drums; one @ a time?

[lee]

has anyone heard of recording a drum set; one drum @ a time? i might be wrong, but i think the white album was done this way.
due to my limited equipment im forced to record a drum set with only two mics. if i ever got a good sound w/ two mics i wouldnt be posting this. the space im tracking in doesnt have the luxury of good acoustics. so im wondering if rec drums one, or two, at a time is stupid.
if not, does anyone have any advice?
im thinking maybe i could put a mic on the object drum, then a stationary overhead, recording both each time. to give a more authentic sound.
if this doesnt work im gonna go for the "classical" percussion route.

LEE337

[Rigsby]

The white album wasn't recorded that way. I've done some stuff like that, i know there are one or two other people here that have done that as well. I'd start with kick and snare together, get the basics down (keep time with a soft cushion or something relatively sound-free as a hi-hat) and then do the overheads. The toms are the hardest part imo, especially with rolls because a lot of rolls start of the snare, so either map it out, keep it simple or be ready for a lot of takes and/or editing.

Either that or do your drums with two mics, one OH and something between the kick and snare but a little forward of the kit.

Let us know how it turns out.

[I'm Painting Again]

many times especially in the old days just one mic was used on drums..tons of classic recordings have a one mic drum setup..

you could do things anyway you want..one drum at a time, etc. but I think there is a performance issue with doing things that way..you don't get the sound of a player playing a whole kit..so doing it one drum at a time I feel is silly especially if your dealing with talented players and quality drums in a room they sound nice in..its a borderline crime imho..for rock and jazz..i dont mind so much if its pop or something when it sounds drum machine-like anyway..

if you cant get a decent sound with one mic..try tuning the kit(not an easy thing)if you havn't..try taking those drums into another room or spot in the room your in..because one mic should be all you need to get at least an ok sound out of a kit..

somebody correct me if im wrong but its what I find from experience..

[Mark Alan Miller]

We call it "monkey drums"...

[bobbydj]

Well I dunno, I would probably prefer to record the drums all at once in a good room to a little cassette deck (using I dunno, a Notepad desk as the mixer) than one at a time to an immoveable PC. In other words, don't necessarily take it as read that you don't have access to a good room. You'd be surprised how good some practice rooms can be. Yeah, a lot are small and dead as fuck. But it could be worth visiting some of those practice rooms that you've never been to. I found a couple of good ones that I'd never been to when I looked. And this was a small town with no reputation for bands or music - to speak of.

Then, if you *did* find a room (and maybe that room could be a local hall or something that you could rent cheap for a day), you'd have to deal with how to actually record there. but like I said, I personally would much prefer a spirited take with attitude on a whole kit going down to an arguably inferior (but portable) format than a one drum at a time type thing. Ugh - that strikes me as a disasterous way to record drums. but that's just me. It will in part depend on the kind of music you're recording, and how good the drummer is. But if the drummer is great, it's surely a crime to compell them to record one drum at a time.

[GrimmBrotherScott]

Just put one mic as an overhead and one out in front of the kit. Play with the distances and height of the mic in front of the kit until you are pleased with the sound. Cut some low/mid on the overhead and roll some low on the out front mic. Then make the bastard mono in your mix. Mono drums rock..

[kakumei47]

mono drums can rule, especially if there is enough going on elsewhere and its not too sparse. one overhead (i would start just above the drummers head pointing towards the middle maybe) or room mic and one on bass drum should be fine as others have said.
i'm doing separate takes for individual drums (or small groups of drums) now actually, but the band I'm recording has a stand up drummer and programmed percussion instead of a kit drummer. The hits and transitions will sound very different than with a whole kit...probably sorta like a sampler approximation of a kit.
if you do do it though, after you record it all, get a decent mix, play it into your room and track that. this will help make them sound like they're coming from the same place and glue them together more.

[penrithmatt]

what they said.........


seriously though,i've been through this situation with a pretty well known band,who's percussionist decided that he wanted to play a trap kit.for the first time.during the making of the record......it was a nightmare.he couldn't play the song down,so we went for the one drum at a time thing.playing to a click track.it was pretty tortuous,but it kinda worked.after it was all done,which took ages,there was a bit of editing to get it kinda feeling okay,and then we played it out of the PA into the room and recorded room mics......it actually didn't sound too bad in the end,but was a real chore to make it happen........

in your case i would be way more inclined to go for the two mic drum sound,one over and above the hat,looking towards the snare,and the other mic slightly lower,somewhere out front,between the floor tom and kick.........i'd probably keep it mono,but you could try panning them out a tiny bit......

