Acoustic Drums for Metal: A Guide
- Thread starter Glenn Fricker
- Start date
PART 3: SETUP
Oh man, where to begin....
Gear you'll need: (multiple choice)
Kick Mic: Audix D6 (simply the best kick mic for recording to digital.) /ATM 25/AKG D112/Apex 125 (cheap and super clicky)... hell, there's tons of choices. I really, really recommend picking up a D6 though... you'll be glad you did.
Snare: Sm57 is the obvious choice, it winds up on 90% of my records. Other choices include the Audix i5, or a Sennhieser e604.
Toms: Sennhieser 421 or e604/Sm57/Audix i5/ATM 25
Overheads: Again, a wide variety of choices. I really dig my matched Oktava MC012s. You can get them from here: http://sound-room.com/customer/home.php Taylor Johnson has outstanding quality control, and is a really great guy to deal with.
some other ideas: R0de Nt5/Josephson CM45/AKG C414/Apex 210/and if you can spare the cash: Royer SF-12.
Just for the record, i prefer SD condensors for overheads, and occasionally, a pair of ribbons. You might like the sound of LD condesors, if so, you might want to take a look at the studio projects LSD2.... it's definitley a grief-free way of doing stereo miking.
Hi hat mic: ANYTHING. We're not actually going to record this mic.... you'll see what it's for later on.
Other stuff you need:
Soundcard with the abiltiy to send multiple cue mixes.
Headphone amp powerful enough to levitate the phones off of the drummer's head. I'm running an ALTO HPA6... dirt cheap, clean, and loud as fuck.... this is important as most drummers have hearing problems.
Some Falam Slam pads.... I've always got about 6 or 7 laying around.
A REAL feather pillow. Don't fuck around with foam rubber... it's not gonna work.
Several sets of wood & graphite sticks of varying sizes. It's best to have some heavy sticks on hand for the guys that hit like pussies.
Wood, Felt, Plastic, and Rubber kick beaters. 2 each.
Evans muting rings, duct tape, masking tape, a pair of loonies (Canadian dollar coin), toiet paper, WD-40, baseball cap, and most importantly, a baby bonnet for those crybaby drummers.
"Let the games begin!" ...quote from the film, Meatballs
GENERAL KIT SETUP
Ok, first things first: I forgot to mention a few things about the kick drum last article. The first thing you should do is take the front head off, as we're not going to need it. Use the masking tape to tape down the empty lugs to keep them from flopping around when the drummer is playing, so the don't make any noise.
I dig a Remo Ebony Pinstripe batter head, and I know a few of you like the powerstrokes.... that's cool. We're going for a heavy attack/short sustain kind of sound, so stay away from clears & coated skins for kick batters.
Once you've got your head on, finger tighten all the lugs, then maybe tighten down 1/2 to 1 full turn with your tuner. That's ALL. Any tighter, you'll lose attack & increase sustain, and we don't want that.
Put your feather pillow in the front of the drum, and make sure it's resting against the beater skin.
Affix your Falam Slam pad to where your kick beater will strike and you should be good to go. You can also experiment with loonies,quarters, credit cards, and different beater types for different click sounds. I like the falam slam with felt beaters & a D6, but your tastes may vary. The key here is to get a nice & clearly defined attack right at the get go.
Falam Slam in place.
Ok, so you've got your kick drum on the floor, set the snare up, followed by toms, then cymbals. Everything should be set up around the kick & snare, not the other way around.
Now comes the important point: How high is your drummer sitting? A lot of "not so great" drummers will sit very low. These guys also hit like wimps & can't seem to get the kit to sound good. Let me tell you from experience... the best guys I've ever recorded play "down" at the kit. I.E, their throne is set very high, with the toms set at a level so they're at the apex of a stick strike. One of the fastest double kick players I've had come in actually stacked books up under his throne to get higher. Let me tell you, even I could play double kick on this setup, and I'm probably the worst drummer in the world. One funny point: I've noticed low sitters cry about how much their legs hurt after doing extensive double kick runs. That's because they're playing "up" at the kicks. They have to raise their legs far higher to hit the bass drum.... and gravity is working against them. Have them raise up the throne. It's less work to play & will sound better.
