Your drum sound is one of the most important aspects of your mix. Mixing drums is therefore a number one priority for laying that solid foundation to your tracks, guaranteeing you a solid rhythm section.
Drums can be one of the most problematic instruments to get right in a mix.
If you did a great job recording the drum kit, then mixing your drums can only be a pleasurable experience.
BUT WHERE TO START?
Kick Drum Sound
Mixing drums starts with the foundation of the kick drum. The sound of the kick drum, along with the snare will be the defining factors of your drum sound. If you leave the kick drum sounding bad, the whole foundation of the song will lose its footing. The kick drum needs to be tight and punchy, with enough low end to fill up the bass range and enough mids to cut through the mix.
EQ
A boomy kick drum can also cloud up the clarity of your kick drum sound, so it's normally a good idea to cut around 200 - 250 Hz if you feel there is too much muddiness in your kick drum sound. A boxy kick drum sound is also a common nuisance, which can be fixed with Eq'ing out the boxiness that resides in the aread around 300 - 600Hz or so.
If your kick drum is all thump and no snap then we need to bring out the sound of the beater. We can usually find it around the 2 - 4 Khz area. Depending on the genre of the song, and the type of beater used, different frequency boosts in the beater area generate different sounds. A boost at 2.5 Khz is more of a typical rock sound as opposed to a narrower boost at around 4 Khz, which results in a Hardcore Metal type snap.
EQ is very important to me, which is why I spend a considerable time educating my email subscribers on the topic. From getting rid of muddiness to EQ'ing your kick and snare effectively, my newsletter subscribers get exclusive articles that help them get better at using EQ to create separation in your mixes. Take a quick second to subscribe right here.
Compression
When mixing drums, along with everything else, using compression is a subjective subject and everyone has an opinion on how things should be compressed. That said, there are a few guidelines you can follow to get a steadier kick drum sound.
How much gain reduction you want from the compressor depends on the genre, the steadiness of the drummer and the feel of the song. I usually start with a ratio of 4:1 or 6:1 and lower the threshold down until I'm compressing around 6 dBs.
Then I adjust the attack and release depending on what sort of sound I want. A fast attack clamps down on the transient of the kick drum, dulling the initial attack down somewhat, but a slower attack lets the attack of the beater break through before the compressor starts working.
I try to time the release in time with the beat, so that the compressor has stopped compressing before the next hit. It's easy to do this in modern DAWs because you are able to see the gain reduction meter working, enabling you to tweak the release perfectly in sync with the song.
EQ and Compression are the fundamental processors for any mix session. If you understand how these two processors work, then you've solved at least 80% of your mixing problems.
Snare Drum Sound
Partner in crime with the kick drum, the snare drum is the other defining rhythmic factor to the song. It's all about the snare” an experienced engineer once told me, because it's what supplies the song with that steady backbeat. Since it's such an important aspect of mixing drums, there needs to be a lot of care taken with getting the best sound possible.
EQ
EQ-wise, there is not an awful lot you need below 100 Hz, so you can start by high-pass filtering all the low end away.
The body of the snare can be brought forward with a little boost at around 150Hz, if you feel like it's lacking some thickness.
I like thick snares so I often catch myself adding a little weight to the snare around that area.
If your snare has ringing frequencies that you find annoying you can try pinpointing them by boosting a specific frequency band with a high Q and sweeping the spectrum until they pop out. I find that sometimes the snare needs a little cut in the mids, either resulting from boxiness at 500 - 800 Hz or too much of a nasally attack from the area around 1 Khz.
Enhance the attack of the snare with a broad boost around 2 - 4 Khz and search for the sizzle of the snares in the higher frequencies.
Compression
Like I do with the bass drum, I try to make the snare compress in time with the song. By timing the attack and release I can get a nice steady snare sound that breathes with each hit. I normally leave the attack at a medium to slow setting so that the snap of the snare is unaffected, and time the release so that it stops compressing just in time for the next hit.
I start with a ratio of 3:1, often going way higher as it depends on the genre how hard I want the compressor to be pumping. You can adjust the threshold so that it is only lightly compressing the peaks for a subtle sound, or you can push the threshold down harder for a heavily compressed sound.
Snare compression is perhaps one of the most argued about subjects in audio production. Every engineer has a certain method to mixing drums, and I think it's up to you to experiment and get acquainted with the knobs and sliders on your audio compressor so that you can create the sound that you want.
REVERB
You can create a completely different snare sound by just applying an interesting reverb to it. Whether that's a rock arena reverb, subdued room or even a spring reverb, different reverbs can transform the sound of your snare drum.
Go through your reverbs and see what type of reverb sounds best with the song you're mixing. Are you going to add a bright plate reverb to make it stand out, or will you be mixing it into a specific room with a small room sound? If you are in a particularly adventurous mood, you can try adding some gated reverb to your snare.
Mixing the Toms
EQ'ing
If the toms are playing a big part in your drum sound, mixing them so that they sound punchy and powerful is crucial to a great drum sound.
Get them punchy with EQ. The best way to EQ toms is to find the unflattering frequencies with your equalizer. Normally, these are the middle frequencies, from 300 - 800 Khz or so.
Find the boxy and unwanted frequencies, cut them out and then add low end power and high end punch as needed.
When mixing drums like toms, sometimes you need to finely cut a few adjacent frequencies instead of scooping out a big portion of the frequency spectrum.
Compressing
By adding a generous amount of compression to your toms you can get a larger than life sound out of them. You can fatten them up considerably with some tight compression, and with the addition of a little reverb you can make them sound huge and powerful. If that's what you want to go for.
The same rule of subtle compression applies as well to toms if you only want to control the peaks and lightly color their signal.
Overheads
The overheads might be the most important microphones on the kit. The overheads are the microphones that are supposed to pick up every drum and give a complete sound to your drum kit.
There are two ways of mixing drums with the overheads; you can either use them as the primary sound, sculpting every drum around the overhead sound or you can use them to primarily accent the cymbals and air around the kit.
