Drum Recording - Tips For Basic Recording?

[Two hands31]

I'm planning on starting to record demos with my band, which doesn't yet have a drummer, but we're looking for one, and therefore I'll have to able to record those too. Now, I'm a perfectionist, so I like everything to sound as good as it can, but I only have a Tascam US-122, and therefore can only record two channels at once. Is there a way to make good sounding drum recordings with only two microphones, or should I invest in more mics and a small mixer of some kind to plug into the Tascam so I can mix the drums to two channels?

[Ibateur]

Depending on how big the kit will be, 2 mics may be too little.

But then again, it depends on several things:
1) Room quality - how much bouncing around will the sound do, how big is the room, will you be recording the complete band live, will you have the instruments in different partitions of the room?
2) Desired quality of the recording - "perfectionist" tells me you should better go to a real studio where each drum is miked and balanced with the rest of the kit. Otherwise, one mic over the drum kit and one mic close to the floor in front of it (not in front of the bass drum) should be okay.

The only other advice is to try before you buy. If you already have a kit, and the 2 mics, then get someone to play the kit while you record, at the same time adding things like "mic 1 <location> mic 2 <location>" then record the guy playing. With experimentation, you'll know where the best positions are. If that's not as perfect as you want, then you can add a mixer and more mics.

[bduersch]

Check out what jemaholic is talking about in this thread:
http://www.jemsite.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=23534

He says he's getting killer drum sounds with only 2 mics.

My band has taken the opposite approach... we invested in a Nady DMK7 kit (7 mics: 1 bass, 2 condensers for cymbals, 4 tom/snare for under $200) and an 8 channel mixer, and we're using that to mix down the drums to stereo (which we then run through a compressor and add a little EQ/reverb). It's been delivering pretty good results for us, and we really haven't spent all that much time trying to improve upon it.

For reference, our setup is detailed here:
http://www.naughtybutterspoon.com/fa...ts.html#making
and there are demo MP3's here:
http://www.naughtybutterspoon.com/songs.html

Hope this helps!

--B

[Two hands31]

Thanx for the advice!

So far I don't even have a drummer in the band, and haven't even begun recording as a band yet. We'd likely be recording one instrument at a time, rather than live, most likely in the bassist's garage (built by his dad, a fellow guitarist, which'll be soundproofed).

Since we'll hopefully be playing live frequently too, that Nady setup sounds like a good idea to suggest to our currently non-existent drummer to invest in (our singer is planning on picking up a small PA for practises, etc) for both recording and playing live. I've heard them in action before in a live setting and they work well, and save a lot of time on setup/mic placement.

Anyways, by perfectionist, I mean I'll sit there and mess with the EQ and effects for hours on end, then start over from scratch

[frankfalbo]

I've always felt that with drums, a good quality condenser pair overhead was the only thing that was essential. But if you just do that, your kick is weak-sounding. So the next thing is the kick mic, which can be a cheapo if the overheads are good, because you are just accenting the lost attack from the overheads. I think a mixer is in order because I don't think you'll be happy with any 2 mic sound. I'll use 2 mics for blues, earthy sounding stuff, and jazzy stuff. You know, the stuff where its okay for the kick to sound "roomy" and distant.

The guy using a kick mic with an overhead/front mic gets no stereo image, and that's what the chorus/shift is doing. By the way, if you go that route, try duplicating your overhead mic track, panning left and right, and then rather than using an effect or effect program, simply shift one of the wavs over by a couple milliseconds. That will give a good false stereo image while avoiding the "dead spots" that can occur when the modulation effect "crosses over" the original signal.

But good overheads can reduce the need for almost everything else, especially if you're recording one instrument at a time, since there's no bleed. The last project I did, I just used the snare mic basically to apply snare-specific reverb. (And the kick mic for the kick sound of course) But the overheads did most of the work. So for me, less is more, when you're in the studio, one instrument at a time. If you're recording "live" with the other instruments, then use a 4-7 mic package with closer micing techniques.

[bduersch]

Yeah, it's probably worth mentioning that we're using that many drum mics because we record live in my basement (which is unfinished, and by nature, pretty live as well). In addition to the 7 mics on the drums, we've got a mic each on 2 guitar cabs, plus we run the bass direct (it's still run through the amp, though, so it could also bleed into the other mics).

We tried the "record one track at a time" thing, but never got the same "tight" feel that we got when we were all in the same room playing at the same time. It could just be because we suck

--B

[jemaholic]

Hi guys,
Thanks for mentioning my 2 mic configuration, but it came from one of the recording mags and I just tried it out and it worked great.
I would offer that you try it first, and if it is not sufficient, then invest in more mics. My studio is semi-pro with a Mackie 24/96 machine and a 24/48 channel console with lots of outboard rack-mount gear, so the final product may sound a little different, but recorded correctly, this setup will give you an excellent mix you can bring right up front.