Recording Drums

In session two of DIY Recording we are looking at drums, as part of our five part series on General Production Techniques, with tips and tricks to help with your sound. Recording is an art and a science, so try these tips out using your ears and creativity.

Drums are the foundation of your recording and a crucial element in determining the genre, style and flavour of your sound. Because of the many aspects of recording drums, it can be a tricky thing to get right, so it's important you focus on getting things as good as you can each step of the way.

Before you start, think about the sound of the room you are going to record your drums in. Move the kick drum, snare and hi-hat around the room to try and find the sweet spot. It is also important that the kit is tuned to the sound you are going for; here's a great article from Music Radar with drum tuning tips.

Once your happy with that, time to get the kit set up and get miking. Below is our rough guide to getting your mics set up, for a more detailed analysis check out School Of Audio Engineering's reference material Remember to use your ears!

Kick

Gating

Gates are used to tighten sound by modifying the attack and release of the envelope. Don't record with a gate.

Compression

Used to even out dynamics & improve tightness. Threshold should be high to control dynamics without squashing sound. Try a 4:1 ratio. Fast to medium attack, fast to medium release. Use hard knee for punchier sound. If using a gate insert after compressor. Reference.

Reverb on Kick

Reverb is dangerous on kick as it may muddy the sound. However you may need reverb to balance the kick with the rest of the kit or make it sit in the mix. Reverb should be bright (eg plate) and unwanted freqs must be cut. Delay time no more than 1.2s (think under 1s). Alternatively set up a large diaphragm condenser with good LF response about 5m in front of the kick. Record on a separate track and blend with the kick to give it some space. The natural ambience picked up by the /Hs and the other mic drum mics. Reverb flat. (Remove dynamics).

Using pitch shift

Recording Level

Recording at -3VU, peak will be at -12dBV higher. With analogue record on an edge track.

Double kick

Best to pan both to centre and leave it there.

Optional Distant Mic Technique

Place a condenser mic about 3 feet away from the kick drum, and cover the space in a tunnel / tube.

Snare

Compression

The snare is a little more transient. Try a higher ratio with a higher threshold.

Gating

Maybe used for ring, or to pull down the decay to make it choppier.

Reverb

Big sounding one eg Big Plate Decay time: 1.2s (more for ballad, less for fast song).

Snare bottom

If you mic the snare bottom, make sure you reverse the phase of that track.

Tricks

Noise gate add bursts of pink noise - can send pink noise to reverb of snare & mix with dry snare.

Send snare to harmonise, set at -1/2 octave. Blend with original deeper sound (in & out for a big sound).

Distortion - distant the reverb of snare & mix with clean snare sound.

To get a more realistic snare from a sequencer - put snare in studio in studio and put small speaker cone down or on top of it. Mic up snare. Play the track and speaker will play snare.

Hi Hat

200Hz - Clang/gong

5-6kHz - Presence/brightness/crispness

Reverb

Generally you get what you need from the OHs, might want some on sequenced hats, but not too much.

Recording Level

0VU

Effects

Backward Hi Hat - Use reverse reverb, blend with Hi Hat.

Delays - can use short delays. Level must be low. Don't use for whole song.

Flange - can be a nice sound, use a very slow one to round off edges of Hi Hat.

Toms

The aim is to get natural ring with a good stereo image while avoid the ring on resulting from poor drums.

80-120Hz - Fundamental

250Hz - Shell

Gates

To control decay, careful not to cut out natural rings.

Reverb

Plate reverb. Big sound. Percussive. Metallic. Big decay, up to 2s depending on sound.

Can use same tricks as snare.

Recording Level

Overheads

Record at 0VU, pan hard L & R. At recording time, check mono for phasing problems.

100Hz - HPF

10kHz - Crispness

Get mics right for tonal balance between drums and cymbals.. Get rid of excess LFs.

Ambience Mics

Distance: 2m minimal. Depends on sound you want.

Use for a less processed, controlled sound, more natural and raw etc.

Think about mid freqs and compress heavily.

Can add distortion.

Drum replacement and alignment

Over the years drum triggering software has been highly developed and is often used before starting mixdown, and something that should be considered depending on the sound you are going for. Check out this article from Sound on Sound, for more detailed info about drum replacement.

Get the gear

A good place to start is getting a drum mic kit which will tend to cover your basic needs. Two mics that are definitely good to have on hand and aren't too expensive are the Shure

SM57 for snare (works great on guitar too) and AKG D112 for kick (also works great on bass).