Recording Drum Kits

[where02190]

Actually with the right mics you can get a very good drum sound with just two mics.

A good drum sound is not the sound of individual drums, but rather capturing the sound of the kit as each drum interacts with the vibrations around it in a particular environment. It is a factor of a good drum set, well tuned, and a good player.

Often I will track with as many as a dozen channels on a 4 piece kit, but end up using only overheads and maybe a bass drum mic. generally I use stereo overheads, kick, snare and a room mic. very rarely do I use tom mics. This 4 mic set up would require only adding a two channel mic preamp to your exsisting set-up.

Good mics are also a big factor. I prefer a shure Beta 52 or Audio Technica 4033 for kick drum, Shure 57, Beta 57a or Audio Technica 4041 for snare, and Shure VP-88 stereo mic for overheads. Generally I use an omin pattern for room mic, like an AKG C414B-ULS or C-4000B.

Hope this has been helpful.

[oasisman]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by where02190:
Actually with the right mics you can get a very good drum sound with just two mics.

A good drum sound is not the sound of individual drums, but rather capturing the sound of the kit as each drum interacts with the vibrations around it in a particular environment. It is a factor of a good drum set, well tuned, and a good player.

Often I will track with as many as a dozen channels on a 4 piece kit, but end up using only overheads and maybe a bass drum mic. generally I use stereo overheads, kick, snare and a room mic. very rarely do I use tom mics. This 4 mic set up would require only adding a two channel mic preamp to your exsisting set-up.

Good mics are also a big factor. I prefer a shure Beta 52 or Audio Technica 4033 for kick drum, Shure 57, Beta 57a or Audio Technica 4041 for snare, and Shure VP-88 stereo mic for overheads. Generally I use an omin pattern for room mic, like an AKG C414B-ULS or C-4000B.

Hope this has been helpful.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Helpful indeed [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

This may be what I should do, by only buying a 2ch mic preamp instead of an 8ch premap I'll get better quality by spending the same amount. Could you explain stereo overheads, by this I know what stereo means but to get stereo don't you need 2 mics which would mean 5 mics not 4? I really don't know [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

Cheers. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[where02190]

Yes indeed my math was incorrest however you could do this:
2 channels stereo overheads
1 channel kick drum
1 channels snare or room mic

Depending on the kit/drummer, you may or may not need a snare mic, whcih you can substitute a room mic. But heck, you'll want to buy more preamps eventually anyway!!!!!!

[Lowfreq]

You do have more than 2 mic pres. You do know you can buy some 1/4" TRS to XLR-F (female) adapters for inputs 3-8? Then you set the level sensitivity (in Pro Tools) to 'mic level'. I have tracked drums this way but I prefer using my Yamaha O1V console. I'm just used to the sound of the mic pre's in this board and not to say Digi's are 'bad' or anything. Everybody has 'the' way to mic drum kits. From the 'Decca Tree 3 mic' fanatics to close mic'ing every drum, acoustic drums are by far the hardest to get a great sound from. Of course the largest factor (after drum tuning, cymbal cleaning, etc.) is the drummer him/herself! If they suck... nothing will save the track. Hope this helps.

[oasisman]

Thanks for the help guys [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[where02190]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Lowfreq:
You do have more than 2 mic pres. You do know you can buy some 1/4" TRS to XLR-F (female) adapters for inputs 3-8? Then you set the level sensitivity (in Pro Tools) to 'mic level'. I have tracked drums this way but I prefer using my Yamaha O1V console. I'm just used to the sound of the mic pre's in this board and not to say Digi's are 'bad' or anything. Everybody has 'the' way to mic drum kits. From the 'Decca Tree 3 mic' fanatics to close mic'ing every drum, acoustic drums are by far the hardest to get a great sound from. Of course the largest factor (after drum tuning, cymbal cleaning, etc.) is the drummer him/herself! If they suck... nothing will save the track. Hope this helps.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
You do not have more than 2 mic preamps. although you can drop the sensitivity level low enough that you probably cound record drums, the impedance mismatch would make for pretty bad frequency response. I'm not doubting that you did it, and it may have even worked ok, but it is far from ideal, and you could only do it with dynamic mics.

Spend that tax refund check, buy more mic preamps.

[oasisman]

I guess you're right, are there any good preamps for about $250 US Dollars ($600 AUS Dollars)?

I saw the SM Pro Audio PR8 8 channel mic preamp. Does anyone know if this is any good? [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

I don't think I'll need 8 though, is there any mic preamps around that have about 4 or 6 mic inputs but are of good quality for about $250...$300. If I spend the same amount of money but get less inputs surely they've got to have better mic pres, not always but you know what I mean. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

I couldn't use 8 channels anyway could I? There's 8 TRS outputs from the mic preamp, you couldn't plug all of them into the Digi 001 box could you?

Cheers. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[where02190]

You can get something like the Presonus Unit that has lightpipe outputs, personally I didn't think it sounded that great, but it's probably as good as the 001 mic preamps. I think they are fairly inexpensive, and then you would actually have 10 preamps counting the 2 on the 001.

Other than those, there's not much I would categorize as "good" for your price range, although there are certainly preamps out there for that price, however the tradeoff is inferior sound, noise, etc. Depends on what your needs are. For hobby or preproduction they'll be ok.

[oasisman]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by where02190:
You can get something like the Presonus Unit that has lightpipe outputs, personally I didn't think it sounded that great, but it's probably as good as the 001 mic preamps. I think they are fairly inexpensive, and then you would actually have 10 preamps counting the 2 on the 001.

Other than those, there's not much I would categorize as "good" for your price range, although there are certainly preamps out there for that price, however the tradeoff is inferior sound, noise, etc. Depends on what your needs are. For hobby or preproduction they'll be ok.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It's for demos at the moment, but who knows I might need good quality preamps anyway to do some serious work (I'm a songwriter, My demos are on an old 4-track). I might as well spend $1K (Australian Dollars) and get something good, at least it will last a long time, I'll think of it as an investment. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

How would you plug those 8 TRS outputs into the digi box to get recorded? Can't you only use jacks 3-8 on the back? How are you supposed to plug in 8? If you can I would like to know, if you can't there's really no point in getting a preamp with 8 channels.

Cheers. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[where02190]

The Presonus has lightpipe in/out.
This leaves all our analog i/o available.