First time recording drums - Help!

[tomyco]

Need help with recording drums using the following mics;

One AT 4050

One Shure SM 58

Two Shure SM 57

I do not have drum clips, so I'm guess I would use one around the bass drum,
two over heads, and the 4th, not sure?

What do you guys suggest for placement, which mics where, distance from drums? Any other suggestions? I never recorded drums before. Thanks!

[the.blode]

Originally Posted by tomyco

Need help with recording drums using the following mics;

One AT 4050

One Shure SM 58

Two Shure SM 57

I do not have drum clips, so I'm guess I would use one around the bass drum,
two over heads, and the 4th, not sure?

What do you guys suggest for placement, which mics where, distance from drums? Any other suggestions? I never recorded drums before. Thanks!

That's not going to be very easy...

uhm.. I'd probably use the 57s on the snare - top and bottom, unless you can get enough 'snare' sound from the top alone.. The real problem is that the 57/58 has a big low end roll off, so they're not (alone) great for capturing something like a kick drum. Plus they're both massively hyped up top and they're intensity gradient (low sensitivity) so they won't sound so hot as overrheads.

If you use the 58 on the inside of the kick and then sit the 4050 a few feet in front as a kind of half room/half overhead mic. you might get some useable sounds. When you've got a lot of constraints, the key is just experimentation.. Often this way you'll have to really work hard for it, and the end result can be really rewarding - you might come away with a lot more than you would do if you had a killer mic array to work with.

[brandondrury]

The real problem is that the 57/58 has a big low end roll off

The low end roll off is mostly due to the proximity effect. When you get far from the source, the low end is reduced to practically zero on these mics. But if you get close, you can get quite a bit of low end. I've used the SM57 on kick in a pinch and I didn't think it was that bad. It wasn't dramatically different from the MD421 which is a classic kick drum mic for some sounds.

It depends on what kind of drum sound you are going after. You can get a very nice drum sound in the style of Lenny Kravitz of The Darkness with this setup. I'd place the AT4050 in front of the drum set by maybe 4 or 5 feet. It needs to be close enough to the floor to pick up the massive meat from the kick drum. It's VERY important that you find the sweet spot where the low end really builds up. It may only be 2-3 feet in front of the kick drum. I would then measure the distance to the snare drum and use the SM57s as stereo overheads making sure to make them the same distance from the snare as the AT4050.

From there, you can highlight either the snare or the kick drum with the remaining SM58.

This is an unorthodox way of capturing you drums, but I have a feeling it could work really well for natural sounding drums.

You could also toss the AT4050 as the sole overhead, place a 57 in the kick, and the other on the snare. That may work too.

It's important to experiment while tracking to find something that sounds good to you.

Brandon