Recording Drum room tracks

[fistula]

hey guy

just wanna know is anyone of you record the drum room track?

and what mics are you using for it?
and how you're placng the mics?

 

[Pman]

hey
i started off recording drums first, (as im a drummer)
this is my kit:

at the moment, i use a pair of Oktava Mk012's for overheads, a sm57 on the snare, and two cheap dynamic mics on the bass drums, which are later sampled

the overheads are set as a spaced pair, equal distance from the snare
a sample of just the overheads can be heard here http://www.fromtheabyss.com/overheads.mp3
and thats pretty much it
heres the song of which the that overheads track was from.
http://www.fromtheabyss.com/myspaceplayer/rootofpersecution.mp3

EDIT: i just realised you meant drum ROOM
oh well

 

[Polpotkin]

How is the sound different when you remove the resonance skins on the kicks? Is it common to do when recording metal?

 

[Pman]

How is the sound different when you remove the resonance skins on the kicks? Is it common to do when recording metal?

well if i intended to record them, and use the actual track, i would put the reso heads back on, and use proper mics
but theyre just off so i have access to the back easier
the sound is more, well, resonant with the reso head on, otherwise its just a thud, which is fine for my configuration

 

[XevKai]

I'll post a sound sample later but this video has some clips inside the tracking room if you're interested.

We are using:
3 - SM58s on the rack toms
1 - AT25 on the floor tom
2 - ATM 25s in the bass drums
2 - Xplosion Car subwoofers in the bass drum (for the REALLY lows)
2 - AT 4060s overhead
1 - Nuemann TLM103 in the middle of the room
2 - SM57s on the snare
and finally
2 - DDRUM triggers with the signal sent to a Alesis DM5


But here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z2rpzsH2qY

 

[Sloan]

hey guy

just wanna know is anyone of you record the drum room track?

and what mics are you using for it?
and how you're placng the mics?

Are you talkin' bout ambient mics and not overheads or both?

I usually find that my overheads pick up more room than I would want, because my room sucks, but I have done a track with just one mic on drums and it turned out ok. I usually have to cut mids and on the one mic track, I boosted the lows to emphasize the kick. Gives kind of an old school sound that can be pretty cool.

 

[fistula]

hah guy im not talkin about overheads) haah

i mean ambience)

 

[Sloan]

hah guy im not talkin about overheads) haah

i mean ambience)

That's thing that sucks with homerecording, usually the room sounds bad and you want to capture as little of that as possible. If I had a nice good sounding room, I would definitely want to get some extra ambient tracks to mix in.

 

[fistula]

i have a really good room at my studio

but really dont know anything about ambience mics...

 

[zmetallica]

good question fistula, I'd like to know about this too, as i just use reverb plugins

 

[TheDude]

Walk around while the drummer's playing and listen for a place where the drums sound good. Put two large diaphragm condensers there and compress the hell out of it. The blend it in the mix according to taste.

You can also get great results with two Ribbon mics.

 

[fistula]

it sounds weird but i know how to mix it)
but dont know how to record) haha

thanks

 

[TheDude]

I just told you

 

[Sinister Mephisto]

I think he's wondering which mics are good, not which KIND of mics are good.

 

[fistula]

yeah
you god it Sinister Mephisto)))

maybe any exact mic?

 

[~BURNY~]

Not tried that myself yet but I red that measurment microphones such as behringer cheapos are great for recording rooms. Somehow, it makes sense to me.

 

[greyskull]

the oktava 219s are supposed to be great on rooms as the have quite a smooth dark top end.

when mixing rooms, give it a roll off at the top as the absence of top end makes the room seem bigger

 

[WeeFace]

Recently I've been micing the corridor outside the studio, and leaving the door open. Not always appropriate, but you can get some epic sounds, depending on what your building's like!

 

[Gnash]

I'll give you a specific room mic: AT4050! It's the only good condensor I own right now. Really, I've used this mic for room at an auditorium, sounded just like it did through my ears! Crystal fucking clear!

 

[JoshSylosis]

Recently I've been micing the corridor outside the studio, and leaving the door open. Not always appropriate, but you can get some epic sounds, depending on what your building's like!

Yehhhhh
my buds have just recorded a few tracks and they have a mic in a seperate room across the hallway (they did it in a small house and not a big distance between rooms). The drum sound has amazing ambience but I'm not sure how much of that mic I can hear in the mix...still

Nothing to do with the original question but I heavily compress the room mic track when mixing and kinda tuck it in the mix. Only really noticeable for clean guitar sections or parts with drums on their own but sounds cool