By adding the overheads to the mix early on, you can get a better sense of the full sound of the kit, making your drum mixing easier.
Just notice how different a snare drum microphone sounds compared to a snare that's coming from the overhead mics.
By adjusting the overheads with the rest of the close miked drums you can get a different sound.
By focusing on the overheads you can get a roomier sound, but if you want a close in-your-face drum sound you would rather use the overheads as complimentary to the rest of the drums, mainly using them to accent the cymbal sounds.
The Hi-Hat
Mixing drums is a selective process, meaning that certain elements of the drum-kit only need specific frequency ranges.
You only need a specific frequency range from the hi-hat. Considering that the hi-hat microphone is probably picking up a lot of bleed from other drums, some heavy high-pass filtering is in order. Filter up to 250 Hz at least, even higher if you feel that you aren't losing anything from the hi-hat sound with higher filtering.
Now if you feel that there is something lacking from the hi-hat, or that you want to bring out the gong sound, you can find it in the 200 Hz area. So if your hi-hat needs a little more gong to it, you will have to sacrifice that aggressive filtering. Like everything else, just filter until you start hearing the sound becoming compromised and then back off a little bit.
Cutting at 1Khz can reduce the cheap jangly sound from the hi-hat, but you can enhance and give it some sparkle with a boost from 7 Khz or so. Use a high shelving EQ if you want to enhance the high end with some air, but a parametric bell EQ if you just want to accent a specific frequency area.
Room Mics
Room microphones give a different sound to the drum kit than the regular overhead mics.
Due to the distant miking technique most room mics are recorded with, we get a full sound of the drum-kit as well as a great amount of the reverb of the room it was recorded in.
Which, depending on the sound of the room, can either sound amazing or horrible.
Mixing Drums With a Roomy Sound
But let's assume our recording room is great. With a nice room mic picking up the complete kit we can try a few different techniques. We can apply some heavy compression to the room mics to get an even punchier sound.
We can EQ the kit as to draw out the most important elements, such as kick and snare and we can add it underneath an already great drum sound for that final touch.
Mixing Drums Into a Room
If the drums weren't recorded in a nice sounding room and sound quite dead when they come from the recording stage, it's time to add some space to our drum tracks.
A good way to add some ambience to our drum tracks is to add a 0.5 second drum room reverb. You can add a a nice amount to the overhead tracks, and maybe even a slightly different reverb to the snare to make it stand out. Go through your reverbs to try to find the best sound to your particular track.
I actually want to stop the article here and give it up for my buddy David Glenn of David Glenn Recording. He has a really cool video on mixing acoustic drums, especially when it comes to creating space and reverb using some nice plug-ins:
He actually has a cool video series on Mixing Drums if you want a complete, 7 hour in-depth tutorial on the matter.
Conclusion
Mixing drums is a challenging but enjoyable aspect of audio production. Since there are so many different ways of getting the drums to sound with EQ, compression and other mixing tricks there is no actual right way of mixing drums.
The only solid piece of advice I can give you for mixing drums is to experiment with all the tools you have on hand. Get every element to sound as good as possible and then try to mold them together to make them sound like a complete whole.
As always, there are trends in the music industry as to what sounds good right now, but being able to get whatever sound you want, whether it's huge 80's toms or a 90's arena rock snare is an important aspect of being a well rounded mixing engineer.
We've gone through quite a long journey on the different aspects of mixing drums, which I hope you enjoyed.
Showing posts with label drums. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drums. Show all posts
Saturday, 5 November 2016
Tuesday, 18 October 2016
Five Techniques For Stereo Miking Drums
By Matt McGlynn
A single pair of multipattern condenser microphones can provide at least five distinct overhead drum miking choices with surprisingly different sonic characteristics.
To demonstrate these different sounds, we recorded a drum kit with a pair of KSM44A overhead microphones five different ways. The drums, the room, the preamps, cables, and composition remained the same. The only variable was the position of the microphones (and in one case, the polar pattern).
How different can a single pair of microphones, in the same room with the same drums, really sound? As you listen to the tracks below, consider the following:
Width of stereo field
Ease of setup
The XY or coincident pair approach wins points for its guaranteed mono compatibility. Because the two capsules are so close together (coincident”), sound waves from every drum and cymbal impinge upon the two mics' diaphragms nearly simultaneously, avoiding any risk of comb-filtering due to partial cancellation of out-of-phase waves when the two OH tracks are heard in mono.
A consequence of coincident positioning is that the resulting stereo field is narrow, even when the two OH tracks are panned hard L/R. This is a good choice for arrangements in which the drums play a supporting role, or when mono compatibility is critical.
Overhead microphone height is an important consideration in this and every technique. If the mics are very high, the capsules will point straight over the sides of the of the kit, essentially putting the entire instrument off-axis. This will result in an overly roomy sound.
Lowering the microphones, or using an angle less than 90o can result in a more direct sound, although the kick and snare will always be off-axis.
Regardless of height, I recommend mounting the XY array directly above the snare drum, to ensure that the snare is centered in the stereo image.
The M-S technique, like XY, ensures mono compatibility. And like XY, it produces a relatively narrow stereo spread.
A primary benefit is that the perceived size of the space can be changed at mix time, by varying the amount of side” channel in the mix. This is often described as adjusting the stereo width,” but to my ear the drum kit doesn't get any wider. The high and low toms don't get farther apart. The room gets bigger, but the drums sound less direct.
The challenge of M-S is that one of the two microphones is not pointed at the drum kit. The figure-of-8 mic is positioned so the drums are in the mic's null point; the microphone hears only reflected sound. If you are recording drums in a small or untreated room, chances are this reflected sound is not what you want on your record.
But if the room does sound good, M-S is a great way to combine a dry, direct sound — the Mid mic — with as much room ambience as suits the rest of the production.
The Recorderman technique is probably the newest and least-known technique here, although it is conceptually similar to the overhead configuration of Glyn Johns' more-famous approach.
