mixing drums

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ollie99

ollie99

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Hi, soon I will be able to record each drum mic onto a separate track, so how would you mix them? my idea would be to do the overheads first because they pick up other drums as well so doing them last might change other drum sounds slightly, but other than that I'm not really sure. Am I right in saying that? do you actually need a method? any other tips?

Thanks
 
I would also go with the overheads first, cranking them up, and then place the other drums in the stereofield where they seem to be in the OH's. Kick, snare, hats, then toms.
On the other hand Iäve heard of some that do OH last, so...
 
I mostly use just four tracks to record drums. MY usual method is to mute all tracks, sort out the kick sound if it needs it. The bring in the overheads. Quite often, this is pretty well all that is needed. But then I bring up snare to give it a presence if not already there.
 
Snare = centre
Kick = centre
OH is recorded as a stereo track, so no panning.
However, if it sounds like the drums are too wide, I will narrow the separation on the OH track
 
okay thanks, what about toms? because I often find it quite cool when there is a drum roll in a song and the toms will go from centre to the right slightly, anything like that I think sounds more like you are actually in front of the drum kit
 
Toms are generally no problem. At times I have miked up toms, but mostly I don't, because the OHs pick them up well and place them accurately in a stereo image. So even with just overheads, you get that sense of going from left to right (or vice versa).
 
Just to chime in, I do pretty much exactly what Gecko does. 4 mics, no problem with the toms, they still go right to left when I do a roll, etc.....

Your drum sound is 90% overheads. If you're going to get obsessed about anything, make it your overheads, not your individual tom mics, which I've never even used.
 
Lately, I've started close micing the toms and using a subkick and I find I'm still getting most of what I'm looking for out of the OH's.
The toms, snare and kick mics get brought up in the mix just enough for a bit of accent or oomph but that's about it.

btw.....excellent article MoFactaDude. :D
 
okay thanks guys, and mo facta that is a very detailed and useful article!
 
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