I've had decent results putting an M/S stereo pair at about the height of the top of the kick drum, say half a meter away or so. I suppose a near coincedent stereo pair would work also.
Then again, if you want garage, mono would work pretty well too, giving you one extra track for toms, snare shell, whatever. Try setting up a condenser behind the drummer's right shoulder, pointing to just between the snare and where the beater hits the kick.
By the way, an inch is 2.5 cm.

Ponka, Funny I should stumble on this post...I've been working on drums for 3 months (trial and error), and am using the 4 mic technique. Kick...AKG D112, 6 to 7" out angled toward beater, no front head with a blanket thrown over it for more isolation. Snare...57, at drummers 2:30 position so the mic is aimed more towards hihat and away from kick, about 2.5 cm to 5 cm up from head at 70 degree angle. The left OH (Shure KSM 109)...the length of both drumsticks held end to end, from the center of the snare aimed at snare. The right OH (also a 109)...over drummers right shoulder, again, 2 drumsticks away from center of snare aimed between the 2 toms. This would be a starting point. Season to taste from there. A good friend of mine, Mike at mixcritique.com (30 years exp) turned me on to this idea and I'm getting pretty good results. Hope this is some sort of help. Good luck.....kel

Drum Overheads

I just thought i could add this version that i really like.

It's the old The who, english style.

1 condenser at 2 and a half drumstick aimed towards 'ground zero' where the drummer hits the snare.

1 above the floortom also 2.5 drumsticks from snare and aimed at it.

Phaseproblems? Should be minimal as the distances are equal.

add a bassdrum mic, snare mic and one room mike compressed to jesus and i think you got something rocking!

Best regards

Toby

Ponka, Lots of good ideas here, but what's the room like? Is there carpet on the floor? If so, buy some thin plywood and lay it down to make the room more live sounding. Tune the snare higher than usual with slow release on a compressor to help with the ring, and don't mic too close. I'm a big fan of Bill Bruford's snare sound, the king of ring.

Ponka,
Just my thoughts. I'd recommend starting with the OH's. Using a grainy mic like the 57 above the middle of the cymball's could fair good results..I've done it before and got a really cool sound out of it. If you have a nice sounding room then take advantage of it and use a pair of LD condensors. API pre's are going to be the best choice in a set-up like this. They'll really make a difference...you want a vintage grainy sound. Neve pre's would also work.

Set up the OH's and get the drummer to play...then adjust them for phase coheriency and the sound you want making sure there's plenty of tom's in the OH's. Then add kick and snare as needed. 57 on snare should work fine..but for the kick you'll want a LD condensor about a foot in front of the kick. Move as necessary to get the best "live, floppy" kick sound. Then if you have a nice room you might want to add a mono room mic.

Grainy pre's and mic placement are most important. I do agree that a 4 mic set-up is all you need....just finding the right place and mic combo is the hard part. Good luck...hope this helped a little.

Hi again,

The date for the recording is now set. The mikes that comes with the hard disc recorder is one AKG D550 (kick) and two MXL 1006 large diaphram (overhead/room mikes) and then I'll add a SM57 on the snare. Do you think that could work?

Sure...I think it will work allright. Playing with mic placement is going to be the key in that situation...

Actually i don't think mic placement and mic choice is the key factor here.... :shock:

I want that garage band kind of sound (wich is quite hot now, like The Hives and The White Stripes), some kind of 60:s sound...

I think it may be more due to crunching the mic right pres the right way.
Have you heard those bands? :?:

You'd be better off not stressing about the mics so much ,
... just find the right kind of outboard gear to get some sweet compression and distortion going on ..... 8)

keldog wrote: Mike at mixcritique.com (30 years exp) turned me on to this idea and I'm getting pretty good results.

Yeah..checked out his site...novel buisness model, but a bit of a joke if you ask me.
"You mail us a CDR with a 2-trk mix of your project on it, converted to .wav file format. Simply specify which bit-rate (16 or 24) your project consists of, and the sample rate it was recorded at (44.1, 48, 88.2, or 96 kHz), we then load the files into our system. CD’s are eventually mixed to 16 bit/44.1 kHz, but projects are often tracked at higher rates for superior sound - we can receive files in any of the formats listed above."

Why do you need to specify? You find out pretty damn quick what file type it is when you put it on your computer...and his explanation rationaliztion for using and M-Audio mic pre?
No credits on the net...30 years?
....also his advise for the OH looks strangely familiar.

..and his price stucture: $75 to critique a 2 track mix, $100 to critique a multi-track "mix" he calls it but at this point it's a session not a mix...and the kicker...get this...he'll completely remix your song for ...$50? What kind of BS is this. I'd get a second opinion on anything this guy says that what from his own brain and not just something he's repeating...even then.

pretty funny...I think 30 years installing cars alarms.

I've heard that he gets a really good garage drumsound..... :lol:

Sebatron wrote: I've heard that he gets a really good garage drumsound..... :lol:

LOL :lol: more liek a carport LOL