It requires two Cardioid microphones. One is suspended 32” above the center of the snare drum, pointing straight down. The other is positioned near the drummer's right shoulder, pointing directly at the snare drum from 32″ away.
This technique requires that the kick drum is also equidistant from both microphones. This can be checked by taping the two ends of a length of string to the center of the snare and kick drums, respectively. Pinch the string together at the point where it touches the mic above the snare, so that both legs of the string are taut. Move that point of the string in an arc toward the drummer's right shoulder to find the perfect location of the second microphone — at a point where it, too, is 32” from the center of the snare, and equally distant from the kick as is the first microphone.
The two tracks are panned L and R, although not necessarily 100%. Extreme panning of Recorderman overhead tracks can leave a hole in the middle of the stereo field.
Mono compatibility is not guaranteed, except for the kick and snare.
Because the microphones are relatively low, they will hear primarily the drums themselves. Cymbals will be understated, as will the sound of the room.
This is therefore a great way to combat some of the problems that plague live drum recording in home or project studios:
Small, untreated rooms that don't sound great
Untrained drummers who bash their cymbals
Even in large, purpose-built studios, the Recorderman technique is a useful way to capture dry overhead tracks that can be supplemented with more-distant ambient microphones, should the arrangement call for a roomier sound.
With a stereo bar, ORTF becomes very easy to use. Once the two microphones are locked into position — with capsules 17cm apart, at 110o- the single stand can easily be raised, lowered, or angled to tune the array to best suit the size of the kit, the sound of the room, and the desired amount of ambience in the recorded track.
Due to the wide spread of the microphones, it is likely that most of the drum kit will be between them, off-axis. This approach, like mid-side, is less likely to succeed in a small or untreated space, because the microphones will mostly hear reflected sounds. Moving the array closer to the drum kit, whether from behind or over the top, will result in a drier sound.
The ORTF stereo image is wider than XY, MS, or Recorderman, but not unbelievably so. Perhaps because the microphone position simulates human ear position, the resulting stereo field seems very natural and realistic, and generally collapses to mono without significant problems.
AB/Spaced Pair
The AB or Spaced Pair approach is among the simplest stereo techniques to understand, but it presents the most problems in practice.
Because the microphones are far apart, AB arrays are susceptible to comb filtering. The risk can be mitigated somewhat by keeping the two microphone capsules equidistant from the center of the snare drum — but even then, the mic placement should be auditioned (in mono) to reveal possible problems with the kick, toms, or cymbals.
Aside from phase-coherency challenges, AB is a powerful technique, with a large palette of sonic colors. By lowering the array, or angling the microphones in toward the center of the kit, room sound can be minimized. Conversely, there are numerous ways to use an AB pair to capture a roomier, indirect sound: by raising the microphones, moving them further out toward the sides of the kit, angling them to point straight down, or changing from Cardioid to a wider polar pattern.
AB arrays can produce a wide stereo image, simply because drums or cymbals very near one of the two microphones will be perceived to come from only that side of the stereo field.
This can result in an unrealistically large-sounding drum kit, if the overhead tracks are panned 100% L/R.
Head to head Comparison
Drum Miking Cheat Sheet
To minimize room sound, lower the OH microphones and point them toward the center of the kit.
To maximize room sound, raise the OH microphones, angle them away from the drums, or use wider polar patterns.
To minimize cymbal sound, try Recorderman.
To ensure mono compatibility, use XY or MS.
For the widest possible stereo spread, use AB.
Avoid phase coherency problems with kick and snare by keeping them centered between the OH mics.
Dry overhead tracks can be optionally supplemented with room mics.
A pair of cardioid mics provides several distinct, viable OH sounds.
Multipattern LDCs provide even more options.
A single pair of multipattern condenser microphones can provide at least five distinct overhead drum miking choices with surprisingly different sonic characteristics.
To demonstrate these different sounds, we recorded a drum kit with a pair of KSM44A overhead microphones five different ways. The drums, the room, the preamps, cables, and composition remained the same. The only variable was the position of the microphones (and in one case, the polar pattern).
How different can a single pair of microphones, in the same room with the same drums, really sound? As you listen to the tracks below, consider the following:
Width of stereo field
Ease of setup
The XY or coincident pair approach wins points for its guaranteed mono compatibility. Because the two capsules are so close together (coincident”), sound waves from every drum and cymbal impinge upon the two mics' diaphragms nearly simultaneously, avoiding any risk of comb-filtering due to partial cancellation of out-of-phase waves when the two OH tracks are heard in mono.
A consequence of coincident positioning is that the resulting stereo field is narrow, even when the two OH tracks are panned hard L/R. This is a good choice for arrangements in which the drums play a supporting role, or when mono compatibility is critical.
Overhead microphone height is an important consideration in this and every technique. If the mics are very high, the capsules will point straight over the sides of the of the kit, essentially putting the entire instrument off-axis. This will result in an overly roomy sound.
Lowering the microphones, or using an angle less than 90o can result in a more direct sound, although the kick and snare will always be off-axis.
Regardless of height, I recommend mounting the XY array directly above the snare drum, to ensure that the snare is centered in the stereo image.
The M-S technique, like XY, ensures mono compatibility. And like XY, it produces a relatively narrow stereo spread.
A primary benefit is that the perceived size of the space can be changed at mix time, by varying the amount of side” channel in the mix. This is often described as adjusting the stereo width,” but to my ear the drum kit doesn't get any wider. The high and low toms don't get farther apart. The room gets bigger, but the drums sound less direct.
The challenge of M-S is that one of the two microphones is not pointed at the drum kit. The figure-of-8 mic is positioned so the drums are in the mic's null point; the microphone hears only reflected sound. If you are recording drums in a small or untreated room, chances are this reflected sound is not what you want on your record.
But if the room does sound good, M-S is a great way to combine a dry, direct sound — the Mid mic — with as much room ambience as suits the rest of the production.
The Recorderman technique is probably the newest and least-known technique here, although it is conceptually similar to the overhead configuration of Glyn Johns' more-famous approach.
