Kit miking

RyanA7X

Junior Member
Hello, I have purchased a Phonic AM 240 mixer. I am looking to mic my kit but the mixer only supports two mic inputs. What is the best mic positioning for my drum kit? I have: Hi hats, Ride, two crash's, china. Snare, bass, 2 rack toms, floor tom. If you would like a picture of the kit I would be happy to upload one.
Thank you.
Ryan H
 
Two mics doesnt give you much to work with

It is common that in smaller venues, they just mic the bass drum which often struggles to reach the same volume unmiced when compared to the snare or other drums and cymbals, it is often important as it also dictates the groove/beat of a song. If you go with one in the kick and one overhead, you will get a nice defined punch and an okay overall image of the kit sound, or possibly with two overheads you could make a better stereo image of the kit. Mark is right though, there are many variables and micing is often personal, which is why engineers often produce different sounding recordings.

A good way to start may be to run a line out from the mixer and into the line input on your computer and record your drums and place the mics in different positions and see which positions produce the best sound.
 
Not sure what to do with that mixer, but I have a fairly standard setup:
Tascam US1800 interface
Audix FP7 mic kit
MacBook with Logic Pro as my DAW
Canare Xlr cables (cables matter)
Mic stands and clips

This stuff costed me over $1K not including computer, and I consider it a fairly budget setup. There are some decent techniques if you only want to use two mics though. Just depends what you want to do. You need to figure out your total budget.
 
Micing your kick with one mic, and using the other input for an overhead condenser (do you have phantom power?) will be about the best you can get from 2 inputs, which actually should do an OK job. You need to get your inner kit dynamics as balanced as you can though, as you won't have a whole lot of control mixing afterwards. Keep that condenser as far away from that china as you can, or move the china further away, or don't hit it as hard because that will appear way louder by comparison, that's just a guess/suggestion.
 
I'm not familiar with that mixer, but here's what I would do with two microphones. Place one above your kit, just above your head looking down at the kit. Don't place it too high but high enough to clear your sticks. Place the second microphone facing the bass drum. The distance here will depend on the microphones characteristics. If it's an unported drum, place it to one side of the front head looking across the face of the resonant head. If it's ported, have it looking into the port.

Also make sure that none of your microphone signals are not clipping from the intensity of the sound. Usually there is a "clipping" or "overload" light that will light if the signal is too high.

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Dennis
 
Are you looking at studio recording or live performance?
 
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