These are my options:

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sirslurpee

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This is long, and I'm sorry....
So, I'm getting into recording.... I've been playing with some recordings for a while, in fact, I was going to try to cut a cd with my band, but, for some reason, I can't seem to get the drums to sound right. Well, I think I've kind of figured out why, but I want to get some expert opinion on this.
I am recording with an origional ludwig vista-lite. I have remo ebony embassador heads on everything, except the snare drum. On the toms, I am using some sort of remo mufflers, not sure what they are for sure but they are the ones that you mount inside of the tom, between the head and the shell. They sound great live. On the bass drum, I used to use the remo mufflers, but I am using only a towel, folded and placed at the bottom of the drum. It sounds beautiful.... live. I have cheap mics, in fact, if you want to make fun of me for them, go ahead. I paid less than 200 dollars for them though, so think about that before you flame :)
They are a set of CAD mics, in fact, the PRO-7 kit to be exact. I bought them mainly for the price, and the mounting system. Also, the kick mic is nice and big and I think they have a lot of potential. (If you don't know, PRO-7 = 2 condensers, 3 tom mics (rim-mount) a snare mic (rim mount) and a bass drum mic) Now, on the recordings, everything sounds great with my cymbals. I am very happy with the Paiste 502 series that I am using. My drums sound funny though. I have all my mics mounted on the bottoms of each tom, and the snare. The snare still doesn't sound right, like it is very mid-range and I can really only hear the hard snare hits clearly. On top, the snare sounds horrible. My toms sound pretty good with the mics on the bottom.. they are pretty deep, with good ring. Maybe a little quiet, but I think I can probably bring that up in the mix-down. The bass drum....... sounds quiet. Incredibly quiet. With no punch at all. In fact, I have to EQ it before I run it into the recorder in order to get any bass out of it at all.
So, I searched the forums here, to look for advice on acrylics. All I've seen are people agreeing that they sound like crap in the studio. So, I have a few options to work with.
#1, Is there anything I can do with my vista-lites to make them sound better recorded? I figure I would ask, but, I'm guessing not.
#2, Roland V-drums. TD-10 brain. I used them on our demo, which can be found at http://www.myspace.com/sincerelyyou
As you can tell, they sound very digital, and I don't like that at all. I HATE the cymbal sounds, and in fact, I've experimented with the electric drums, and acoustic cymbals. I didn't like it.
#3, My dad has a Peavey radial-pro 350 set that he uses for practice. I believe they are maple shells. I can't stand the aquarian heads he has on them, and the kit sounds dull to my ears. Should I try recording with this, maybe tweaking it a little to try to make it sound better?

I know my mics are not that great, but I don't think that spending the extra money on better mics is going to change the sound quality all that much. Maybe it would, but I don't have the money for it. I might be able to barrow a kit from my friend, but I am not sure. They are a set of ludwigs, which, I have never heard anything sound so good in my entire life. I would love to have them sound exactly as they do in a room, on a recording. That option is iffy.
Any help is greatly appreciated, and will be put to very good use.
Thanks,
-Josh
 
It sounds (or reads) like you are having problems with phasing issues. Too many mics do not make a better recording. If you don't have the knowledge and experience (and I don't mean that in a condescending way) you're better off using 4 mics: kik, snare and 2 overheads. In fact, even after years of recording, you still might find that 4 mics is all you need.
If your next question is going to be "what does phasing mean and how do I get rid of it?" then that confirms that you shouldn't be using more than 4 mics for now.
Drums are possibly the most difficult instrument to mic properly. Besides having the same issues as anything else you mic (eq, volume, etc...), you also have the fact that drums will leak into each other's mics. And it's also the instrument with the widest range of sounds and frequencies (low bass drum to high cymbals).
I'm not home right now, but I'll post a few good links on drum micing basics when I get home that should help you.
 
Hm.. it's possible.. I know very little if at all any about phase. There is a post on here, and I'm thinking about trying this: http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=39030
the "Fast easy way to mic using 3 mics!" or whatever. I'm gonna try that. I want to use that technique and add the tom mics in there, although I don't know how to do all that and keep the tom mics in phase. Assuming I knew exactly what keeping mics in phase was. In fact, I'm going to sort through this forum and try to find some threads on phase and maybe figure out what is up with that. Btw, I was thinking about trying this with my bass drum: Placing an Audio Technica mic inside, on a small boom, close to the beater head, then, placing my CAD bass drum mic (sorry I don't know either of the models) out from the sound hole a little ways. Although this raises the question again, wth is phase and will that screw me up?
Thanks for the help.. I admit I am a newbie at this but I will pick it up quickly and promise to give back to the forum what I get out of it :)
 
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