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Hello.This is my first post here.
I've got a Roland VS-2480CD,and have started attempting to record better drum tracks for my tunes.
My kick drum and 3 toms are miced with Digital Reference mics.
The snare and hi-hat have a Shure SM58 stuck in between them.
There is a Behringer B-1 condenser up high and centered,as an overhead.
What I'm curious about is the frequency ranges that each part of a drum kit create,and what is the band of each that should be on a recording.I'd like to do things such as lo-pass and hi-pass filter.Like on the kick drum,I don't want anything but the kick on that track,and no other stuff bleeding over into that.
If someone could tell me what ranges of frequencies to use in each place,I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks. :)

Comments

anonymous Sat, 05/08/2004 - 01:41

Well, the fact is that there's an amazing amount of overlap. Kick drums have sonic information that goes well into 3kHz (surprise, surprise). Cymbals have character that goes down below 500Hz. If you try to separate the two with non-overlapping filters, they'll both sound like they're missing something. OTOH, you could use that as the defining characteristic of your new sound.

I think that the best answer to your question is: use your ears to decide whether EQ, or gates, mic techniques, or all of the above are going to deliver what you want.

RecorderMan Sun, 05/09/2004 - 16:54

If your looking for the above answers academically speaking then I'll let some more answers pile up here. But if you want to record your drums the best way possible then there's a few changes I would suggest.

The snare mic should be squarely on the snare- I kind of like it almost parallel to the top head, about an inch above the rim. angled ever so slightly down across the head. You'll get more than enough Hat in everything else.

What I would really recommend is sticking one mic up above your right ear, aim it somewhere between the snare, kick and rack-tom. Maybe give a listen to each mic..pick the one that makes the drums sound the best with out too much edgy cymbals. Then stick one out in front of the kick a bout 1.5 to 3 feet about as high as between the top of the kick and the middle of the kick.

Balance these two. Hi pass filter the OH mic around 80hz. Suck a little out of the kick anywhere between 200-600 Hz.

it'll sound great.

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