It requires two Cardioid microphones. One is suspended 32” above the center of the snare drum, pointing straight down. The other is positioned near the drummer's right shoulder, pointing directly at the snare drum from 32″ away.
This technique requires that the kick drum is also equidistant from both microphones. This can be checked by taping the two ends of a length of string to the center of the snare and kick drums, respectively. Pinch the string together at the point where it touches the mic above the snare, so that both legs of the string are taut. Move that point of the string in an arc toward the drummer's right shoulder to find the perfect location of the second microphone — at a point where it, too, is 32” from the center of the snare, and equally distant from the kick as is the first microphone.
The two tracks are panned L and R, although not necessarily 100%. Extreme panning of Recorderman overhead tracks can leave a hole in the middle of the stereo field.
Mono compatibility is not guaranteed, except for the kick and snare.
Because the microphones are relatively low, they will hear primarily the drums themselves. Cymbals will be understated, as will the sound of the room.
This is therefore a great way to combat some of the problems that plague live drum recording in home or project studios:
Small, untreated rooms that don't sound great
Untrained drummers who bash their cymbals
Even in large, purpose-built studios, the Recorderman technique is a useful way to capture dry overhead tracks that can be supplemented with more-distant ambient microphones, should the arrangement call for a roomier sound.
With a stereo bar, ORTF becomes very easy to use. Once the two microphones are locked into position — with capsules 17cm apart, at 110o- the single stand can easily be raised, lowered, or angled to tune the array to best suit the size of the kit, the sound of the room, and the desired amount of ambience in the recorded track.
Due to the wide spread of the microphones, it is likely that most of the drum kit will be between them, off-axis. This approach, like mid-side, is less likely to succeed in a small or untreated space, because the microphones will mostly hear reflected sounds. Moving the array closer to the drum kit, whether from behind or over the top, will result in a drier sound.
The ORTF stereo image is wider than XY, MS, or Recorderman, but not unbelievably so. Perhaps because the microphone position simulates human ear position, the resulting stereo field seems very natural and realistic, and generally collapses to mono without significant problems.
AB/Spaced Pair
The AB or Spaced Pair approach is among the simplest stereo techniques to understand, but it presents the most problems in practice.
Because the microphones are far apart, AB arrays are susceptible to comb filtering. The risk can be mitigated somewhat by keeping the two microphone capsules equidistant from the center of the snare drum — but even then, the mic placement should be auditioned (in mono) to reveal possible problems with the kick, toms, or cymbals.
Aside from phase-coherency challenges, AB is a powerful technique, with a large palette of sonic colors. By lowering the array, or angling the microphones in toward the center of the kit, room sound can be minimized. Conversely, there are numerous ways to use an AB pair to capture a roomier, indirect sound: by raising the microphones, moving them further out toward the sides of the kit, angling them to point straight down, or changing from Cardioid to a wider polar pattern.
AB arrays can produce a wide stereo image, simply because drums or cymbals very near one of the two microphones will be perceived to come from only that side of the stereo field.
This can result in an unrealistically large-sounding drum kit, if the overhead tracks are panned 100% L/R.
Head to head Comparison
Drum Miking Cheat Sheet
To minimize room sound, lower the OH microphones and point them toward the center of the kit.
To maximize room sound, raise the OH microphones, angle them away from the drums, or use wider polar patterns.
To minimize cymbal sound, try Recorderman.
To ensure mono compatibility, use XY or MS.
For the widest possible stereo spread, use AB.
Avoid phase coherency problems with kick and snare by keeping them centered between the OH mics.
Dry overhead tracks can be optionally supplemented with room mics.
A pair of cardioid mics provides several distinct, viable OH sounds.
Multipattern LDCs provide even more options.
Saturday, 15 October 2016
How To Record Drums
Recording a live drummer can be lots of fun when done right. At Platinumloops, we've recorded many different drummers in many different locations, sometimes in challenging circumstances.
There are a few things you can do to prepare for ‘on location' recording in order to get the best results.
Your two main objectives are to get the best performance from the drummer and also to get the best sound from the drum kit and the room.
Before starting a session, arm yourself with these essential resources.
1 - Moon Gel
3 - Gaffa Tape
4 - Some Really robust headphones with thick enclosures and long cable.
5 - A couple of tuning keys
6 - Some high quality lubricating oil - not WD40
7 - A headphone amp with stereo in and out.
8 - Some deodorant spray - things can get sweaty
9 - Lots of drinking water
10 - A thick rug or piece of carpet
11 - Some earplugs for both you and the drummer
The Recording Situation
An ideal situation for recording drums is for the drummer to be in a separate live room to the sound engineer. This allows the engineer to monitor the microphone inputs without being deafened by the shed builder on the other side of the glass, however you might not have that luxury.
Recording while in the same room as the drummer does have its benefits. First of all, the communication between engineer and drummer is far better, you can be sat right next to the drummer and it makes for much faster workflow and can often make the drummer feel more comfortable and less isolated.
In addition to this the engineer can often hear unwanted sounds within the room much better than from a control room which he/she otherwise might not notice until the session is over.
Communicating From the Control Room
The downside to recording within the same room as the drummer is obvious ear fatigue and the fact that you can only really monitor the mic inputs properly on playback while the drummer has stopped playing.
If you have a separate live room to the control room but no window between the two, you can easily setup a couple of web cams via wireless internet or use tablets and phones so that you and the drummer can communicate visually.
You'll here the drummer through the mic's when he talks and he will be able to hear you if you patch a mic in to his headphone amp.
The wonders of modern technology eh!
Setting Up
I strongly advise that you learn how to tune a drum kit yourself. I used to be a drummer (a very bad one) so I learned the basics of this years ago. There are some brilliant video tutorials on Youtube that helped to improve my drum tuning skills. If your drummer is really good, they'll know how best to tune the kit and how much life is left in the drum skins (heads).