Take a look at the rack toms. Are they suspended at an obscene angle? That ain't gonna work my friends. You're going to need to get them as flat as possible. The reason being, an angled tom will be on the recieving end of a 'glancing blow' The stick will hit the skin at an angle, and not deliver the full force of the strike. A flat tom will recieve the strike straight on, transfering the energy of the stick into the drum with much more power. This means better sounding toms, folks. We're going for cannons here, not Kentucky-Fried Chicken buckets.
Now, I've had one drummer whine that he couldn't "play fast" with flat toms. Well, let me tell you, that's total bullshit. One of the fastest Swedish Death Metal drummers in the world (IMHO) came in an played with flat toms.... and they sounded fantastic. One interesting point: I noticed how he set up, and I mentioned to him: "Dude, that looks like Faith No More's drum setup." and he replied, "That's where I got the idea." BTW, go put on FNM's "The Real Thing" The drums sound fantastic.
As for the whiner, this guy just would not listen to reason. It had to be his way. Some days I wish I had a can of pepper spray in the studio... oh well. Consequently, I had to replace every piece of the kit with samples for his album. Kick, Snare, & toms. It remains the only record I've ever done where the drum elements were replaced... and it still pisses me off.
Some muting may be required here: I usually let the high rack toms fly free, with no muting at all. But the lower toms might get a bit of toilet paper to kill primary & secondary overtones. The floor tom will get an Evans muting ring. It'll give a nice clear cutting Ka-Boom sound that records great.
Here's a muting ring in place.
Snare drum: I like snares that go "crack" or "snap" not "clang." So, you'll need some muting. I'll usually put an Evans muting ring on the snare, which will kill the sustaining overtones, but not the high end of the attack. You can also go with a felt arm, but this will give you a duller sound. Tape & toilet paer also work to varying degrees as well. But for me, the muting ring is a no brainer.
Cymbals: Put your tom mics up first, in thier "general positions." Then put up the cymbals. If the cymbals swing & hit the tom mics, the cymbals are too fucking close. Drummers will bitch & whine on this point, but don't give in. If you break up your kit physically, it will record better, and save you grief in the mix process. If your rack toms are flat, this will be less of a problem. One thing to be careful of here is the position of the ride to the floor tom. If the ride is too low, this will cause bleed problems with the floor tom mic. Raise up the ride cymbal a bit.
Hats: Again, physical separation is the key. If your hat is too close, it'll bleed into the snare mic. This is a very common problem. If the drummer won't move the hats horizontally, try separating the two vertically.
MIC POSITIONING:
Overheads: This is the critical element. If you get these right, everything else is gravy. I've messed around with many types of setups, but I always wind up coming back to two SD condensors in an XY setup. That's where the two mic capsules cross over at 90 degrees.
Now, if you've got your room sounding good, your kit sitting in the room for 24 hours, and tuned correctly, the drums should sound really good just in the room. I'll start by placing the overhead array a couple of feet above the drummer's head, aimed down at 45-60 degrees from horizontal. The idea here is to capture the kit in it's entirety. Take note, the lower you place the overheads, the bigger the stereo field will be. Higher, and you'll get more of the room sound. What we're trying to do here is get a good balance between the snare, hats, cymbals & toms. Moving the array forwards or backwards will help you balance this out. Important point: This is where the "air" on the snare comes from... it's also where the primary attack of the toms comes from too.
Here's what an XY setup looks like:
Kick: So you've got your Falam Slam pad on, skin tuned, feather pillow & your D6. Good. I'll start with placing the mic at a height level with where the beater strikes the skin, and close to the head. Then, I'll move the mic backwards until I like what I hear. For my kicker, the sweet spot is about 10 inches back from the skin. YMMV.
