various mics, 2 tracks, in a shed

[Keith_H]

My band is recording a demo on a digital 8-track and I'm looking -for some drum recording advice..I have 3 sm57's, a radio shack mic, 2 other shure vocals mics, and can borrow a condenser from a friend. What is the optimum way to set these babies up? I can only use 2 tracks on the 8-track because it only can record 2 at a time but I have a six channel peavey mixer to help...

It would be cool to get stereo overheads but I only have 1 condenser...

what do ya think?

 

[PsyCoNo]

Well. . .it would help to know what you have in your band for instruments/vocals. . . for this I will assume its drums (5 piece kit), bass, guitar, and a singer. Record bass and guitar first. Use a metronome. For recording bass, if the 8-track has a guitar direct input built in, use that. . .if not, use an external DI, OR place one of the SM-57's a 6 inches away from the bass amp, positioned towards the middle of the radius of the cone. Hook this into one of the 8-tracks inputs. Next, place a borrowed condenser five or six feet away at five or six feet of height. It takes this long for bass waves to develop. Hook this into the other input on the 8-track. Record the bass this way and ping pong it down to a single track. Then record the guitar either directly or with an SM-57 or both. Ping pong this down to one track as well. For drums, hook the SM-57's to the Peavey on the first three channels. Run the first mic to the snare, and give it a good EQ. Next, run the two remaining 57's to the two highest toms. Use one of the Shure vocal mic's on the lowest floor tom. . .run that also into the Peavey. Making sure all these levels are matched, run the Peavey into the digital 8-track. Use the borrowed condenser and mic up the bass drum, run this stright into the digital 8-track. Leave the other Shure out, unless you want to replace the mid tom's SM-57 with that. Cymbal mic's would be good, but they can be take care of by the mic's used on the drums. The finally record the vocals, using the borrowed condenser, the Shure vocals mic's or the SM-57, whichever you prefer. Do any overdubs using the same techniques. I hope this helps. . .Im interested to know how you eventually decide to record this. . .

 

[Keith_H]

Hey, thanks for the input!

I've been thinkin' about this all day...maybe use the last shure mic to do the kick and then use the condenser overhead to get the the cymbals? This way I would have 6 mics on the kit and i could put them all through the peavey and do some panning with the toms so i could get a little stereo effect between the toms and whatever these mics picked up on the cymbals.

I was planning on doing the bass direct and using some combination of mics or mic/DI for the guitar to get a fuller sound.

Just a random question - why record the bass and/or guitar first? I thought that the drums were usually the first to be recorded, but I've never even seen the outside of a studio let alone been inside one.


By the way, you assumed correctly- 5 piece kit, guitar, bass, and vocals.

 

[PsyCoNo]

You can try using one of the Shure mic's on the bass drum, however it might not have a low enough response to get the lower end of the drum. Experiment.

In a typical recording studio setting they would most likely track all the instruments together. However, since you only have two tracks for recording you have to do things differently. As for why I said to do bass and guitar first, I guess its just personal preference. I usually start with bass guitar and then do guitar and keys. Drums next and vocals last. However, I am also the one playing the drums, so I like to get all the other people out of the way before I start to work on my tracks. . .its jus easier for me. . .but whatever works easiest for you is what you should do.