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Best of the RecPit
Micing drums with what you’ve
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Topic posted by pavement
I have recorded a demo of my band, and we used pretty awful microphones,
but after purchasing and loaning some mics, I have the following:
Studio
Projects C1, Shure
SM57/58, and two AKG
C3000's.
This was what I was thinking: the C1 on kick drum (I know it sounds
odd, but I got the best sound with it), SM57 on snare, SM58 on low
tom, and the two C3000 as overheads in “XY”. What do
you think? The only thing is that I don't cover the mid and upper
toms, and I'm afraid that the high-hat is not going to sit in well.
Any input is greatly appreciated. Later.
Reply posted by pricey
I put my overheads in XY right over the drummer's head, with about
an inch to spare. This can sound almost as focused as close micing,
especially if you have a pair of small diaphragm condensers.
Unfortunately I often get a “Dumb Ass” who flails around
wildly, bashing the cymbals, and manages to hit the overhead mics
no matter where I put them! I am considering electric shock as a
way to keep drummers in line. Anyone else have this problem?
Reply posted by pavement
Heh - my drummer’s not so crazy. Your method might work pretty
wellm but I wanted the overheads to take care of the cymbals, primarily.
Will this method work well for that?
Reply posted by mbrane
The AKG's in XY should give you a good overall picture of the kit.
Personally, I would take the ball-end off the SM58 and use it on
the snare, and put the SM57 on the toms. Reason for that is without
the ball-end, the 5SM8 is almost identical to the SM57, but the
SM57 has a bit more bottom.
Be careful with that C1 on the kick. You could blow it out if you
get it too close. Maybe try the ol’ blanket tunnel trick for
that.
Reply posted by pavement
I already use the blanket trick and the 10 db pad on the C1 so that's
not a problem. Good idea with the SM58 - thanks a lot. One more
question - should I use the SM57 on the low tom or the mid, to try
to get all three toms? I’ve only got one mic for three toms,
which sucks. Maybe I'll try to get a friend to give me (another)
SM 7.
Reply posted by mbrane
Try to beg, borrow or steal another mic. If you can't get another
SM57, just about any decent cardioid dynamic would work to capture
the attack of the upper toms. If you try to mic all three with a
single mic, you’re gonna get a lot of cymbal/snare bleed -
unless you've got one of those rare drummers that hits his toms
harder than the cymbals. If that's the case, you might not need
to mic the toms at al,l if your overheads are done right.
Reply posted by phreddy
I normally mic drums with just four or five mics: two overhead mics,
a bass drum mic, a snare mic, and sometimes a mic on the bottom
of the snare. (No tom mics, no hi-hat mic.)
I get a good overall sound from the overheads and then add bass
drum snare as necessary. I do prefer large diaphram mics for overheads.
I don't know what the C3000 or the C1 sound like, but if that's
what you have, then C1 on bass drum, 3000's on O/H, and SM57 on
snare seem like the only way to go.
Spend a lot of time on mic placement. I place the overheads a bit
unusually. If you look at the drum set like a watch, and in front
of the drummer is 12 o'clock and behind him is 6 o'clock, I usually
place the overheads outside and quite a bit above the set, at approximately
1:30 and 7:30. It seems to give me the stereo image of the drum
set that I like. I do take a tape measure and make sure that the
O/H mics are the same distance from the snare to prevent phase problems.
Reply posted by erik513
You can't go wrong with more SM57s. The price and sound are great.
If you go to Guitar Center http://www.guitarcenter.com, you can
work a deal with them. When I bought all of mine, I told the guy
behind the counter, "I want two 57s, but if you can throw in
three boom mic stands for free, iIll buy a third 57." And they
did it. II love my drum setup right now: Shure Beta 52 for kick,
all toms covered with S<57s (currently have four), a Sennheiser
http://www.sennheiserusa.com MD421 on the snare, and two Oktava
MK012 for overheads.
If I feel the need, I'll throw the fourth SM57 on the hi-hat, or
my E-200 as a distant mic. But that hasn't been necessary.
Reply posted by saxplayer
I would mic the kick with the C1 , put the SM57 on snare and set
up two mics overhead. Record each mic to a separate track, and you
have some good mixing options.
Reply posted by edion2
Pavement - you pretty much have the answer already with what to
do with what you have. For the future, I swear by the AKG D112 on
kick. I've been using it for many years and it has never disappointed
me. AKG mics in general can take high SPL and are great percussion
mics.
Right now from AMS you can buy AKG drum mics real cheap. Their top-of-the-line
deluxe package can be had for $499. It includes three C418, one
C419 (the mini clip-on type) and a D112. The Micro package is $399
and the Standard package is $299. Any of these packages should work
great.
AMS is also offering the D3700 cheap too. two for $150. These are
similar to S<58. The difference is they sound better on drums,
I think. the D3700 gives you more of the "crack" (attack)
on each hit on the toms. I've used them and they sound good.
I have a three mic package from CAD (three tom mics) for $150. I've
been getting great results with them. Big fat tom sounds from a
$50 mic!? I've heard a lot of good things about the Audix drum packages
that go for under $500.
You don't have to spend a lot to get good sounds. The AKG packages
are a real bargain. Get one if you can. Make sure you get a D112
for the kick... you won't be disappointed.
If you don't own the C3000, AMS is selling the C3000/C1000 package
for the price of a C3000. I use the C1000 for overheads. They're
nice! The C3000 is hard to beat on acoustic guitars. Works well
with sax and trumpet. Wonderful on female vocals. The C1000 is a
versatile mic too.
Just my 2 cents worth. Good luck.
Reply posted by fishtop
I think you're lucky you've run out of mics before you waste one
on the high-hat. I never enjoy high-hat tracks - most of the time
I spend forever trying to kill the bleed in other tracks.
For me, hi-hats either take care of themselves, or are a problem
to eliminate.
Reply posted by leeflier
Yeah I agree, you definitely won't have a problem hearing the hi
hats, between the overheads and the bleed from the snare track (a
SM57 has pretty good off axis rejection so you should be able to
place it in such a way that you don't pick up too much hat). If
anything, there is often too MUCH hat. Some people mic the hat just
so they can flip the phase on it and try to cancel some of it out.
Well, I'm going to throw a big monkey wrench in the works here just
for fun. Rather than using two stereo overheads as most people do,
I usually use a single overhead. You can use one of your C3000's
for this. I usually place it right over the drummer's head.
So what to do with your other mic? Well... it depends on the material.
That's the cool thing - you can position it differently for different
sounds. If you want a lot of bottom end, put it a few feet in front
of the kick drum, and at about the height of the top of the kick.
Move it around to the drummer's right a bit, if you want to pick
up more of the toms (which you probably do since you don't have
enough mics for all of them).
If you want lots of toms, position your overhead mic so that it's
centered over the snare, and your second C3000 over the toms and
a bit lower than the overhead.
There are a lot of mic positions that I find are better than the
standard stereo overhead configuration, depending on what kind of
sound you're going for. Try them all and see what you like.
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