2 pics of the Kick Mic from different angles:
Have the drummer play the full kit at this point. With just the kick & overheads up in your monitors, things should be sounding pretty good. Check your phase on the kick and make sure the mics are working together.
Snare: From the drummer's throne, i'll usually bring in a 57 at the 10-11 o'clock position. This seems to be the null point for the hat, so you'll get plenty of snare in this mic, and very little hats. Make sure to check for bleed in the monitors! Anyway, I'll place the mic on a 20-30 degree angle, aimed at the center of the snare, with the tip of the mic just poking over the edge of the rim, 1-2 cm above it. If you pull the mic away from the snare, you'll get a brighter sound.... further in over the rim, a duller more "thudding" sound. Remember, most of the "snare air" is coming from the overheads, so keep checking your snare mic with the overheads in & out of the mix. Phase is critical here , so keep checking that as well.... and keep checking for that hi-hat bleed.
As far as bottom snare mics go, i usually don't use them. I find with a reflective floor, I get more than enough top end from the snare in the overhead mics.
Here's a snare mic in place... along with a muting ring, and a target for the drummer to hit the 'sweet spot.' (Ok, I stole the idea from Max Norman in Megadeth's home video) In this case, a happy face to beat the shit out of.
Toms: Kind of like miking the snare: You can experiment with the distance you place the mic, but generally, aim for the center of the drum. I've used the clips that come with the e604, but sometimes they'll add noise. It's best to have the tom mics on thier own stands. Again, experimentation is the key here. The closer in you go, the more bottom end you'll get. The farther back you go, the brighter the sound will be, but you'll get more cymbal bleed as well. Again, check them with the overheads in & out of play, and check that phase!
The humble yet effective e604
Ok folks, that's it for now. I had a shitload of pictures lined up, but my webserver seems to be down at the moment. I'll add them in at a later time. This stuff is so much easier to explain with visual cues!
-0z-
Oh man, where to begin....
Gear you'll need: (multiple choice)
Kick Mic: Audix D6 (simply the best kick mic for recording to digital.) /ATM 25/AKG D112/Apex 125 (cheap and super clicky)... hell, there's tons of choices. I really, really recommend picking up a D6 though... you'll be glad you did.
Snare: Sm57 is the obvious choice, it winds up on 90% of my records. Other choices include the Audix i5, or a Sennhieser e604.
Toms: Sennhieser 421 or e604/Sm57/Audix i5/ATM 25
Overheads: Again, a wide variety of choices. I really dig my matched Oktava MC012s. You can get them from here: http://sound-room.com/customer/home.php Taylor Johnson has outstanding quality control, and is a really great guy to deal with.
some other ideas: R0de Nt5/Josephson CM45/AKG C414/Apex 210/and if you can spare the cash: Royer SF-12.
Just for the record, i prefer SD condensors for overheads, and occasionally, a pair of ribbons. You might like the sound of LD condesors, if so, you might want to take a look at the studio projects LSD2.... it's definitley a grief-free way of doing stereo miking.
Hi hat mic: ANYTHING. We're not actually going to record this mic.... you'll see what it's for later on.
Other stuff you need:
Soundcard with the abiltiy to send multiple cue mixes.
Headphone amp powerful enough to levitate the phones off of the drummer's head. I'm running an ALTO HPA6... dirt cheap, clean, and loud as fuck.... this is important as most drummers have hearing problems.
Some Falam Slam pads.... I've always got about 6 or 7 laying around.
A REAL feather pillow. Don't fuck around with foam rubber... it's not gonna work.
Several sets of wood & graphite sticks of varying sizes. It's best to have some heavy sticks on hand for the guys that hit like pussies.
Wood, Felt, Plastic, and Rubber kick beaters. 2 each.
Evans muting rings, duct tape, masking tape, a pair of loonies (Canadian dollar coin), toiet paper, WD-40, baseball cap, and most importantly, a baby bonnet for those crybaby drummers.
"Let the games begin!" ...quote from the film, Meatballs
GENERAL KIT SETUP
Ok, first things first: I forgot to mention a few things about the kick drum last article. The first thing you should do is take the front head off, as we're not going to need it. Use the masking tape to tape down the empty lugs to keep them from flopping around when the drummer is playing, so the don't make any noise.