[drumsound]

I can't see how a recording of each piece of the drum-set made separately would sound musical. The drum-set is one instrument made up of several components. Part of what's annoying about drum machines and drum replacement is that the sounds are out of context. The BD and the toms don't rattle the snare, because the snares ore off or not even in the room. The snare doesn't drive because the player is not using all of his limbs and feeling the music.

[syrupcore]

I read this setup here on the board an age ago and it has been ruling my school ever since.

two mics out in front of the kit about knee high forming an equlataral triangle with center of the kick drum. I've done it with nt2s, nt5s and the nameless ribbons all to great effect. playing with the triangle changes the sound quite a bit. I usually also have a kick and snare mic but rarely wind up using them. It's not an r&b sound but it's great for rock.

are you out of inputs or mics?

will

[Marc Alan Goodman]

Ha! And the moderators have become viciously opinionated!

Personally, I love the sound of drums that don't sound like a kit. I also love the sound of a kit. And drum machines, for that matter. The first song on my bands first record was done one drum at a time, and it was hard as hell and didn't quite turn out how I wanted. However I've done it since then much more efficiently and been happy with the results.

Getting to the point: If you're trying to keep thing simple (as you certainly should if you're just starting out) stick to just using one or two mics on the whole kit in any of the arrays described above. Mono drums do rule. But at the same time you don't have to rule out recording one drum at a time. Experiment for gods sake. Isn't that the fun part of recording? Just don't expect it to sound ANYTHING like a drum kit...

[lee]

would you say that classical percussion isnt musical? the drumkit as an instrament is a modern invention. before the twentieth century percussion was as device to accentuate the dynamics of the music. to make it BOOM when it needed to, and in it absence; a serenity.

thanks for the mic positions. im recording myself so its impossible to find those sweet spots. any suggestions on how to track yourself?

are you out of inputs or mics?

both!

[joel hamilton]

Ha! And the moderators have become viciously opinionated!

Personally, I love the sound of drums that don't sound like a kit. I also love the sound of a kit. And drum machines, for that matter. The first song on my bands first record was done one drum at a time, and it was hard as hell and didn't quite turn out how I wanted. However I've done it since then much more efficiently and been happy with the results.

Getting to the point: If you're trying to keep thing simple (as you certainly should if you're just starting out) stick to just using one or two mics on the whole kit in any of the arrays described above. Mono drums do rule. But at the same time you don't have to rule out recording one drum at a time. Experiment for gods sake. Isn't that the fun part of recording? Just don't expect it to sound ANYTHING like a drum kit...

Having been the guy that mixed that first record:

A. The stuff was tracked really well by Marc. TOTALLY has fun built into every single move and every sound on the record, which translates to something I still listen to many times a week.

B. The song with the drums recorded separately is really awesome, and feels totally weird and fun to listen to because the approach is so weird. I LOVE that track. I love that record! more people need to hear what the ethics described above by marc translate into when a bunch (like 900) of talented people get together and create a recording. The Illumina record really harkens back to things like the Beatles, when "messing with the status quo" was a part of making good songs and cool sounds live together.

I really, really love that.

[syrupcore]

any suggestions on how to track yourself?

remember those stupid games in PE class where you had to run from one side of the room to the other, stop, turn and run back? I wish I had taken it seriously cause as it turns out, it IS something I'll use in real life.

practicing that, leaving lots of preroll and/or a remote control of some sort really help.

hey, I did a one drum at a time recently actually but I wasn't really going for a drumkit sound. it's in the listen to me forum under 'household goods' or something. like other people said, nothing wrong with it, experiment your face off but I'd skip the overhead on each pass and do the rechambering suggestion some one said earlier. but, seriously, wtf do I know?

Will

[drumsound]

Ha! And the moderators have become viciously opinionated!

Become? Anyone who knowa me knowa I'm oppinonaated. Just ask Garges or Caldo71!

Personally, I love the sound of drums that don't sound like a kit. I also love the sound of a kit. And drum machines, for that matter. The first song on my bands first record was done one drum at a time, and it was hard as hell and didn't quite turn out how I wanted. However I've done it since then much more efficiently and been happy with the results.

Getting to the point: If you're trying to keep thing simple (as you certainly should if you're just starting out) stick to just using one or two mics on the whole kit in any of the arrays described above. Mono drums do rule. But at the same time you don't have to rule out recording one drum at a time. Experiment for gods sake. Isn't that the fun part of recording? Just don't expect it to sound ANYTHING like a drum kit...

From what Joel says it worked quite well for you. So I'm wrong, life goes on. I'll have to look for that record.