Recording Drums

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Lo-Fi Mike

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Can anyone help me on the subject RECORDING DRUMS? From where to place the mics, to what mic to use for what paticular drum/cymbal. Also some panning and effect ideas(once in the computer), and what drums to accent. I will have eight simultaneous inputs available for drum tracking. links will also be helpful.
Thanx A-Lot :D
 
Start simple - 2 overhead condensors and a dynamic for your kick.

Move the overheads around until you get a good representation of how the drums sound in the room.

Check the wave form in your software and make sure the peaks on your kick mic are not conciding with troughs on the overheads. If they are, you'll need to adjust the polarity of the lkick mic.

Once you've those 3 sounding good, then look at close micing the snare, toms etc. But remember. 90% of what makes your drums sound good is in the overheads.
 
Mke, First what type of gear do you have/looking to buy. A good/basic setup for a drum kit to record that I would reccomend would have:

1. Kick Drum - Shure Beta 52/51, AKG D112 (inside kick drum pointing halfway between the beater and the top of the ring)(Pan Straight up Center)

2. Snare Drum - Shure SM57 (keeping the mic out of the drummer's way can be difficutl sometimes with different setups...before you start go around the drum and try different mic positions while your drummer hits it...maybe about 2-3 inches off the head at a stong angle pointnig towards the top edge of the snare)(Pan to about 10-11 o'clock)

3. Toms - Sennheiser E604, Shure Beta 56A (tom micing isn't too hard, keep the mic head off the drum a couple inches pointing more towards the edge than the center. You might get too much tone from the center.)(Pan around as you see fit, moving left to right)

4. Overheads - Shure SM81 ("One Left/One Right", "One Close/One Far" - Ther'es a few different things you can do here. Keep the mic about 2-3 feet above the kit for your close, and if you do a far mic, try differnt heights to see if there's more room reverb that comes along with it.) (Pan about 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock if you're doing a left/rght setup, and a few degrees off to the left/right for the close/far mic technique.)

wow I kept on writing, hope that helps!!! I didn't realize I like Shure so much...
 
I was gonna chime in but Bulls Hit nailed it.

FYI, My start set up is Shure KSM32 for overheads, Shure SM57 on the snare and Shure Beta52 on kick. Yes I am a Shure lover to.
 
Would it be ok to start off with a cheap drum mic kit from nady or something,(just to get the techniques down) then build my way up to the Shure mics. Or is it just a waste of money to buy those kits.
Thanx a-lot for the helps+hints.
 
It is a waste of money to buy crap mics for drums. They don't sound good and you will still go buy the good ones later, so why waste the money on the crap mics.
If you want to start small, get a condenser and put it at snare height about 3 feet in fromt of the drums and hit record. You will learn how to use eq and compression quickly and you will learn how to mix your drums by the way you play them.
 
Mike,

Here's an old article of mine that describes a remote drum recording session I did years ago -- it may give you some tips........

9 Tracks In 2 Days
 
Head over to http://www.mercenary.com/

Fletcher wrote an article about how to mic a kit with only three mics. It is very helpful.

Personally I would use two 57's as overheads with one about 2 sticks length directly over the snare (right in front and just above the drummers head) and the other the same exact length from the snare, but over the drummers shoulder pointed out towards either the floor tom or the ride. Just concentrate on those two mics until you have as close to perfect as you can. If you have too much snare, point that mic a bit farther out.

Once that sound is balanced and blended nicely you will likely still need more kick and then you can start experimenting with kick placement... All the way inside will be mostly just kick, a little outside the drum and you can pick up more of the snare and toms.
 
i'll be recording live and I only have a 58, a 57 and a cheap mic. Now only one mic is for drums. Any suggestions?
 
lanterns said:
i'll be recording live and I only have a 58, a 57 and a cheap mic. Now only one mic is for drums. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Do you mean everyone in one room playing live, or that you will be out in a club playing live?

If it is in a room alone all playing together, you have plenty of time to test stuff out and the size/shape of the room is going to have a huge effect on the sound, so you HAVE to just experiment, but basically one drum mic mean waist to chest high out in front of the kick about 3-10 feet. remember small changes in direction can make huge differences in sound.

If you are talking club, personally I would try two things.

First I would put one mic right about half way back in the room, the other left halfway back in the room. Then take the third mic and put it about 6 feet in front of the kit about waist high.

Second I would try putting one mic all the way in the center back of the room and the other two stage right and stage left.

Not an optimum situation, but there are a load of grateful dead tapes that were done with less than that. VU at max's kansas city was one mic.

Good luck
 
I love VU!!!

you can tell it was one mic, haha. what a great album.
We will be playing in a room. I only have one mic dedicated to drums. I'm guessing the 57 will be it, since the 58 has the Bass rolloff. I want to hit it hard to tape with optimum signal strength
is your method going to give me that? I know I should just try and experiment. I want to be prepared though. The room should be fine since it's hardwood and soundproofed. It is only a living room though so movement is limited.
 
Flippin heck do you expect a guy new to recording to spend 500$ for 1!!! overhead? the sm81 costs to much. Isn't the pg81 good enough for overheads?
 
dnl88 said:
Flippin heck do you expect a guy new to recording to spend 500$ for 1!!! overhead? the sm81 costs to much. Isn't the pg81 good enough for overheads?
Click to expand...

I think someone needs to go to a real studio and abandon this homerecording whim.

A decent mic setup (not great, but decent) for drums costs in the neighborhood of 2000 bucks or more.

Welcome to recording.
 
Cloneboy Studio said:
I think someone needs to go to a real studio and abandon this homerecording whim.

A decent mic setup (not great, but decent) for drums costs in the neighborhood of 2000 bucks or more.

Welcome to recording.
Click to expand...

Nah,
two oktava mc012's for overheads = $200
one sm57 or 58 for snare = you already have
atm25 for kick = $160
Miking the toms are optional.
So for $360 bucks you would have a decent setup IMHO.
Just remember that you need four decent pres to run these mics through. A cheap mixer will work okay for now.

If you can't afford this, then like cloneboy said, you should abandon recording as a hobby.

This is my absolute favorite miking technique to get started with:
http://marsh.prosoundweb.com/index.php/t/1764/
 
hmm.. micing with 3 mics sounds like a great idea and all but what if you only have a preamp with 2 channels (DMP3) and 2 Microphones (SP B1 & E609) is there hope for me? if so, where do you think the mics should be placed?
 
revamp said:
do i place the E609 in the hole of the bassdrum?
Click to expand...

I would say yes. Although, you may want to try it about a foot away and create a tunnel (with foam/blankets/whatever) to block out some of the room sound.


I got a very nice kick drum sound using a MD421 like this without the tunnel. I'm going to make one out of some left over OC703 fiberglas.
 
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