If your room has a nice wooden floor, you're going to want to protect it with a thick rug or a piece of carpet. You can also buy those rubber floor protectors that will prevent your floor from getting scratched by the rough underside of the rug or carpet.
The carpet also prevents the entire drum kit from moving forwards every time your drummer hits the kick drum. If he's a metal drummer he's going to be hitting it pretty hard.
With the kit setup and tuned, get your drummer to play for a while before you even think about setting up the mic's. What your listening for here are two things.
1 - Firstly, mechanical noises from the kit - such as squeaky pedals, drum stools, rattling tom mounts. I can pretty much guarantee at least one of these noises will rear it's ugly head.
2 - The second thing your listening for are noises from the room - such as vibrating furniture, fixtures and appliances.
You might also want to experiment with the placement of the kit. Start off in the middle of the room and then move the kit to either end to compare the room sound, this is where the carpet/rug comes in handy as you can carefully just drag the whole thing wherever you want it.
Walk around the room while the drummer plays to find the sweat spot for the room ambience, this is where we'll place a mic to add hugeness” to the sound if that's what you're after. If you have a stair case or hallway at the end of the live room, try listening to that space for the sweat spot.
We'll do some more of this later when we crack the mic's out, for now it's all about where to place the kit for the best room sound.
Blu Tack to the Rescue
If you're wondering what the Blu Tack and gaffa tape are for, you'll have figured that out pretty much as soon as the drummer starts playing. Tom mounts are notoriously rattly and creaky, especially in older drum kits or cheaper drum kits.
Use the blu Tack to stuff into the gaps on the tom mounts to silence the rattling, you'll be surprised how much you'll use. Blu Tack is also really good because it doesn't leave much of a residue on the drum hardware and your drummer will thank you for that.
When we recorded our Ultra Metal Drum Loops V1 , we used a spectacular sounding Premiere PK Cabria Drum Kit with Sabian and Zildjian cymbals and a Pearl double kick pedal.
Unfortunately the tom mounts rattled and squeaked so badly that we ended up using two full packs of Blu Tack to silence the pesky things - and this was a brand new kit.
For our Power Ballad Rock Drum Loops V1 we used a brand new Mapex M-Birch kit that had a far superior tom mount system that needed no such Blu Tack treatment. The birch kit was much louder and the hardware was easier to use with no nasty noises to content with. We liked this kit so much that we kept it as our stock studio kit.
The Snare Drum
The gaffa tape is essential to use as a dampener on the snare. If you're recording a funk drummer or a rock drummer that wants a really tight and ‘pingy' snare with minimal rattle, you're going to need to reduce the snare buzz. Use a 6 inch piece of gaffa tape across the centre of the snare then add more if required.
If you want a very natural, roomy kit sound, you might be able to get away without dampening the top head on the snare drum. We like snare drums to be tuned really high so that they cut through the mix, but this tends to make them more prone to resonating when playing other parts of the kit.
To counteract this problem use one or two chunks of moon gel to dampen the resonating top skin. It'll still sound good but won't ring on every time the drummer stamps on the kick drum pedal.
The Kick Drum
Use some heavy duty lubricating oil or grease on the Kick drum pedal and maybe even on the hi-hat pedal. Even once the squeak has gone you still might get some rattle from the kick pedal so get the drummer to adjust the tension on the pedal so that you get a happy compromise of playability and quietness.
An ideal situation is to have a few other pedals on hand just in case, but if the drummer is using a double beater that's not very likely.
The squeaky drum pedal has been the cause of many delayed sessions, so it helps if your drummer is able to be flexible with the pedal tension. Better still, ask your drummer to make sure it's perfectly quiet before they arrive. Time is money.
The beater on the kick drum pedal is also an often overlooked factor. Your drummer might not like the feel of a wooden or plastic beater but you might prefer the sharp clicky sound that it gives you.
If this is going to effect your drummers performance, you're going to have to give way and let them use the felt beater. Try adjusting the height of the beater for both playability and sound quality. You want to get as much definition and punch from the kick drum as possible without making it difficult for the drummer to play.
Tom Toms
Tuning toms is an art form in itself. We won't get into the details of how to tune toms, you can find hundreds of instructional videos on Youtube for that. Let's focus instead on how to overcome some common problems you might experience when recording toms.
It's more than likely that your toms will need some form of dampening to prevent them from resonating every time the drummer hits the kick. After you've spent the last hour tuning them to perfection, you'll feel like crying when you hear how crap they sound after you've slapped a couple of moon gel patches on the top skin.
Don't despair. They might sound a bit lame with the dampening on but by the time you've mixed the kit, added a bit of compression to the toms and then a bit more to the overall stereo kit, they'll sound fantastic again and you wont have as many ‘resonating problems'.
One other problem with toms is that you'll usually find one tom is much louder than the others, namely the hi-tom. You can overcome this with tuning but that's going to compromise that cool tone. Your only option is to leave it up to the drummer to try and balance them out with his playing - that, and shed loads of compression during the mix stage of course.
Balance out the Volume
Finally, listen for imbalances in the volume of the separate kit parts. Even after what I just said about the toms, don't be tempted to leave certain problems up to the mix because there are some things you just cant fix.
For example, rock drummers tend be really heavy on the hi-hat and no matter what you do during the mixing stage, you're going to find it difficult to get the snare sounding sharp and bright without inadvertently boosting the already over loud hi-hat that's bleeding through onto all the mic's.
This is where having a quieter set of hi-hats can be a godsend. Your aim is to get your transient levels as even as possible before you even record. If one of the toms is louder than the entire kit try re-tuning it, adding some dampening with moon gel or even replacing it. The same goes for your cymbals. If your crash cymbals dominate the entire drum mix, you're going to have serious problems down the line.
You can always ask your drummer not to hit certain parts of the kit quite so hard but that's like asking Lewis Hamilton not to drive fast.
Mic'ing Up
Now that you've got the kit and room sounding splendid, the next stage is to bring in the mic's. Assuming you've only got 8 audio inputs in your audio interface you'll need to prioritize.
