Lessons

Lesson Info

Drum Mic Selection and Placement

As far as mike's a concerned I use an instant assurance and fifty seven on sandra um it's pretty industry standard mike uh you guys might not be able to see it clearly here but I actually used I found out about this this device called the crash cars justice plastic with some phone thing that actually uh uh what it's designed to do is to block out the symbols and snare I'm sure you know guys out there who who record who understand who know that you know it's tough to get this the high hat believing the other symbols out of the snare mike and this thing really helps I just you know, I've had that issue for many years I used to use you know, those little foam egg crate things you know, I think our lex makes some things like that, but this works a little better because it actually kind of covers the mike a little bit more at least from that from that yeah, I guess yeah, because that's an issue you know, you have drummers who just have terrible aim and they just, you know, it's their mikes ...

are, you know, it's just it's just tough to place the fifty seven's the way they are, you know, they're just they're going to get hit, so yeah, that's a definitely protects it, but like I said, I'm a big fan of you said no used all kinds of likes or whatever I just think you know there's mike's sound great on the snare but you can use them like like a condenser was hail great on a snare uh you know but then condensers air going you know they're not unit directional they're going to pick up symbols too much you know, to be eye to have a good isolation in the mud in the mix and you know, a lot of what you want from this top snare michael whatever is the attack the impact here to feel that point you want to have that to blend into your mix or whatever so you need something is going to capture that nice and tight and clean and reject some of the symbols so the fact that it's ah you know ah ah you know direction cardio order mike it's going it's going to actually you know, reject the symbols and things like that based on how you angled drum or this michael whatever still, um we're also on the toms I use another you know, really industry standard microphone the sennheiser four twenty one actually used the sennheiser nine o for the e nine au force which which I've been told and I did some experiments because I didn't believe it but they literally sound exactly like the four twenty ones and they're way cheaper and way more position on the drums and the ones that clip? Yeah, the more expensive, not the six o force, but the nine o four to six for that kind of box is sounding to me. A lot of people get great. Sanders had to seek you a little more those but the ninety four cents just like the four twenty one. So I usually use those but the fortunate ones great for twenty one days, just more difficult. Like this kid's set up pretty simple. So it's, easy to get the mikes in but some some people come in with crazy symbol configurations and the little clip on likes to me are they they work a little better in terms of being in a position to the mikes. But I used for twenty ones on the toms ous fars the kick drum somebody in and this is for rock in middle, you know, just so it's clarified his people out there um and for the kick drum also again iraq and middle thing like the inside and outside of the kick drum for the inside of the kick drum I normally mike with a sure made a ninety one it's ah ah condenser microphone really high spl it's just got a cool the original beta ninety one has got a really cool like high end, you know, a k attack or whatever there's just you know, you get a nice snap if you need it, you know, a night and it's you know, condenser so the transit response is really fast. So it's just great to get to captain it in all the attack the kick drum has ah, and then on the outside of the you know, at the sound hold of the kick drum, I usually either use a you know, beta fifty two, which we're using here today is a sure bet of fifty two it's a large diaphragm dynamic uh and it's mainly just to capture the lows, you know, I'm using the inside like to capture the highs and the attack primarily and then the outside mike amusing to capture the lows, I'm going to blend those two together. Uh, but, you know, often at home I've been using ah, you know, a reverse wired speaker, you know, the yamaha sub cake, that's, really popular studios and even live, but I just, you know, it's designed to pick up the lows on lee and it actually it has a slower response than actual microphone takes more energy to move it, so it actually, like, has this ice psycho acoustic effect, we're actually boot, you know, you think it sounds more low in your you know bigger because the actual signal's getting to the recorder later it's kind of a weird thing but it's it's really cool sound they've been using it since the seventies which is crazy I forgot to mention on the snare I typically mike we understand there you know led zeppelin approach of fifty seven on the bottom of the snare people use condensers on the bottom of snare which I've tried that too and that's great you get a nice isley sandwich condensers but there again when the condenser you're going to get more any condensers on the outside of the drums you're going to get more symbol believe and I used to want to try to keep the symbol bleed in the actual shale mice to a minimum um the uh with the with the ride in high hat mike's whatever I usually just use ah, you know directional pencil condenser I personally usually use the surest to maybe one pretty standard I think any like, you know, directional pencil condenser style microphone er is really good, you know as I haven't set up here whatever it's a little different than some people would set their ryan hat mike's I'm looking to get the stick definition captured by the michael whatever same thing with that save your drummer who's doing, you know, articulate snare work you're going to be able to you have in the closer you know, you know directional mike you're going to be able to pick up and have that definition to cut through the mix if you need it um same thing for the symbol overheads I'd only use these norman came one, eighty force um I've tried a lot of different mike's needs is a little more omni directional in the pickup pattern, but they just they have a perfect natural like e q boost in the high end that just makes symbols just sound nice and shimmery in the mix and crisp but not harsh you know? They're just of course they're pretty expensive mike's but I would say, you know, there's a lot of there's a lot of great, you know, condenser mike's that'll work for the overheads also, I think it's important to note that usually is typical to use condensers on symbols or whatever just because the high frequency nature of and the white noise nature of the symbols and they just you know conditions usually sound more natural and they have less proximity, effect and dynamics have more proximity effect obviously guys out, they're familiar with the concept of proximity thick