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i have session tomorrow. its the first session with this band. so ill be concentrating on drum sounds.

I'll be limiting my self to 8 tracks on drums. its a 4 pc kit.

kick- Audix d6
snare-sm57
tom-Audix d2
floor tom-Audix d2
OH-nt5s (recorder man method)

so I have 2 more tracks to use up.
Im thinking perhaps my Audix d1 underneath the snare and sm81 on hi hat or..
my m160 and RODE k2 in fig8 for MS room mic in front of the kit.

I also have for mics a 421, D4, and studio project c1.

the music style is sort of emoish rock.

any advice would appreciated.

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Comments

anonymous Tue, 01/17/2006 - 08:01

Try not to commit to anyone particular arrangement of yo microphonies. You haven't recorded this band so nobody really knows what they need. Good things to keep in mind are what you do know. Its a four piece so instead of the D2 on the floor dry the d4. OR just throw up 4 mics then see what you need from there. You might surprise yourself. If the drums are in tune and the player hits with authority then you might not NEED the others. But its good to fix a problem now ( in tracking) than to try to fix it later, like editing or eqing the toms in.

Anywho good luck, I always like doing drums

IIRs Tue, 01/17/2006 - 13:48

Consider the MD421 for the kick drum. I often prefer those to dedicated kick drum mics, though it always depends on the drum.

Personally I usually find a bottom snare head mic more useful than a hi-hat mic.

I have a session this weekend: I was thinking of trying a variation of the recorderman approach, but with a 3rd mic (also the same distance from the snare) aimed down at the rack.. your M160 might be a good choice for that.

AltheGatman Thu, 01/19/2006 - 04:08

thanks :) , sounds like an interesting method, I'll experiment a bit with that I think.

brings to mind a project I did not so long ago where I was finding that I was losing all the bottom end of my kick in the mix, Soloed the Kick, sounded great, O/heads were fine on their own, room mic was sweet.

After playing with every possible phase switch scenario, which all changed the total sound, but never got the guts back, I ended up spending a while lining up each track's waveform with the Kick track as my reference in Nuendo, as close as I could at the sample level.

It did the job, seemed to loose a bit of it's stereo spread though - and took me a lot longer than I could really afford to spend on it.

I much prefer the idea of getting it good right from the start

Al 8-)

stickers Thu, 01/19/2006 - 07:48

Well, here's what I did for the set up...

Kick - D6 half in the hole, 421 inside (3-4 inches in front of beater)
Snare- sm57 on top, sm81 bottom, sm57 on shell
Hi Tom- D2 on top,D1 on bottom
Floor- D2 on top, D4 on bottom
Overheads- Nt5s

11 drum tracks. I've never used bottom mics before or a side mic on snare. In fact, i've never tracked with more than 8 drum tracks. The room wasnt that good so room mics were X'd and wanted a more natural body sound out the toms that the overheads just werent getting.

I must say that I liked the sound of the bottom mics to the toms. The top mics give attack and the punch, but the bottom mic added a more natural body sound of the drum/shell.

Add using a shell mic and bottom mic on snare is great. it captures IMO all the different tones one could associate with a snare....thud, thwack, crack...well thats best that i could discribe it. And nothing says I have to use the tracks...having options are great. I'll post a raw clip eventually.

anonymous Thu, 01/19/2006 - 13:01

for future sessions:

i would recommend using the 421 on a tom for sure. you can get a good kick sound with a d6, then use the c1 between 12-36 inches in front of the kick and squash it with a compressor. if it leaves anything to be desired, you can use soundreplacer to a new track with a sampled kick and get a good sound (i recommend this anyway for emo rock). i have been using an old audix d4 as the snare bottom mic lately and it sounds great.

here is how i would do it:

kick inside - audix d6 (mess with the placement until it sounds right)
kick outside - SP C1 about 1-3 feet in front of the kick (known as a close room mic)
snare top - sm57
snare bottom - audix d4
rack tom - audix d2 or 57 if you have an extra one
floor tom - 421
oh's - nt5s

i have used nearly this exact setup (except with a C1, and a 421 on rack also) and it sounds GREAT.

stickers Fri, 01/20/2006 - 11:45

here's a raw clip of the drums and also another raw clip of the tune with other instruements, no vox yet though. And when i say raw..i mean not a single plug in.

[url=http:// http://www.jetrecording.com/rawdrumclip.mp3] [url]http://www.jetrecording.com/rawdrumclip.mp3 [ /url]
[url=http:// http://www.jetrecording.com/MadalineRaw.mp3] [url]http://www.jetrecording.com/MadalineRaw.mp3 [ /url]

CombatWombat Fri, 01/20/2006 - 16:58

Hey, cheers!

Those toms sounded a little funny to me on their own, but they seemed to sit pretty well in the mix, I think. That snare sounds great, though maybe could benefit from a little reverb. You said you hadn't processed any of the tracks yet, so maybe you have that in mind already.

I have to add though...you should get that guitarist a metronome. The timing is off all over the place and it's really distracting.

Davedog Fri, 01/20/2006 - 17:16

Hey...

The snare is okay. The raw sound is one you can definately work with. I was a little put off by the definate 'note' the kick drum was putting out. That thing is gonna come back to haunt you. I thought the cymbals were a bit anemic. The toms were okay as they are nice and short in duration which lends itself to using post tracking devices. Overall not a 'bad' drum sound but the player is not a hitter and the tone of the drums in general doesnt match the style of the track itself.

As for that, ....uhhh, Dude, Who stole my groove?

Wheres the pocket?

Who's drivin the bus?

okay.thats my point.