If your drummer is playing a 5 piece kit, you're probably best to use 7 mic's on the kit and one mic in the sweat spot of the room if you want some room ambience in the mix.
If you're after a tight, closed in sound and you're not bothered about room ambience, bring that 8th mic back in and place it on the hi-hat or some other part of the kit you feel is important. Here's how I would mic up a 5 piece kit.
Kick Drum - AKG D112
Room Ambience - SE Electronics Z3300A
This setup means that my hi-hat, cymbals and ride will primarily get picked up by the 2 overheads and the room mic. In most cases this is perfectly fine but obviously we'd have more control of the mix if we had more inputs and more mic's. This just illustrates how to get the most of an 8 channel situation.
Some people don't like to use condenser mic's for recording drums due to the way they struggle with extreme transients, but I make sure the Z3300A is a long way from the kit and all I can say is that it sounds lush is a room ambience mic.
There are a few things you can do to prepare for ‘on location' recording in order to get the best results.
Your two main objectives are to get the best performance from the drummer and also to get the best sound from the drum kit and the room.
Before starting a session, arm yourself with these essential resources.
1 - Moon Gel
3 - Gaffa Tape
4 - Some Really robust headphones with thick enclosures and long cable.
5 - A couple of tuning keys
6 - Some high quality lubricating oil - not WD40
7 - A headphone amp with stereo in and out.
8 - Some deodorant spray - things can get sweaty
9 - Lots of drinking water
10 - A thick rug or piece of carpet
11 - Some earplugs for both you and the drummer
The Recording Situation
An ideal situation for recording drums is for the drummer to be in a separate live room to the sound engineer. This allows the engineer to monitor the microphone inputs without being deafened by the shed builder on the other side of the glass, however you might not have that luxury.
Recording while in the same room as the drummer does have its benefits. First of all, the communication between engineer and drummer is far better, you can be sat right next to the drummer and it makes for much faster workflow and can often make the drummer feel more comfortable and less isolated.
In addition to this the engineer can often hear unwanted sounds within the room much better than from a control room which he/she otherwise might not notice until the session is over.
Communicating From the Control Room
The downside to recording within the same room as the drummer is obvious ear fatigue and the fact that you can only really monitor the mic inputs properly on playback while the drummer has stopped playing.
If you have a separate live room to the control room but no window between the two, you can easily setup a couple of web cams via wireless internet or use tablets and phones so that you and the drummer can communicate visually.
You'll here the drummer through the mic's when he talks and he will be able to hear you if you patch a mic in to his headphone amp.
The wonders of modern technology eh!
Setting Up
I strongly advise that you learn how to tune a drum kit yourself. I used to be a drummer (a very bad one) so I learned the basics of this years ago. There are some brilliant video tutorials on Youtube that helped to improve my drum tuning skills. If your drummer is really good, they'll know how best to tune the kit and how much life is left in the drum skins (heads).
If your room has a nice wooden floor, you're going to want to protect it with a thick rug or a piece of carpet. You can also buy those rubber floor protectors that will prevent your floor from getting scratched by the rough underside of the rug or carpet.
The carpet also prevents the entire drum kit from moving forwards every time your drummer hits the kick drum. If he's a metal drummer he's going to be hitting it pretty hard.
With the kit setup and tuned, get your drummer to play for a while before you even think about setting up the mic's. What your listening for here are two things.
1 - Firstly, mechanical noises from the kit - such as squeaky pedals, drum stools, rattling tom mounts. I can pretty much guarantee at least one of these noises will rear it's ugly head.
2 - The second thing your listening for are noises from the room - such as vibrating furniture, fixtures and appliances.
You might also want to experiment with the placement of the kit. Start off in the middle of the room and then move the kit to either end to compare the room sound, this is where the carpet/rug comes in handy as you can carefully just drag the whole thing wherever you want it.
Walk around the room while the drummer plays to find the sweat spot for the room ambience, this is where we'll place a mic to add hugeness” to the sound if that's what you're after. If you have a stair case or hallway at the end of the live room, try listening to that space for the sweat spot.
We'll do some more of this later when we crack the mic's out, for now it's all about where to place the kit for the best room sound.
Blu Tack to the Rescue
If you're wondering what the Blu Tack and gaffa tape are for, you'll have figured that out pretty much as soon as the drummer starts playing. Tom mounts are notoriously rattly and creaky, especially in older drum kits or cheaper drum kits.
Use the blu Tack to stuff into the gaps on the tom mounts to silence the rattling, you'll be surprised how much you'll use. Blu Tack is also really good because it doesn't leave much of a residue on the drum hardware and your drummer will thank you for that.
When we recorded our Ultra Metal Drum Loops V1 , we used a spectacular sounding Premiere PK Cabria Drum Kit with Sabian and Zildjian cymbals and a Pearl double kick pedal.
Unfortunately the tom mounts rattled and squeaked so badly that we ended up using two full packs of Blu Tack to silence the pesky things - and this was a brand new kit.
For our Power Ballad Rock Drum Loops V1 we used a brand new Mapex M-Birch kit that had a far superior tom mount system that needed no such Blu Tack treatment. The birch kit was much louder and the hardware was easier to use with no nasty noises to content with. We liked this kit so much that we kept it as our stock studio kit.
The Snare Drum
The gaffa tape is essential to use as a dampener on the snare. If you're recording a funk drummer or a rock drummer that wants a really tight and ‘pingy' snare with minimal rattle, you're going to need to reduce the snare buzz. Use a 6 inch piece of gaffa tape across the centre of the snare then add more if required.
If you want a very natural, roomy kit sound, you might be able to get away without dampening the top head on the snare drum. We like snare drums to be tuned really high so that they cut through the mix, but this tends to make them more prone to resonating when playing other parts of the kit.
To counteract this problem use one or two chunks of moon gel to dampen the resonating top skin. It'll still sound good but won't ring on every time the drummer stamps on the kick drum pedal.
