Drum Miking uestion

[automatic8]

I recently got some drum tracks sent to me that were done at another studio. To my surpirise they sound great! Each drum was close miked with a room and an over head. Heres my question..... there was only one overhead on a mono track. How would i get my stereo drum sound from just this one mic? My first intention would be to just duplicate the track and drag one of them back .015 milliseconds or so and pan hard left and right. I guess id do the same with the mono room track? Any insight or tips would be appreciated as I am new to mixing a real kit

Thanks!

[marmotman]

there's a pretty good thread/argument here: http://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-mu...-overhead.html

To be honest, my preferred method on this kind of thing is get a good room reverb (mono>stereo) on the channel and have the mix at around 80% wet. Compress the hell out of it and hey presto, wide drums.

[Chase743]

I would not duplicate them like that, unless you're going for a very specific effect. It probably won't sound natural.

My suggestion, and it is hard to say without listening, is to pan your room mic in one direction and the OH in the other. You have to use your ears to find the right %s.

Also, try sending the close mics to a stereo 'verb. That'll open up the sound a bit too.

[albee1952]

I agree. I would start by pulling the mono room mic way down and get the mix of the drums sounding good. The I would use aux sends to a stereo aux track with a good reverb plugin(I like the IK Classik Verb room for this, or TL Space with a nice room convolution). The stereo room verb will help spread the kit and then I will slide the mono room track up to give the kit a bit more focus(assuming it sounds good). Remember, as cool as panning is, it can also get unrealistic. If you imagine a stage and spread your drums out too far, its fun, but not real sounding. +1 for experimenting with some limiting on the room mics. Another thing I do a lot is, aux send the drums to a stereo aux track and insert Waves SSL bus compressor(or BF76) and slam the compressor. Then mix that up under the rest of the drums.(other compressor plugins may have latency that causes phasing but these 2 work good for this).

[TOM@METRO]

Originally Posted by automatic8

I recently got some drum tracks sent to me that were done at another studio. To my surpirise they sound great! Each drum was close miked with a room and an over head. Heres my question..... there was only one overhead on a mono track. How would i get my stereo drum sound from just this one mic?

Thanks!

I wouldn’t be all that concerned. Many hit recordings have been done with a mono overhead. The bleed into the close mics will still offer a reasonable stereo image unless you gate them to death..

[automatic8]

thanks for all the great advice. Ill be sure to give the stereo aux verb a try. Guess ill stay away from the duplicating/delay and hard pan option. I can totally see how a mono track would make more sense than a fake stereo track.

[automatic8]

Originally Posted by automatic8

thanks for all the great advice. Ill be sure to give the stereo aux verb a try. Guess ill stay away from the duplicating/delay and hard pan option. I can totally see how a mono track would make more sense than a fake stereo track.

would a plate verb be a good start for the room and overhead?

[mano111]

Originally Posted by automatic8

would a plate verb be a good start for the room and overhead?

I'd instinctively say no, but it could.

I'd go with (the already suggested) TLSpace natural sounding room mono/stereo, you could possibly pan the stereo back to 60-60 or so for a less wide feel. too wide on drums often sounds fake.

[marmotman]

Originally Posted by mano111

too wide on drums often sounds fake.

This is true... even when using something like EXDrummer / Superior / whatever... its best to send all your individual drum channels to a submix and have that stereo channel panned at 64 l/r MAXIMUM but have any hall-type verbs on aux sends still at full 100 l/r with a hefty cut before it at around 160Hz to get rid of the bottom end. Mmmm.... clarity!

Having a submix is dead useful for overall comp and EQ - normally courtesy of some Bomb Factory plugs ;-)