I always record drums with the bleed..
after I gate them and compress

also try to keep the backdoor of the mic on the snare to the HH.. this will probably be your biggist bleed..
also put a real heavy blanket or 2 over the kick and to try and isolate the kick drum mic better good luck
Its always better to experiment before you dive in with both feet.. but who knows they just might come out sounding great

Well, You COULD get some GATES and then spend a LONGGGG time learning to use them properly..... or you could spend some time with your mics and learn about the 'null' of the patterns of each one......OR you could learn to TUNE the drums in such a way as to minimize the OVERTONES and the SYMPATHETIC vibrations in each drum......OR you could record the drums ONE DRUM AT A TIME.....Or you could simply learn that bleed is your friend and do all the tuning, set the mics correctly,and have a great sounding recording.

Note: I highlighted all the important words so you could google away for more information.

Davedog wrote: Well, You COULD get some GATES and then spend a LONGGGG time learning to use them properly..... or you could spend some time with your mics and learn about the 'null' of the patterns of each one......OR you could learn to TUNE the drums in such a way as to minimize the OVERTONES and the SYMPATHETIC vibrations in each drum......OR you could record the drums ONE DRUM AT A TIME.....Or you could simply learn that bleed is your friend and do all the tuning, set the mics correctly,and have a great sounding recording.

Note: I highlighted all the important words so you could google away for more information.

Dave yo Da man :lol: :lol: :lol:

ya, ur always gunna get bleed. the only drums that you wont get any bleed...are fake drum. and that just isnt right. bleed isnt all that bad.

I'm gonna quickly throw out there again that some of the best, most widely listened to drums on the planet, were recorded with one or two mics...

Think figuring out where to put all those mics on the kit is hard?

Try getting the best sound you can out of just two of 'em!
:)

Zeppelin - Wearing and Tearing, anybody?

ya, i think it might be weird if you didnt have bleed in your drums, cuz it basically ties ur drums together. the only bleed i wouldnt want is from guitars and such comming in the drum mics.

and davedog, as always, has awesome opinions and advice along with everyone else.

There are some exceptional microphone companies that actually sell a complete drum microphone system with only 3 microphones. Such as DPA (Danish Pro Audio, formerly B. & K. Bruel & Kajaer or something like that) and Earthworks of America.

In studios that actually have some decent acoustics, it's not uncommon for most of the drum kit to be from mostly the overhead microphones and not necessarily the ones mentioned above. I've frequently recorded entire drum sets with bass drum, snare drum and 2 overheads utilizing inexpensive, run-of-the-mill, Shure SM57's, even on the overheads!

Not pushing your microphone preamps too far is the key to nice clean drum transients. Nobody likes an overbloated microphone preamp. And don't start screwing around with any equalization, until you're mixing down! You can add some processing to the bass drum during mixdown, i.e. equalization, compression, gating and one of my favorites is to invert phase on the bass drum. Sure, I have a box with 8 downward expander/Gates, that I have frequently used in the past to tighten up snare, bass drum, toms. But I took that box out of the control room in 1996. It is only now, since I never sold those, that I'm sticking them back into the control room, mostly to fill a hole in my rack space but also for that occasional bass drum or snare drum gate. The rest of the microphones on the drums are there to give a little more balls to the already mostly predominant overheads.

Just like the other posters indicated good sounding and properly tuned drums along with a musician with a solid technique will provide the best sounding drums. A crappy drummer on an excellent drum kit are still crappy drum tracks. Some of the best sounding drums I've recorded are from the smallest, most beat up and worst looking of all kits. Hint: the biggest sounding recorded bass drums are from the smallest 18 to 20 inch bass drums. I've never liked recording the 24 inch bass drums. Big is not necessarily better and most women like myself know this.

Size doesn't matter
Ms. Remy Ann David

I usually record everything flat and without an effects in the first place and then add the processing afterwards.

Mainly I've been doing hip hop because that's the crowd we have, but fortunately we're starting to get bands interested in recording as well. I think that's saving my sanity. The only thing I hate though...is drums... :shock:

I can't play drums, I can't tune drums, I've never really recorded drums...It's like me and printers at work :)

We donated 15 hours recording time to a local battle of the bands show that was raising money for the local high school's performing art's department. They're planning a trip to Scotland this year to perform in some festival. Anyways, I'm recording the winner now. One other problem I've had recording the drums so far is that their drummer is not very solid. There's not too much I can do about that though.

Oh well. Thanks for the advice and I'll keep working on it.

Edit> Link Moved - See topic: Twelve samples of mics on kick...

Dave you also highlighted COULD. lol
Nice post though

Dear Not a Pro,

First note that there are about as many ways to mic and record a drum set as there are drummers.

I'm a drummer. I started in this business as a studio muscian and played on several recordings each with drums mic-ed a different way.

My opinion, and it's Just that, My opinion, is that often, many people miss the basics. or at least the basics for pop or country music.

1. aim a dynamic mic at the center of the drum head, a few inches from the center. Far enough away that the drummer doesn't beat it to death. But only an inch or so above the head.
2. try eq on the toms. Loose the mud region, subtract 150 to 300 hz, you might want to boost the lows below that. Then, boost the highs, 10 to 15K, quite a bit.

The addition of highs, with propper mic placement will help you to keep the number of mics down and give you adequate coverage of the cymbals with NO overheads. This technique is often called "over Micing". In fact, the stereo imaging of the cymbals will be better and more acurate.

3. Mic the bass drum about 3 to 6 inches from the center at a 45 % angle.

4. Loose what you don't need. Eq the lows out of the hi hat, it's not needed and will keep phase cancelation down.

I've recorded over 200 albums, some local, some regional, and a number of nationals using this technique.

The other that have posted all have good recommendations. You'll just need a little experience to find which works best for you.

Good luck,

Bob

Good post, Bob.

The only things I'd disagree with is cutting lows out of the hat.

And I'd add some sharp 3K into the Toms, and 4k in the Kik, for that mid attack!

8-)