Recording drums is hard (damnit)

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Kasey

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the last two days i've finally had a drum set in my studio to tinker with recording...wow it is so hard to get a decent sound... jesus christ. I'm using the classic three mic set up, although i could put a 57 on the snare if i wanted.
The drums just sound so weak and distant. I'm forced using a dynamic vocal mic (an AT one similar to the 58) on the bass drum, which i think is part of the problem, maybe, maybe not.
I tried a X-Y stereo set up but wasnt getting a wide enough stereo image for my liking, so I tried an ORTF set up (110 degree angle, 17 cm apart, the whole deal), and finally got my wide stereo image.
i recorded each drum and each sounded fine when testing, just hitting each one alone, except for maybe the bass drum, which lacked boom. When i started actually playing a beat on recording though it began to sound like crap.

I know this is an art that take years to perfect... anyone got any tips that i wouldnt know about? i've read and read and read about recording drums so i figured hey... i know the stuff fairly well... but i guess it really is all in experience.
 
All anyone can really advise you is to practice,..try,... and try again. I've been tracking real drums for about 2 years now and still tweaking my techniques and feel that i'll be doing that for several more years. But the sound is 100 times better than when i first set up the mics that first day recording acoustic drums.
One thing you can try,..if you happen to have 2 57's,..try moving them around to capture a good stereo image of the kit. I did this on a couple tunes and thats all i used in the mix,..sounded pretty cool.
Anyway,..somethin' for ya to try on a rainy day.

Take 'er easy,..
Calwood
 
If you only have 3 mics, you might have better luck with the "recorderman" setup. It's not the best for rock, but it sounds pretty good.
 
Kasey said:
The drums just sound so weak and distant.
Click to expand...

its all about placement. you can make a low tom sound like a nuclear bomb if you position the mic right.
 
pdadda said:
If you only have 3 mics, you might have better luck with the "recorderman" setup. It's not the best for rock, but it sounds pretty good.
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recorderman? so... what is the set up? I have two SD's as overheads, a vocal mic in the bass drum, and i have a 57 that i can add to the snare if i want..
 
try this four mic setup

If you are using the x-y set up it might be hard to get your full drum sound with only 3 mics. x-y works reay good for close micing, but it might give you a problem with phase if your image is too wide. try setting your overhead 5 feet apart and 18 inches off your highest cymbal on each side. left 100% and right 100%.
Try using the 57 as you kick drum mic with your front head off your bass drum and a pillow inside, face the 57 directly and the beater 8 inches away. this will give you your attack. stick another mic 5 to 10 feet away as your room mic facing the drum set. This mic is very important!! This will help you evan out your drums and it will make you toms sound like toms. I wouldn't mic the snare, let the room mic give you your snare sound. I hope this helps out.
 
Recording drums is the trickiest thing you'll ever do in the world of recording.

Until you record a really good drummer with a sweet kit.

Then it's pretty easy stuff.
 
WAIT...dont take the head COMPLETELY off of the shell... it ruins the shape...and de-laminates the plys (it's a ply kit i'm assuming). You can cut a hole in the head..but the head is there for tension... and I know some guys might ride my ass for saying this and they'll say "ive been recording for years" lmao ;) but... i know my drums...WAY longer than i've known recording and i have a custom drum company also...so i DO know my stuff about plys etc... So...you can do it if you want.. but i wouldnt reccomend it. :) Hope someone takes my advice though... no sence of ruining a beautiful kit ;) (and if you DO take the head off DONT leave it for too long because once you want to throw that head back on and play a live show... you need to worry about warping and going from no head to HEAD..and the tension puts alot on the shell and will weaken it alot.
 
Drums,,,,arrrrrgggggg!!! You arrange and rearrange the mics till you finally get a sound you can live with then along comes a different drummer with a different style and different drums and you got to figure it all out all over again. There is always something to figure out, that's part of the fun and also the part that is most frustrating.
 
ez_willis said:
How does the kit sound to your ears?

Shit in = Shit out.
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I'll second that. I recorded a rock album last year with just 4 mics for the whole kit, kick, snare and two overheads. The kit sounded really great to begin with in the room.
 
There are a few tricks to try:

Record in a really small room. You get no real stereo image, but you'll get more impact, more body.

Record in a big room, one mic out front of the kick, about 4 feet, one foot off the ground, the other two up above the drums and back a little bit.

One mic over the drummers head, one on the snare, one in the kick, backed off a little. You can get a pretty nice kick sound, you may need to "tube" the kick out a little though. Get a big piece of tubing (a really large pipe (like 15" in diameter, about 5' long)) and put your kick mic in there, with the tube aimed right at the kick drum.

And lastly, use compression aggresively. This depends a little bit on style, etc, but you can get a really fat, trashy drumkit by sticking one mic in the (smallish) room with a drum kit and compressing the living daylights out of it.

And of course, you need to do some eq'ing, make sure your mics are phase aligned for the low end, etc.

But it's not that hard. Really. I promise. ;-)
 
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