Could someone help me out with how to record drums?

[SiGGe]

Me and my band are about to record our demo(!!) but none of us knows how to set up things for the drums.
so the question would be how do we record them and with wath?
how manny mics do we need...and so on.

 

[Iceheart]

Originally posted by SiGGe
Me and my band are about to record our demo(!!) but none of us knows how to set up things for the drums.
so the question would be how do we record them and with wath?
how manny mics do we need...and so on.

Well, how many mics do vou have? Professionals record with 7+ mics but you can get a good(Demo-) sound with less: 1 for the bass drum(special bass drum mic!), 1 for the snare and if you have only a few mics also for Hi-hat(also a special one!), 1 for the small toms and the crash etc..(Depends on how many you have..)and one for the right one and the big tom.This is the veeery basic.This means you put several parts of your drumset(f.ex. snare+hi-hat) on 1 recording track/unit. If you have more mics you could record every part of your drumset on one single track.What do you use for recording? Harddisk recorder, PC, Track recorder..?? But one thing: you should COMPRESS all you record..and if you put different parts of your drumset on one track the relation(loudness..etc) should fit because you won't be able to change this after it has been recorded..So again, what do you use??

 

[Silverhaze]

Very interesting info Iceheart. My band is beginning the recording thing too, and we're having some luck with the drums, but we can't get the Bass Drum to "thump". Our drummer has 5 drum mics which he runs into different channels of the PA. I mix them there using headphones and then run out of the PA onto one track of a 4 track recorder. Really it doesn't sound too bad....except for the dead bass drum. Would running the bass mic through a guitar compression pedal work? Or running out of the PA into the comp. pedal and out to the 4 track?

We're more or less just recording for our own pleasure and not really trying to get signed, so we're not dumping a lot of money into it. But we'd still like to sound good. I'm anxious to hear some more tips...keep 'em commin!

Have fun SiGGe...it's an adventure!

 

[Iceheart]

Whoa...I have never tried to compress drums with a guitar compression pedal..don't think this will work..I don't know your comp. pedal but I would suppose that the compression you get from the pedal is not enough for a bass drum or that the pedal compresses in a way specified for guitars only....but try it ..normally I would say: better take a "real" compressor ( Behringer..etc.)..by the way compressing between PA and recorder sounds mostly shitty because when you compress the volume will change, too.And then perhaps your bassdrum in comparison to the rest of the drums is too silent..or sth like that and you can't change it afterwards! So I'd say compress between mic and PA.the problem:doing this way you'll have to put different parts of the drumset together via adapter because if you have the "standard" compressor you'll mostly have only two compression tracks...or you have the possibility to compress only bassdrum and snare and record the rest without compression..so the way is: snare/bassdrum-->compressor-->PA-->recorder; rest:mic-->PA-->recorder..
By the way, what do you mean with "thump"?if you want more sound from the bass you could put a huge stone into the bassdrum..this will make a harder sound....

 

[nihilist]

hey buddy,
Ok, bass drums are tricky, first of all... The quality of mic that you use for the bass drum should be the best one available. If you want the "click" of the hit and then want the bass to follow, position the mic inside the bass drum right in the middle. That way it'll get the initial click of the mallet-strike then the sound will bounce off the front head of the bass drum and hit the mic from behind, remove the spit screen for max click. If you don't want very much "click," Place the mic outside the front of the drum and either loosen the bass drum head facing the drummer, or you can even throw a sleeping bag or pillow inside the drum. Warning though, deadening with a pillow will thump, but it will sound kind of "garage-punkish" and will not provide much reasonance. Secondly, are you recording the drums after the bass guitar track is already done? If so, it's tricky to get a bass drum sound, engineers have been battling this throughout time. The best way to learn is to mess around with it. As far as compression goes, my opinion is that you don't need to use it as much as everyone thinks, keep it light at first and add it as only necessary. Good luck

 

[Silverhaze]

Thanks for the info all!

We record the drums first, and the sound we're getting from the bass drum on tape right now is just a lo-fi muffled sound. We've put the mic through the sound hole in the front of the bass drum head, we've put the mic in the bass drum and we've even tried double mic-ing it, but we can't get a tight thump out of it. We'll keep trying things! Thanks again!

BTW - Excuse my lack of drum knowledge....I'm just the guitarist!

 

[Iceheart]

Originally posted by nihilist
The best way to learn is to mess around with it.

Yep, that's right..

Originally posted by nihilist
As far as compression goes, my opinion is that you don't need to use it as much as everyone thinks, keep it light at first and add it as only necessary.

..but be careful if you keep it light, because I think this is sth. you can do only if you have very good equipment and (like nihilist said) the best mics..most of the light compressed bassdrum sounds I've heard yet (on Demo-recordings ) were not constant enough (..well, for my ears.. )...But if your drummer is a very tight one..