Miking drums with 2 or 3 mics - examples inside...

[Big Tim]

OK, I had a bit of spare time this weekend so I had a go at some 2- and 3-mic drum miking techniques. Samples are in .wav format and are completely raw, IE there is no mixing, EQ'ing, compression or anything except some panning (in the stereo ones, more on that later), and the levels are "straight off the preamp" tracking volumes, so are well below commercial levels. You'll have to crank them up, is what I'm loosely trying to say. Forgive the cheesy voiceovers and fairly feeble drumming. I was hot & tired, OK!

DAW is Cubase, interface is an M-Audio Delta 1010lt. Kit is a Yamaha Maple Custom Absolute, 10",12",14" tom, 22" kick, 12"x5" snare, 6" & 10" rototoms, mixture of Sabian AA, AAX and HH cymbals. Room is a totally untreated space approximately 15'x 25' x 10' with one wall being a floor-to-ceiling window. Carpeted floor, tiled hung ceiling. Kit was placed pretty much bang in the middle. Frankly, it's a rubbish room for tracking drums in, but you can hear the effects of the room on the various different miking techniques.

Of course, this is entirely subjective and bears no resemblance to your drummer, kit, mics, room, preamp, monitoring, placement choices etc etc, but I happen to think some of these sound pretty darn good, despite the room, so I thought it'd be nice to have some examples up.


Example 1: "Recorderman technique"
This is the one off YouTube - two condenser mics, one directly above the snare looking down, the other looking over the drummer's right shoulder at the snare, equidistant from each other. I didn't have a piece of string to double check the distances from the kick, but it seemed OK. Panned for stereo.
Mics: SE Electronics SE1a SDC's into DAV BG1 preamp (26db pad engaged, no filters).
http://www.timlovegrove.com/sounds/01_rm_se1a.wav

Example 2: Spaced Pair
Same 2 mics placed as a spaced pair behind the drummer pointing at the kit. Positioned about head-height to the drummer and a couple of feet behind. Panned for stereo.
Mics: SE Electronics SE1a SDC's into DAV BG1 preamp (26db pad engaged, no filters).
http://www.timlovegrove.com/sounds/02_spacedp_se1a.wav

Example 3: Spaced pair + front mic
Same as above (exactly the same positioning, nothing moved) but with an additional SE Electronics SE2200a LDC placed about 3ft in front of the kick drum. Overheads panned for stereo.
Mics: SE Electronics SE1a SDC's into DAV BG1 preamp (26db pad engaged, no filters), SE Electronics SE2200a LDC into Yamaha MG 16/6fx mixer, 20db inline pad
http://www.timlovegrove.com/sounds/03_s ... e2200a.wav


Example 4: Spaced pair + front mic
Same as above (exactly the same positioning, nothing moved) but with an additional Shure SM57 placed about 2ft in front of the kick drum. Overheads panned for stereo.
Mics: SE Electronics SE1a SDC's into DAV BG1 preamp (26db pad engaged, no filters), Shure SM57 into Yamaha MG 16/6fx mixer, 20db inline pad
http://www.timlovegrove.com/sounds/04_s ... DAV-01.wav

Example 5: "Recorderman technique" + front mic
I don't quite know why I went in this order, I think I just got myself lost, but this is back to the Recorderman setup but with an additional SE2200a about 2 feet out the front of the kit. I think this was my favourite of the setups I tried. Panned for stereo.
Mics: SE Electronics SE1a SDC's into DAV BG1 preamp (26db pad engaged, no filters), SE Electronics SE2200a LDC into Yamaha MG 16/6fx mixer, 20db inline pad
http://www.timlovegrove.com/sounds/05_r ... e2200a.wav

