Drum miking

Cbecker7

Junior Member
I've been wanting to mic up my kit and put it to a monitor just to have at home. I was wondering if anyone knows how much it would cost to get all the equipment to do it. I have 5 toms (3rack 2 floor) 2 kicks, my hat, 3 crash, 1 china and a ride.

Im not exactly sure how many mics id need, but id be going for a typical metal set up, sound.

All I know is i want some decent mics, i know I'm going to need a mixer, and a monitor. Any idea's, help, prices or brand names and product suggestions would be nice.
 
A mic per drum would do it. Don't bother with the cymbals. You can get mics that are good enough very cheaply, or pay a bit more if you want to get some industry-standard gear.
Why do you want to do this, out of interest?
 
You don't need a dedicated, stand-alone mixer. I don't understand why everybody thinks that they do.

If you're looking to record onto your computer you need microphones, some kind of interface and a playback system. That's all there is to it. No mixer, you can do that in software very easily.
 
Typical budget mic setup:

Snare: Shure SM57 for snare (a great mic for snare even when you have lots of/far more expensive mics at hand - I removed the transformer on my SM57, now it sounds more open in the low and high regions but produces less volume -> to be made up by decent preamps/no prob). You can get good results by using SM57's for _any_ drum element except the overheads. Alternatives: Audix i5, Beyer Opus 88. You need 2 mics if miking the snare both from above and below (snare springs). Some guys install a mic _inside_ the snare.

Toms: Sennheiser MD421 / Beyer Opus 88

Bass drum: Audix D6, AKG D112 (even SM57 will do)

Overheads (2 mics): budget - e.g. Oktava MC-012 / MK-012, MK-219, MK-319 (I have a pair of Michael Joly modified MK-319 and now don't care for N*umann & similarly expensive mics any more). More money -> Shure SM81, Neumann U87

Alternatively, you could get a drum mic kit (Shure, Audix, AKG). I have the Audix DP-7.
 
You don't need a dedicated, stand-alone mixer. I don't understand why everybody thinks that they do.

If you're looking to record onto your computer you need microphones, some kind of interface and a playback system. That's all there is to it. No mixer, you can do that in software very easily.

The question wasn't about recording but about amplification, though.
 
Basically a good pair of overheads/room mics should be enough to capture the whole kit (whether to amplify, to record or whatever - I don't see a substantial difference if you're going for a 'good' sound). Once I was at a band rehearsal and they had put up 5-6 mics from an AKG drum mic set but weren't too happy with the results (that's not necessarily the mics to blame for, but those guys' lack of recording skills - phase issues, mic placement...). Just out of curiosity we set up my 2 Oktava MK-319 stereo pair (modded by Michael Joly) and those 2 mics alone produced a crystal clear image of the whole kit which was far better than the other drum mic set.
 

Yeah, what's the end result? Are you trying to play along to music coming out of your monitor, and you can't hear yourself playing?

If that's the case, then a better idea would be to have an overhead mic and put that into your mixer, then wear headphones so you can mix the 2 together (and use sound isolating headphones so you save your hearing at the same time!).
 
If the thought you're trying to get across is that you want to be able to hear your drum set through microphones, rather than raw, here's what i'd do.

1. Get a mixer with about 8-10 inputs.
2. Go buy a mic to put in the middle of the rack toms, 2 mics in the general area of the floor toms, a snare mic, and a few overheads. I'd recommend picking one up for the hats, ride, and bottom snare head to (for dynamics.) oh and go buy isolation headphones.
3. Set them up, and take your time with this, it's almost as important as fine tuning a drum.
4. Plug shit in

I'm trying to follow the way John Bohnam and Danny Carey mic their kits, they call it "letting the kit breath." If you want to go shell out cash on a mic for every drum you have, that's cool too, i'd rather take the extras and place them around the room though.

As an additive, make sure the mixer can plug into a PA system, for live shows.

Cheers
 
It's not quite as simple as that. Having spent the last three years doing a degree that involves a lot of drum kit miking I'll quite happily say that there are as many mic placement options as there microphones squared by the engineer and then squared again by space and again by the number of drums and squared again by the applications... I'll stop there.
 
It's not quite as simple as that. Having spent the last three years doing a degree that involves a lot of drum kit miking I'll quite happily say that there are as many mic placement options as there microphones squared by the engineer and then squared again by space and again by the number of drums and squared again by the applications... I'll stop there.

The goal of what i said wasn't to address mic placement, i was just telling him the basic equipment needed for quality recording.

Mic placement, as you obviously know, is a completely different subject.
 
What do you want to do bro? There is mass-confusion going on and we need some clarification dude.

Do you want to mic your drums to RECORD? To AMPLIFY (live)? Or to Simply MONITOR? Or all of the above?


I've been wanting to mic up my kit and put it to a monitor just to have at home.

What do you mean "put it to a monitor"? You say just at home, so this is not live correct?



Im not exactly sure how many mics id need, but id be going for a typical metal set up, sound.

So your recording right? Because you want a "Metal" sound.


i know I'm going to need a mixer, and a monitor.

By monitor do you mean an interface? Speaker monitor? In ear monitor?


My head is spinning after reading the OP and the Replies...
 
The thing is, the OP could spend several thousand dollars on microphones to close mic a kit and then fall very short because he doesn't have the knowledge of where exactly to place them for the required results.

My suggestion would be to read everything he can get his hands on concerning the micing of a drum kit. That way he could buy exactly what he needs, know where to place them and not be sorry for spending too little or too much for the end product that he has in mind.

Dennis
 
With thousands worth of equipment its pretty hard to fall short, you could use rockband microphones to record drums and still get an ok sound. Hell back in Elvis's day they used one mic to record everything.
 
Here's what I do.
I mic my kit, (i use one mic per drum +hihat) that is up to you if you have the budget go for it.
Run everything to a mixer, doesn't matter, again your budget what ever that is.
I use in ear monitors with the vic firth isolation headphones. (I would get a nice pair of in ears. If its just for home practice a pair like the m-audio ie10's will do the job fine.

thats it.
 
With thousands worth of equipment its pretty hard to fall short, you could use rockband microphones to record drums and still get an ok sound. Hell back in Elvis's day they used one mic to record everything.

Without any experience a person can fall short with the best of equipment.

BTW, when they used that one microphone, did they record the track all together huddled around that one microphone or did they incorporate SOS using a slave machine and repositioning that one microphone between players and vocalist? Do you recall what microphones where primarily used on Elvis's sessions and what board and tape machines where used? It seems as though you have a lot of detailed knowledge of his sessions, so I thought I'd ask.

Dennis
 
With thousands worth of equipment its pretty hard to fall short, you could use rockband microphones to record drums and still get an ok sound. Hell back in Elvis's day they used one mic to record everything.

Yes it is. Please don't insult my, or anybody else's intelligence. You clearly have no idea what you're talking about.
 
I don't think anyone's intelligence was being insulted, save perhaps for that of the writer of the post that provoked your ire, Duncan!

On the 'thousands worth of equipment' subject...it's pretty easy to get an ok sound with anything. A good sound will take skill to produce regardless of the quality of your equipment. I'm sure it's pretty easy to get a terrible sound with expensive mics.

But...we've got sidetracked on the recording subject, again! This topic is about amplification!

We still don't know what for. Can I take a guess, OP, and ask whether it's so you can get your drums to sound like they do at a metal gig or on a record, but live?
 
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