Can I get anywhere with these drum recordings?

[letsjumpnow]

Hi all,

I've been hanging out in home studios for eight years, and am now taking a crack at it myself. I just built this drum cave in a walk-in closet and am trying to get decent sounding drum recordings. I've read many books on recording, but am still clueless as to how to use compression, reverb, EQ, etc within Logic to any gainful end with this particular setup. I'm wondering what my raw tracks sound like when molded by more capable hands/ears.

One potential problem is that, this closet being so small, I have to position the mics behind the drums. Is this heresy? I'm using an M-Audio MobilePre and have a Shinybox ribbon mic over my left shoulder for the the hihat, snare, big crash, and kick, and an M-Audio condenser behind my right shoulder picking up the toms, kick, and sizzle ride. Here's the ribbon track, and here's the condenser track (each ~4.7mb). I'm wondering if I can get decent demo tracks with this setup, or if I need to get a four-track input, an SM57 for the snare, and a kick mic.

Can anyone offer me any advice?

Alec

[kingmetal]

Sounds like drums to me! Sounds surprisingly good through my crappy headphones at work. You may want to consider a dedicated kick mic, depending on the music you're trying to do.

[Snarl 12/8]

Those are some dead sounding toms. But it's a sound. You can always mic a kick from the beater side, I used to do that all the time when I had my drums stuffed in facing a corner. D112 right next to where the beater hits the head (1/2 inch from the head, 1/2" to the left of the beater.)

[Marc Alan Goodman]

Yup, you just get more of the chain on the kick pedal. Nothing wrong with micing from behind, especially if you're only using a few mics. Just move em around until they sound good. Try everything.

[fucdemas]

ribbon track:

i must say that's a really interesting ride sound. i dont think i've heard that before.

it's truly beautiful

seems like you could make this work. but your mixes would probably have to be really "carved". i.e. each instrument would need lots of separation in the mix. it's own frequency spectrum, if you will.

condenser track.

some nice room tone here too.

ride sounds awesome here too. reduce the bit depth and you have the classic 90's hip hop ride sound.

i think with some placement adjustments you could get something going here.

something about the snare and kik seems to peak unnaturally in the low mids.

i would keep an ear out for that.

you couldbe on to something.

i'd say just keep trying different placements of your mics. and adjust your playing to accent what works in the mix.

[kevin206]

I think that you're drums could sound great for the right recording. If you're opposed to triggers and can't get moved into a bigger area for drum tracking, might I suggest an option. If you're limited on track inputs you may could add mics on a couple of the drums and mix them through a small mixer before it hits the computer. I used to close mic the entire kit and mix it to 1 track of my 4-track cassette. For a 2 mic rock drum my favorite has been 1 of 3 setups.
1)1 mic inside kick, 1 mic overhead pointed at snare
2)1 mic inside kick, 1 mic over right shoulder pointed at snare
3)1 mic inside kick, 1 mic flat under hi-hat pointed 1-2" off snare shell
#3 works suprisingly well. Snare crack is loud with pronounced hats and the hat hides some of the loud crash cymbals.
I generally use these setups when I have limited track inputs(or total count), but still want a little control of the kick and snare when I mix.

BTW, love the drum closet. Must be nice to not have to tear down constantly.