Recording Drums in a Church. Tips?

[if6was9]

I've recently gotten access to a former church building for recording, It's part of a big building that guys in my city are using for rehearsal and art spaces and the church part is available for renting for recording.

I was wondering is there any tips for using such a large space? The reverb in there is amazing but it's obviously it's gonna be in everything which is a problem.
My idea is to get a garden gazebo, place the drum kit inside it and to hang blakets and acoustic tiles off the outside to dry up the close mics a bit and then have room mics outside for the ambient mics.

Like this Strapping Young Lad studio diary at 44 seconds in.



I'm guessing covering the kick drum in blankets would also be a good place to start so there's not tons of verb on the kick.

I did get to use the space already for a drum session and I really liked it, but it was for a more laid back rock project and we wanted it quite wet so the reverb wasn't a problem. I can imagine for metal it could cause a few issues. It was very easy to get a huge snare sound and the cymbals sounded much smoother and nicer than when I record in smaller rooms.

Any tips for such a recording in such a place?

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I don't have any but get some impulses o dat bitch!

 

[CAlexanderParra]

Soilwork's The Panic Broadcast had drums recorded in a church, and turned out great. Seems like a fairly normal setup. Check it out!

 

[drew_drummer]

This video might give you some good tips... my directs came out dry enough.



In context: http://soundcloud.com/tnbd/sungazer-sneak-peak

 

[vespiz]

Yeah, I think the close mics would be fairly dry, since the walls are so far away, that any reverberated signal picked up would be so low in volume as not to matter. (er.. grammar?)
In small places, the close proximity of nearby walls is what's causing most of the weird crap (hihats in every mic, washed-out sound, etc).

Overheads and room mics are of course something to pay attention to...

 

[raisedfist]

I recorded some drums at my work which is a 500 seater theatre and I didn't really do anything any different apart from take advantage of the great sound of the room mic. I just walked about with headphones moving the mic till I got a nice balance of the kit.
I had limited inputs so I spent a bit of time with the overheads and ended up placing a music stand infront of the hats aka kurt ballou style which kept a bit of hats outta the overheads.
Enjoy it!

 

[006]

In context: http://soundcloud.com/tnbd/sungazer-sneak-peak

Those came out great!

 

[Lionwing]

Haha this thread just made me listen to all of Alien again. Cheers!

 

[greyskull]

GOBO the kit of from the room, or the room mics mill be really cymbal heavy, and you DON"T want that!

 

[drew_drummer]

Those came out great!

Cheers dude!

 

[if6was9]

GOBO the kit of from the room, or the room mics mill be really cymbal heavy, and you DON"T want that!

Thanks, I wouldn't have thought about the cymbal:kit ratio. I'll definately do this as I love smashing the room mics more and more lately.

Here's a song recorded live in the space by a friend of mine. Not metal and with no drums but you can see the size and sound of the room here. All the verb on this is from the ambient mics I'vee been told