Recording Drums With One Mic

[jeff_moberg]

Hey guys,

This is my first stab at recording drums with one mic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOfrnMQf ... re=related

Im looking for more tips and tricks that you guys use that I can experiment with...

Here is what I did for this video:

I started off by setting up the mic above the drumset pointing down toward the snare/kick area (you can actually see the SM57 hanging there). Then I recorded the track into ProTools LE via the Mbox Mini2. In protools I made 2 copies of the track (three tracks in total). On the first track I slapped an EQ on there and tuned it more towards low end frequencies (i.e. cancelling out high frequencies and gearing more for the kick drum sound). On the second, I slapped another EQ on and tuned it for the mid-range (snare sound/little bit of cymbals), and then put a bit of compression on there. For the third track I cut all low and mid frequencies and used that for the cymbals.

That left me with three tracks (kick drum, snare, and cymbal overhead) to play around with and so on.

Let me know what you think of this set-up, or what I could try out to improve!

Thanks

[A.David.MacKinnon]

The easiest thing to do is find one mic that sounds good and put it somewhere that sounds good. One track, no fucking around.
I like ribbons for this job.
Try putting the mic at waist level out front of the kit. Raising or lowering it will change the amount of kick in the mix.

[RefD]

for my first nearly 10 years of recording i used an omni Realistic mic (replaced at one point with a Realistic PZM, which i thought was really hifi at the time) over the kit and a borrowed 58 sitting inside the kick on a pillow.

if i ignore the cassette multitrack artifacts, it still sounds pretty good to me.

[klangtone]

Yeah, I'd go with one mic, find the sweet spot, compress it judiciously, eq it to taste. I've gotten some pretty rad drums that way.

Roy

[lionaudio]

if you have an omni, or fig. 8 mic and a decent sounding room you will probably be much happier with your drums. im finishing the tracking for one of my bands right now, and used an apex 210 ribbon and an e602 in the kick. i put the 210 about 8ft. away from the kit and about 2 ft off the floor. parallel compressing the 210 with an ashly sc50. very happy with the results. i think i will stick with this method for a while unless it's super fast playing or metal. also, if the drummer can balance his playing more, you won't have to do so much duplicating/eq'ing to get your kit to sound the way you want it.

[decocco]

Recording drums with one mic is really fun. I usually like some kind of LDC for this. It usually ends up about 4 ft. in front of the kit but fairly low to the ground, around snare drum height or a little lower, so as to emphasize the kick and snare. But it depends on the balance of the drummer and style of music and all that.

If I do something like this, then I'm intentionally keeping things really simple. No fancy nothin'. I Just get a sweet balance through mic position (and good drumming, of course) and commit to that. Add a dash of eq and compress to taste. When using one mic I don't care about turning the snare or kick up later. Hi pass and lo pass filters always muck things up way too much for my taste. If I want control of kick and snare at mix time, I use close mics.

When I record metal I use an unholy amount of microphones on the drums. I think the one mic technique is best suited to music where the drums have a seriously huge amount of room to breathe in the mix.

I could hear a good balance of most of the kit in your video, but I couldn't hear me no kick drum. I think overhead mics always neglect the bass drum. In metal, the inside kick mic is so important it hurts. Anyway, it's always good to experiment!

[mjau]

Recording drums with one mic is really fun. I usually like some kind of LDC for this. It usually ends up about 4 ft. in front of the kit but fairly low to the ground, around snare drum height or a little lower, so as to emphasize the kick and snare. But it depends on the balance of the drummer and style of music and all that.

Definitely fun. For my best one-mic results, I've used either a Shure sm7 or an Oktava mc012 with a Lomo M1 head, both placed about the same as above - 4 ft. or so out, and height varying depending on what I wanted out of the drum track. Sure makes mixing easy.