I dig a Remo Ebony Pinstripe batter head, and I know a few of you like the powerstrokes.... that's cool. We're going for a heavy attack/short sustain kind of sound, so stay away from clears & coated skins for kick batters.
Once you've got your head on, finger tighten all the lugs, then maybe tighten down 1/2 to 1 full turn with your tuner. That's ALL. Any tighter, you'll lose attack & increase sustain, and we don't want that.
Put your feather pillow in the front of the drum, and make sure it's resting against the beater skin.
Affix your Falam Slam pad to where your kick beater will strike and you should be good to go. You can also experiment with loonies,quarters, credit cards, and different beater types for different click sounds. I like the falam slam with felt beaters & a D6, but your tastes may vary. The key here is to get a nice & clearly defined attack right at the get go.
Falam Slam in place.
Ok, so you've got your kick drum on the floor, set the snare up, followed by toms, then cymbals. Everything should be set up around the kick & snare, not the other way around.
Now comes the important point: How high is your drummer sitting? A lot of "not so great" drummers will sit very low. These guys also hit like wimps & can't seem to get the kit to sound good. Let me tell you from experience... the best guys I've ever recorded play "down" at the kit. I.E, their throne is set very high, with the toms set at a level so they're at the apex of a stick strike. One of the fastest double kick players I've had come in actually stacked books up under his throne to get higher. Let me tell you, even I could play double kick on this setup, and I'm probably the worst drummer in the world. One funny point: I've noticed low sitters cry about how much their legs hurt after doing extensive double kick runs. That's because they're playing "up" at the kicks. They have to raise their legs far higher to hit the bass drum.... and gravity is working against them. Have them raise up the throne. It's less work to play & will sound better.
Take a look at the rack toms. Are they suspended at an obscene angle? That ain't gonna work my friends. You're going to need to get them as flat as possible. The reason being, an angled tom will be on the recieving end of a 'glancing blow' The stick will hit the skin at an angle, and not deliver the full force of the strike. A flat tom will recieve the strike straight on, transfering the energy of the stick into the drum with much more power. This means better sounding toms, folks. We're going for cannons here, not Kentucky-Fried Chicken buckets.
Now, I've had one drummer whine that he couldn't "play fast" with flat toms. Well, let me tell you, that's total bullshit. One of the fastest Swedish Death Metal drummers in the world (IMHO) came in an played with flat toms.... and they sounded fantastic. One interesting point: I noticed how he set up, and I mentioned to him: "Dude, that looks like Faith No More's drum setup." and he replied, "That's where I got the idea." BTW, go put on FNM's "The Real Thing" The drums sound fantastic.
As for the whiner, this guy just would not listen to reason. It had to be his way. Some days I wish I had a can of pepper spray in the studio... oh well. Consequently, I had to replace every piece of the kit with samples for his album. Kick, Snare, & toms. It remains the only record I've ever done where the drum elements were replaced... and it still pisses me off.
Some muting may be required here: I usually let the high rack toms fly free, with no muting at all. But the lower toms might get a bit of toilet paper to kill primary & secondary overtones. The floor tom will get an Evans muting ring. It'll give a nice clear cutting Ka-Boom sound that records great.
Here's a muting ring in place.
Snare drum: I like snares that go "crack" or "snap" not "clang." So, you'll need some muting. I'll usually put an Evans muting ring on the snare, which will kill the sustaining overtones, but not the high end of the attack. You can also go with a felt arm, but this will give you a duller sound. Tape & toilet paer also work to varying degrees as well. But for me, the muting ring is a no brainer.
Cymbals: Put your tom mics up first, in thier "general positions." Then put up the cymbals. If the cymbals swing & hit the tom mics, the cymbals are too fucking close. Drummers will bitch & whine on this point, but don't give in. If you break up your kit physically, it will record better, and save you grief in the mix process. If your rack toms are flat, this will be less of a problem. One thing to be careful of here is the position of the ride to the floor tom. If the ride is too low, this will cause bleed problems with the floor tom mic. Raise up the ride cymbal a bit.
