Minimum mic'ing

[scorpio01169]

how many of you just use overheads and a kick mic and maybe a snare mic for recording drums? i am having an argument with a guy in another forum and he insist that the less the better. this guy is old school and he keeps refering to led zepelins sound as being the best sounding drums for rock, i keep telling him... yeah for that time peroid but for todays metal it doesnt work....am i wrong or do some of you use only three mics or four at the most?

 

[-Gavin-]

 

[Pman]

how many of you just use overheads and a kick mic and maybe a snare mic for recording drums? i am having an argument with a guy in another forum and he insist that the less the better. this guy is old school and he keeps refering to led zepelins sound as being the best sounding drums for rock, i keep telling him... yeah for that time peroid but for todays metal it doesnt work....am i wrong or do some of you use only three mics or four at the most?

thats me dude!
i have this kit

and im quite poor so i use two overheads, two kick mics which i completely sample later and a 57 on the snare

i obviously would use more mics if i had more money to spend on them
but at the moment i dont.
after i get the overheads track i duplicate it and use one for the drums, and one for the cymbals
the drums one i compress, high pass and bring out the lower end
it works fine for me but i get too much snare
and then the 2nd track i just low pass and bring out the cymbals more

 

[Sloan]

Most of my recordings are minimum setups like that since i'm restricted on how many tracks I can use. I've gotten a lot of good sounds that way, but for modern metal and most rock/pop recordings you're not going for a "real" sound anyway - rather, you're going for a "larger than life" cleaner, more precise sound and having everything really seperated and close mic'ed is the way to go.

 

[JeffTD]

IMHO, the more mics the better. Close mic everything, trigger everything, etc, etc, etc.


Who the fuck wants to be limited by 4 mics in the mixing stage?

 

[scorpio01169]

IMHO, the more mics the better. Close mic everything, trigger everything, etc, etc, etc.


Who the fuck wants to be limited by 4 mics in the mixing stage?

i agree except for the triggering everything......i think triggering is the last thing you should do if you absolutly cant get a good acoustic sound

 

[JeffTD]

i agree except for the triggering everything......i think triggering is the last thing you should do if you absolutly cant get a good acoustic sound

By trigger everything, I mean you should put triggers on everything.

Triggers are used just as often to trigger gates and compressors as they are to trigger other sounds.


Still - it's nice to have that option in the end, and let's face it - for this style of music, the kick and the snare are going to have some sample blending going on 99% of the time.

 

[Jaymz]

By trigger everything, I mean you should put triggers on everything.

Triggers are used just as often to trigger gates and compressors as they are to trigger other sounds.


Still - it's nice to have that option in the end, and let's face it - for this style of music, the kick and the snare are going to have some sample blending going on 99% of the time.

Agreed

 

[NickL]

i agree except for the triggering everything......i think triggering is the last thing you should do if you absolutly cant get a good acoustic sound

the point's not to use all the triggers, its that you'll have the triggers in case you need them

 

[egan.]

People have a bad habit of thinking that the way they like things is the right way. Generally this sort of arrogance involves ignoring different styles of music, engineering and tastes. These are the same guys who bring up the beatles if you ask a question about a preamp. You can also rest assured that (assuming these guys even engineer for $) rock bands often leave these guys studios pissed. Mostly tho, they are just repeating dogmatic bullshit based on little or no empirical evidence.....or at least none applicable to your goals.
A single mic on drums might be great for some stuff, but it sure as shit isn't going to sound like TGE.

Recently I saw an argument on gearslutz where some folks were saying that triggering is just to cover up for low skill drummers. One of the guys from audio hammer (sorry I forgot his name, but he posts here) said some very smart things. Ultimately tho, it seems to completely escape some people that some of these choices are aesthetic....not a fix.
So anyway, use as many mics as you want to. There is no rule that says you have to use them all in the mix anyway.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

People have a bad habit of thinking that the way they like things is the right way.

Agree 100%.

I think there is no right way, just a way of doing it.

Don't get me wrong there is always a wrong way, but in recording I don't think there is a right way.

 

[Lopes]

So anyway, use as many mics as you want to. There is no rule that says you have to use them all in the mix anyway.

On the money. People seem to forget that the best tool in mixdown can be the mute button.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

the kick and the snare are going to have some sample blending going on 99% of the time.

Speak for yourself.

There's nothing wrong with triggering though. "Whatever works" is the right way to do things.

 

[JeffTD]

Speak for yourself.

There's nothing wrong with triggering though. "Whatever works" is the right way to do things.

Granted, though, you aren't producing the heaviest of metal, and you go for a pretty oldschool sound with your drums .

 

[NickL]

Granted, though, you aren't producing the heaviest of metal, and you go for a pretty oldschool sound with your drums .

It's interesting tho because he decided he wants that 80's trash sound and he nails it EVERY. FUCKIN. TIME. ON. THE. HEAD. Bringing us back to taste. If you want your drums to sound similar to Oz's, do what he does and modify to taste. Same goes for Andy, Collin, and Pepe Le Pew. And Led Zeppelin, for that matter. If you don't want your drums to sound like Zeppelin then stop listening to that guy and listen to someone who can get a drumsound you like.

 

[JeffTD]

It's interesting tho because he decided he wants that 80's trash sound and he nails it EVERY. FUCKIN. TIME. ON. THE. HEAD. Bringing us back to taste. If you want your drums to sound similar to Oz's, do what he does and modify to taste. Same goes for Andy, Collin, and Pepe Le Pew. And Led Zeppelin, for that matter. If you don't want your drums to sound like Zeppelin then stop listening to that guy and listen to someone who can get a drumsound you like.

[/Thread]

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Actually, I've done a fair bit of Black & Death. Just not in the last year or so....
I've got Bloodshoteye coming in for a single in April tho.. we'll see how that turns out.

 

[ArtGarceau]

I don't necessarily agree with the "use as many mics as possible" approach nor do I agree with "use as few a possible." Then again, everybody has their way of doing things and in this field it is hard to say who is right and wrong as long as it works.

My approach is your typical mic'ing of the kick, snare, toms, and pair of OH's and I get those positioned to sound as good as possible...obviously. Then for giggles I'll add a few mics around the room and put triggers on the toms, kick, and snare just in case.

The only thing I don't do which I see a lot of people doing is I don't mic any cymbals individually. No hi-hat mics, ride mics, or crash mics. There is enough battling with phase relationships, and IMO I think you get enough from the OHs.

Different strokes.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I don't necessarily agree with the "use as many mics as possible" approach nor do I agree with "use as few a possible." Then again, everybody has their way of doing things and in this field it is hard to say who is right and wrong as long as it works.

My approach is your typical mic'ing of the kick, snare, toms, and pair of OH's and I get those positioned to sound as good as possible...obviously. Then for giggles I'll add a few mics around the room and put triggers on the toms, kick, and snare just in case.

The only thing I don't do which I see a lot of people doing is I don't mic any cymbals individually. No hi-hat mics, ride mics, or crash mics. There is enough battling with phase relationships, and IMO I think you get enough from the OHs.

Different strokes.

I agree with the cym part. I don't have the means for exstra mics on shit like that, but I don't think I would use them even if I did.

 

[TheDude]

I just finished recording the drums on the soon-to-be 7th album of Clawfinger. 24 channels of drums . The drum kit was 1 kick, 1 snare, 3 toms, 1 hihat and 5 cymbals Plenty of "and another one in this corner...and one here...and maybe there...sure why not...."

Sounds great. I'm happy.