[brian beattie]

I have just got to say that I would NEVER EVER have used the technique you used for your one mic sound- frankly, it seems like it would be a recipe for DISASTER. but.... somehow.... it sounds great. Holy sheet! (I am listening through my crummy computer speakers, so I have no way to really analyze the low end.) but nonetheless, congrats. You did an awesome job with the tools at hand.
When I go for a one mic sound, I tend to favor the method described by mjau and decocco- 3-4 feet in front of the kit- I never point the mic directly at the kick, kind of at the edge. This will probably work best with a figure 8 or cardioid pattern, and an omni might be picking up too much reflection from the floor and cause phase problems- I'd put an omni higher, or I'd put something soft on the floor beneath it to minimize reflections, or I would put the mic on the floor, facing the kit, facing away, depending on the room/ kit and sonic requirements. Putting a skinny mic (usually a small diaphragm condenser) on the floor (taped to the floor, probably) causes any mic to act a bit more like a boundary mic, and tends to minimize reflections which may cause phase issues. (this method may be problematic if you have a framed floor, like wood with joists/ supports underneath. the floor will transfer all sorts of booming from the vibration of the floor itself into the microphone- This works best if you have a concrete foundation. If you are working in a wood floored/ framed foundation house it would be best to keep the mic on a stand and place it as close and as paralell to the floor as you can. A Large diaphragm condenser or ribbon mic side address mic can be used similarly, except they would need to remain on the stand, upside down so the TOP of the mic ALMOST comes in contact with the floor.
also, if you are going to rely on the sound of the one mic without doing a whole lot of EQ, you need to use those earholes and place and re-place and move and fidget with that mic till it works for you. an INCH can be the difference between "blah" and "gold".
You know, for the style of music you're playing, you might do real well using 2 mics- an overhead and a kick drum. Mics on the ground tend to hear the cymbals less- The definition and warmth you got with your 57 is quite amazing. Shure made this swell omni dynamic called the sm76. It's got a bigger, fatter, flatter frequency response than the 57. I saw a pair of sm76's go for about $60 bucks a couple of months ago on ebay. I bought a pair of shure 576's (the same mic with a pemanently attached cord- the sm76 has a male XLR end on it, like most mics.) for about the same price ($30 each) That all said, these mics usually go for a bit more, but what with our greater depression going on, there are deals to be had if you're patient. The sm76 / 576 is kind of similar to the EV re-55 or 655. A big fat flat omni dynamic which was used for announcers or soundstage work. The shure's tend to be a little cheaper.
Either way, keep up the good work. Sounds like you have a problem solving personality, which should take you far. (As long as you don't start solving problems which don't exist...)
PROST!
brian

[Brett Siler]

Sounds good man. I think if you put a mic on the kick it would sound even more appropriate for the music you guys are playing. Sounds good man!

[tonejunkee]

Nice work!! my myspace site below has my entire album, which was made with one Studio Projects T3 on overheads. (Which is for sale here on TOMB)

[MoreSpaceEcho]

I have just got to say that I would NEVER EVER have used the technique you used for your one mic sound- frankly, it seems like it would be a recipe for DISASTER. but.... somehow.... it sounds great

f'real. pretty impressive.

[Kel]

The sonics recorded all of they're albums with the one mic setup. And they sound awesome. (Not sure which mic they used however.)

[Shane Michael Rose]

they used the "drum" mic.

[stylus flanger]

i think it's a remarkably authentic sound for what you're recording. of course i'm listening through computer speakers, but from my perspective a little more bass and a little less cymbal. sounds like you tuned the kit well also.

[jgimbel]

I have to say, I keep coming back to this video! I agree with Brian, this is not a technique I would ever think to use. You did a great job! I'm thinking some of it might have to do with the style of music - I'd bet some of the bass drum is coming through in your high-end track, so it gives the kick a good click sound that's common in that genre.

Playing around with single-mic placements is so much fun, like everyone else has said. One of my favorite drum sounds I got is on one of my first recordings, where I stuck a cheap Nady vocal mic between the toms aimed at the snare. The bass drum isn't too lush, but overall it picked up everything well. (This was before I would have thought to find recording advice on the internet!). Anyway, very cool to see someone having success with a technique that's not too commonly used or discussed (as far as I know).