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How to record drums???

H

harrishimo

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 9, 2009
31
0
hey guys, just wondering if anyone knows of any cheap ways to record drums?

me and my mates are starting record some of our songs using garageband. The guitars and bass sound awesome, crisp as we could ask for, but we need to record the drums at a relatively good standard.

They dont have to be perfect but any thoughts or ideas would be much appreciated!!!

In case its of any help, we use an unused garage with 3 amps and 2 pretty good mics and the drums!!!

:D
 
do you intend to record everything at the same time, or track the drum kit separately? how has the garage been treated? what kind of mics do you have? are you planning on buying more mics for this? what's your budget?
 
we just want to record each layer individually and then mix it with garage bad

the garage hasnt been treated, its somehow got its own weird sound proofing. Weve just got 2 normal sony vocals mics and as far as budget goes-as low as possible, if theres any way to do it with what weve got that would be good but we could always buy some small pieces of equipment

:D
 
there do exist 2-mic drum setups, which you can google for. there are also 3-mic drum setups. try it with two and see how it turns out. i'd be curious to know which is the weakest link: the space, the mics, or the mic setup.
 
Try researching Glyn Johns Drum Miking Technique, very popular 3/4 mic setup.

2 mics could work in theory, lots of different combinations. 2 overheads could work, one overhead in the middle with a bass drum mic or a snare drum mic.

I would go 3 mics personally, but glyn johns technique is unforgiving of a bad room or a dodgy drummer (not that i'm making assertions about your drummer, he just needs to be tight as hell).
 
If the room sounds good and the kit is in decent shape (and tuned well, why can few drummers actually tune a drum kit?) then the 3 mic technique works well, a good bass drum mic (EV RE20 or a Beyer M88, even an AKG D112 at a push) for the kick and a pair of good omni codensers for the overheads, using a spaced pair for large rooms or an x-y coincident pair of cardiods for smaller rooms.

The trick is to get the overheads int he right place to balance the sound form the toms and snare with the steelwork, this varies with room, kit and drummer.

In a bad of indifferent room, or with a poor kit or drummer, I'll mic individual drums and multitrack the lot so as to be able to edit effectively and replace drums if needed.

There are a lot of good descriptions of multi-mic techniques out there, but the key is always mic choice and placement. I prefer to use the overheads to get most of the sound and fill in with the spot mics, but sometimes go for a tighter sound using the spot mics ahead of the overheads, depending on the style of the track.

Best way is to get a bunch of decent mics and play around with the set-up.
 
 
Well, let's see.

You are all set for software (Logic Express)
You have plenty microphones (7 mics in total)
You only have one mic stand. I don't know if any of the mics come with clips that clip right onto the drum, but you will need at least 2 stands for the overheads, and a low stand for the kick drum mic. if the other 4 don't clip on, you will need stands for those mics too.

You need an interface of some sort. Something that can take 7+ signals at once, plug into your computer, and be recognized in Logic. You could look into something like a Presonus Firepod.

And last but not least, make sure you have enough cables for each mic.


Your mic budget seems to be around $350 US for microphones, so my suggestion would be to get one Shure SM-57 ($100) for snare, one kick drum mic like a Shure Beta 52, an AKG D112 or a (more expensive) ElectroVoice RE-20 (anywhere from $180-$400), then two condenser mics for overheads.

The four mic setup will probably give you the best results for the money, although as previously posted, you can get great sounds from 3, 2 or even one microphone. It's all about the mic, the room, and the placement.
 
spoon man said:
for the perfect sounding drum tracks....
Click to expand...

if you really want perfect, imho you should hire out a recording studio. it's rather difficult to get great drums sounds without: 1) an awesome room, 2) awesome mics, 3) awesome engineering skills and a monitoring system to know what you've really got, and 4) a competent drummer.

regarding the drum mic kit you linked to, i'd rather do with a single sm57 if the choice were offered.
 
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