The Kick Drum
Use some heavy duty lubricating oil or grease on the Kick drum pedal and maybe even on the hi-hat pedal. Even once the squeak has gone you still might get some rattle from the kick pedal so get the drummer to adjust the tension on the pedal so that you get a happy compromise of playability and quietness.
An ideal situation is to have a few other pedals on hand just in case, but if the drummer is using a double beater that's not very likely.
The squeaky drum pedal has been the cause of many delayed sessions, so it helps if your drummer is able to be flexible with the pedal tension. Better still, ask your drummer to make sure it's perfectly quiet before they arrive. Time is money.
The beater on the kick drum pedal is also an often overlooked factor. Your drummer might not like the feel of a wooden or plastic beater but you might prefer the sharp clicky sound that it gives you.
If this is going to effect your drummers performance, you're going to have to give way and let them use the felt beater. Try adjusting the height of the beater for both playability and sound quality. You want to get as much definition and punch from the kick drum as possible without making it difficult for the drummer to play.
Tom Toms
Tuning toms is an art form in itself. We won't get into the details of how to tune toms, you can find hundreds of instructional videos on Youtube for that. Let's focus instead on how to overcome some common problems you might experience when recording toms.
It's more than likely that your toms will need some form of dampening to prevent them from resonating every time the drummer hits the kick. After you've spent the last hour tuning them to perfection, you'll feel like crying when you hear how crap they sound after you've slapped a couple of moon gel patches on the top skin.
Don't despair. They might sound a bit lame with the dampening on but by the time you've mixed the kit, added a bit of compression to the toms and then a bit more to the overall stereo kit, they'll sound fantastic again and you wont have as many ‘resonating problems'.
One other problem with toms is that you'll usually find one tom is much louder than the others, namely the hi-tom. You can overcome this with tuning but that's going to compromise that cool tone. Your only option is to leave it up to the drummer to try and balance them out with his playing - that, and shed loads of compression during the mix stage of course.
Balance out the Volume
Finally, listen for imbalances in the volume of the separate kit parts. Even after what I just said about the toms, don't be tempted to leave certain problems up to the mix because there are some things you just cant fix.
For example, rock drummers tend be really heavy on the hi-hat and no matter what you do during the mixing stage, you're going to find it difficult to get the snare sounding sharp and bright without inadvertently boosting the already over loud hi-hat that's bleeding through onto all the mic's.
This is where having a quieter set of hi-hats can be a godsend. Your aim is to get your transient levels as even as possible before you even record. If one of the toms is louder than the entire kit try re-tuning it, adding some dampening with moon gel or even replacing it. The same goes for your cymbals. If your crash cymbals dominate the entire drum mix, you're going to have serious problems down the line.
You can always ask your drummer not to hit certain parts of the kit quite so hard but that's like asking Lewis Hamilton not to drive fast.
Mic'ing Up
Now that you've got the kit and room sounding splendid, the next stage is to bring in the mic's. Assuming you've only got 8 audio inputs in your audio interface you'll need to prioritize.
If your drummer is playing a 5 piece kit, you're probably best to use 7 mic's on the kit and one mic in the sweat spot of the room if you want some room ambience in the mix.
If you're after a tight, closed in sound and you're not bothered about room ambience, bring that 8th mic back in and place it on the hi-hat or some other part of the kit you feel is important. Here's how I would mic up a 5 piece kit.
Kick Drum - AKG D112
Room Ambience - SE Electronics Z3300A
This setup means that my hi-hat, cymbals and ride will primarily get picked up by the 2 overheads and the room mic. In most cases this is perfectly fine but obviously we'd have more control of the mix if we had more inputs and more mic's. This just illustrates how to get the most of an 8 channel situation.
Some people don't like to use condenser mic's for recording drums due to the way they struggle with extreme transients, but I make sure the Z3300A is a long way from the kit and all I can say is that it sounds lush is a room ambience mic.
Monday, 19 September 2016
How To Record Drums Like An Expert
Drum recording is one of those things that you need to get right. There is much less room for experimentation in drum sounds. What I mean to say is, you can have the most alternative guitar sound or effected vocal sound in the world but if the drums don't sound right nobody is going to care.
Sure, you can experiment with different mixing techniques and try different production tricks later down the line, but the first order of business is to nail that drum sound. If your kick drum sounds like a cardboard box beaten with a marshmallow then no amount of mixing is going to fix it. Get it right at the source or don't do it at all.
Correct placement and microphone selection is important to the sound of your recorded drums, but so is the room you are recording in. Let's get busy with some drum recording tricks.
Room
Clap your hands say yeah! Indie music aside (not a big fan), clap your hands. Do it. Right now. If you're in a typical office or living room then chances are it's not going to last that long. The echo will die down within a second since the size of your room don't allow for a lot of buildup of reverb or reflections.
Now, imagine if you were in a gymnasium and clapped your hands. The perceived bigness” of the echo and reverb of the sound is dictated by the size of the room you are in, therefore clapping your hands inside a big gymnasium will result in more reflections, a larger reverb and a longer decay” time for the sound of your handclaps to die down. For more on reverb and reflections see my other Basix tutorial How the Hell do I Use Reverb Anyway?!? ”
So, if we intend to record drums we need to take the room into account, since those reflections from your handclap are just peanuts compared to the amount of echoes and reflections a whole drum kit will make inside a gymnasium. Your ears heard them, and your microphones will most surely do so too.
If you have a mobile recording rig, which today means a laptop, an interface and some microphones and access to some different rooms you can create a whole different feel to your drum sound depending on which you choose. Many engineers opt for a dead, or a very quiet room to track drums in since that will allow them to add the type of reverb they want later on during the mixing process. While this method is sound and valid, just look at all those great rock records that were made before the advent of digital reverb. Recording studios used to have amazing sounding live rooms to track drums in, and that became an inherent part of the drum sound.
If you want to go the safe route, try to find a nice (preferably acoustically treated) room that doesn't have a whole lot of liveness. But if you are up for experimentation then finding an interesting or great sounding room might yield some impressive results.