Hats: Again, physical separation is the key. If your hat is too close, it'll bleed into the snare mic. This is a very common problem. If the drummer won't move the hats horizontally, try separating the two vertically.
MIC POSITIONING:
Overheads: This is the critical element. If you get these right, everything else is gravy. I've messed around with many types of setups, but I always wind up coming back to two SD condensors in an XY setup. That's where the two mic capsules cross over at 90 degrees.
Now, if you've got your room sounding good, your kit sitting in the room for 24 hours, and tuned correctly, the drums should sound really good just in the room. I'll start by placing the overhead array a couple of feet above the drummer's head, aimed down at 45-60 degrees from horizontal. The idea here is to capture the kit in it's entirety. Take note, the lower you place the overheads, the bigger the stereo field will be. Higher, and you'll get more of the room sound. What we're trying to do here is get a good balance between the snare, hats, cymbals & toms. Moving the array forwards or backwards will help you balance this out. Important point: This is where the "air" on the snare comes from... it's also where the primary attack of the toms comes from too.
Here's what an XY setup looks like:
Kick: So you've got your Falam Slam pad on, skin tuned, feather pillow & your D6. Good. I'll start with placing the mic at a height level with where the beater strikes the skin, and close to the head. Then, I'll move the mic backwards until I like what I hear. For my kicker, the sweet spot is about 10 inches back from the skin. YMMV.
2 pics of the Kick Mic from different angles:
Have the drummer play the full kit at this point. With just the kick & overheads up in your monitors, things should be sounding pretty good. Check your phase on the kick and make sure the mics are working together.
Snare: From the drummer's throne, i'll usually bring in a 57 at the 10-11 o'clock position. This seems to be the null point for the hat, so you'll get plenty of snare in this mic, and very little hats. Make sure to check for bleed in the monitors! Anyway, I'll place the mic on a 20-30 degree angle, aimed at the center of the snare, with the tip of the mic just poking over the edge of the rim, 1-2 cm above it. If you pull the mic away from the snare, you'll get a brighter sound.... further in over the rim, a duller more "thudding" sound. Remember, most of the "snare air" is coming from the overheads, so keep checking your snare mic with the overheads in & out of the mix. Phase is critical here , so keep checking that as well.... and keep checking for that hi-hat bleed.
As far as bottom snare mics go, i usually don't use them. I find with a reflective floor, I get more than enough top end from the snare in the overhead mics.
Here's a snare mic in place... along with a muting ring, and a target for the drummer to hit the 'sweet spot.' (Ok, I stole the idea from Max Norman in Megadeth's home video) In this case, a happy face to beat the shit out of.
Toms: Kind of like miking the snare: You can experiment with the distance you place the mic, but generally, aim for the center of the drum. I've used the clips that come with the e604, but sometimes they'll add noise. It's best to have the tom mics on thier own stands. Again, experimentation is the key here. The closer in you go, the more bottom end you'll get. The farther back you go, the brighter the sound will be, but you'll get more cymbal bleed as well. Again, check them with the overheads in & out of play, and check that phase!
The humble yet effective e604
Ok folks, that's it for now. I had a shitload of pictures lined up, but my webserver seems to be down at the moment. I'll add them in at a later time. This stuff is so much easier to explain with visual cues!
-0z-
haha interesting about placing books and stuff under the guys stool.very odd! did he have a really tiny throne? the idea of balance when drumming is for your thy to be parallel to the floor. just from my point of view..messing about with a drummers set up is a bit funny, if i was tracking something and the engineer told me how to set up..i would be questioning whos gonna be drumming on the record. but thats cool, everyone has theyre own way of doing things. not criticising or anything. ive only been recording for like a year and im not exactly a wizzard. maybe this is my problem haha ive not been doing it how you say to.
Skyweaver
Shred or Die !
excellent thread !!!
