Recording Drums w/ two mics?

[wonders aloud] would the 57 on the beater side of the kick sound snappier? Would it pick up squeak and rattle from the pedal...?
 
I didn't read all the posts, but here's what I would do.

Put the NT1 about 2 feet directly above the center of the snare drum. Angle it, so the diaphragm is pointing down toward the middle tom. Tweak slightly until you get a decent representation of the entire kit.

Then, use the 57 on the kick. If you have a hole in the resonant head, try placing the 57 just inside the hole. Mess around with where it is aimed to get more or less beater slap. If you don't have a hole in the head, place it about 6-12" out from the resonant head aimed at a point between where the beater would strike the batter head and the floor tom.
 
scrubs said:
I didn't read all the posts, but here's what I would do.

Put the NT1 about 2 feet directly above the center of the snare drum. Angle it, so the diaphragm is pointing down toward the middle tom. Tweak slightly until you get a decent representation of the entire kit.

Then, use the 57 on the kick. If you have a hole in the resonant head, try placing the 57 just inside the hole. Mess around with where it is aimed to get more or less beater slap. If you don't have a hole in the head, place it about 6-12" out from the resonant head aimed at a point between where the beater would strike the batter head and the floor tom.
Click to expand...

Awesome, thanks. We're gonna try recording again Thursday, so figuring that we won't have/know much of anything about bass traps by that time, we'll try this and see how it goes. Long term though, the room treatment idea makes sense.
 
I've got a ysi uploading of a new mix I made keeping the guitars in the middle and with my attempts at EQing the bass frequencies you guys talked about in the drums.
 
i don't think there's alot you can do for now. the overall tone of the drums isn't going to change much with eq. you'll just be fighting yourself all night. :p

btw, i like the song and the guitar playing in particular.
 
palz. said:
Hey I just got a dynamic mic (SM57) for Christmas and have been trying to record my band's drums with it and a condensor (NT1-A), to somewhat mixed results. I'm not big on the technical stuff -- we're kinda just figuring all that out as we go along by trial and error -- but we run the mics into a mixer and then into my Tascam Pocketstudio 4-track. A band that recorded us over the summer used two mics, an overhead condensor and a dynamic by the kick and they got a pretty slick, studio sound out of it. Ours is an upgrade from when we just used the one mic, but it still has this damp, dingy sound with lots of room noise. We've tried turning the gain on the mixer down and moving around the condensor-- last we tried it, we hung it really low on the right side of the drumset. The sound still wasn't great, and since I'm not incredibly knowledgeable I've been wondering if the difference between what we get out of 2 mics and what the band we recorded with got was their laptop program in contrast to our 4-track. I know most people recommend more mics, but we'd like to see if we could get better results with what we have before we explore that option. I don't even have incredibly high hopes-- if anyone's familiar with Slanted & Enchanted by Pavement, if we could get a drum sound like that I'd be psyched. But the sound we're getting now isn't even good lo-fi. I'm bad at describing it so I'd be best just providing a link to the song we were working on:

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=D1EB1C7C3A097533

I realize the guitars aren't so great either, BTW. I think thats cause they weren't loud enough though, cause I really cranked the amp for the overdub around 2:40 and it came out great. If anyone has any advice on that too, though, it'd also be appreciated.

Really I'm just trying to get a really good lo-fi sound out of what I have, and if that's possible (or not possible, for that matter), I'd lappreciate any help or advice anyone had to offer. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

You are doing everything 100% right. meaning that trial and error is going to be the key. The mics you have should produce good sounds and while a nice PC program is great, there is no reason you should not be able to get a great sound with what you have.

Whenever I wonder if I don't have enough stuff or my stuff is not good enough I remember that VU live at Max's Kansas City was done with one mic from the audience and I friggin' love that album.

We can guess (which I will) but without being in your room, It is really tough to tell.

I have a project that I am working on now and we used like 6 mics on the kit, but the interesting thing is that we could get a pretty killer sound with only two of the mics used in the mix. Here is what we did (followed by what I would suggest you try)

I had an 414 (which I would compare to your NT1 in that they are both condensers) which was 12 feet back from the kit and set at about 4.5 to 5 ft off the ground. It was set to figure 8. Then I had a Sennheiser 421 (which I will compare to your SM57) set exactly at the height of the middle of the kick, but pulled back about 2-3 feet.

Those two mics gave me a really full workable sound.

So here is what I would suggest for you.

First set up the NT1 at about cymbal level and pull it back from the kit anywhere from 6-12 feet (depending on room size and acoustics - meaning, trust your ears) and just use that mic until you get a nice full set sound. My guess is that it could take 2-3 hours of trial and error. Get it sounding as good as you possibly can.

Then, listen for where it falls apart. Since I do not have a NT1 and since I have never been in your room or heard your kit, I am guessing, but my gut would be that you will need more kick. If that is the case, put the 57 in the kick... or pull it back a foot... or pull it back 3 feet. This is where it is going to require more trial and error. If you have a full kick sound with the NT1, then you could mic the snare. In that case, listen to what you need. More crack? mic the side or bottom. More twack? mic the top head. More cymbals AND snare? Try hanging it directly over the snare.

once you have something close to what you want, you can tweak like crazy. Pointing the NT1 down from it's stand may pick up more kick and allow you to use the 57 on the snare.

It really sounds like you have the right mindset and attitude. I am sure you will find a way to make it rock. Keep it up and go record some killer songs!
 
Last edited:
Yeah, and all the stuff Scrubs suggested is great too. There are likely 100 ways to get a decent sound with your gear... Just keep messing around until you get what you want.
 
I have no additions to what jdier said, but I also like the song a lot, especially the guitars. Nice tone.
Oh wait, yes I do!
I used to record drums with only two mics -- one (SM58) on a stand to the right of the floor tom, pointed at the snare, and one (SM57) directly at the resonant head of the kick, and it sounded... not great, but good enough to get some BBC play, apparently. Here's a link to the mp3:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/5e36jt
One other thing you might want to try is messing with the tuning and dampening of the drums. I think you said the snare has tape on it? Take it off, replace the batter head, mess with the tuning a bit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top