Drum Mic'ing

[Cinemafixer]

Hey Folks- anyone got any nifty techniques for Drum mic'ing they would like to share? I have a session coming up and would like to do a bit of experimenting with non-orthodox methods - Im planning on trying the following - Large diaphragm condenser set to figure 8 3-4 feet in front of the kick - small diaphragm omni splitting the toms - small diaphragm over Drummer's right shoulder, small diaphragm overhead/room. They are looking for a narrow image on the kit - no super wide overheads - maybe akin to the LED ZEP. sound. might be a good discussion here....

[H-man]

CF- I dig your ideas, I actually tried the kick drum off of the head about the same distance and built a tunnel from the kick to the mic with a blanket and got a pretty good result. I got the idea from that new PT book and it worked out pretty well. Sounds like you have some cool ideas. Also running the kick or snare through one of the lo-fi or sansamp plugs gives a nice raunchy punch. Just experiment and have fun. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Cinemafixer]

tunnel, eh? sounds cool. I bet you could really tune a kick drum that way - probably would work like an 'acoustic filter' or like a port on a bass-reflex speaker. interesting. I'm looking to capture all of the drums through all of the mics at the same time - just by aiming and making use of the polar options I have to make certain tracks favor one drum/room angle over another.

[Jorge442]

the tunnel idea is cool and works great, but when I think of Zep, I dunno, I hear the mic in front of the kik, pretty much open.....a lot of room sound, don´t you?

[IOP Drummer]

You might consider close miking some drums as BACKUP ONLY. Don't intend to use them but if you absolutely have to, they're there to trigger, use for verb sends, etc. A lot of good drum sounds have been Kick, snare and overheads/rooms. You should think about at least picking those up. Other than that, the tunnel works good. It really cuts out tom leakage, and all the highs from cymbals, snare bottom etc. It kinda sucks if you have room mics though, cause the kick gets cut out of them. Try putting a mic real far away for a great room kick sound or snare sound. Then you can gate that mic and key it with the kick or snare. Or like I mentioned above, close mic the snare, soundreplace it with an 808, gate it really short and use it to send to a verb. You'll get that super fat crack snap verb, and if it's a dark room with a lot of damping it'll sound like someones head is getting pounded in every time the snare hits!!! (you don't actually ever hear the 808) Throw a mic up high somewhere to catch a lot of the higher frequenies and put massive chorus / compression on it and mix it in. Try putting mics in an ortf setup right beside the drummer's head. (ortf is susposed to simulate ears on a human head. Directional mics facing away from each other at the angle our ears do.) Have fun!!

[Cinemafixer]

Good call, mike. The tunnel wouldn't be such a good thing for this session - I was thinking more in terms of the setup I mentioned earlier - BUT - now that you mention it, I think I will track individual drums to analog 1" - just to have the ability to fly them in for sends and extra processing (gating etc...) Thanks for the ideas - keep'em coming - I think everyone could benefit from everyone's knowlege of Miking Drums - It is to me the most important part of a good mix ( and the easiest thing to f***** up!!!!)

[BigRedButton]

Here's a diagram I've put together to show my favorite, tried and true, drum mic setup.

I've used this setup, and variations of this setup on dozens and dozens of recordings, always with great results.

There's nothing revolutionary here, but it's a relatively affordable setup, and you'll find that depending on how you mix, and what type of room you're in, you can achieve a HUGE drum sound that is both "focused" and still "open".

durm mic setup

I hope this helps!

PS: Cinemafixer, hows that Pink Floyd Track coming? Do you have the time, or should I find someone else? Just lemme know, no biggie!

BigRedButton

[newbie001]

If you're looking for a GREAT sounding ambient drum mic, consider the Shure VP88. It's a stereo mic that uses 3 of the same capsules that are used in the SM81. This mic, in front of the kit about ten feet works wonders. It's a bit pricey but It's soo versitle. Try it on accoustic instruments, overhead on drum kits, ambient recording, any where you need a good stereo recording. Because it's MS stereo, it sums to mono wonderfully.

[chriswebb]

The setup you describe is a good one. If that setup will use all your mic's then you should be ok. Play with placement of the large diaphragm mic. Too far away and it looses it's detail - same with the overheads.
If you've got more mic's then I'd highly recomend close mic'ing the snare with a 57 and the the bass drum with whatever you've got.
(2) overheads, something sweet like Audix SCX One
(1) Snare, 57
(1) Bass , Senn MD518
(1) Ambient, large diaphragm
The close mic'ing of the snare and bass will allow you to really "tighten" up the mix later. A little eq on the snare and you'll be loving the recording!
If you've got extra mic's then put them on the remaining toms.

[Cinemafixer]

For a wide open image I like to use a pair of 4033's on the overheads - 90 degrees directly overhead gives great definition to the cymbals...120 degrees overhead gives great tom imaging and lots of extra crack on the snare. I would use 81's for a slightly narrower image (still stereo) that favors the cymbals. for a mono overhead, I use a GT model 1 touching the ceiling in back of the drummer - makes for clear and crisp cymbals and a nice picture of the room. I like to use a condenser on the snare top to capture the ring and resonance of the snare drum, and a 57 on the bottom to get the crackle...the overheads are 90 percent of the drum sound for me when close miking drums, and I tend to lke a real open wide image. Works for a lot of things. I just posted a new MP-3 just now - check out the ride cymbal during the sax solo on I gotta change. I LOVE that image...got it by accident - I had placed my 4033's prior to tracking and had gotten them where they were supposed to be. As the track progressed, the right hand overhead began to fall until during the solo section, it was about 1 foot above the ride. I had to get up and hold the mike till the end of the solo, then I slowly moved it back up. It Worked out so great!!! Im planning on experimenting more with physically moving microphones during different parts of performances to try and recapture that effect. Interestingly enough, While I was trying to get tone on the drums during that session, I was VERY unhappy with the sound of that ride - It was some OLD beat-up thing that looked like it had been on the floor of the drummers' truck for the last couple of years! Sometimes accidents work out for the best.