Recording Drums: 4 Channels and 6 Mics. How Would You Handle It?

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JG96

JG96

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So recently my band started recording bass, guitar and drums simultaneously. I am used to recording drums with 6 mics and I like the sound it yields but it does not top the sound of a live performance. Unfortunately my interface only has 6 channels. These are my potential solutions:
A. Route the tom mics with the overheads
B. Record the tom mics to a zoom H4 and time align each hit.
C. Play the toms pre eq'd and processed into a PA and let that bleed into the overheads.
What would/wouldn't you do?
 
Sorry, should have added that. 2 mics for overheads, 1 mic on the snare, 1 mic in the bass drum, one on rack tom, and one on floor tom.
 
In the olden says when I was 8 tracks, I mixed the toms with the overheads.
 
Your set 2 OH's Kick & Snare, play as a band only recording drums and then go back and dub in the other parts. Close mics on toms are not really necassary.
 
dreib said:
Your set 2 OH's Kick & Snare, play as a band only recording drums and then go back and dub in the other parts. Close mics on toms are not really necassary.
Click to expand...

only works if they guitar/bass rigs are in different rooms and you're hearing through headphones.

I'd create your drum beat on tempo with fake drums.. have your guitarist/bassist play a scratch track to that fake drum beat... once perfect, delete the fake drums and record your real drums TO the scratch track untill perfect... then retrack bass/guitars to the real drums.

I would do kick/snare/OH's ... im pretty sure everyone will tell you that.
 
JG96 said:
B. Record the tom mics to a zoom H4 and time align each hit.
Click to expand...

I've often wondered about this approach and have considered using it myself. There's probably no way to lock the Zoom to the same time clock as your interface so there's likely to be some time drift between the 2 units. However, it's probably not too hard to synch up each tom hit or tom fill in your DAW. Might be a bit time consuming if the drummer hits lots of toms.
 
CMB Studios said:
only works if they guitar/bass rigs are in different rooms and you're hearing through headphones.

I'd create your drum beat on tempo with fake drums.. have your guitarist/bassist play a scratch track to that fake drum beat... once perfect, delete the fake drums and record your real drums TO the scratch track untill perfect... then retrack bass/guitars to the real drums.

I would do kick/snare/OH's ... im pretty sure everyone will tell you that.
Click to expand...

Ive recorded with everyone in the same room with the guitar player and bass player playing thru practice amps faced away from the drums with a ldc stuck in between em for a scratch track with hardly any bleed at all. What was there was buried by the finished tracks. I was really surprised, but you can make it work.
 
Use four mics: kick, snare, OHs. If the kit is properly tuned and played (and the room is tolerable) it will sound fine.
 
Is it rock? Three mics (2 OHs and a Kick mic or OH, snare, kick) or even two mics (OH, Kick) will open up other channels.
 
dreib said:
Ive recorded with everyone in the same room with the guitar player and bass player playing thru practice amps faced away from the drums with a ldc stuck in between em for a scratch track with hardly any bleed at all. What was there was buried by the finished tracks. I was really surprised, but you can make it work.
Click to expand...

i'd be very interested in hearing how good it sounds.
 
dreib said:
You mean the drums with the minimal scratch track bleed or with the finished sound?
Click to expand...

both really, im just very against sweeping things under the carpet like that... "good enough" adds up.
 
I recently recorded drums with one large diaphragm condenser about 6 inches above the kick pointed at the center of the snare and it picked up the whole kit really well. you can always slap up 2 OH in the traditional method in addition to yield some pretty good sounds. if your live recording a room mic pointed at the drums with amps behind can be pretty interesting to use too
 
I get a message that says, "Sorry. We can't find that. Have you tried to access a private sound? Are you logged in?"

I'm not logged in but that's never been a problem on Soundcloud before.
 
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