Example 6: 2 mics - one OH and one out front
OK, instead of sticking up that clip I always do of my band's terrible rehearsal, I recreated it here. It's the SE2200a as a single overhead and an SM57 out the front of the kit. Not panned (as it's a mono recording, effectively). It's also a great example of phase relationships - the SM57 was out of phase with the SE2200a, so it had to be flipped on the desk.
Mics: SE Electronics SE2200 LDC and Shure SM57 into DAV BG1 preamp (26db pad engaged, no filters).
http://www.timlovegrove.com/sounds/06_se2200a_sm57.wav

Example 7: Omni overhead + front mic
I picked up a couple of Naiant Studios MSH-1 omni condensers a little while back and I like the way they sound in my room at home. Didn't sound so great in this room (a danger with omni's), but here's how it sounds with a single MSH-1 as an overhead with an SM57 out front. Not panned.
Mics: Naiant Studios MSH-1 omni SDC and Shure SM57 into DAV BG1 preamp (26db pad engaged, no filters).
http://www.timlovegrove.com/sounds/07_naiant_sm57.wav

Example 8: Omni Pair OH and front mic
And seeing as I'd done it with one, I thought I'd try a pair of the MSH-1's as overheads. Not quite the amount of stereo spacing the others gave. Panned for stereo.
Mics: Naiant Studio MSH-1 SDC's into DAV BG1 preamp (26db pad engaged, no filters), SE Electronics SE2200 LDC into Yamaha MG 16/6fx mixer, 20db inline pad
http://www.timlovegrove.com/sounds/08_n ... r_sm57.wav


That's it. There ain't a lot of difference between some of them, but you can at least get a feel for how the different mics & positions behave.

[jar4ever]

You forgot my favorite, 2 SDCs taped to each side of a baseball cap so the capsules are about at your temples with the hat on and the cables going down your back like a ponytail. Loads of fun because you can 'pan automate' as you play by turning your head. Most of my band's recording (that you can check out from the link in my sig) use this 'mic hat' for drums, I'll usually add another mic under the snare and by the kick beater, for more snare and kick definition.

[Big Tim]

Dagnabbit - you're right! I wish I'd done that one now

[ygokazuki]

Dude these sound amazing!
Especially your toms. What heads do you use and how do you tune them?
Thanks!

[Big Tim]

The toms have coated Remo Ambassadors on them, tuned pretty low, but not particularly new so they're a bit off. The lowest tom (14") has a couple of Moongels on it and a strip of gaffa on the bottom skin, the other two (10" and 12") just have a single Moongel on them. I hadn't given them a proper tuning before doing those recordings, just a quick tweak to get rid of some "boinging". I'll probably go back to Pinstripes though, I quite like those Ambassadors but I prefer the attack and tone of the Pinstripes.

[nanashiwanderer]

sticky recommendation.

[ygokazuki]

sticky recommendation.

+1
Thanks for the info dude.

[nanashiwanderer]

I had a good listen on my monitors, which I didn't have the oppurtunity earlier. and I have to say wow. Those SE1a condensors held better than I'd expect (I was expecting a brittle top like most condensors of this price range). You used a decent kit and good cymbals though which I'm sure helped. and your voice doesn't really sound cheesy, but now you have the pleasant though of the fact, the rest of us will associate that voice to your posts, from this point on.

[Rimskidog]

Just spotted this thread. I've been recommending these techniques in parallel with you I think. Great post and thanks for doing this Tim!

[Verse]

This should be a sticky, took me ages to find this again.

[Big Tim]

I've somehow managed to remove the files so I'll try and get them uploaded again over the weekend.

[Nanashi]

Thanks.Big Tim do us another favor pretty pretty please. can you put this link in your sig? . I've dropped it a couple of times in other threads as well. Its a b*tch to find.

[Rick Levine]

AAARRGH! I finally have time to sit and give this a listen and the links are still broken. Please oh please please please fix them, and add some pics? No pics of you though. Dude, you're scary.

[Big Tim]

Sorry guys, I've got some time tonight so I'll pull my finger out

Edit: I've attached a pic of my kit, this wasn't the session where I did the 2- and 3-mic clips, but it's the same setup so you can picture how it the sound fits the drums.

