micing the drums with 4 mics

  • Thread starter Thread starter lurek100
  • Start date Start date
As RAMI mentioned earlier... i think you'd be best off getting another condenser... preferably an exact replica of what you have....

use the condensers for OH and use the 57 for snare and the 58 for kick.

edit - the reason you want 2 OH is for a stereo recording... obviously pan 1 OH L and 1 R.... in my opinion... more important than a kick ass kick drum sound.
 
finally I have bought set of 2 rode nt5 . will use them for overheads. (£150 for set second hand)
- sm57 for snare and
- sm58 for kick

at the moment it will have to work.
 
lurek100 said:
finally I have bought set of 2 rode nt5 . will use them for overheads. (£150 for set second hand)
- sm57 for snare and
- sm58 for kick

at the moment it will have to work.
Click to expand...

And it will work, there may be a marginal difference with using the SM57 on kick and the SM58 on snare as well. I used an SM58 for years on kick for live shows with great results, experiment with the distance inside the kick (assuming that there is a hole or no front skin) to adjust the tone and attack, makes a big difference. The nt5's will make excellent overheads.

alan.
 
lurek100 said:
finally I have bought set of 2 rode nt5 . will use them for overheads. (£150 for set second hand)
- sm57 for snare and
- sm58 for kick

at the moment it will have to work.
Click to expand...

there's no reason you wont get good results with the 57 on the snare and 2 OH's besides poor mic placement and engineering.... meaning... you have the tools you need, now just learn how to use em properly.

The 58 on the kick is not ideal, but thast the way it goes.... you can still get good results ... it just means you will need to spend more time placing and EQing
 
Not to be a buzz kill, but personally, I have tried micing a kick with a 58, and heard others and never heard even a decent sound from it. DEFINITILY get a kick mic soon. You can record drums just fine with a kick mic, a snare mic, and one condensor directly over the snare about 3'. (I think you'll be happier than getting another candensor and still having a crappy kick sound.
 
singer202 said:
Not to be a buzz kill, but personally, I have tried micing a kick with a 58, and heard others and never heard even a decent sound from it. DEFINITILY get a kick mic soon. You can record drums just fine with a kick mic, a snare mic, and one condensor directly over the snare about 3'. (I think you'll be happier than getting another candensor and still having a crappy kick sound.
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you're not being a buzz kill... you're just wrong

edit - obviously a kick drum mic will be better than a 58... but its VERY possible to get a good kick sound with a 58
 
CMB Studios said:
you're not being a buzz kill... you're just wrong

edit - obviously a kick drum mic will be better than a 58... but its VERY possible to get a good kick sound with a 58
Click to expand...

I disagree, but would be happy to be proved wrong if you can share with me a drum recording that has a good kick sound done with a 58. I just have never come accross one.
 
singer202 said:
I disagree, but would be happy to be proved wrong if you can share with me a drum recording that has a good kick sound done with a 58. I just have never come accross one.
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disagree all you'd like, i dont care to prove you wrong... but trying to tell someone that you cant get good results because you "have never come across it" is an epic amount of ignorant.
 
CMB Studios said:
disagree all you'd like, i dont care to prove you wrong... but trying to tell someone that you cant get good results because you "have never come across it" is an epic amount of ignorant.
Click to expand...

Well, on this forum, the most important, number one rule for recording that everyone agrees on is "use your ears". I have used my ears in a number of situations and have yet to hear a good kick drum sound recorded with a 58. Furthermore, the time I recorded with a 58 was because I was in the same pinch as the op, and as it turned out, I was never happy with any drum track (no matter how much placing or tweaking) I did until I got a kick mic. Because my ears have never heard it work, it would be misleading of me to say "go for it!", and I would encourage him to waste a crap ton of time trying something that's not likely to yield desirable result (in my opinion, based on my experience). That in not ignorance, that's applying my own experience and knowledge to the situation at hand. Sorry that it is not what you would say but tough. No need to be rude. If I hear a recording that sounds good recorded this way, I will be pleasantly surprised and retract my prior statements.
 
