theoretical question for drum recording

[RezN8]

When playing live gigs, I choose cymbals and drum sizes based on the room I'm playing. But in the studio I was wondering, considering the size of the room (14x20x7), which would produce better results?

Maple bop kit - 18" bass drum, 10" and 12" toms 12" snare - I've tuned the bass drum to sound like a cannon and tuned the toms down low for more of a rock sound.

Birch Fusion kit (Fusion depths) - 22" bass drum 12", 13", 16" toms, 14" birch snare.

OK, so the birch kit is much louder than the bop kit. You can play the bop kit hard and it still sounds good.

Considering the room dimensions, which kit do you think would sound better for recording? I bet your first question is "what type of music?" so let's say alt. rock for the sake of argument.

So waddaya think?

 

[scrubs]

hypothetical answer

The one that sounds best in the room for the song you are recording.

 

[RezN8]

um, yeah...

Tnx scrubs truly brilliant!

Actually the reason why I'm posting is because I'm stuck at work and can't experiment, so I was looking for everyone's thoughts on the matter.

Basically what I'm trying to understand, theoretically, is whether a hotter signal (louder drums) hitting the mikes in a small room would yeild a better, more focused drum sound. Or if the the louder drums would bounce off the walls more and back into the mikes...

 

[giraffe]

i'd personally go with the bigger kick and snare.
small snares have their place, but most of the time i'd rather a bigger one.
about the same with smaller kicks, neat for certain styles of music.....
but not usually what i'm going to want.

 

[Zproducer]

size does matter

i agree about the bigger size... the bigger your bassdrum, the more body on the spectrum of your sound. especially for rock. it gives you the deep rock kick we all fantasize about. sure, you can try to eq a small kick to get that deep tone, but it's no match for a gi-normous kick. sry. it's true. size does matter.
~Z
but an addendum to the last statement. i must still stress that it depends on the style you are going for. if you are recording a classic jazz sound, a smaller kinck could be beneficial...

 

[vanguard]

I think the tuning makes more difference than the size of the drums. I've heard small drums sound great. But I usually prefer bigger drums in general.

I don't quite get the live performance thing you were talking about... using bigger drums in bigger rooms... are you not micing the drums live? You kinda lost me on the correlation between the size of the room and the size of the drum.

 

[RezN8]

Size matters

 

[RezN8]

I think the tuning makes more difference than the size of the drums. I've heard small drums sound great. But I usually prefer bigger drums in general.

Vanguard, you are correct about tuning being more critical than sizes. I miked up the bop kit and recorded some tests -- got that bop kit sounding HUGE! Everyone who heard the tracks thought it was my housemate's new birch kit.
We Americans are SO preconditioned to thinking bigger is better .

I don't quite get the live performance thing you were talking about... using bigger drums in bigger rooms... are you not micing the drums live? You kinda lost me on the correlation between the size of the room and the size of the drum.

Many of the gigs the DC area are in rooms so small that miking a kit is out of the question . One club owner almost went ballistic when we miked the kick just for presence! The laws around here don't help much either (...and we wonder why there is no DC music scene).

So I just base my decisions on the size and acoustics of a room I might be playing.