Acoustic Drums - need feedback

[Viral_Tyler]

Drum shells - DDrum entry level
Cymbals - A Custom Zildjian with a couple others

Mic setup:
spaced pair overhead - Karma-K10
room (one room over, heavily reflective) - MXL V63M
snare top - Sm57
snare bottom - Sm57
10" Tom top - Sm57
14" Tom top - Audix i5
22" kick (6" or so from center of beaters, removed front head, threw in feather pillow against other head) - Audix D6

I really tried to space my kit out a lot so it was very uncomfortable for me to play, hince the sloppy playing lol. I'm used to 3 toms, not 2, and the ride was much closer than I usually have it. I want a new kick batter head so bad.. may I recommend to avoid the Evans EMAD series at all costs, an old one was used in this recording.

Some EQ to cut mids here and there, and to boost where I thought was needed..

I'm starting to think the bottom snare mic adds more noise and I could get better kit sound with a "close up mono mic" to pull out more kick / snare together, I dunno. I'm still so new, I'm gonna keep trying though.

Edit: Take two, this one is with just the wood underneath the drums(no drum rug), and I turned the room mic down a couple db.

 

[Heabow]

Cannot listen to your clip on my system ATM but about drumheads, the Evans Emad always worked great for me! Slightly better than the EQ3 wich I like as well for most projects I worked on. In my humble opinion of course. Otherwise, yeah sloppy playing but it's never easy to play on a kit you're not used to!

 

[Nikolas Quemtri]

The overall drum tones seem to be nice! But the clip sounds too dry as for the mixed version (due to room mix primarily I believe).
Also, we should consider in the whole mix thing of course, but for the solo drums I'd add less room here.

Could you post a photo of your drum room and this recording setup?

 

[Viral_Tyler]

Gladly! I didn't take of a picture of the current setup on this particular take, but it was very identical as what you see placement-wise, minus the second rack tom, with the ride and crash switched there for a more separated overhead feel when the crashes are played.

I just thought about this when you mentioned it kind of sounded dry, I recorded drums on the carpet over the wood, maybe next time I'll try removing the rug and using the wood as a reflective surface. I remember reading in Glenn Fricker's guide he recommended to not use carpet underneath the drums, although I have issues with the drums moving all over the wood when I'm hitting them, which is why I went with carpet for stability... Maybe I can use gaffer tape O-rings to keep everything in place...

Also instead of flooding you with pictures on this post, here is a link to more pictures of the studio I have to work with (be mindful that I can't do any real construction work to this place, I'm only renting it out.

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/practice-room/900221-leasing-my-first-studio-room-wooo.html

 

[Viral_Tyler]

I removed the drum rug last night to test out how it sounded in comparison.

I feel like I could always do better on the playing part.

 

[Viral_Tyler]

Here's are some more updated photos so you can see more of whats going on in the room.

and

 

[Sloan]

If these are pretty much raw sounds, they are totally usable, in my opinion. The only thing I would change is the snare, it needs more 'pop'. I would like that snare sound for a vintage style sound or even like a punk rock or rock album.


Also try the kick with a front head with a hole, I find I get more lows and still have plenty of attack from the d6 if i put it just in the hole of the front head.

 

[Viral_Tyler]

Hey thank ya! Yes these are just the microphones, no samples or drumagog resamples, just some compression and eq.

I will try out what you said about the kick, Steve G. from Drumeo told me to try the same thing actually and to pull the kick mic back some more than 6" from the head, he also said to put my snare mic 3" above the rim, but in the same place where I technically have it horizontally, and pointed at the center for that attack of course. So I will be trying these two things out, I believe he was listening to the first clip there where the room mic was too loud; Steve G. mentioned he would've also taken the room mic completely out and add the ambiance later on (with that in mind, using a drum bus for only reverb, I could technically add my other tom to the kit, making my tom fills more comfortable. I was trying to go with all natural sounds)

 

[Nikolas Quemtri]

Thanks for the photos!
I imagine editing the parts where there are unsynced kick and snare hits. I'm used to suggesting an eDrum recording to a drummer in such cases, when recording a band by myself.