where to place the room-microphon(s) ==> recording DRUMS

[noGearslut]

I wonder if you measure the distance to the drumset, or do you have any rules for placing em.. I've read something about placing em in the edges of a room??

cheers

[earthboundaudio]

After the set is tuned to perfection I just place by ear.? I start with the mics where I think they'll sound good, and then start recording takes and listening back (I don't have an isolated control room) and play with positioning until I'm really digging the sound.? I try not to follow guidelines such as "always place the D112 4" off the beater angled towards the lotom". I've found that on my set that the kik sounds best w/ the head off with the D112 about 2" off of where the front hoop would be, pointed towards the beater and angled to the lotom.? The "4" off the beat" never got me a usuable sound.? (although I here it works wonders for a lot of people!). One guideline I do follow is mic'n' the snare parallel to the snares one the drum.? Mic about an inch or two off the head at about a 45 degree angle.? I seem to be getting good snare sound like that. I always switch up my overheads.? Sometimes I'll use SDC in an XY or spaced AB, sometimes I just go with a room mic. sometimes both.? No matter how I do the OH's I seem to get rather descent results each time.? I've also found that mic'n' all the toms is essential for me as well.? The OH's pick up the cymbals so well, but the toms always sound like cardboard boxes on the OH's.? A close dynamic mic really brings them into the mix and allows for more panning options as well. And if you angle the dynamics correctly you can really eliminate bleed by getting the rest of the kit in the back of a cardiod mics polar pattern. That seems to help so you don't have to worry about setting your gates.? I personally hate gating drums and prefer to just do it right w/ the mics.? ?Good luck!? ?

[earthboundaudio]

Originally Posted by noGearslut

I wonder if you measure the distance to the drumset, or do you have any rules for placing em.. I've read something about placing em in the edges of a room??

cheers

what mics do you have for recording?

[brandondrury]

I've seen a room mic just 3 or 4 feet away from the front of the kick work amazingly. I've seen mics 20 feet work amazingly.

So much of the room sound depends on the song.

Brandon

[noGearslut]

aha.

well.. I've got all the shure stuff in.. can borrow the shure-demo-drummic-case..

[dach]

Every room is different, even the same room with different stuff in it. Every drum kit not to mention players/bangers is different so the placement may vary according to what is being put out by the kit (volume of sound, etc and it's placement in the room) For room mics, figure out what you want to do, you can even get away with mono but before placing ANYTHING on the kit... LISTEN to the kit through the room mic(s)... move the mic(s) until it's as good as you can get for your application., then the OH's... then add your spot mics... you can really do it anyway you want to and be ok but in my experience it's better and more flexible working out to in.

You can really get crazy micing drums but so many things need to come together. Figure out what sound you need then mic appropriately... sometimes simple works really good..

[Ronan Chris Murphy]

Its all about the room, the drum kit, the drummer and the music. my room mics always change, but I usually have one mic about 3-4 feet in front of the kit and then one or two room mics some where out in the room.

[DogpitStudios]

Originally Posted by dach

sometimes simple works really good..

I've been doing metal bands with 4 mics recently. I've been using better overhead methods (I should say different instead of better) and now i can get the whole kit from the overheads exactly the way it sounds. Simple sure makes it easier to mix and not go overboard. It also tends to force me to listen more to get the placement right for everything and make sure the incoming sound is really good instead of just having a lot of tracks that are just bullshit. I've thought about room micing and I'm gonna get more into it, but one thing i've noticed as others have said already is that it really depends and nothing can really be said.

Ben