Miking a drum kit on a budget...

[mong00se]

Hey,
I have a thread on another forum but i think this is the best place for me to ask my question seeing as i am a complete newb!

Im looking to record my band in my bedroom and Im just wondering if you think its possible that I can get a tolerable finished product using only 3 mikes. My band consists of electric guitars, bass guitar, vocals and drums and i will obviously be recording in layers...

Ive done a lot of browsing around the microphone forums and such (which are very informative!) and im thinking that my best bet at the moment is 2 sm57s (as overhead drum miks, electric guitars and vocals) and an audio technica pro25 (for kick drum and bass guitar). As you can guess my budget is pretty tight.

Are these the right mikes for the jobs within a tight budget? Also, it is possible that I may be able to stretch my budget to get 1 more mike. Which do you suggest and for what role?

Any suggestions appreciated!

 

[pewterbird99]

Get a sm57......if you're on a budget and you need an all around workhorse that is the mic to get. It would work well on the electric guitars....(just mic the amp close up, basically as close to the grill as you can). The sm57 would be good on the snare drum as well. As for the overheads I personally like the sound of the mxl 603s they are good for budget mics at around $80-100 a piece depending on where you are shopping. The sm57 could get the job done on vocals....but if you want a nice vocal sound for about $100 I would go with the mxl v67 or a Studio Projects B1.....I have never used a B1 but I have only heard good things about it. Anyway thats my two cents on the subject.

 

[Drummerdude1989]

The mics you listed are pretty good, but instead of getting two sm-57's, I'd get either an Octava mc-012 if you want nice drum sounds, or a SP-B1, which is supposed to be pretty nice for a lot of things, including vocals (the sm-57 is good on some vocals, but not so much on others.) Also, something I just learned myself from som1 on these forums, unless you have a really good room, i'd recomend direct inputing your bass guitar, instead of using a mic.
EDIT: wow, i basically ended up just saying the exact same thing as pewter.

 

[tubesrawsom]

get two 57'sfor kick and snare and an sp b1 for overhead and you can use them pretty much everywere else after word

its not the equipment tht makes the recording its the skill and knowledge of what ones recording will be
so learn about mic placment, reflection, phase, etc.
and hopefully your recording wont sound like a train ran over it
good luck.

 

[punkin]

3 mics...very do-able...it can be done very well with even less IF, the drums are tuned well, the mics are well placed AND, the room sounds good. The first two you can work on right away, the third, I would wouldn't worry about until #1 and #2 are taken care of. There's a bunch of stuff here in the forum on this subject if you look around. The 3 mic thing has been beaten to death. Lots of good info to be found...in addition, this should keep you busy in the homework department;

http://www.pfarrell.com/prc/michints.html
http://jerrykelley.bizland.com/items/Micing Technique.doc
http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/pages/placement.htm
http://www.shure.com/shurenotes/may2004/default.asp#drums

 

[mong00se]

thanks very much for the help, much appreciated!

Got a pretty decent pay today so it looks like i can afford 2 overheads! (as well as a kick n snare mik). Maybe i should have started a new thread for this named '603 vs SPB1' but after much snooping around it looks like these are the best bets for overheads within my price range, which do you suggest? a pair of mxl603's or a pair of spb1s....

 

[punkin]

Before you start that "new" thread, I would suggest you do a search first...again, it's been done over and over.

I have a set of 603's which I'm very pleased with...they double as very capable acoustic guitar mics as well. You can't go wrong by having SM57's in your kit either.

 

[blackdiscoball]

I find that a nice pzm set up in the right location can get a pretty good drum sound, I find that putting above the drummers head works wll because they just need to balance the volume to how they play. THe only problem I have found is that it doesn't the bass drum sound. It might be mu drum though because I use a HUGE bass drum and I really havent found any mike that sounds great yet.