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HELP with drum mic placement...


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Can someone tell me the proper mic placement for recording drums in a studio? I will be using 9 mics: 1 for kick(AKG D112), 1 for snare(Shure SM57), 1 for hats(AKG C1000S), 2 overheads(AKG C414BTLII and Rode NT2), 2 for floor toms(Sennheiser MD421's) and 2 for regular toms(AKG C418 clip-ons). Where about each drum do I place each of these mics to properly record them (get the best sound)? Thanks, Myke.
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[quote]Originally posted by myke: [b]Can someone tell me the proper mic placement for recording drums in a studio? I will be using 9 mics: 1 for kick(AKG D112), 1 for snare(Shure SM57), 1 for hats(AKG C1000S), 2 overheads(AKG C414BTLII and Rode NT2), 2 for floor toms(Sennheiser MD421's) and 2 for regular toms(AKG C418 clip-ons). Where about each drum do I place each of these mics to properly record them (get the best sound)? Thanks, Myke.[/b][/quote] Man thats Lee's department.....but it helps to have someone listening while you place/play.....
Down like a dollar comin up against a yen, doin pretty good for the shape I'm in
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Really, it sounds you've already got it figured out. Everything but your overheads would have to be very close-miced - oubviously. As for the overheads, you'll have to play a bit with placement to get it right. I'm not sure which overhead goes where, as I don't use any of the OH mics listed - although I'm sure they'll live up to the task presented to them. Mic placement also depends on what kind of sound you want to acchieve as well as style of playing. If you're recording rock drums you'll do just fine with these mics. [ 01-18-2002: Message edited by: k1neta ]
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Hi Myke, Well really that's a difficult question to answer unless I know a little bit more about your recording situation. I use a lot of different mic placement techniques on drums depending on: 1) the song, and what type of drum sound we want to achieve (big and reverberant, tight and "poppy", natural or more "processed", etc.) What style of music is it? Are there records you could name that you would like the drums to sound like? 2) the drummer and how he plays, how his kit sounds (if he knows how to tune the drums, it helps!), etc. 3) the room. How big is the room and is it decent sounding? Do the drums sound the way you want when played live in the room? Most of the time you have to spend time experimenting with mic placement. I start with putting the kick drum mic inside the hole in the drum (assuming there is one) and maybe 3-4 inches from the batter head. I don't point it directly at the beater or put it right in front of the beater, I put it slightly to the side and point it slightly at the shell so it picks up the whole drum, not just the beater. If it doesn't sound right I move it around till it does. :) Snare drum: I start by putting the mic sorta underneath the hi-hats almost, pointing down and about two inches off the rim - but not pointed completely perpendicular to the head, more at an angle going across the drum so it picks up the whole drum. I rarely use an SM57 on snare anymore - I tend to use a CAD E-100 which is a condenser, and picks up more of the full range of the snare. The down side, if you want to call it that, is that you get more bleed through from the hats into the snare track than you would with a very directional mic like a 57 - but I consider the trade off well worth it. It's not like I'm going to be triggering or anything. :D Tom mics - I put these off to one side and about an inch or two off the head, also pointing at a slight angle across the drum. Hi hats - I never use a separate mic on the hi hat anymore, cuz I started noticing that I never ever used it, and it just creates phase problems with the snare and overhead mics. Some people use it anyway just to be safe. I just don't bother. If you do use a mic on the hats, point it away from the snare drum, toward the drummer, and adjust it as necessary so it doesn't sound too obnoxious (if that's possible - did I mention I don't like hi-hat mics? :) ) The important thing with all of these mics of course, is to make sure they're in places where they're out of the drummer's way and he won't hit them. :D Also don't be afraid to move them from the positions I outline here, if it sounds better. Sometimes with a 57 the snare even sounds better miked from the bottom. Now the overheads are the thing that's going to vary the most from song to song and also depending on the room. If the room has high ceilings you may want to take advantage of that by raising the overheads up pretty high so they pick up the whole kit. As for where to put them - well, move 'em around until they sound good. I'm not kidding. People can talk all day about XY coincident technique and matched stereo mics and all that, but the fact is that's not necessarily how the drums will sound best. The "old school" 3-mic drum setup often had one mic at about the drummer's chest or ear level, right in front of him, so it would pick up the snare, hats and floor tom, or sometimes it's raised up more than that. If you want more of a stereo field in the overheads, you can place the other "overhead" mic on the drummer's right side, lower down so it picks up the toms and the ride cymbal, and make sure each OH mic is the same distance from the snare drum. Using this placement, you may not even need close mics on the other drums, if your room and drums sound good. The placement I have usually gone with recently, given my room and our drummer, is a single overhead centered right over the whole kit and just above the drummer's head, and then a room mic which might go anywhere. If I really want some slam out of the kick and toms I might put the room mic just a few feet out in front of the kit and lower down so it picks up mostly kick. If I want more "sparkle" I'll go a bit further out and raise the room mic up higher so it gets more cymbal. If I'm really going for the "John Bonham" sound I might go so far as to place the room mic halfway up the stairwell and compress the crap out of it! As you can see there are few rules about this. Ideally you can have an assistant move mics around while you sit in the control room and listen. When he hits the "sweet spot", you'll know. Hope this helps! --Lee [ 01-18-2002: Message edited by: Lee Flier ]
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