Drum kit dilemma!!

[Razorjack]

My band is about to enter the studio to record our demo and I've been going over the studio specs and have just realised that we are restricted to 16 channels. Usually this is more than enough for a kit but my drummers kit looks like this:

How would you guys suggest I go about mic'ing this beast? The main problem is with the cymbals, I usually prefer to mic everything indiviually but with approx 15 cymbals thats just not an option.

*For those of you who are interested it's a Yamaha Absolute Maple Custom with all Zildjan cymbals and a Pearl 6 1/2" Freefloater snare*

 

[Jaymz]

Can I just say that your drummer is an absolute DISGRACE!! (in a good way )

 

[462studio]

Place microphones on all the drums, kicks, toms, snare, two overheads and one room mic.

Only comes out to ten channels. You have six left if you find you need to mic any of the cymbals separately.

Seem right?

 

[AudioPhile777]

1. Snare Top
2. Snare Bottom
3. Tom 1top
4. Tom 2top
5. Tom 3top
6. Tom 4top
7. Kick
8. Kick
9. Overhead Left
10. Overhead Right
11. Ride
12. HiHat

Then depending on what type of sound you're going for, it either leaves you room for some room mics, trigger inputs or a combo of both...

16 should be fine... ideally you could want up to 24 tracks for drums... but you can totally make due with what you have there... IMHO

I just hope you dont mean 16 tracks total... cause that would suck.

 

[colonel kurtz]

1. kick - L
2. kick - R
3. snare - top
4. snare - bot
5-8. toms
9. OHL
10. OHR
11. hats
12. ride?
13. FOK
14. room
15. room
16. ???

i guess that comes to about the same answer audiophile777 gave.

 

[Slate]

how about snare, snare bottom, kick in, kick out, toms x 4, three overheads to capture the three cymbal zones, one hi hat, and two room mics.

 

[KeithRT99]

are you limited to 16 tracks at a time, or are you going to 16 track tape?
i assume you mean 16 tracks at a time.

2 kick
snare
4 toms
2 room mics
4 oh/cymbal
the rest could be kick out, or snare bottom, or more cymbals.

 

[AudioPhile777]

I totally think all of these ideas would work... but does the studio have a nice sounding room? otherwise you're going to have to create "that" space with verb and whatnot... if the room doesnt sound good, then the room mics are pointless... and how much drum replacement do you think you might be doing?

if thats the case, i would ditch all the unnecessary mics and throw triggers on the kit...

IMO.

But then again, Slate does get the awesome drums sounds...

 

[Razorjack]

Thanks for the replies so far guys, Steven's idea of three cymbal zones sounds quite good. I think I'm pretty set on how to do this now, was just having a stress last night when I realised we're only going to have 16 inputs!! I've got more on my home rig!!

 

[discordless]

put some triggers too if you have any tracks left

 

[Fredrik-Ablaze]

How about simply stripping the kit down to hihat, ride, splash, 3 crash plus china? Or is he like any other drummers (waaaaa waaaaa, cant play without all my gear waaaa waaa)? =)

 

[scorpio01169]

by looking at that kit...you have plenty of inputs...on the 16 channel you can even run a live scratch guitar track along with the drums while recording

 

[Razorjack]

How about simply stripping the kit down to hihat, ride, splash, 3 crash plus china? Or is he like any other drummers (waaaaa waaaaa, cant play without all my gear waaaa waaa)? =)

He doesn't have stuff just for the sake of it, I've questioned his reasons for owning every piece on his kit.

I'll post some examples of his playing when we've finished the demo.

 

[Razorjack]

by looking at that kit...you have plenty of inputs...on the 16 channel you can even run a live scratch guitar track along with the drums while recording

We are going the pre-recorded scratch route as the guitarists can't be around for drum tracking.

 

[doc_backmask]

I've got more on my home rig!!

So, how mobile is your home rig? If it is all possible, why not take it with you? Or at least some of the outboard peripherals.

 

[greyskull]

16 tracks is more than enough for most things i reckn

 

[Razorjack]

16 tracks is more than enough for most things i reckn

Do you still work at Stakeout? That's where we are looking at right now (hence the 16 channel issue) but I've heard mixed things about the place.

 

[scorpio01169]

dayum...i wish some of you guys lived near me i would love to track a band with a decent drummer for a change

 

[colonel kurtz]

16 tracks is more than enough for most things i reckn

no shit...i can't really see a reason to need more than 16 inputs for drums alone, unless you're doing some major, MAJOR, shit

 

[TomiR]

Okay guys, since I am a total n00b when it comes to studio gear, I have this to ask:

Let's imagine I have 15 mics on a drum set, and I am working with a PC, what do I need to get 15 individual tracks to my PC, so I can individually edit all of them later?

I have a soundcard with 4 inputs, so I can only record 4 tracks simultaneously. When I have recorded some of my own demo stuff, I have ended up having one track for the snare, one for the kick, then I have all of the tom mics connected to a mixer which has two outputs.

So I can't really edit the toms individually afterwards, since they are all on the same track and I have no room for cymbal mics. I use Reaper btw.

Do they even make soundcards with more than 10 inputs, or is there some other way? I usually record guitar or vocal tracks, so 4 has been sufficent, but now I need something for the drums.

Thanks guys in advance!