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drum mic help


Matt P
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Hello! My band are looking to record some demos mainly to give to local pubs to get some gigs.
We've bought a zoom r16 and already own a shure sm58 beta and an akg d5 but we're lacking any drum mics, our plan is to use a 4 Mic setup with a bass drum Mic, a snare Mic and a pair of condenser overheads, but we've got no real idea what mics to go for.

We need to keep the overall cost down but would rather not have to upgrade everything if we decide to record some original material at a later date.

The current idea is to buy either an audix d6/d4 or an akg d112 for the bass drum and an audix I5 for the snare but the overheads are harder, I guess a max budget of 150 for the pair so I'm thinking that secondhand is probably the way to go. If the mics would be good for acoustic instruments and vocals that would be a bonus.

So what do you guys recommend?

Matt

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4 mics? you could get an awesome drum recording with 4... (assuming the kit sounds good).

[url="http://therecordingrevolution.com/2011/01/10/the-glyn-johns-drum-recording-method/"]http://therecordingr...cording-method/[/url]

I've used this technique, but a variation with only 3 is to measure the distance between the two overheads (let's call this'B'), then put a microphone in front of the kick that distance ('B') from the centre of the snare - it'll emphasise the kick, and give more depth to the toms too.

Something like this:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdiPLpXASgo[/media]

I've had very good recordings from a pair of SE2000s (£80 condensers) as overheads, and an SE 2200 (also a Beyer Dynamic M834, but that's way over budget...) in from of the kick.

Edited by paul_5
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thanks for that video, looks like a great way of recording drums, i think it might not suit the punky rocky bluesy stuff we're doing right now but it will be perfect for the acoustic folky stuff our guitarist is writing.

the se microphones are on my watch list as are the red5audio ones. how good is the red 5 bass drum mic? does it punch above it's price tag or is it just good enough for the 45 or so quid? anyone tried it up against audix/akg/shure? would we be wanting to upgrade after a couple of sessions? i think our drummmer would like something that would work for micing his cajon at acoustic gigs with his other band (probably with the audix i5 on the front as well)

Thanks

Matt

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You get a great drum sounds by having a great drummer on a great sounding kit, with well placed mics in a great room with a great mix engineer.
All the above would have much more effect on the finished drum sound then the choice of microphones used. I own the RED5 drum set and I am happy with them, would I use them if money was no object, probably not. There are a lot of positive reviews about them on line, also if you are not happy with the sound you recorded you could always use drum replacement software.

Have you thought about using a studio just to record the drums.

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We did consider a studio but we don't play well individually, it's more about the interaction and the live sound, the plan is to set up the gear and record during an extended practice session, we only need to get half a dozen songs down to show that we can actually play. We're a 3 piece band with only one singer and want to keep it very live sounding.
We did have a go at this before but suffered from an overloud guitar as we mic'ed it, we're going to use the line out feed this time which should help a fair bit.

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  • 2 weeks later...

[quote name='Matt P' timestamp='1378069314' post='2195565']
We did consider a studio but we don't play well individually, it's more about the interaction and the live sound, the plan is to set up the gear and record during an extended practice session, we only need to get half a dozen songs down to show that we can actually play. We're a 3 piece band with only one singer and want to keep it very live sounding.
We did have a go at this before but suffered from an overloud guitar as we mic'ed it, we're going to use the line out feed this time which should help a fair bit.
[/quote]

Don't DI overdrive guitar!

It sounds utterly gash.

No reason a miced guitar should be too loud....

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