Trying to mic a big kit...ideas?

willdrumforfood01

Junior Member
I'm trying to mic a 10-piece drum kit with a bunch of cymbals so that it won't cost a fortune and it'll sound pretty good too. All i know as of right now is that I need at least one mic on every drum, and three overheads (maybe 4). Basically what I am wondering is this - what kind of mics give a good sound at a reasonable price? If you need specs to help me determine the mics I should use, don't hesitate to ask. I'm new to this forum, so I'm sorry if I posted in the wrong place.
 
Why do you need a mic on every single drum? In my experience, you get a vast amount of problems when you do this. Aside from the obvious technical problems, you also have to take into account phase variation and the like. Although I don't record kits as large as yours, I have had great results with literally just a pair of overheads. Try and work out what you actually need and then the answers might come. If you work out which microphones you can do without, you will be able to buy better quality and get a better result.
 
good thinking, right now I'm running (don't laugh) three Nady SP-5's as overheads, and a Shure PG-52 on the bass. I get ok sound out of these, but I am looking for something more defined, something more crisp, so that I can hear all of the drums, and all of their tone. what do you suggest?
 
Don't know much about types of mics but what you could try to lower the amount so you can get cheaper price and it also sounds pretty good is to put a mic between toms or something like that.
 
I suggest looking at getting a decent pair of overheads as your first priority. What kind of budget are you running on?

I have an order of importance with microphones, the order I use (of importance to overall kit sound) for me is:

Overheads
Bass
Snare
Toms
(Ambient Microphones)

Although I will sometimes prefer to use ambient microphones over tom microphones, depending on the effect I am trying to achieve. Essentially, the overhead mics (however many pairs you use) make up at least 75% of your overall kit sound - for me it's more than that and I tend not to use anything else, although for music requiring a big kit (I'm guessing metal) then you might do well to mic the snare and bass for sure. The other thing you have to remember is that there are also hundreds of different methods of recording. There is an old thread (Emergency Recording Help - or something to that effect) from around September last year where I wrote an in-depth basic recording guide:

http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42270&highlight=emergency

That will be of some use to you.
 
well my funds are definitely limited, but I could definitely swing some decent overheads. nah, i got out of the metal scene a while ago, i mostly play prog and alternative now, with some jazz and fusion mixed in there. and I'm def gonna take a look at that thread :) thanks a bunch for your help - It has opened my eyes :)
 
It's all good. Music Technology is a big World. I know, I'm doing a degree in it.

Make sure you take time before you make any purchases. You'll also be happy to know that you can get some really good microphones for around $100 now, so if you are willing to fork out $200 you can get a good quality set of reliable overheads - not amazingly high-end, but definitely workhorse. This, of course, assumes that you have all the other gear.

If you want to get a rough idea of what I've spent on recording equipment in the last few years, I'll break it down.

iMac - £700 (or thereabouts) in late 2006.
Line 6 TonePort UX8 Interface - £350 in February this year.
AKG C1000 Microphones - around £180 in February this year.
Logic Studio 8 (Software) - £120 in December (massive student discount).
Leads and stands, etc - around £70 (I make my own leads).
AKG K701 Reference Headphones - £212 about three weeks ago.

I managed to get my speakers set up for nothing with a nice donation from a helpful relative, but I will sooner or later be sinking several hundred pounds into a really nice pair.

That doesn't take into account the fact that I also play the drums, guitar and bass as well as singing and my MIDI setup and Max/MSP stuff. (£150 for the software, £50 on a MIDI Keyboard, £110 on an Arduinome my friend made) and I'm undoubtedly missing a few things here.

My point? Save up to buy the quality gear you really want and buy piece by piece and second hand if possible. Never buy something second-choice because you can't afford what you really want then and there - wait it out. It is always worth it.
 
I attempted it at A Level with no previous music history really (just after I started playing drums) and scrapped through with a D. The many hours of table football at college didn't help much though.

Well I had a similar experience with A Levels, except replace table football with a dodgy cafe with friends who all smoked, when you could still smoke in cafes, skiving philosophy. So French of us...

Then I decided that A Levels weren't for me, left and did a BTEC in Music Technology instead, which I passed with flying colours. A much better system if A Levels don't work for you.
 
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I mic my 7pc kit with 4 mics. CAD M177's or Kel HM1's in a spaced pair arrangement
(variant of recorderman) and a Beta52 in the kick and an SM57 on snare.
 
Miking and especially the placement is sort of an art form where drums are concerned. Many, many years ago 1 to 3 mics where all that where needed in the studio to mic the drums where the vocalists surrounded an RCA 77D or 44BX ribbon mic. In this day and age I'm using between 11 to 14 mics just to mic the kits. My typical mic assortment for a 7 piece kit would be 2 overheads in an XY configuration using 2 AKG 414 ULS's. The Bass drum either gets an Electrovoice RE-20 or if the studio has a Neumann U47 FET in their locker, I'll use that. The snare gets a Shure SM57 on the batter and a Sennheiser MD 441 on the snare side. All rack toms are recorded with Sennheiser MD 421's. The HH get miked with either an AKG 451, 460 or in some instances a Sennhieser 416 short shotgun. Last but not least after I find the sweet spot in the room, I use either a Neumann U87 or TLM170R for the room mic.

In sound reinforcement many of the mic are the same. The Neumann and AkG 414's are replaced with Shure SM81's for the overheads. Most of the time the toms get Sennheiser E 904's for a less conspicuous look and the bass drum either will get the RE20 or an AKG D-112.
We just received a box of Opus 88's that I'll try on the toms.

This is just the basics, every situation is not the same as is never two rooms sound a like, just like no two venues will be the same.

Dennis
 
Why do you need a mic on every single drum? In my experience, you get a vast amount of problems when you do this. Aside from the obvious technical problems, you also have to take into account phase variation and the like. Although I don't record kits as large as yours, I have had great results with literally just a pair of overheads. Try and work out what you actually need and then the answers might come. If you work out which microphones you can do without, you will be able to buy better quality and get a better result.

I agree. Some of the best recordings of my drums I have ever gotten came from two very high quality condensers spaced about 10 feet away, 6 feet up at the 10 and 2 o'clock positions.
 
The only situation where I would really need to actually close-mic anything would be in a room that sounds rubbish. Well, I tend to avoid those kind of situations. If you have a good-sounding room, most of the work is already done for you.
 
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