distortion or a clipping sound and then I changed the mic and adjusted the volume and it came out really good.
 
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