Separation and track splitting for drums

[Ricman]

I will be at least trying this, but curious if any of you have done anything like the following:

Recording drums with minimal tracks available, but I still want more control when it comes to mix time. I can’t mike the toms and the cymbals separately as my available recording tracks are taken up with kick and snare. (I do however have plenty of available tracks for mixdown)

But – if I were to put a mic between the cymbals and the toms (particularly if I used a Fig 8 pattern mic) and record that to its own track . . . . and then after the fact I take that track and through some aggressive EQ shelving (or perhaps through a crossover) divide it into two tracks, one track leaving the ‘lows’ alone and shearing off the highs (thus essentially leaving mostly toms), and the other cutting the lows and leaving me with mainly the higher frequency cymbals . . . . .

Is there enough difference in the frequencies of the toms and cymbals to accomplish this? Obviously in their fundamental tones there is a difference, but how much overlap in harmonic structure is there between the two that might make this impractical from a sound quality standpoint?

It sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn’t. A couple passes of track bouncing and it’ll be done. I quite often separate individual drums out from a common track via cut and paste and it works fine, but that is a time and location issue and straightforward. This is a bit different. It's not critical, more theoretical at this point.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

There's nothing that says you can't do that, and you're free to give it a try and experiment; but you are almost guaranteed to get the kind of results you're looking for.

There is indeed a lot of overlap in some important areas. Check out the interactive frequency chart at www.independentrecording.net and see how there is plenty of overlap in not only fundamentals, but in a long harmonic range as well.

Especially important will be the main attack of each, the "thwack" of the stick hitting the skin on the toms resides right in the thick of the upper midrange around 4k or so, whereas the initial clang, especially if a larger ride cymbal can have important components as low as 200Hz.

You'll never be able to achieve the kind of isolation you desire, but you might still be able to achieve some positive effect with that setup.

Though I'd probably just make you have a good drummer that actually knows how to play the tomes and the cymbals properly, and depend upon the OHs to take care of the rest .

G.

 

[jaybriggs84]

You can also place a mic to pick up the snare bottom and front of the kick drum to get some of the beater hit. Copy the track in your DAW and process them differently to get what you want from it

 

[Ricman]

Thanks Glen. I kind of expected there might be some conflicts. Best to just get a good balance to start with. I appreciate the info.


Interseting idea jay. That might be worth a try to see if it yields something usable.

 

[RAMI]

Instead of treating your toms and cymbals seperately, why don't you just set up 2 overheads...or even just one....and use that track (or those 2 tracks) to get the bulk of your sound. Then, blend in the snare and kik mics as needed.

If I was stuck with just 3 tracks, I'd go 2 overheads and a kik rather than kik, snare, and tom/cymbal/bounced/EQ'd track.