Mic'ing drums with one soundcard input

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steverycher
  • Start date Start date
S

Steverycher

New member
I am currently recording into a Soundblaster 128. I am using an old Tascam mixing board with eight mic inputs and just running that into the card. I have six microphones on my drums. One for each bass drum, one on the snare, and three encompassing all six toms. The sound I am getting is fine, but of course I want more presence.

I am saving money for a new sound card and mixing board that will allow me to multitrack simultaneously, but in the meantime, I am stuck with this approach for awhile. We're writing some good stuff and I would like to get some quality tracks down. Any suggestions on the best way to make one sound card input work? Any tips, tricks would be helpful..... like what I can do to the track after it is already put down. Thanks!

Steve
 
just keep your master levels down. (those soundblasters can't take much) and if you boards pres are good, then you will be fine, until you get you new stuff.


zeke
 
Any tricks on what kind of effects or panning to do after the drums are already put in? Since I am limited with one input, what can I do to make the drums sound good AFTER I get the best possible recording?
 
what kind of software are you recording on? do all the paning on you board. then prosess the track with a room revurb or a lite hall. you can allways eq the track in the software.
 
Thanks for your responses. :) Cakewalk Sonar is what I am currently using. I recently upgraged from ProAudio and am just learing the new features.
 
I'm assuming the one input on your card is stereo. I would try using stereo everheads, a kick and a snare mic. Usually you can wind up getting a good overall sound that way, and bring in the kick and snare a little for clarity. Or, again assuming that your card has a stereo input, put just the bass on one track and the rest on the other, and you would have a mono mix but you would have a little more control over it.
In sonar just mess around with compression and eq, and maybe a little reverb. Good luck
 
Do a search for "fat drums fast" in this forum, started by me. Then use this technique, and an always-safe way to set levels for later is peaking 0 on kick, -5 on snare, and -10 on overheads. This will give you an almost perfect balance every time. Since you cant change it later, stick with this since it works close enough to almost be a rule. Dont EQ anything going in unless you are cutting some mud from the kick or adding some whack to the snare. Add ing EQ to overheads with cheapo boards will sound like ass.
Peace.
 
Tube my friend, do you have any samples of of drums that you did like this? I use minimal mics every once in a while but I always end up tight mic'ing the toms to get that agressive attack. I'd like to hear something you did with this technique.
 
I use this as a basis to get a fast, easy good sounding seperated setup, and it works well for a lot of people... but to be honest, I'll get a close mic in on the toms and a room mic, maybe a pair, if I can get em all in phase and the room sounds decent. The reason I dont mention the tom mics anymore is that most people dont get the whole phase thing and create a disaster, and it will sound a mess. I gate the toms by hand one hit at a time, too, so I'm not dealing with as much phase issues unless the tom mics are open, which isnt but 5% of the time maybe.
This still wont work worth a crap if they dont understand gain staging...
which I just happened to explain here: https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=32436&highlight=gain+staging
A good read...
Peace,
Paul
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top