Drum Micing

[Ste69]

I recently bought a set of 7 drum mics and I went to try them out and encountered a few problems, each mic keeps picking up signals that it's not suppose to, for example other drums, or the birds outside. It's hard to edit EQ while each mic is picking up more than one type of drum. Is it my gain setting that are to high or do I need to place them in different places? My gain settings were about 5 for each drum and each mic was attached to the rim of the drum and they were facing the drummer facing down towards the edge of the drum. I have 5 toms on my kit so I have to have one mic in the middle of the 2 toms on a stand and 1 mic on the 2 floor toms. The bass drum mic is on a small desk stand which is sitting on the floor in front of the bass drum with the mic pointing into the drum. Any tips or help would be greatly appreciated :D

[StuRobson]

Could we get a bit more info ?

what type drum mics ?

are they clip-on ones ?

what polar patterns etc ?

[Just Some Bloke]

How did you set your gains?

 

It sounds like you might have guessed.

 

To do it properly, PFL the channel and get your drummer to hit the relevant drum nice and loudly. Set the gains so the meters read a little below 0dB. Do this with each channel, then get the drummer to play the whole kit and quickly re-check the meter readings in PFL just to make sure the combined volume hasn't taken any over 0dB (that's why you set them to below 0 the first time).

 

There will always be some bleed between drum mics as the drums are so close to each other and make a fair bit of noise! You may need to use a noise gate on each to cut the output completely as the sound of each drumstick striking dies away.

[Rob_Beech]

You may also wish to read this thread which has alot of information about drums and putting mics on them :D

 

http://www.blue-room.org.uk/index.php?show...amp;#entry97040

[Ste69]

Could we get a bit more info ?

what type drum mics ?

are they clip-on ones ?

what polar patterns etc ?

 

Drum Mics

 

They're the drum mics I have. Yes they are clip on ones.

 

Bass drum polar pattern: Cardioid Variant

Condenser (over head) polar pattern: Cardioid

Snare/Tom mics polar pattern: Super Cardioid

[paulears]

With the gain settings you will be using, how on earth can you hear bird song? What on earth kind of birds at a distance sound louder than the drums.

 

I wonder if what is causing the problem is the fact that you expect really good separation between sources? The big kit you have means sharing mics, and this isn't a problem. I'm not sure hyper-cardioids really cut it for sharing, however - a normal cardioid [pointing down at the point where the skins almost touch between the drums, from about 3-6" should work fine on the rack toms and floor toms. Avoid any drum mics apart from the overheads working at any distance - get 'em in close. You will always get spill - for example, you may find the snare mic picks up quite a bit of the hi-hats - saves you a mic, if you can work out the position. The advice on gain setting is good - getting this correct is important. with the headphones on, if they are proper ones (as in cut out as much room sound as they can) then you can check the spill between mics. Then it's a case of eq - everyone has their own way of doing this, but I start with kick, then move to snare, then hats if you have a separate channel for them - then move on to the toms, starting high, and moving down. Lastly I do cymbals and set the overhead(s) often removing much of the LF end as the other mics do that area much better. Then a run around and then it is just setting balance normally - apart from when the overall sound is just not right, when you have to re-adjust and re-do.

 

One thing that may help is to adjust the gains to make sure the spread of the faders is straightish - often after setting the correct gain structure, you have to keep one fader well down because it's mic/drum is too prominent, this fader sits at 'just on' and is difficult to control, so you can drop the gain a bit and allow the channel fader to work in a more 'normal' position. If your desk has individual channel metering you will see that every mic picks up everything to some degree - quite normal. With a tom heavy kit, aim for good eq of the individual mics and don't worry too much about separation - if you are mixing in stereo, you'll be shifting pan positions anyway which will still sound good with so many toms.

 

edit

 

looking at the mics the link points to, I'm not sure if they will swing around, doesn't look like it, so for sharing toms, you'll need some short bom stands to get them into the correct position, if the mic has the right size hole in the bottom.

[MarkPAman]

Make a hole in your front bass drum skin or remove it altogether (if you have one) and use a short boom stand to get the mic inside the drum. This will stop so much spill for that mic. It will change the sound of the drum but usually IMO for the better. You then need to experiment with where inside the drum best gives you the sound you are looking for. I'd start at 3" - 6" from the beater, and slightly below it, then tweak it up, down, back & forward from there. But I've not used that mic IIRC.

[Simon MFR]

They're not Samsons are they? Not a bad set of mic's if I'm honest...

 

 

As JSB said, wang a noise gate on the kick, snare skin(s) and use some cunning EQ settings. The gate will remove all bird song (are you recording with the windows open?) and unwanted background noises. Youre always going to get spill of some kind but you can limit this to a degree. If you have a cymbal over a snare or tom, angle the mic away from it and you'll get a marginal concentration of wanted signal.

 

 

S

 

 

 

Ques cu se ca se IIRC & IMO?

[Just Some Bloke]

Ques cu se ca se IIRC & IMO?

I assume you mean "q'est ce que c'est" (french for "what is this?")?

 

IIRC - If I remember correctly

IMO - In my opinion

 

Let's not get :P though.

[Simon Lewis]

The gate will remove all bird song (are you recording with the windows open?)

 

He's probably in the famous garden shed of this thread!

[Ste69]

The gate will remove all bird song (are you recording with the windows open?)

 

He's probably in the famous garden shed of this thread!

 

:P As a matter of fact yes I am .

[paulears]

That's good then, because all the soundproofing works both ways, keeping neighbours happy, and bird song out of the mixes.

[Simon MFR]

How funny! Ok, shed insulated, drum kit set up, control room powered up and mic's gated & EQ'd, do you have any room left for anything? Movement for example? If you want the inside area soundproofed, you aint gonna have much room for beathing & talking, let alone setting a kit and control room, unless of course its Bruce Wayne's garden shed, in which case I'd forget it altogether and commune within the Batcave somewhere....seriously though, consider your options financially, and if you find that you a) have a budget to cover all of this and b) find that your budget seriously exceeds the value of the shed, dont bother. Build one from stone/brick/something other than wood (awaits plaintive three pigs jokes) or go back into the house. Fin.

 

 

S