recording toms

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thomaswomas

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can anyone give me a few tips on getting a good, fat tom sound. i've just finished mixing a demo of my bands new song and i'm not too happy with the tom sound. the overall mix sounds great but when it gets to the bridge and chorus section, where the toms feature a lot, i can't quite pick out the boom and low end of the toms (especially the floor tom)

i recorded the kit with a red5 audio drum mic set which is a quality set of mics, but i just can't get the toms to kick it in the mix. it doesn't usually bother me when the toms aren't an integral part of the song, but they are a big focal point in this track.

i'm not really a pro at recording and mixing, so i don't really do things by the book. i've just kind of taught myself over the years, but i'd like to know if there are any compression techniques, or choice of mics which peolpe regularly go for with toms (such as condenser vs dynamic)

any advice?

thanks
 
If they sound good in the room, you have to play with mic placement until you get it right.

What configuration did you use for the mics???
How much time did you REALLY spend tuning the toms? Moving mics while recording and listening back, etc???....It could take a full day. If you only spent a few minuts on it, then there's your answer. There is no "trick".
 
I like the recorderman method (look it up) in combination with close mic'ing the toms. If your toms are tuned properly and not overly muffled, you should have no problem getting a fat tom sound. There aren't really any tricks to it. If the toms sound like ass in the room, they're gonna sound like ass recorded.
 
Everything I ever read about recording drums says tuning is the most important thing. Tuning, tuning, tuning!!! After struggling for a year and a half messing around with different drums, heads, mics, and placement I have discovered that tuning is the most important. When I first got the kit I have now I put Evans G2 coated heads on the tom and floor tom and at first I couldn't get the sound I wanted. After messing around with the tuning I have the tom sounding great. I use the same mic and placement but now it sounds killer. After all this time I am getting the sound I want. I'm still working on the floor tom. :(

I guess if you have the tracks recorded the only thing you can do is some EQ and compression to get the sound you need but you will be limited by how good the source sounded in the first place.
 
thomaswomas said:
can anyone give me a few tips on getting a good, fat tom sound. i've just finished mixing a demo of my bands new song and i'm not too happy with the tom sound. the overall mix sounds great but when it gets to the bridge and chorus section, where the toms feature a lot, i can't quite pick out the boom and low end of the toms (especially the floor tom)

i recorded the kit with a red5 audio drum mic set which is a quality set of mics, but i just can't get the toms to kick it in the mix. it doesn't usually bother me when the toms aren't an integral part of the song, but they are a big focal point in this track.

i'm not really a pro at recording and mixing, so i don't really do things by the book. i've just kind of taught myself over the years, but i'd like to know if there are any compression techniques, or choice of mics which peolpe regularly go for with toms (such as condenser vs dynamic)

any advice?

thanks
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Try moving the mics farther away. I used to close mic the batter head but I started thinking that the drum might not really sound its best 1" off the batter head where the stick hits. I try to get a good 6"-9" away if I can.
 
Tuning is absolutely the key to success [which is a beautiful thing in my world as I get hired as a drum tech every now and again!!!]... then mic'ing is the next step. I usually use a Sennheiser MD-421 on the top and a Josephson e22S on the bottom which run into an API 3124MB+ and are mixed in the mix buss of the API. The API also has insert points for the mix buss into which I insert a channel of SPL "Transient Designer" so I can balance the attack and sustain of the two mics as they are blended together. The result is very controlled yet thunderous toms that don't fuck with the snare too much and don't take up too much space in the final mix.

However, from reading your post it seems like your toms are already recorded which means you'll need to deal with what you have. I just got a copy of Logic Pro 7, in that program there is a plug in called "enveloper". This plug in works sorta like a "Transient Designer" in that you can pick up the attack of the drum and elongate the sustain. I don't know what software you're using but you might want to search around for an "envelop shaping" plug and play around with it... it just might help you get your toms where you want them in the final presentation.

Best of luck!!
 
Other than that, if everything else is perfect I usually record a tom with two mic's, on the bottom & top, the bottom one, I find myself using SM57's & sometimes a Nuemann shotgun mic, and usually on the top I use some type of shotgun mic about an inch away, and rather have the HH bleed through than the kick.
 
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