Recording drums with two mics

[radmike]

i got some great drum sounds with 2 SM57's thru and a cheesy paia stereo tube pre-amp. I slammed the tube drive and it got a nice dirty (soft buletin sounding) drums. I placed the mics under the cymbols, waist height about 2-3 feet out from the kit, pointing the mics at the beater of the kick drum. VERY NICE AND ROCKIN'.

i'm curious to see how 2 BEYER m55s' would sound on drums. i got one from germany but getting another may be hard

[timbaier]

as far as condensers go, what do people like?

i'm looking for something cheap and am considering an AKG C1000S

any thoughts

It depends on what you currently have. If you have a few halfway decent condensers already, get a Neumann or BLUE. If you don't have any, get an MXL, Audio Technica or Oktava. Ever since I used the AKG 414, I haven't been a big fan of AKG mics. Some people like that C1000S tho.

[kayagum]

I used a Rode NT1 4 feet out from the kit, straight at the drummer, and an ATM25 for a kick just for an additional oomph. Sounded great for a jazz kit- sometimes less is more....

[NewYorkDave]

In '91, I got great results using two PZMs on the floor in front of the kit. The mono compatibility was the pits, though. Experimenting with positioning might have solved that problem, but I didn't bother because it was a rush job, making some quickie demos with my band.

[aikan]

just thought i'd add my two cents (no pun intended) to this thread, since i happen to be recording drums with two mics at the mo. this, of course, is because i only have two mics, specifically an sm-57 and an sm-58. for the more normal rock stuff we have the 57 kind of floating right over the bass drum, pointed at the snare, and the 58 lies on the (wooden) floor, kind of tucked under the bass drum. it's not great sounding, but the set sounds pretty well-balanced and i'm starting to think that the poor sound is due in part to the (inexpensive 80's yamaha) 4-track's preamps. alas, for there are no straight-to-tape inputs.

for a noise project we're doing on the side, the 57 is moved to hover somewhere between the snare and hi-hat, kind of low down (about drummer's-knee-level), and the input is cranked up somewhat. the snare echoes off the back wall and sounds quite insane.