how do YOU do MONO drums? ? ?

[logancircle]

XY overheads up the middle with kick and snare? One omni overhead and a kick to 2 tracks? So many options. Someone told me Modest Mouse's "The Lonesome Crowded West" had mono drums, but I don't think I heard that on there. Anyone? Albums of note?

cd in DC

[3db@1K]

dinasour jr early records all mono... great sounding....

oh james brown records not much better....

[pieter]

I remember reading an article a few years ago about recording some or other Red Hot Chili Peppers album in which everything was done mono. I don't have any of their records after the second so I'm clueless about titles and such though.

That MM record sounds like they stuck one mic about five million feet away and hit record. I love it!

If you're into jazz, there are endless great records recorded in mono...for that matter, so many great records from before the 70s are in mono.

Me? I had great results with an MK012 at around forehead height, with a 451 spot on the snare and a 4050 on the kick, the latter two just barely mixed in to put a little more point on those two. All through a Sytek. Mixed pure mono, with just a hint of extra room verb on the snare only which gave it a little pseudo-un-mono space. I'm happy. I'd do it again. But, as is often said, at the end of the day, it was the drummer and the kit and tuning that really carried the day.

FWIW, I got to hear that recording played through a PA in a performance space twice last week and I was pleased. The drummer was present and dug it a lot, and we got lots of nice compliments from people in the audience.

[dumbangel]

Old fashioned mono drums:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0793534 ... eader-page

err... I'm not sure this link will work. We'll see.

[Marc Alan Goodman]

I'm a huge fan of mono drums. The vibe I get is that everyone automatically seems to think drums need to sound like you're sitting behind the kit. However, most drummers I speak to perfer for their kit to sound like a single instrument, and plenty of bands tell me they want a "live" feeling record (if you're sitting in a crowd the crash cymbals sure as hell don't come in hard left and right)

I prefer to consider really wide stereo drums an effects. Sometimes it widens things up and makes the mix more interesting, but sometimes it just makes things seem more crowded. Then again maybe this is all just a cop out so I don't have to deal with as many phasing issues....

My personal favorite setup with my rig is with a Coles 4038 in the air somewhere over both the snare and kick, a Sennheiser e602 about 2-3 feet away from the outer head of the kick drum, and a SM57 on the snare (a couple inches above, pointed straight down towards the edge). I ran the kick and snare through my Sytek and the overheads through a Dan Alexander 2 channel neve copy. Not a sound that works for everything, but I fell in love with it.

[Shawn Simmons]

Mono drums are great! I record drums in mono a lot. My setup is never the same but sometimes I use a Coles 4038 as an overhead, another Coles out in front of the kit aimed at the snare/hi-hat. A 421 or maybe a U-195 on the kick, and a 57 or a Josephson C-42 (my new favorite snare mic) on the snare. Sometimes it's just a kick mic and an overhead. I always like to try something new, so my setup always changes. But that's one setup I've used a few times. All the mics usually go into BA Neve 1073's and 1272's. Bitchin'!

shawn

[djdrake13]

The vibe I get is that everyone automatically seems to think drums need to sound like you're sitting behind the kit. However, most drummers I speak to perfer for their kit to sound like a single instrument, and plenty of bands tell me they want a "live" feeling record (if you're sitting in a crowd the crash cymbals sure as hell don't come in hard left and right)


Finally someone who understands. Don't get me wrong stereo imaging is great. But i know too many people who have to throw everything up hard left and right, and sometimes it just doesn't make sense!

[kayagum]

How 'bout a mono mic?

LDC 4' in front of kit has worked great for me, especially for jazz-type drummers.

[eeldip]

for us MID-FI folks, i find a beyer m260 can give you a pretty good picture of a kit in one mic if you stick it about 6 feet back and head height.

it also is a great mic for us with shitty sounding rooms.

then i like to spot mic whatever isnt sounding loud enough with just the beyer. usually kick and snare. kick i have been digging the beyer m88 lately cause i just got it and it make that kick sound pretty big. snare i just tried the stedman n90 which was pretty good, but didnt blow me away...

[Family Hoof]

A setup I've taken a liking to and works great in mono or stereo is the Glyn Johns stereo technique like so:

(3) SM57s or cardioid mic of your choice. Preamps aren't critical for me since I usually only have access to crap.

Make sure all 3 mics are equidistant from and aimed at the center of the snare. I use drumsticks to measure and 2.25 sticks is usually a good length for me.

First mic = in front of the kick, at level with the top of the kick rim/bottom of the rack toms, aimed at the snare.

Second mic = directly above the snare or maybe closer to the drummer's left shoulder depending

Third mic = off to the drummer's right side, aimed at the snare, and high enough that it looks over and past the floor tom + ride cymbal. Height is tricky because too low and the floor tom sounds too close, too high and it no longer serves it's purpose.

The second and third mics are your overheads, picking up different sections of the kit. They'll sound fine mono or hard panned. Once again, all three mics equidistant from snare center and pointed at it.

I often end up adding a ton of low end EQ to the front of kick mic and also a Beta 57A as close mic on the snare.

[Family Hoof]

Also, I once saw a guy get a great mono drum sound with just a U87 in cardioid about 4 or 5 ft off the ground in the middle of a small but nice sounding room where the drum kit was in the corner and aimed at it. He ran it through a sytek and then a distressor with the "nuke" setting.

[thereminman]

After quite a bit of experimenting, this is what I do. It seems to fit my room and selection of equipment.
-----

3 mics printed to 3 channels and then mixed/eq'ed if needed/ and bounced to a single track on my 8 track machine.

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1)AKG D112 an inch or 3 outside the little hole I carved in the bass drum head.

2) Oktava tube mic about belly high about where your second mounted tom would be if I had one but about a foot in front of the set.---this would be what most people would call an 'overhead' but it's not overhead in my case.
Seems to give a lot of balls to the floor tom and you gotta balance that and the ride cymbal.

3)Sm57 on shell of snare.

That's how I do mono drums.--mostly I like the results.

[spankenstein]

I recently did a song where I stuck a CAD ST100 straight above my head. It needed a kick mic added but I was jsut making some quick loops to get an idea down. It ended up being a really fitting sound and when I get a real drummer to play on it I'll probably take a similar approach.

[moogplayer]

I dig mono drums. Lately I've been using 4 mics:


Beyer Soundstar (like Sennheiser 421) inside kick
Shure Unidyne 545 close mic snare
AKG 451 about 2.5' above cymbals, directly over kit
Beyer Soundstar off to the right side (3-4 ft high), looking over FT

I record to one channel of pro tools via an mbox, usually sending drums mics through a discrete Specta Sonics mono mic mixer. I like the sound. The three-mic mono technique also works well. Haven't gone back to stereo drums in quite a while.

[fuu drakka]

usually I do an Okatva 012 about 5 feet infront of the kit pointed at the drummers balls. 57 on snare and d112 or d6 on kick.
the other day though I stuck a 57 right above the kick in the middle of the kit and it sounded fucking awesome.