Recording kick samples with two condensors

  • Thread starter Thread starter DrJosh
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DrJosh

DrJosh

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Hello. Just getting started with recording drums. I have two channels available which I'll use for overheads. I'd like to use a replacement plugin and mix my kick samples in. It seems pretty clear that one mic should go in front of the kick. But can I use the other at the batter (outside the kick) to get more attack without damaging the mic? Any guidelines for placement?
 
Hum? Im a bit confused here. You mention 2 channels for overheads then how to mic a kick however you going to use samples? If you are going to use recorded kick wave files as a trigger just place a mic inside the drum off axis towards beater. Almost any mic will do really.Just stick an sm57 in there. Butm I am confused why you are concerned about placement if you are just going to sample
 
Oops, sorry if I wasn't clear. I mentioned two channels because that's all I can record at once, so I can't mic OHs and kick simultaneously. I'll record OHs and use those tracks to trigger samples of my kick drum. The question is how to use those two condensors, the only mics available, to sample my kick.
 
Anyone?

How would you record kick drum if you only had two condensors?
 
using the 2 overheads to trigger a kick may be difficult. I would guess too much clutter,not defined enough source. If I had only 2 channels for drums I would experiment with position of the 2 overheads to capture the entire kit. Try for example 1 overhead kind of over snare to capture snare, kit and cymbals,and the other maybe in front of kit to capture kick and kit.
 
I'm with Jmorris.
Or maybe if you cant get a 8 channel card maybe get a mixer and submix the kit to 2 channels...

But.. to answer your question, if I was going to mic the kick with 2 condensers I would stick the kick by itself in a room and put one mic in front and one on the beater side. You will have to experiment with distance and possibly engaging a pad on the mic (if it has one) to keep it from clipping, plus most likely you will have to reverse the polarity of one of the mics to make sure the waveforms don't self cancel in some frequencies.

The good thing about creating samples, you can tweak it to your hearts content moving the the waveforms in relation to each other until you get the sound you want,..then bottle it.
 
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