Question about drum micing!

[mattoci]

I'm going to get a Nady drum micing kit. It's the:

Nady DMK7 7-piece Drum mic pack for $170 and I know it may not have the best quality ever, I don't know yet, but I'm on a budget. Anyway, my question is about the cymbal mics. It comes with 2 Nady CM88 mic's and I know that some people mic cymbals overhead, but some mic from below, and I was wondering if anyone had any tips or techniques or advice on what would be best? I know I can't get pro quality or anything...I'm in an untreated bedroom and I just wanted to get some advice on micing the cymbals. And as far as using a mixer...is it true that if I get a simple little 5-input mixer that I was looking at, and I hook the mixer into my 8-track recorder, all 5 of the mic recordings can be panned/equalized/etc on the mixer itself and the one sound you get from all the different mic's on the mixer will go to just one mono track or stereo tracks on my recorder, right? In other words...5 mics will produce one sound, of course, and by panning and etc on the mixer, that one sound I get will go to the actual 8-track recorder onto one track, right? I sort of repeated myself there but I'm new at this. Thanks for any and all help!! God bless.

 

[thecuriouscouch]

so your buying one mixer for your drums to send to your recording mixer? as for the drum pack..i dono im more inclined to buy specific mics rather than a set of them its a bit more expensive as a whole sometimes, but you get a better more specific outcome. As for the overheads, just make sure you dont let your bass drum or low toms leak into them but dont cut to much low because your cymbals will end up sounding cheep.

 

[jake-owa]

I have never heard of people micing cymbals from below. Put the overhead mics in a place where they both get the snare equally and well overhead so they will pick up all the cymbals.

 

[AlexW]

Drum overheads are used to pick up the whole kit--not just the cymbals. Sometimes people place them beneath the cymbals if the drummer hits very hard and there is too much cymbal wash in the overheads. You can also place them a little behind the kit, over the drummers head if this is a problem. Basically, set them up, listen to them, and then move them around until you get a kit sound you like.

As for your mixer, yes, you can run your mics into a mixer and mix them down using the faders and panning to a stereo track output. This would need to go into two of your recorder inputs (not just one) in order to maintain the stereo spread. Pan these channels hard left and hard right.

 

[Chibi Nappa]

As was said above, yes...you should be trying to capture the whole kit with the overheads, not just the cymbals. I get a good 60% of my snare sound from the overheads for example.

An easy no-fuss way to place overheads that gets great results is to use the x-y technique. Get one of those dohickies that lets you mount two mics on one stand (We've all seen them at Phish and Dave Mathews shows in the crowd taper section). Place the two mics so thier heads touch and their bodies are at 90 degree angles. Plop that down in front of the Drum kit centered on the snare and adjust the height to taste. Great stereo image that gets the whole picture.

 

[mattoci]

Thanks, you people rule, I was actually surprised at all the posts already. I knew that the overheads were used to pick up the rest of the kit too, but I wasn't sure about if I should do it from above the kit or below the cymbals. Sorry to seem like a bother, but I have another question. I have heard from some that you should record in a dead room without much reverb to get the best sound, but then, the best drum recording I ever got was to simply go out in my dads garage that is probably 20 feet high or so and the walls are aluminum with little insulation, and I simply placed one mic on the left side of the kit about 6 or 7 feet away, and another mic on the right side of the kit about 6 or 7 feet away, and I panned one hard left and one hard right, and the sound that came out wasn't pro, but it was better than what I got before in other rooms. The sound of the drums in the garage were more alive and just made the kit sound so much better because they could breathe. I played the toms and snare and they had a good ring to them that made them sound alive, yet when I took them back to my bedroom where they stay, the toms sounded dead with hardly any ring at all, and the snare didn't sound nearly as good either, so is it better to close mic in a dead room or use room mic's in a large, open space with lots of reverb? I know that I should base what I do on what my ears tell me, but the thing is, I've never been able to close mic every drum and have good mics to use, so the best sound I've ever had was from 2 room mics 6-7 feet or so away in a large, open space, so would I really get such an improved sound by close mic'ing in a dead room?

 

[mcolling]

Whether you track in a wet or dry room matters on what sound you are going for. But personally, I'd stick to tracking in the best sounding room that you have access to.

 

[AlexW]

Yep, and plan on including a room mic 6 - 7 feet or so away from the kit out in front if you can as well. I record in a pretty dead room with everything close mic'd; but I'd like to try a more open space at some point as well.

 

[mattoci]

Thanks so much for the help people! And for trying a larger space, AlexW, I liked it because when you hit the drums, instead of just a fast snap with a little ring, it made the drums sound huge and "in your face," I guess you'd say. I'd just sit and hit the snare drum by itself just because I loved the sound and the toms as well...they just sounded alive and like they could breathe instead of dead with little ring. The bass drum sounded a little weak in a big open space like that, so that was my only real complaint is everything sounded alive but the bass drum sounded a little weak, although it did still sound good. Thanks for everything, everyone.

 

[Lionel_Hutz]

If you want, use drumagog to sample just the bass drum if you are experiencing phase cancellation or just a cruddy sounding kick.

William

 

[Chibi Nappa]

Some styles of music may call for drums in a dead room, but I'd say the majority of the time you want your drums to sound lively. In a best-case senario I've been able to avoid using any external reverb at all because the room sound was perfect.

In general, a larger room usually works best. Also, higher ceilings work better. Place the drum kit a good distance away from all walls.

Finllay, when panning your overheads you don't always want to go hard left/right. If you place them perfectly you can do that, but most cases there is a point where you lose the stereo image when you pan too far apart. Listen carefully to the center of the image (usually the snare drum). When the stereo image is focused it appears to be coming from one tight place. Once you pan to far that center image starts to lose focus and drift apart. It no longer appears to come from a definate point.

 

[mattoci]

Thanks again for everything and I'm going to try some different stuff and see what I can come up with. I have one microphone that I actually have no idea what it is...I don't know what brand it is or type or anything at all...it's a long, old, grayish microphone with absolutely no brand on it at all, anywhere. The grill actually came off of it and so I looked inside to see if there was anything at all to tell what kind or brand it was and I have no idea, so I don't know where to place it, I'll just try different positions. Thanks again.