Need some tips on recording drums

[diakh]

Hi!

I would like to hear from you some advice on recording drums. My band have been recording some songs with midi backing drums, but now we found a good drummer, we want to record "real" drums.
I must say I'm not very much used to studio techniques, as we are mostly live performers...
We have made a good job recording everything so far, but when it came for the drums, the sound is not what we expected...

We are using cubase sx 2 and an e-mu1820M (Pentium 4 3GHz with hyperthreading). We have some Sure mics we bought our first performances, and some clip condenser mics (I don't know the brand) that we use in small room performances, and right now, it's impossible to afford new mics...

Any tips?

Thanks in advance,
Diakh.

 

[manning1]

search under my name. i posted the ideal set up yesterday.
peace.

 

[ElDangeroso]

Here is how I am doing it....

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=138140

 

[funksoulrubber]

snare mic setup is very imortant

An sm57 snare mic is good underneeth the snare pointed up and one also on top, experiment experiment experiment. 2 overheads to get a stereo ambient overall mix is good, a base drum mic has bene known to be placed by the kicker pedal at times but i like it out in front off the center down and to the right about 2 inches away - 4 inches away depending on the mic, research the dinamic range of your mics and focus them on your sounds for example,, you wouldent want a 45 hz -15 khz sm57 put on a bass drum that produces sounds at 20 hz - 50 hz, does that make sence?

 

[Dani Pace]

Welcome to the nightmare! I'm (sort of) joking but I'm being serious at the same time. Drums can be a nightmare, especially in a small room or with a drummer who is used to playing live. There is a lot of difference between studio drummers and preformance drummers. Studio work requires a lot more consistancy and precision, the playback will accent all the mistakes.
Your choice of mics and where you place them will vary with each different drummer or different set of drums and drummers are the first to complain if the sound isn't just right. It's a long road of experimentation to figure out how to record drums and get them into the mix so be patient and keep shifting mics and tweeking volumes and if you have better luck than most of us, you will discover that it can be done.

 

[kesterdevine]

If you are limited in your number of mics and don't have a lot of expensive gear, I highly recommend you keep it as simple as possible. And placing one mic directly behind the drummer's right shoulder pointing down towards the drums is a great place to start.I do this a lot for basic demos. I use an SM58, and have had good results with just one mic (really!) This will NOT make you sound like Tool or some very elaborately produced drummer, but can get a good solid sound if done right, meaning a good sounding kit, good sounding room and good drummer. The three magic elements! Good luck and remember to experiment!

 

[ecktronic]

If you are only using one mic for recording the drums i would be very carefull on mic placement as you want to get the levels of each drum right, relative to each other.
You want the kik and snare loudest with the hihat and cymbals not so loud. Toms you want loud but not as loud as the kik or snare i would say.
The cymbals and hats usually sound louder when recording with one mic. So i would point the mic at the snare and quite low down behind or beside the drummer so the cymbals arent picked up too much.