What's the best way to record drums

[Shibby]

were should u put the mic, ect...

[FooIsFood]

Depends on your setup and how many mics you have. If you only have one mic, start out front of the kit (a couple of feet in front of the bass drum) and check it. Move it around a little bit and keep checking. If you have 2 mics, do one on the left and one on the right a few feet away, and check again. Also, vary the height of the mic, you;'ll get different sounds lower than higher. If you are crazy like me (I use 8 mics) one mic above the snare, below the snare, one for the bass drum, one for each tom, and hang one on the left and one on the right. You can get really cool tracks like this as you can play with the mix of all the differnt drums/cymbals. The main idea is play with what you have until you get the sound you want. They have some really cool mic clamps for drum sets now that make it easier to place the mics.
Have fun,
Foo Is Food

[BrettV]

hahahha .. when we recorded our project in session recording, we used 17 mics on the drumset! http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/smile.gif

Shib, what kind of mic are you using?

-tk

[arcandor]

you need at least 2 mics to get drums, mainly because the bass drum kick is the 2nd most sonically important component of a good recording... give it its own mic. your next mic should be an 'area' mic if you don't have any more, a few feet from the kit. if you have a few more mics, make sure you get the hi hats and the snare.

good luck!

[Shibby]

i forgot the make of my mike but i'll find out later. I actually have two, the first is a okay one i got it at guitar center on sale for like 40 bucks...the other one is a ten buck karoke mike that really really sux.

[m1a1]

My advice is use as many mics as you have and put them everywhere. Legend has it Jimmy Page would put mics all over the room and out in the hallway when recording John Bonham's drums. I would say to do the same.

[Pviljoen]

use a compressor mike or it will sound like shiat.

[charvelallstars]

I studied music tech at 'A' Level in England and this is how we were taught...(didn't have any clip mics for the toms btw);

Two directional condensors for the overheads set high at either front side of the kit. Make sure that they are not pointing at the drummer's head or behind him (common mistake).
Three dynamic mics for the toms set as close to each tom as possible without interfering with play. Make sure they are pointing just off centre.
Dedicated bass drum placed inside the bass drum.
Ambient condensor mic, such as the Rode NT-1 placed about 10 feet away from the kit and centered on the middle of the kit.

There are endless possibilities and experimenting is probably the best way to achieve your sound. Hope this helps.

[Walt Flannagan's dog]

Yeah, Charvel, that's about standard for mic'ing a 5 piece kit, although I like to put two mics on the snare as well. One on the top head, and one on the bottom head. Then, I'll use a dedicated mics for the hats and for the ride.

But, Shibby, if you've only got two mics, then I'd throw one in the bass drum and mic the rest of the kit with the other.

Then again, if you're just recording rehearsals, then I'd just take one mic, put it in the middle of the room, and point everything at it, then play with mic positioning.

I've found that less is more when you've got next to no equipment.

[Shibby]

allright thanks alot guys! i think my band is gonna try borrow a mixer from somebody so we'll be able to use more mics. now i have a different question. suppose that we are able to mic our drums with like 3-4 mics, can we use like one mic to mic the guitar/bass amp? (one mic for each amp i meam) cause i think its easier to record playing live than recording by each person playing at differnt times. or will this sounds likek *****? also then will it sound good if our singer went back and sung the vocals?

thanks,
Shibby

[BrettV]

That's how some bands do it .. the band will record at one time .. while the lead singer is doing some scratch vocals (just vox to get by -- correct timing, maybe not correct pitch/dynamics, etc) .. if yer gonna do it that way, you need to find a way to isolate everything from the rest of the band .. if you didn't do this, mic bleed would result .. and I mean BADLY. It's incredibly difficult to mix when you have the bass guitar on all the tracks .. or the guitar is bleeding through into the drum kit .. ESPECIALLY if you choose to go back and do punch ins .. it's a total nightmare. Just make sure you have enough headphones for everyone and send a quick mix out so everyone can hear what the rest of the band is doing.

I hope that made sense.

[SKEETER]

I am close micing every drum, I got a cheap set of mics (3 tom/snare mics, 1 kick, and two condensors for cymbals. I did a nono, I cut a round hole in the bottom head of the toms and in the front of the kick and put the mic inside, that way I get maximum isolation. It makes the drums harder to tune, but it works well. The cymbal mics pickup everything, so, I put a round ring of foam behind the between the screen and cable end, in order to cut down on the room reflection. I also put the front of the drums up against the wall, a bout a foot away, and put matress padding on the wall in front of them, and hung quilts on either side of the kit, to cut down on room reverb. It works pretty well, I am a guitarist not a drummer, but I still am getting a pretty killer sound.

[SKEETER]

P S I got a killer set of drum mics, real cheap. They are called SUPERLUX DRK-A3C2. I ahve had a lot fo mics, I have a nice vocal mic, big dollar condensor, I know mics, and trust me, these superlux are real nice quality. Lots of output, very low noise. I was seeing them on EBAY for less than 150 new for the set..... I also use a couple of XM8500 BERHINGER mics on my toms, the band I am in uses some of them for vocal mics, they are better than Shure 58s, musicians friend for 3 for 60 bucks. Way good deal.

[SKEETER]

And, yet another opinion. jimmy Page had to put mics all over the room in order to get ambience in the drums. That is fine if you want to spend a ton of time experimenting with mic placement, but I think it is far better to record the drums as close as you can, and try not to get any more of the room than you need, then add the ambience later with effects processors. When Zepplin was recording, the best they had was spring reverb, so in order to get concert hall echoes that sounded real they needed to do all kinds of strange mic things. That is no longer neccesary, the processors do it , and do it better and easier.

[Shibby]

thanks alot guys. I don't really understand that thing about seperating the bleeding. well i udnerstand the concept but i don't get how to do it.

also, i heard that jimmy page, at least on some songs, only used three mics to get the drum sounds.

later,
Shibby