The Overheads The best place to start a drum sound is with the overhead microphones. These mics will tell you just how well the drums actually sound. You'll hear how they are tuned and how good a drummer you have and how the room is adding or subtracting to the sound. If the overheads are placed correctly, you'll hear the kit in the actual balance the drummer achieves. If the drummer is a basher who hits the cymbals as hard as he hits the toms, you'll hear that. If your drummer has a squeaky bass drum pedal or noisy hi-hat rig, you'll hear that too. In short I always work on the placement (balance), tonality (equalization) and ambience (distance) of the overheads first. I also monitor these microphones in mono when balancing. You have to remember that the drum kit is one big instrument with many individual components. When all the mics are up and mixed in correct balance, you have a total drum sound composite. It is a mistake to think of the overheads as just the mics that record the cymbals. Trying to keep the... Read More »

Bass Drum The kick or bass drum is easy to record since it is usually played (in pop music) at the same volume throughout the song. Producers and engineers look for a "marriage" of the bass drum with the bass instrument because they both occupy and make up the important bottom end of the record. Fig. 3 shows my usual starting place for the bass drum mic. The Beta 52 in the picture is placed half in and half out of the hole in the front head. This distance is variable and I try to keep the mic pointed exactly at the spot on the rear head where the beater hits. Fig. 4 shows an old '70s' trick where the microphone goes right inside the drum. This produces a very present and dry sound that was great for disco music before the Linn drum machine. You should put a weight (sand bags are good) to hold the mic in place inside the drum. Fig. 3: Starting place for drum mic... Read More »

Snare Drum I experiment often when recording snare drums. If you want to EQ the snare drum mic, use a very clean equalizer that can handle very high peak levels without distorting. Since a lot of the snare drum is heard in the overhead mics, I take the time to make sure the drummer is using the right snare drum for the song. Thinking that you will just re-trigger a snare sample replacement later, because the snare drum and the sound you're getting sucks, is the wrong attitude! Tuning is super important to me and almost like a guitar, the snare drum must be tightened after each take. You must start with a good (new?) head and make sure, like all drums, the lugs are all equally tensioned. Fig. 5 shows the typical snare drum mic position. I was lucky with this drummer; he had a space between the two toms enabling me to sneak in a brand new Shure SM57. The only other place to get a mic in is from the hi-hat side...not ideal because the drummer will probably hit it.... Read More »

Tom-Toms The floor and rack toms are miked from the top only. I have miked the top and bottom of toms and I don't think it is worth it except for some strange and very tonal sounds. There is a point at which too many microphones around the kit will cause a loss rather than a gain. Furthermore, I find myself obsessing on too many internal drum balances and not focusing on just making a good drum recording. The principal question for tom mics is whether to use dynamics or condensers; both have advantages and disadvantages. Dynamics give you a "dry" and immediately present sound. You'll have better isolation from the rest of the kit making balancing easier. Dynamics are also better for loud drummers who hit hard. Condensers give you a fuller sound and are able to capture more of a drummer's subtleties. Condensers are great for light to medium drum volumes. Disadvantages include: more leakage, more expense and the risk of damage from being hit, larger and prone to distort more at louder levels.... Read More »