Very n00b question about drum micing

[illness]

Recently my band started to get into recording and we bought a Tascam Dp-01 8 track recorder. Its worked fine for guitars and bass. However I run into an issue with the drums. The recorder can only record 2 tracks at once so my question is this: Do drum mics get hooked up at the end to connect to each other and then finally count as 1 track? If not, is there some way to get all the mic inputs, connect them, and have them count as 1 track ?
Any information would be greatly appreciated. CUrrently we have 2 mics, 1 is a little crap mic, and the other seems to be of greater quality (it was 50 bucks). Thanks

 

[gecko zzed]

If your device can record only two tracks at once, then you have a tricky challenge in front of you.

Whatever you do, it seems like you will need a mixer between mikes and recorder.

One option is to play as a band and record the whole thing in stereo, using the two tracks available.

The other option is to layer it, recording each instrument separately, then mixing on the Tascam afterwards.

With drums and two mikes, you have a couple of choices:

1 try a stereo mix, with a mike on either side of the drummer, kinda poking over his (or her) shoulders to the kit. The results, of course, will depend on the match of the mikes and their respective qualities. It may not come out that well. However, this would give you a stereo drum track into the tascam.

2 try a mono mix; one mike on the kick, another as an overhead. You may need to sort out which mike is best for which function. See what gives something you can work with it. You would mix these together (via mixer) to create a single mono channel that you can record into the tascam. This gives you a free track, on which you could record, say, bass.