Anyone done this before?
I have an acoustic drum kit that I need to start recording with as soon as possible. Unfortunately, I do not have the resources for drum mics. I do, however, have access to two condenser mics and I believe if they are set in the right place under the right conditions, I could get a good drum sound recorded. Has anyone had experience with this, and could you give me some advice on my setup. Thanks, you’re all stars!
I use small diaphragm condensors as overheads. Position them equidistant from the snare to center it in the stereo image.
Thanks, Tom. How high above the kit would you put them?
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| Thanks, Tom. How high above the kit would you put them? |
You’ll have to experiment to get the sound you are after. If you can, scratch up a third mic and stick it on the kick drum. Many, many execellent recordings have been done using this “triangle” method.
D
does anyone miss Mac chiming in with “if you can’t get a good recording with a stick mic…”
| Quote (clark_griswold @ Nov. 15 2006,11:46) |
| does anyone miss Mac chiming in with "if you can't get a good recording with a stick mic..." |
Yep. There's TRUTH in them thar werdz!
D
I position mic height differently depending on the room. When I was recording in a small crappy sounding bedroom, I used the “underheads” position, with the mics below the level of the cymbals, in order to get as little room sound as possible in the mics. I record in a place with very high ceiings now, a loft, so I put the overheads up higher. experiment!
I recommend using an XY position until you get ok at it. my spaced stereo recordings never sounded right until I did an xy.
(an xy is when you place both mics perpendicular to each other with the front ends pretty much touching)
Thanks everyone, especially Bubba for the visual aids. It seems on every drum miking setup even with condensers, you still have to individually mic the snare and kick. You think I can get away with using regular vocal mics for that versus the Shure drum mics? (If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m poor).
Yes you can - if by regular vocal mics you mean something like an sm57, they are sort of standard snare mics. One thing you mus try - move the mic around a lot and listen to how different the snare sounds from various locations. It is really astonishing.