Im really appreciate your help.
I just would like to add that im guitarist but I like to recording bass , drums and other instruments my self and mix them toogheter for my songs.
Its not gonna be professional recording, just for me to start and learn how to do it in the future when I will have better skill and equipment.
at the moment I bought overheads , will use sm58 for kick ( but in the future will buy akg d12) sm57 for top snare ( but in this video
How to record, track, and mix drums - YouTube
guy say that I should use sm57 for bottom mic because top snare will be picked up by overheads anyway)

I still have one se2200 condenser , I thought I could use it as a room mic or for hihat - what do you think about it?

the reason why I didnt test it yet is : I spent some more money for overhead and now cant afford stands :)
Will have to wait few days till some money will apear on my account :D

And just one more questions, can you tell me how I should set overheads?
 
You don't lose anything by waiting to buy mics except for the time you'd spend experimenting with what you have. On top of that, the time you would spend will only make you better at micing and recording.

If I had your mics and a $150 budget, I'd use the condenser as an overhead hanging over the center of the kit, the 57 on the snare, and the 58 on the kick. Don't put it on the center of the reso head, move it way off to within a few inches of the hoop.

You don't need stereo. And if you really wanted it, I'd do the 57 and 58 in XY or ORTF (near coincident) overheads and I'd put the condenser low - like a foot off the ground - and backed off about two feet in front of the kit.

YMMV.
 
First and foremost...find a drummer with a finely tuned kit. The simplest and most successful commercial set-up I've heard of involves 4 mics...a kick mic, a snare mic, and two overhead microphones. Glyn Johns used it to record the Stones/Clapton/The Who...and on and on. Here are the basics...
Recording Drums: The Glyn Johns Method
I don't pan as much as suggested...but I guess it's a matter of taste.
 
danbortz said:
First and foremost...find a drummer with a finely tuned kit. The simplest and most successful commercial set-up I've heard of involves 4 mics...a kick mic, a snare mic, and two overhead microphones. Glyn Johns used it to record the Stones/Clapton/The Who...and on and on. Here are the basics...
Recording Drums: The Glyn Johns Method
I don't pan as much as suggested...but I guess it's a matter of taste.
Click to expand...

Funny how it took a "newbie" like me to mention Glyn Johns.
This method works very well, best if the room sounds good (but ain't that always the way?). As mentioned, the kit should also be tuned well - you can't polish a turd, you can only sculpt it into a better shaped turd, and you will get crap all over your fingers doing it.
The advantage to using less mics on a kit of course is it's easier to achieve phase alignment. I usually use 7 mics around a 4-piece kit (k, sn top, sn bottom, rack tom, floor tom, l and r overhead) + room mics to suit the situation, and I spend a fair amount of time listening and nudging mics into correct position. With 4 mics it's a doddle. Remember, the overheads in the Glyn Johns method are the main sound, and the snare and kick are "spot mics" - it's like stereo pair orchestra recording with spot mics on solo instruments.
To the original poster: try this with your NT-5s as the overheads, the 57 on snare (1 inch in from the rim pointing to the centre of the snare), and the 58 inside the kick (you will probably need to compress and eq the kick channel a fair bit in the mix). Like "danbortz" above, I don't pan as much as suggested in the linked article, but it's up to you. You could use the sE condenser as a room mic - try placing it out the front of the kit (say 5 feet away), about the height of the top of the kick drum. Move it closer or further away, depending on what you hear (check it for phase with the overheads, one mic at a time). You should be able to get a nice thud from the kick and a little more snare bottom perhaps. Don't worry about the hats - they will be picked up nicely in balance by the o/heads if the drummer knows how to play alright.
Cheers, Brento
(Newbie! Grrrr! I've been doing this for twenty-five years....)
 
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