advice needed on drum mic placement and so forth

general questions, comments and ideas about recording, audio, music, etc.
Locked
argosyinflames
alignin' 24-trk
Posts: 57
Joined: Fri Jan 30, 2004 9:06 am
Location: Knoxville, TN
Contact:

advice needed on drum mic placement and so forth

Post by argosyinflames » Wed Jun 16, 2004 6:46 pm

I'm about to record one of my bands in a few days and me and the drummer where experimenting today on drum sounds. The bass drum sounds fine, I'm using an Sm57 inside the drum pointing the spot where the kick pad hits. I've got one MXL 603 on the ride and floor tom side, and it seems to be alright, but sometimes the floor tom is a little overbearing. The mic is about a foot and a half above the ride and is pointing down at it. I've got another MXL 603 about 3 feet above and between the two toms that rest on the bass drum. And I've got an SM57 that's pointing at the snare. It seems that the snare mic is picking up alot of the hihat and crash though, and the way the mic is set, I wouldn't think it would so much. My limitations are that I have to mix the set perfectly since I can only record two tracks at a time on my recorder. I've got the mics running into a mixer which is running into an MBox. My other mics I have available are an SM58, a Blue ball, and a MXL 990. And with this mixer I can only really run four mics at a time.
The sound is overall fairly decent and I'm definitely not expecting it to sound perfect, but if anyone can recommend a better placement/mic choice that is within my inventory that may help remedy the above mentioned problems, I would appreciate it.

Substrated
audio school graduate
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Jun 16, 2004 1:56 pm
Location: West Seattle

Re: advice needed on drum mic placement and so forth

Post by Substrated » Wed Jun 16, 2004 8:11 pm

hmmm, since your inputs are limited you might try one overhead, if two try to get them the same distance from the snare, this will help any phase problems. What kinda music is it? You could use them under the crash(depends on drum setup) cymbals close to the toms for heavy, moe distant for natural/room.Where on the snare are you putting the 57? I've got good results from the andy hong/side snare set up w/ a 57. I put it 1/2 to 1" away pointed directly at the shell sort of between the snare and rack toms so as to minimize HH refection. o yea put it NEAR the sound hole on the snare but not directly in front. you can move it up or down ie. down=more snare. up= more head sound

--------
I I <== mic
--------

User avatar
T-rex
dead but not forgotten
Posts: 2141
Joined: Mon Apr 05, 2004 5:44 am
Location: Louisville KY

Re: advice needed on drum mic placement and so forth

Post by T-rex » Thu Jun 17, 2004 9:38 am

I was going to post and suggest the Glyn Johns method that I recently started using and absolutely love, but upon rereading your post it sounds like you are almost there.

The only difference it seems is that instead of placing the mic facing down at the ride and floor tom, set it about 4 - 6 inches above the tom facing the hi-hat. It will be closer to the tom, but completely off axis so it shouldn't pick up as much as facing down directly at it I would think. However, it is still going to pick up the cymbals really well.

When I first saw the diagram I thought it was crazy, but it has really worked well for me in several situations. The Glyn Johns link wasn't too long ago if you do a search it has a lot more detailed information.
[Asked whether his shades are prescription or just to look cool]
Guy: Well, I am the drummer.

Locked

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 46 guests