Is there any chance you can repost the MP3 link ? I've tried to get hold of a sample.
I've recently recorded drums at a studio with 100K spent on the room alone and keen to hear the mp3
Is there any chance you can repost the MP3 link ? I've tried to get hold of a sample.
I've recently recorded drums at a studio with 100K spent on the room alone and keen to hear the mp3
Genius Gone Insane
http://www.¯\(°_o)/¯.com
Awesome, keep it coming!!
BTW let us know if you want any input because there're maybe a couple things in there that I might like to know a little more about.
BTW let us know if you want any input because there're maybe a couple things in there that I might like to know a little more about.
J the TyranT
Thats just how it is...
I've made the switch awhile back to kevlar marching style heads for my snare. It's a 14X6" bronze that benefits from the kevlar, because it really kills any resonance and annoying "metal" overtones. I dug the bronze over a maple though, because of its attack and overall "meanness"... thing sounds like a shotgun blast when done up right, now. Have you used those kinds of heads before?
Ill post a pic later if you need.
J
Ill post a pic later if you need.
J
Static
Manically depressed robot
Razorjack said:
That sounds overly harsh to me...were the strings defective at all? If they were that was a good move, if not a waste of strings.
I would have just been like 'ok guys, if that guitar doesn't get tuned this session is over and everyone can go home'.
silverwulf
Ghost in the Machine
Speaking of Evans muting rings and Falam pads...does anyone have any on-line outlets they would recommend that carry them?
Brett - K A L I S I A
Dreaded Moderator
Nitronium Blood
UM BOARDS' JESTER
Atheist
Who'r u calling a Junior?
Atheist said:
God I'm glad I'm not the only newbie to this. I was almost nervous to ask(since it seems to be treated as such common knowledge). Could anyone explain in detail? Like... I know why phase problems can occur and that it's best to fix with mic placement but how do you check? What do you listen for and such?
Death's Acre said:
There's absolutely nothing wrong with asking questions like this: we're all new at one point or another.
It's quite simple: Set your main outs to mono, and bring up your overheads.... then bring up a snare or tom mic. Click your phase button on the channel strip of the snare or tom mic... you should hear some major differences in the sound. If it's out of phase, it will get very thin & weak sounding. If it's in phase you'll hear a lot more bass in the sound.
Each sound is a wave. The idea is to have the waveforms of the different mics rising & falling together. However, if one rises & the other falls at the same time, they cancel each other out... usually meaning a loss of bottom end & a very thin sound. If you zoom in on your DAW and look at the waveforms, you can see what I mean.
I suppose I can post some examples in the next few days...
-0z-
Frankie said:
No, it was a very large throne. He was also 6'4".
Frankie said:
To which my reply would be a favourite quote of my old Prof, Vlad "The Impaler" Kabilek..... "That might work at your sister's birthday party, but it ain't gonna cut it here."
In my opinion, the hallmark of a true professional drummer is one who is willing to experiment and work with the engineer.... AND give a great performance. When I get hired for a job, it's to get the best sound possible.... that means taking great pains to get the setup right. If a drummer has something set that I feel won't work to well, you can be sure I'll rectify it. To clarify: I'll let the drummer set up the way how he wants, and then make adjustments. But if the drummer is unwilling to cooperate, that usually means we wind up with a shitty drum sound.
True story... Drummer: "Can you turn up the floor tom on that part?"
Me: "The part where you're switching back & forth between the floor tom & the ride?"
Drummer: "Yeah."
Me: "Do you really think the mix needs 'lead ride cybmbal?'"
Drummer: "what do you mean?"
Me, turning up the mic. "I told you we needed to raise that ride cymbal, but you refused. " (the mix is destroyed by an irritatingly loud ride) "Now I can't turn up the floor tom because of the bleed."
Drummer: "Oh."
Another clarification: Most drummers I work with have little or no studio experience, and the ones that have recorded before are usually recorded by someone who can't record drums. For some, it's a pretty rude awakening working with me.
-0z-
