micing drums

[janissinger]

Been recording for about two years and it made me realize just how important and difficult it is to mic drums right. Choosing between condenser and dynamic and where to put them is what I am confused on. Where on the kit should dynamics and condensers be used or avoided? Thanks

 

[Rimshot]

Been recording for about two years and it made me realize just how important and difficult it is to mic drums right. Choosing between condenser and dynamic and where to put them is what I am confused on. Where on the kit should dynamics and condensers be used or avoided? Thanks

You said a whole mouthful there! It is important and difficult and it has also been covered in great detail on this board in the past and fairly recent past at that.

Since you're real new here, maybe you don't know about the search function at the top of the page but if you click on search and type in "Mic'ing Drums", I guarantee you'll get enough reading on the subject to keep you busy for weeks.

There's a TON of useful information and insights there, and if you have any specific questions after you've read all of that, ask away. You'll get a bunch of different answers, some conflicting, but almost always, all good.

 

[6gun]

there are no rules for which mic to use. read up on different techniques and gear used and you'll get a feel for what can work for you.

 

[Gidge]

"micing drums" pulled up 897 threads.....

as stated, there are no rules....but generally people like to close mic the kick, snare, and toms with dynamic mics and use condensers for overheads......

 

[Gidge]

http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/files/drummic1

 

[M Havlen]

A set of mic's made for drums is a good place to start. They can be purchased for anywhere from 150$ to several thousand depending on how much you want to spend. Get the best you can afford..As mentioned, there are no set in stone rules for mic'n anything really, experiment with different " mic placement " the placement can really make a huge differenc in the sound. Dynamics are usually used on the individual drums, and condensors for overheads..but again, there are no rules. Use what ya got, move em around.

 

[MannaZen]

I tried something new to me last night and it worked really well! Im only using 4 mics. 2 mxl1006s as my overheads, a AKG D112 on the kick and a good ol sm57 on the snare. I'll try to post an Mp3 later

I used this as a guide to setting up the mics. I got it off this board and it works really well. The toms sounded so full. Everything was balanced well.


1. Place the "Left" overhead mic directly over the center of the snare
at the height of two drum sticks-held end-to-end(from the center of the snare, straight up, to the capsule of the mic).

2. Next; take the drum sticks (still held end-to-end) from the center
of the snare over to above your ( i.e." the drummers") right shoulder and place your "right" overhead mic here.


3. Fine tune the placement by using a mic cable and measurinb the dist
ance from the center of the Kick to each of these mics is also equidistant from the kick and snare.

4. listen with headphones and have the drummer lightly hit his kick dr
um, and adjust the "right" mics angle until the kick is in the middle of your "image".

What this has done is:
1. Place the snare & the kick in the center when you pan these mics hard left and right.
2. Place the overheads in a position which is in-phase with the kick,snare and overheads.
3. balanced the over heads so that the Rack and floor Toms (as well as all cymbals) are correctly balanced.

this is actually a great "picture" of the kit at this point. maybe a hair of Top end
(depending on what mics your using), and a Kick mic. BUT whatever you add (snare mics, toms, etc)
you'll now be inphase. This also makes your snare & toms louder in relation to the cymbals &
is more of a true OH mic set-up (Not just "cymbal" mic's) It may look weird but try it...it truelly ROCKS

 

[FattMusiek]

Good post Gidge, a very informative article indeed.