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.
A decent set up for a studio very well may cost $2000, but for a home recording project you can get good sounds for less than $300 with three SM57's.
The most important part, regardless of mics, is that you have a well tuned drum set with good heads on it.
Take the mics you have access to and do the best job you can by learning about mic placement and room treatment and such. You will be surprised how good you can get it to sound, but it could take a whole weekend just to get everything set up right.
When you have more money, buy a kick drum mic. I have a Beta 52 and an AKG 112... I would suggest that you watch for one to become available for a good price on ebay. I got my 52 for $100 and my 112 for $130. It took me about 7 months to get them both (since I kept waiting to win at my price) but it was worth it. They were both a huge improvement over the sm57 I was using for kick.
For overheads, I would say the same. I used SM57's or Beta 58's for a while until I could get a set of Oktava 012's for $200... Once I had them, I was able to take a 57 and put it on top of snare and another on the bottom.
Do the best with what you have. Anyone who tells you that you need to spend $1000, $2000, $10,000 on ANYTHING for homerecording is probably just trying to set your expectations that this can be an expensive hobby, but in the real world, there are plenty of great recording being done all over the world with lesser gear than you own right now.
It is about the music, not the gear. Use your head, experiment, and make it sound as good as you can.
Jim
