Minimal Drum Mic Techniques

[Philasonic]

I'm very curious on various minimal drum mic'ing techniques. Like three or four mics, not close mic'ing every drum.

More specifically, commercially recorded examples of good sounding drums that were done this way.

I'd like to build a list of familiar songs with great drum sounds that were not close mic'ed.

You can spare the Beatles examples of course. I'm not looking for sounds that were "good for their time" or only "good if you consider the gear and conditions they worked in" etc.

I have searched through the forums for weeks before finally registering, just so I could post this.

Long time Tape Op subscriber, and I like the old message board before it went down. I couldn't find as much useful stuff on the myspace page, but I did meet some really cool people.

Anyway, I hope to hear some interesing replies with good examples of how drums can sound great without close mic'ing.

Take care.

[drumsound]

Anything done before the early/mid 70s will have minimal drum mics. Listen especially to things done at Olympic in London especially by Glyn Johns. The first 3-4 Led Zep records, early stuff done are Ardent, or Stax in Memphis. Jazz records from the 50s and 60s are great examples of minimal mics that sound awesome. Check out records recorded at the old CBS church in NYC or things done by Rudy Van Gelder (many in his parent's living room) in New Jersy.

[AGCurry]

Hmm.

I second the 50s and 60s jazz records suggestion.

Little Richard's original Specialty recordings, esp. "Slipping and Sliding". I think that's Earl Palmer on drums.

Ray Charles's Atlantic recordings from 1955 to 1961 (also Earl Palmer, I think).

Most anything by James Brown.

Stax/Volt - Booker T, Otis Redding, etc..

The Animals on MGM records.

Buddy Holly and the Crickets.

[Fletcher]

Golly... I did a workshop in the "Pot Luck Studio" on '3 mic drum recording' at the last Tape Op Conference... if I wasn't banned from ever attending a Tape Op Conference ever again I would have been pleased to have done another workshop like that.

Oh well.

[Paul Fury 161]

Hi there. These techniques have been discussed quite a lot already, i'd search the board for "glyn johns" and "heart mic", should get you going.

Fletcher,why are you banned from TapeopCon?
Just curious. i like your REP forum.
;-p

take it easy,

Paul Fury

[sammyp]

Actually, i don't really consider 4 mics to be minimal - kinda more like optimal. It's a simple, beautiful thing - 2 OVs, snare, kick. No bleed from tom mics to gate or cut out. In both my living room at home and my basement rec room the blend of toms vs cymbals in the OVs is great. I have pretty decent Large Di conds for a project studio; Groove Tube AM51s. I think good mics is the big kicker here. 57 on the snare and the Senn kick/bass mic for bottom.

You can also note that properly EQ'd OVs is not neccessarily problematic for the toms in the OVs. You can role off 70-80. Keep some 100-140. Dip out some 250-500. Dip a bit at 700-800 and gently boost a little 12,000 +.

Try 4 mics, i'm betting you'll really dig it.

[jmoose]

I've done some crazy punk records with 4 or 5 mics on a kit...some of 'em sold some copies but they're all gonna be hard to find since they were on tiny labels...

But usually I'd go with close kick & snare, mono overhead and one mic peaking over the floor tom and aimed at the rack tom/snare area. Maybe one more mic if I need to fill a section of the kit out or just hang up a room mic.

It all hinges on the quality of the drummer really. If the drummer can balance themselves while they play the kit, having three or four mics is all you might need except in the case of REALLY "heavy modern" drum sounds where every kit on every part of the kit has to slice through a wall of guitars...