mic'ing toms w/ condensors

[artCROSS]

hey everyone. I'm trying to record a demo/local release album for my band and was wondering if you could help me out w/ a drum setup. So far, i've been using a stereo pair of mxl603s for OH, a 57 on snare, topside, and an ATM25 on the kick. However, w/ some of our new material, the drummer is using a lot more toms in his beats, in particular, a nice salsa groove. The toms aren't translating well enough in the mix, even when i double the OH and mute until the toms hit. I don't want to buy any more mics right now (just bought a new hollowbody, and about to buy a vox valvetronix ad120 head +cab).

I have two extra mics lying around, a SP B1 and MXLv67g. My drummer has 4 toms, an 8in, 10in, 12in, and a floor tom. If i try to use these LDCs, however, they pick up too much cymbal, snare, kick, etc, and b/c he now uses the toms in beats, not just fills, i can't just mute until the tom hits or else when i let them go, there will be a huge increase in snare, cymbal, kick, etc....any ideas? Thank you very much.

 

[vangore]

dont use the condensers let the overheads pick up the toms

 

[SilentSound]

I agree with letting the overheads picking up the toms. I was 14 and recording to 8 track cassette and only had 4 mics for drums.. I realized that one song was heavy on tom use so I basicallly directed the mics(cardioid dynamics..gasp)at the toms and found a suitable mix between cymbals and toms.

experiment dude.

 

[Wireneck]

Close mic the toms with the condensers. Attempt to position with the least amount of cymbal bleed. Then gate/expand the tracks to cut out as much kick/snare/leftover cymbal as you can. Then bring them up in the mix as much as you can before it starts affecting the amount of snare/kick/cymbal in the mix. If you do it right you should be able to get some descent tom tracks. There are plenty of people who use LDC for toms. So its certainly do-able.