Drum recording techniques

Doctor J

How do you eat yours?

I've been tweaking how I go about recording drums over the last while. I picked up one of those Audix drum mic sets a while back and have kind of grown to favour them over the tradtional D112 in the bass drum, 57 on the snare, Senn 421s on the toms, 2 overheads setup. The Audix are all hypercardiod, and while the 421s are lovely mics, I prefer the cleaner sound from the Audix. For overheads, I quite like using them exclusively for picking up cymbals and positioning them accordingly, rather than for a stereo representation of the whole kit. I've also been putting a mic on the hihats and a mic on the ride, to have greater control of their levels and use one large diaphragm condenser to pick up an ambient sound of the whole kit to blend at will.

So, how do you do it?

TelePaul

I am thinking of going for the 'recorderman technique'...I'll post properly on it when I have a bit more time! It uses 3 mics.

frobisher

UNless I'm working on something that demands a different approach, I've always gone for as solid a BD sound as I can get then taken a while with the overheads, usually in a XY, until I get what I want. From there I bring in the close mic'ed parts as needed and despite their untrendiness, have often whacked on a few gates if needed. I've had great results with a trusty 57 on the BD. It's been a while since I mic'ed a kit though.

Niall - Dahlia

I was about to post about drum miking too, was recording a band yesterday and later today who only want to record drum and bass for now, so it's actually one of the few times I've had time to mess around with the kit, was gonna post some samples up to get some advice. I've never really had the time with a band to experiment much with drum miking (don't have my own kit to mess around with), so all my miking is "by the book" I guess.

Cymbals are about the only thing I'm regularly happy with when I record drums. NT5s as spaced overheads, width depending on what the band are after, height depending on the room. I've tried XY before but just for the sake of time I find spaced pair is quicker to setup. I've never felt the need to spot mic the hihat or ride, though I've rarely had enough mics to have that luxury anyway.

I lost a D112 a few months back and was tempted to get something different, but just got another D112. Probably should have gone with something a bit different but hey, played it safe. There'll be 2 kick drums in the place tonight, might try messing around with the 2nd drum facing the 1st like I've seen done a few times. I find it very hard to get a decent kick sound out of the D112 when there's no hole in the kick skin, but I'm gonna put that down to inexperience.

57s on top of the snare and toms. Again I rarely have the mics to mic under the snare, but the odd time I've tried it it didn't yield the best results. A mic on the top is usually sufficient for the time being.

Then if the room is decent I'll stick my NT2A either a few feet infront of the kit or have a walk round and pick a spot that sounds decent for some ambient miking (which I rarely use though).

Doctor J wrote:

I picked up one of those Audix drum mic sets a while back

Are they clip on mics? I was always told clip on mics are dodgy for recording with because of the vibrations through the kit, or is that bull? Haven't had the chance to use clip on mics yet.

Doctor J

You can use them with a clip or a regular mic stand, just had them on toms so far. Having A-B'd them I couldn't hear a difference between stand and clip with the drum solo'd, so I'd be pretty sure a punter isn't going to hear any difference when everything is mixed. In truth, they're actually a lot more convenient, you can get into places (the cramped area with a floor tom, ride, crash for example) where it gets very awkward, sometimes impossible to place a mic stand and position the mic where you want.

unclebill98

well....

Long time reader....

Its been a while but I thought I'd share my tech...

I'd use a beta 91 in the kick, place in the middle of the bass drum. Using it live at the mins and my god, it can give some great thump. A E602 on the beater side of the bass drum head. For the toms I use E604 at 45degree to the skins. Snare, can never beat a good SM57, maybe the Beta version on top. Under the snare a good condenser, AKG 414. For Hi Hats, a good pencil conderser mic, dont have one yet but the Jomeek's little green one looks like the it would be nice, but I am using standard SM57 for that. For over heads I would like to use 414, but I am one short so I use C3000b's for that, they also make great tom mics if i was doing it diff. Ambient mic is usually a tube mic. I have used an RCA mic before is a session, so one of those babys is on the wishlist on ebay!!!! I have also used 2 of these BBC 4038 RIBBON MICROPHONE in an x/y infornt of a kit instead of overheads and again....there on the list too!! For the hell of it I have used a mic outside in the stair well just to get a great reverb sound and works well for a breakbeat part of a song.

Micing the ride on its own has proved very usefull for mixin....

My simple answer to using tons of mics is...."Better looking at it than, looking for it!"

There ya go....