[Big Tim]

OK, samples are now back up! Sorry for the delay guys.

[Tweak]

Nice job! Thank you Big Tim!

[Twiggy]

Big Tim's voice sounds nothing like I expected it to!

Back on track, thanks a lot for taking the time to do this Tim.

I was thinking, If I were to use the recorderman technique (2 OH's with string) and individual mics on each drum mixed in to taste, would this be a good way to go about recording a kit?

[Big Tim]

That would be perfectly feasible. The Recorderman technique is basically designed to get a balanced sound of the whole kit with just 2 mics. The mics are positioned so that all the drums and cymbals have a more-or-less equal balance, which is hard to get with a spaced pair of overheads or an ORTF setup. It's usually the kick drum that suffers most in overheads, as the angle of the kick drum projects the sound waves away from the mics. The position of the Recorderman mics means that you'll get a better amount of kick drum than a standard overhead pair.

However, that doesn't mean that you can't close mic as well and use them to add to the Recorderman mics. After all, they're basically just overheads, and you won't get the thuddy, full sound of a modern rock kit with just a pair of overheads. I recently made a surprisingly good recording of a band practice using Recorderman mics with a kick and snare mic. Didn't have enough channels for toms, but it would have sounded great with them as well.

[Twiggy]

Thanks for the reply Tim.

My aim was to get the best sound in the overheads as possible - as if i were only going to use OH's for the recording. But rather than randomly placing mics and moving them around for hours, I thought this would be a great starting point which I could make minor adjustments to, and use as much close micing in the mix as I need to.

I'm thinking i'll need kick becasue I want to EQ that to get a nice klik for metal, and some snare, so I can tamper with how much snap it has. Then bring in the toms to aid the OH's. But mainly use the OH's for a nice image of the kit and bring in close ones to taste.

[Verse]

yeah, you gotta mic your kick ... well at least with anything I've recorded it's a big 'want'.

[Big Tim]

Yeah, agreed with Verse. Metal and rock sounds are all about the close-miked sound, you won't get near it with just a Recorderman setup. But equally yes, using the Recorderman for your overhead sounds should give you a great starting point.

[Twiggy]

Cheers guys, I'll focous on trying to get great close mic'd sounds as well.

If rock/metal sounds are not so much about the overheads, what sounds should I be looking for in them? I've read here that recording drums is all about getting a balanced kit sound in the OH's so good that you could jsut use them. Should I be looking to do this with rock recording, or should i maybe using the OH's to capture cymbals or something?

[Big Tim]

It depends what is called for on the track. If you're looking for the ultra fat, ultra processed sound of modern rock & metal then you need to be looking at the close mics as much, if not more, than the overheads. Overheads are still there to capture the sound of the kit as a whole, but the processing necessary for that rock/metal sound on toms, kick and snare is predominantly done on the close mics (with or without added samples... different debate!). You simply can't get that sound in the overheads alone, as the overheads are too natural and provide no separation between drums for the necessary fine processing. The overheads tend to be relegated to being just "cymbal" mics (although you can never get the drums completely out of them!).

But that type of sound is something of an exception. If your song calls for a more natural sound then the overheads are always the place to start. Get it sounding good and big in them and use the close mics to bring in the missing elements, which could be greater body, greater attack, certain frequencies etc.

It's really down to what the song and production calls for. These examples are intended to show what can be done with *just* two or three mics. They use techniques which are also used when multi-miking the kit, so they are relevant to consider, but the focus here is on getting the most from these techniques.

[Mr. Cloggy]

Finally took time to listen on my monitors, thanks!

I must say I like the 2 mic setups best, most of them didn't need alot of additional kick. Snare sounded a bit weak if I may say so, but I digged the rest!

Nice!

[Big Tim]

The snare is a 12x5, it cracks like mad when hit hard (which I wasn't really doing in the clips) but it doesn't have a lot of body, so it needs to be miked carefully. It doesn't always come across particularly well in overheads alone. Glad you liked them overall though!