Alison, I think you're going to find that you have a dearth of microphones for recording a drum kit? You only have 3 microphones listed. Now you can certainly make a good drum recording with just 3 microphones but not necessarily in stereo, which certainly isn't absolutely necessary as I have made plenty of recordings myself with a mono image drum kit. My recommendations would be the Rode for the bass drum with the pad switch on. The Octava as an overhead and you may want to keep it slightly lower and more centrally located between the rack tom and the floor tom, that way it will also be closer to the ride cymbal. You may also want to keep it a little lower so that you pick up some tone from the toms. Then I would use the Shure SM58 for the snare drum. Since that will make the snare drum microphone slightly cumbersome, unscrew the metal pop-filter ball, underneath the ball is the SM57! One of the most popular snare drum microphones ever made.

I hope you don't live in an apartment?
Ms. Remy Ann David

Thank you sooo Much. You've been the most helpful person all night!! No I don't live in an apartment. Thankfully I live in a four bedroom home in Alabama. We were relocated here after Katrina from Pass Christian Mississippi and were one of the few families that actually ended up in a home instead of a tent or camper. We thank God Every day!!! again Thank You for your response!!!

No problem Alison, I'm glad to hear you are doing well since Katrina and Rita. So terrible what happened to everybody else. It is good that you are now able to express yourself again through audio. I thank God that I'm still alive as well because when Katrina hit, I had emergency brain surgery that saved my life and cured my crippling and debilitating situation that has prevented me from working for the past few years (it had nothing to do with Katrina but my problem was slightly related to those affected by Katrina because my condition was known as hydrocephalus, better known as water on the brain so I was flooded out also but internally). I'm only now starting to spring back and found Recording.org early in my convalescence. I count my blessings daily.

We are both lucky
Ms. Remy Ann David

With those 3 mics I would take a slightly different approach.

I'd use the Rode for the kick, but it would be 1-2 feet in front of the kick drum. I'd use the octavia as an overhead, probably directly above the snare drum. I'd make it so the Rode and the Octavia are roughly equidistant from the snare, depending on how high your ceilings are. I'd use the SM58 as a "crotch mic," placed halfway between the kick and the snare aimed more or less at the drummer's crotch.

Spend a LOT of time experimenting with mic placement until you learn what a drum kit sounds like through your mics in your room. Move the mics around until they sound good.

The idea is to have each mic pick up a slightly different part of the kit, not to have a separate mic for each individual drum. You don't have enough mics for that.

In mixdown, experiment with compression, esp on the crotch mic. You can often times slam the heck out of that mic, and mix it in with the other mics to really get a nice overall kit sound.

There are many ways to do this. Experiment, and trust your ears.

The sound of the kit itself is the most important factor, especially with minimal mics. Make sure its got all new heads, and is tuned well.

If you have enough space, walk around the room while banging the floor tom: find the spot where it sounds loudest and bassiest, put it down and set up the rest of the kit around it. ;)

RemyRAD wrote: My recommendations would be the Rode for the bass drum with the pad switch on.

IIRC the NT1 has no pad switch.. no switches at all in fact.

Then I would use the Shure SM58 for the snare drum. Since that will make the snare drum microphone slightly cumbersome, unscrew the metal pop-filter ball, underneath the ball is the SM57

And while you have the ball off, remove the inner foam, and wash the beer smell out before replacing!!!! :roll: