home drum recording

ako

i know this thread has happened a couple times, but im just stoked because i tried something different...i tried a random technique today. i have my microphone "put away" (behind my stereo on the stand) and i was like "hey what if i just leave this here and try to record drums..." so i boosted my recording amp up to max and let er rip...somy setup here was one shitty radio shack mic aimed nowhere about 15 feet from my set, here are a couple clips compiled into one mp3, some with dampening on the snare, some without. all i did was some minor compression. i think it turned out pretty phenomenal for how little effort i had to put into it...hahahaall i have set up right now is my kick snare and hi-hat so thats why the clip doesnt have much variety. enjoy...post some home recordings too!

Symin

BRO!

SPlDEY

Nice drumming there. Shitty Radio shack mics are surprising sometimes right? Alot of the best recordings were done with 1 mic, in a good sounding room. I've been expermenting with a Cardoid mic, and getting alot of good sounds.. I haven't tried mic-ing more then 3 Sm-57's mics to the drumset, and have been getting nothing but useable sounds. I think in the new DRUM magazine Questlove said that he's into the 1 Ribbon mic sound that Eminem put him onto.

- spidey

Insulin1200

sounds great, ako.
i love crap mics.

yes, ?uestlove uses Royer R-122's.

karlophone

Ako that sound suits your off the hook rapid funk stylings. bravo!

i cant drum for shit but this is the tone (.wav, 2MB, 15 sec) ive currently got going for a basic drum sound. pretty dry and (unfortunately??) non trashy.

this is a combo of 3 mics: a SM57 on the snare, a D112 on the bass drum and a AKG c3000 on the room. its basically the AKG with the other two just providing some support on the boom chop highs and lows.

spelunk

sounds great, ako.
i love crap mics.

yes, ?uestlove uses Royer R-122's.

Ribbon mics on drums? Odd choice.

Drumming sounds great Ako.

Last session I did with some friends we got a chance to use a pair of Neuman U49s as overheads. They have an amazing sound.

pjl2000xl

Last session I did with some friends we got a chance to use a pair of Neuman U49s as overheads. They have an amazing sound.

I use these all the time for my job with NPR. They sound fantastic. Just so warm and present. I track a lot of acoustic performances, jazz, bluegrass, orch, and they really add life to the recordings.

residentgiant

sounds great, ako.
i love crap mics.

yes, ?uestlove uses Royer R-122's.

Ribbon mics on drums? Odd choice.

yeah, the r-122's are designed to take higher SPL's than typical ribbons and actually sound great on drums. we used a pair (high & low) when we cut the otis single. kinda wish we had hit the tape a bit harder, in retrospect, but i'm still really happy with the sound.

those drums are sounding great though dude!

ako

here's the same thing but with alittle more subtle use of the effects...
sounds better...

i like this!

Hawkeye

Yo Ako your drumming is really cool. I worked on that drums a little bit too.

Some things attracted my attention.

You got a hum sound on your microphone. It is on these frequencies:

60 hz
120 hz
179 hz
239 hz
299 hz
359 hz

That hum is coming from the bad grounded microphone. Some of these radio shack mics have that problem, some not. I had the same problems till I changed microphones. Search for a cheap one without the hum noise.

I removed those hum sounds with an EQ now.

Than I put some tube compression on top, cut of the highs, boosted the bass and thats it.

Dog Pog 69

The break at 0.43 is the best sounding one in these EQ/compression settings. Reminds on a break the Beasties used on Pauls Boutique, or some Eddy Bo shit.

If you want to "come" more into the 70s soundwise use two mics. Put the one behind your stereo or behind yourself or under your snare. And one in front or into the bassdrum.

On the snare/hihat track you roll off the bass frequencies and put a lot of compression. Than put the bassdrum track under the snare track and you got Soulpower 74.

Peace
Hawkeye

Dubious

Ribbon mics for drum overheads is totally common... they tend to soften the harshness of cymbals... think steve albini.

my settup

LDC - over the drummers head aimed down
LDC out about 10 feet dead center with the kit... about level with the top of the kick..lower for more BOOM

I then close mic each drum. I run all the tom mics under and up inside the toms (bottom heads removed). I also mic the top and bottom of the snare. And sometimes the batter side of the kick depending on the sound i'm going for.

i used to be a one mic on the kit maybe an extra for the snare type dood.. but now that i have the channels i just record EVERYTHING. This way depending on the mix you can emphasize the room, or go microscopic and emphasize the close miced stuff... Typically i go for a balance of all of the above, the close mics mainly come through for panning on fills and some extra snare / kick


AKO thats some wild drumming.. i think i like the sound of you original clip the best. Hawkeye that kick is starting to phart out.

Hawkeye

Hawkeye that kick is starting to phart out.

Thanks thats a compliment !!!!!

Jimster

I recorded some demos with an Alesis SR-16 drum machine years back. I got the best sound by playing it straight out of my bass combo to a flat piezo mic mounted on a wall about 8 feet away. There is something about recording the air shifting that makes the drum sound a lot better (to my ears). And if you walk back and forth between the mic and the combo it does a decent job of not making the beats sound exactly the same.

I have got some jazz recordings where you can momentarily hear the soundwaves in the air dropping off as the band simultaneously finish the tune right on the same split second point in time. I loved this effect, and wondered about capturing the noise of the shifting air from something like a cathederal door closing - not the noise of the slam itself, just the fleeting momentary whoosh after it. Then hook this up to some kicks.

Just a theory.

yoigotbeats

dope ish!!!!

bonzaisk8

good job ako, i gotta break out my kit one of these days and re-mic some shit up and have a likkle battle.

out of curiousity, has anyone ever mic'd a drum about 20 feet away with any kind of hyper-cardioid mic in a made-tunnel or shaft to get the kicks full wave cycle at 60Hz?

i hope to try this one day, considering that's the only way that you'll get the full representation of what a 60 Hz kick will sound like.

ez.

kg.

RAJ

I did some recording in January when we had to empty our dining room to install a coffered ceiling.

The acoustics were extremely badass a la John Bonham.

I used a Shure-SM57 on the snare and two Shure SM-81 condensers as ambient (X/Y) into a Mackie into Garageband.

http://www.soulstrut.com/scans/break2.mp3

ako

I did some recording in January when we had to empty our dining room to install a coffered ceiling.

The acoustics were extremely badass a la John Bonham.

I used a Shure-SM57 on the snare and two Shure SM-81 condensers as ambient (X/Y) into a Mackie into Garageband.

http://www.soulstrut.com/scans/break2.mp3

makes me miss my dad's barn...natural reverb in there was ridiculous, on some total late 60's columbia shit. beautiful.

picoandsepulveda

some of y'all need to holler at a metronome or somethin'

http://www.metronomeonline.com/

johmbolaya

http://www.buyolympia.com/q/Item=diyguidetodrums

Hawkeye

I posted it before, this is the great article of Gabriel Roth about recording a funk 45 out of Big Daddy Magazine.

That stuff is my bible !!!!!!!!!!


How To Record a Funk 45 Part 1

How To Record a Funk 45 Part 2


Peace
Hawkeye

butterybiscuits

I posted it before, this is the great article of Gabriel Roth about recording a funk 45 out of Big Daddy Magazine.

That stuff is my bible !!!!!!!!!!


How To Record a Funk 45 Part 1

How To Record a Funk 45 Part 2


Peace
Hawkeye

essential reading...good looks.