but with a dynamic you get it closer to the source is gonna have more low in you take a further way is going to have less low in dynamics are a little less susceptible to that, you know, they they sound a little more natural and it's you know what we want to do with symbol since you know like this we're using basically one mike I want to pick up a little bit of this crash and a little bit a little bit this ride a little bit this crash same thing here I want to pick up a little bit of both of these symbols so that hadn't you know having unless you you know directional pick up and you know list proximity effect is as a beneficial thing for that um trying to think of it as anything else miking wise room likes oh yeah great yeah we're using here is you know the some comparable likes to us in norman you forty seven's I believe they're fantastic I usually in my studio you know work out in my basement of my home so you know the drum live room is actually quite small um I have ah so you know I usually sit uh the room mike's I have a pair of stereo room like the condenser large die for him condensers that I set out you know like six to eight feet away from the drums left and right just to kind of capture you know like a room sound of the ambient sound of the drums and I usually do a monitor room in the far back of the the um the room whatever to capture more of a distant sound and it's and it's just so you know you can get it creates a sense of depth in the mix or whatever you get you can make some how we want sometimes I changed the amount of each room like a whatever you know based on how much death I want on the drums that sale for how far away I want the drones or how you have a section that needs yeah it's a little texture yeah it's just you know makes it in the room I don't use usually use a whole lot of room mike's whatever mixing in the room sounds you know it really makes the drum sound more natural uh you know more you know list separate you know, like they were trying to capture the detail the drums with these close mike's the impact, the punch and then like said with the room like trying to catch the ambience the sound of the room but for me it's more important capture just the ambiance of the drums you know, the kid vibe of some projects like, you know, a lot of metal projects you want primarily you want mainly just the drums and in some big, you know, maybe a little bit of big room mixed in there, you know what you can emulate, which I usually emulate myself because I have a small room for them for you know a jazz project you want more of a kid so you don't want a lot of impact you don't want it sounded in your face like you would with a mental record so to mike to do all the mikes you have options and like for bt bam you know way often you know the parkes change and you guys have metal sections you guys have a rock section of jazz sexual whatever and I can actually change the ratio of the kit mikes to the room likes to kind of toe alter the dip it's six there was a huge pet peeve of mine is like a super metal drum tune during a yeah mellow section yeah clicking yeah so the fact that that's a really good tool to kind of mix it on and have your options are just back down actual you know the actual kit mike's back those down bring more room and then you know it's the same kit or whatever but you're getting almost a different vibe you get a different dip you know location of the drums in the mix you know and it's just just a simple is changing the mikes it's not any processing keeps it organic and natural this gives you you know and it's all this stuff is pretty you know, pretty industry stuff you know stuff that most most people have been doing for quite a while you know a big you know, I want to talk about the room sound itself you know how important it is. You know a lot of ah, you know, I have clients who you know, they see my basement you know, and it's just a small project studio and it's you know, the room's not huge and, uh a lot of people have a notion that you have to have this super huge great sounding room to track drones properly and and I don't you know I don't subscribe to that you know, I think it's nice to have but this but you know, like this room sounds great and I think it's going to sound awesome for this project because he wants a big sound but you know, you have bands like, you know, the queens of stone age of stuff there's like no reverb on the drums no room sound it's completely dry this room would be bad for that record you know, uh, you know we'd have to actually do like we probably best to move the drums and some of the isolation booths here. Oh, teo, you know, to get a trier sound, if you will if the drummer wanted that type of sound so you know, having a smaller, smaller rooms kind of been official because you can always add emulated river bs like you know, convolution verbs to emulate a bigger space you can always do that you can always add to it if you track in a big space you can't always subtract because all of you know these overheads going to pick up some room I think a part of that is the mentality we've just you know, growing up you see all these bands and these big studios and your rocker mentality you have to that makes you a bigger you know, it's ideal yeah, but yeah, I think it's like he said with a small studio you can add more you know, really than being stuck with one sound you have it depends on your budget like you got in the budget and you can go out and test rooms and try to find that perfect room terry day and I read stuff with him with deftones like he would go and just try to find the perfect space for track drums for the particular record and you're going to stay on their goal for you you know that cz often, but yeah, people can't do that. Yeah, you know, like, you know, to the people at home a lot of a lot of you guys I'm sure are trying to work it out of our bedrooms even and or basements like I am and things of that nature, whatever that you know, it doesn't necessarily mean that zoo, you know, you can't achieve a professional sounding record, you know, like, I like to believe that I'm doing, you know, with a small space and, you know, it's important to treat the room correctly, you don't want too much verb, you don't want to sound too box, you want a little bit of life, so it's definitely improve important to ah, you know, to have a decent sounding space, but I didn't have to be a huge space, you know? And, like said, you can have a convolution verb to the, you know, to the room likes or whatever and it's, you know, I've mixed records that were recorded in large rooms, and I'm actually able to emulate that sound almost identically, like two point I don't think even professionals would notice the difference just using convolution reverb sits just the main thing you do need the you know, the the idea that mike's to pick up the drum ambiance, you know, because adding ah convolution reverb to the close mike's is going definitely going to sound different steel than then a real room or room, like in a huge room or something like that.