Overhead(s)

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Well Shailat - :)

I have been recording a long time too (19 years), and have also tried many, many different mic placements, numbers and types. And I have never felt there is a "best" way or a "correct" way to mic drums. What works great in some situations may sound horrible in others - or at the very least there may be something else that sounds better. And that includes what you call "correct" panning, which I tend to call "standard" panning because it is what most people use these days, but that does not make it THE "correct" way as lots of people have gotten good results using different placements.

If you prefer to stick to the standard panning techniques and that always sounds good to you, great. And you did a good job of explaining to people why you prefer to do it that way. But that doesn't mean that any other way is "wrong", or is never going to sound as good.

--Lee
 
Well Lee

This post has to end.

As I said before it's not a philosopy issue "Experiment" yes correct not correct" "Standerd panning or not" This is right that is wrong".

It all boils down to the SOUND. I have posted my mp3's. If you like your sound then great.

Hmm.... experimenting.... every room and drum is different...not to use standard panning...this will take me a couple of days to digest. where was I living until now :eek:

Enough said

[Edited by Shailat on 09-28-2000 at 11:13]
 
Okey dokey, I finally got something onto an MP3. Had to borrow a friend's DAT recorder to get it out of my analog world. :) Not the greatest transfer method but oh well.

These are some test drum tracks I recorded in my basement a couple of weeks ago. There are 4 mics - 1 SM-57 on the kick and 1 on the snare, plus 2 CAD E-100's as overheads. I am using quite a lot of the kick drum mic in the mix but very little of the snare... most of the snare as well as the overall sound is coming from the overheads.

Overheads are panned left and right but only one of them is in fairly standard overhead position. The right mic (from drummer's perspective) is down lower and further to the right than the usual overhead.

I didn't use any compression, reverb or other processing during either recording or mixing, this is straight up.

Here's the link:



--Lee
 
Shailat please teach me!

This isn't an actual reply per se...........
I downloaded Shailat's drum mp3's and have to say:
Holy Cow that sounds good!
I'm not going to give any suggestions whatsoever, I'm fairly new to this recording scene, and any suggestions anyone has for recording punchy/powerful drums (mic's, mic placement, gating, eq, etc.....)would be greatly appreciated
I'm just about to start recording my band in my home studio
I have a great control room and plenty of mics and fx and a large amount of software. But I'm recording in a garage....
'nuff said. If Shailat or anyone with drum specific, or any for that matter, experience reads this, please post suggestions for deadening cruddy room accoustics for dry drum recording. Thanx -Aaron
please email me with any specific instructions
aaron@tah-usa.net
 
Now Now Children!

And I don't mean to patronize any of you by saying that... but my god, this is just about recording a drum kit, we're not debating world politics.

Right, well here's my view based on 15 years of playing and recording experience... not an incredible amount of drum recording, but enough to know what has worked, and experience from a very recent session using the Glynn Johns technique with results that amazed me.
Ok, so we all know the standard overhead configurations, and although they do work, they do lack something for me. I do agree that it's important to get a good stereo picture, and although there are great recordings from the past (Beatles etc), where the drums had to be in mono for technical reasons, there seems little sense these days to do that with the modern equipment we have... unless of course you want to do it for artistic reasons. There are many reasons a balanced stereo image is desirable from a drum kit, like - It adds interest for the listener, and it spreads the weight of the sound signals evenly across the speakers. Having said that, you could whack a mono kit in the center of your mix and as long as you've got a good balance between the individual drums it shouldn't be a problem. In the past I have enjoyed recording drums (and other instruments) in many crazy ways (just to learn, and often because of limited equipment and mics). Processing signals afterwards can often allow you to shape the sound into what you desire - though I actually prefer the reverse ethos of getting it right when it goes down to tape so you don't have to do much afterwards.

Sorry, I'm really babbling. I only came on to here to recommend the Glynn Johns technique. I recently had the pleasure of recording one of London & Australia's top session drummers, but I've only got a limited amount of equipment and decided to research 4-mic drum recording techniques, which is when I discovered Glynn Johns. It seems like a really odd setup, buy my god is it effective. The technique recommends large diaphragm mics, but I only have a couple a couple of cheap small condensers (Takstar PCM-6100). Now let me just say something about these mics (because you're probably thinking what the hell are they???). Now these are cheap Chinese 'secret weapons', if you ever get the chance to buy some, make sure you do. I bought 2 for £15 each of eBay a couple of years ago, and every time I plug them in I get good results (and I am experienced with Neumann’s... and other really high end mics). I also used the cheapest kick & snare mics that I bought of eBay especially for this session. Anyway, the drummer was knocked out by the technique and the results. There are a couple of good articles on this and I'd recommend it to anyone to go and check them out. The technique is not set in stone, you can vary the distances of mics, just don't forget your tape measure, as it's essential for the technique to work properly. But when it does work, it works a treat - and I have no problem using something developed by one of the greatest engineers of all time!

Right, that's enough waffle from me - this is actually my first post (sorry it's a bit crap ;o). Ah, just one other thing - there's another technique called the 'recorderman' method which only used two mics - I've heard good things and I want to try it.
Now a question for you - anyone got any groovy, interesting mixing techniques for drum overheads (like compression, eq, reverbs etc), I'm interested in knowing how people handle the mix side of drums.

Happy recording all – and have fun and don’t get too stressed about it… there is so much crap music being recorded perfectly – but I’d much prefer to listen to good music that recorded not nessasarily perfect - but creatively (like it used to be). How do you think Glynn Johns descovered a great technique? - by being creative! The rule book can be good to get started with, but sometimes you just have to throw it out the window and say ‘I’m doing this my way!’
 
A bit late in the day...

God, just realised this post is almost 10 years old!!!
 
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