Recording Drums with 2 Channels

  • Thread starter Thread starter dkerwood
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why are you using a 10" speaker as a mic? i imagine you read that trick on here and want to use it? if you only have 2 tracks its going to be a nightmare, all its really good for is getting real deep low frequencies, and if you don't know how to control it properly you are just going to get a muddy mix.
 
dkerwood said:
As far as I can guess, there's only two ways to go about this - L and R or Group 1 and Group 2.

The other way would be to submix the drums into 2 groups, which is sort of what I've been doing already. The question becomes, what drums go where? Perhaps you could lump "low sources" and "high sources" together? Maybe put snare and kick in one group and everything else in the other?
Tips?
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If you go for the 2 groups technique, I would suggest to separate the kick from everything else. I'm often limted to 2 track drum recording (2 mics and 2 inputs is all I have so far! :( ) and I achieved decent results with one LDC as overhead, aimed at the snare and a dynamic for the kick.

If this sounds too roomy, try deadening your room with blankets(or wathever you can find) or even moving the drumkit around to find a sweet spot!

Above all: Don't fear the mono!
 
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treymonfauntre said:
why are you using a 10" speaker as a mic? i imagine you read that trick on here and want to use it? if you only have 2 tracks its going to be a nightmare, all its really good for is getting real deep low frequencies, and if you don't know how to control it properly you are just going to get a muddy mix.
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I haven't actually used this yet. It's just the idea behind the Yamaha Subkick, and apparently others on this site have gotten great results.

I figure it's worth playing with.
 
Hyst-Eric said:
If you go for the 2 groups technique, I would suggest to separate the kick from everything else. I'm often limted to 2 track drum recording (2 mics and 2 inputs is all I have so far! :( ) and I achieved decent results with one LDC as overhead, aimed at the snare and a dynamic for the kick.

If this sounds too roomy, try deadening your room with blankets(or wathever you can find) or even moving the drumkit around to find a sweet spot!

Above all: Don't fear the mono!
Click to expand...

Some of the best sounding kits I've heard over the years were with minimal micing. Nothing wrong with two mics. I've never considered it a limiting factor, especially when you use quality mics.

Regards.
 
Try one down low, in front of the kick as far back as you can get it and still get some whomp, angled slightly upward, and one overhead the snare, above and behind the cymbals, angled slightly forward to catch some toms. Just get used to monitoring in one speaker when tracking anything with more than one mic on it. It took me a while to wise up on that one.

When you mix, you can put the kick mic center and pan the OH around to taste. My old cassette 4 track drum setup. The drummer has to really whack that snare, though. If you have to compress too much you'll end up getting that early "ringo" cymbal sound, which I love, but maybe you don't. I always slammed the levels to cassette tape...poor man's compressor, y'know?

Using a piece of string to measure the 2 mics an equal distance from the snare works well, too.
 
corso said:
Try one down low, in front of the kick as far back as you can get it and still get some whomp, angled slightly upward, and one overhead the snare, above and behind the cymbals, angled slightly forward to catch some toms. Just get used to monitoring in one speaker when tracking anything with more than one mic on it. It took me a while to wise up on that one.
Click to expand...
Is there a difference between mixing in mono (to both speakers) and mixing to one speaker?

If so, what's better and why?
 
dkerwood said:
Is there a difference between mixing in mono (to both speakers) and mixing to one speaker?

If so, what's better and why?
Click to expand...

Well, I can't provide you with a scientific justification for this, but I leave it in stereo and pan it all the way left while getting levels and moving mics around, you know, moving faders back and forth against each other checking for phase cancellation(a thinning or even complete disappearance of what you are listening to). You probably know all this. If it is good there, I'll record a bit, and loop it.

Then, I pan stuff around till I like the stereo image. That's when I hit the mono button for a final check. If nothing disappears, all is well.

It is probably just psychological. A three step process. I suppose you could start with the mono button in, but two speaker mono seems to sound fuller than one speaker. So therefore, it is different. Especially if you are checking for thinning or low end loss from phase cancellation.
 
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