Ways to place drums mics...help needed

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D'addario

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Well I may as well start out by say this is my very first post to any recording site...Only cause i liked it so much ...:)
I have just purchased a set of akg d112 drum mic package and a sennheiser pack of 3 604 E...Any one have any tips on how to place them on the drums ...direction wise....and which ones should I use where ...or did i just waiste my hard earned cash?...any help would be way cool....thanks
 
This may help...

Go to www.recordingeq.com and hunt through some past articles, there are some good drum mic-ing techniques and examples in there if you look hard enough. They have a free recording course also that you can take.
 
Hey man Thanks alot...ill have ta check that out...peace
 
great mic choices......the Senn's are a great natural sounding mic
 
A good starting point for kick is to put the mic about halfway into the drum and level with the beater, closer for more attack, furter back for a more rounded sound, Move a little to the left or right if necessary (or up/down).

If the E604s have the mounting clips then just clip em onto the rims and point em at the heads, on smaller toms I have found that the clips tended to put the mic too far over the drum and in the drummer's way, I discovered that if you clip them on right next to a lug , where the rim flares out a bit that you can clip them on in such a way that the mic is moved further back.
 
Should the be directly at the head or at a 45 or so degree angle...Do the tom mics act as the bass drum mic would...the closer more attack?....Thanks man big time for the tips....when i get the best sound I can get ill send in some clips so you guys can let me have it!!!!...hehe..Well Im using the senns for the the 2 floor toms and the snare and the akg little clip on jobs on toms 1-4...any recomendations for that?...They dont have much in the way of movement just dumb little robot arms "akg's".I really do apperciate the help and thanks again...:)

Peace
 
Tubedude,

that site doesnt have squat on this one....if you learned so much from there, you shoulda answered his post here....
 
I usually point the tom mics more or less at the centre of the drum, it's not quite the same as with the kick because of how close the mics are to the shells If the mic is closer you should get more attack but you might also pick up more shell resonance or ringing, backing the mic off a bit tends to give a more natural tom sound, with the E604s I used to back them off as far as the clip allowed, sometimes I would actually use the LP Claws instead of the clips so that I could get a little more flexibility in terms of position/distance.
 
I hate Clip-ons... I have a nice set of Audix (D-series).. they are also the small "clip-on format".. but I prefer to use real mic stands, with mine. People say, it doesn't happen if placed right, but I still worry about vibrations transfering and other shit like that going through the "clip".. Mic stands are totally independent from a drum, with no chance of any "noise transfer"..... Good choice of mic though, Senns are great....(clips are nice for live, instead of having 39 friggin mic stands on stage...., well not that many but you know what I mean)
Hope this helps in some small way....
 
Well I guess i should say what type of sound im looking for.....I play semi heavy metal panteraish style stuff but i also do slow rock - rock...im looking to get that nice ummm how do you say it ...not boomy but a tight sound on all the drums ...Is it nessicary to muffle them? ....to get rid of the ring or should i eq it out ...I ve now placed weather stripping in certain parts of the drums to deadin the ring from them...I placed the peices about an inch in from the rim...seemed to do an ok job ...but his drums were ringin bastads...:)....I went through and tuned his whole set again then applyed the weather stripping...This has been my problem for years of semi pro recording...I could never get a good drum sound...;now that i have invested a ton of money on equipment...I feel im still never gonna get a great sound....and all i wanna do is make my dream of making my own cd with all the songs Ive written....And so far you guys have hooked me up.... everything you said so far vox helped out...and I very much thank you for that....Im guessin Ive waisted my money on the akgs huh?...I thought they were good they got good write ups...But any way the board Im using is the mackie 24-8 if that helps any...I seem to also have pounding levels comming in from the mics...I dont even have ta turn my pres up on the board for any of the mics...they all pretty much come in hot...Is this ok?...Or will this cause distortion?...When i listen back I do sorta hear a cracking noise that not really previlant...but its adds an ok snap to the drum it self...I dunno...I dont wanna seem like an idiot ...which ya prolly think I am already hehe...I just wanna learn to make my tunes sound the best
 
D' ,

I too am a drum and recording newbie but I finally got a decent setup that I think sounds and records pretty well. I have (2) SM-57's and one AKG D112 all going into a Mackie VLZ Pro Mixer.

One of the SM-57's is placed between the Hat and left tom, under the crash and pointing down toward the snare. The other 57 is directly between the left and right tom at rim level at the same angle as the toms. I have the D112 right at the hole (off center down and left a bit) of my kick.

I haven't done much for EQ on the Mackie other than adjust the gain and trim. I have some mp3's of stuff I recorded last weekend here if you are interested.

http://w3.one.net/~tc1/Jams.html

I would imagine you could place 2 of the 604E's in a similar position to what I have and use the 3rd 604 to the right of your right tom (assuming you have one) pointing toward your floor tom.

Hope that helps

-B
 
D'addario said:
Well I guess i should say what type of sound im looking for.....I play semi heavy metal panteraish style stuff but i also do slow rock - rock...im looking to get that nice ummm how do you say it ...not boomy but a tight sound on all the drums ...Is it nessicary to muffle them? ....to get rid of the ring or should i eq it out ...I ve now placed weather stripping in certain parts of the drums to deadin the ring from them...I placed the peices about an inch in from the rim...seemed to do an ok job ...but his drums were ringin bastads...:)....I went through and tuned his whole set again then applyed the weather stripping...This has been my problem for years of semi pro recording...I could never get a good drum sound...;now that i have invested a ton of money on equipment...I feel im still never gonna get a great sound....and all i wanna do is make my dream of making my own cd with all the songs Ive written....And so far you guys have hooked me up.... everything you said so far vox helped out...and I very much thank you for that....Im guessin Ive waisted my money on the akgs huh?...I thought they were good they got good write ups...But any way the board Im using is the mackie 24-8 if that helps any...I seem to also have pounding levels comming in from the mics...I dont even have ta turn my pres up on the board for any of the mics...they all pretty much come in hot...Is this ok?...Or will this cause distortion?...When i listen back I do sorta hear a cracking noise that not really previlant...but its adds an ok snap to the drum it self...I dunno...I dont wanna seem like an idiot ...which ya prolly think I am already hehe...I just wanna learn to make my tunes sound the best
Click to expand...
There are some pictures on my website of a typical metal/rock drum setup I use with E504s (same as the 604), the D112, and some overheads. They show the way I typically mic a drum set, but that will often change, depending on the player, and even the song. The pics are at: http://www.ITRstudio.com/anonftp/

Hopefully, they'll be of some help as a starting point.
 
D'addario, are these the miniature AKG Clip ons with the straight arm that clicks into about four positions? If so I have gotten a decent tom sound from them, once again I liked the sound better when they were further back, so I used them one click in from vertical.
 
Ouch! That man needs to learn how to design web-pages... The tips may be good, but they are unreadable!
 
Agreed. It is apparent that his forte is audio and not visual. It is best to probably copy and paste the text into a doc or txt file. Those little animation thingys can probably send most people into seizures! lol
 
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