Pre-production
Gourmet dishes are not cooked from leftovers. You don't wear dirty clothes to a wedding. And you certainly don't record worn heads and out of tune drums if you want great results.
Make sure to replace each drum head and tune it so that each drum sounds both great in its own right and as a part of the kit. If you, or the drummer don't know how to tune a drum properly (I don't really know how, and most drummers are pretty bad at it) get someone that can.
A great sounding drum kit in a great sounding room and you've won half the battle. Next we have to look at what types of microphones we want to be using.
Microphone Selection
A few considerations when choosing the right microphone for recording drums.
How Many? - How many microphones are you going to be using? Are you trying to mike up the kit with only one microphone? Then a full sounding large condenser should be the best bet. It has a broad frequency response and will most accurately capture the kit, especially compared to a dynamic microphone.
Condenser microphones - Condenser microphones (small or large diaphragm) are usually the default microphones of choice used as overheads. Overhead microphones are placed over the drum kit to capture the overall sound of the drum kit from a close distance. Condenser have the capacity to capture all the nuances of the drum kit, from the low end of the kick drum to the swash of the cymbals.
Dynamic microphones - Dynamic microphones can take more volume, but they lack the frequency response and accuracy of a condenser. They can take the pounding and volume of the kick drum and they have no problem with the incredibly loud whack of the snare. If you decide to close mike every drum, then you would usually opt for a good sounding dynamic at each drum; kick, snare and each of the toms.
Ribbon microphones - Ribbons might be a good choice if you can afford it, especially if you are only using a few microphones. Ribbons have a smoother sound, but they are more delicate than the average condenser, and way more fragile than a sturdy dynamic.
Remember, each microphone sounds different and they will all act as a piece of the drum recording puzzle.
Collection of Instruments
One of the things you have to be aware of is that recording drums can be much more complex than recording a regular” instrument that only has one sound source. Take vocals for example, the most standard way of recording vocals is placing a microphone in front of the singer's sound source, i.e. his mouth.
But when you are recording drums, every single drum is a sound source, and you also need to portray the overall sound of the kit as a whole. That's the reason why modern drum recording puts a microphone on every drum and then some overhead mics to capture the complete kit.
People want to control each drum as a specific sound source and then treat the whole drum kit as one sound source as well. Then, by mixing and matching the overall volume of all the tracks in the mixing phase people have more control over what kinds of sounds they can get from their drums.
Kick Drum
I don't care what anybody says. The kick drum is the most important part of the drum sound. You can argue that the snare sound is all you want, and it certainly is important, but if the kick drum lacks power and definition the overall drum sound is going to suffer. The kick drum is also the trickiest sound to get right since the placement of the microphone plays a pivotal role.
Microphone - Your best bet, if you are just using one microphone to record the drums is a large dynamic microphone, such as the AKG D112, Audix D6 or Shure Beta 52A. They will usually have the frequency response needed to get the thick low end coupled with the snap of the beater.
Placement - The default position to try is just inside the outer head (I hope there is a hole in the outer head) pointing at, or just a little off axis towards the beater. In this position the microphone is far enough away as to capture both the boom and the snap. Microphones placed too close to the inner head (the beater side) can't capture the full resonance of the drum since they are facing away from the drum and are picking up too much click” from the beater.
Placing the microphone outside the shell can give you great results, but there is a possibility of the microphone capturing too much bleed from the other drums and that it will lack definition from the beater. Great if you want a natural bass drum sound, but bad if you want a isolated and click” heavy sound.
Best of both worlds? - By using two microphones you can capture both the beater and the boom by placing the microphones at different positions. Positioning one inside the kit close to the beater head and the other just outside the shell will result in two different sounds that can be mixed together to great results. Boundary, or PZM (Pressure Zone Microphones) work really well on the inside since they react well to transients and can usually just sit on the shell.
By combining a PZM that reacts well to transients (initial attack) at the beater and a big dynamic picking up the low end on the outside you can get the best of both worlds.
Snare Drum
The snare drum is the master of the backbeat, and thus must sound great in order to capture the groove. Whether you are producing a heavy rock song or light jazz, careful consideration must be put into the snare drum sound.
Microphone - A trusty Shure SM57, or any other type of dynamic is a great starting point when capturing snare drum. If you looking for a different, more vintage sound then using a large condenser or a ribbon can give the snare a much different feel. Take into account how loud the drummer will be hitting the drum. If he's going to be whacking that drum for all he's got then a condenser might overload too easily, leaving you with a distorted snare instead of a smooth and full sound.
Placement - Consider angling the microphone 45° into the middle of the drum to get the right amount of attack from the snare. For a rounder sound you can angle the microphone into the edge of the drum. Make sure that the microphone isn't in the drummer's way since whacking the microphone will not result in a better sound. In general, for more harmonics angle the mic towards the edges, but if you want more resonance and/or attack then angling the microphone more towards the middle and center will yield greater results for each respective sound.
Above & Below - If you want to achieve a direct sound from the top but want to accent the rattle the snares you can place another microphone underneath the snare pointing up. If you decide to do this make sure you flip the phase of the under-mic either during the recording or at the mixing stage. Most audio programs have a phase invert switch that allow you to flip the phase of your waveform. I touched upon the why's and how's of this practice a long time ago in A Guide to Effective Drum Mixing Part 1
Hi-hat
If you want to have added control over the hi-hat during the mixing stage, then adding a separate microphone for it wouldn't hurt
Microphone - You usually want a small condenser to record the hi-hat. Due to the fast transient nature of the hi-hat you want to capture all the definition and clarity of the hi-hat, even though you're recording a garage rock track.
Placement - Placing the condenser by the edge give you a much different sound than placing it at the center bell of the hi-hat. Also, try placing it in the middle and angle it to or from the edge until you find the sound you are looking for.
Over or under? - Some people swear by under-miking the hi-hat, others don't see why anybody would do such nonsense. Personally, in live situation I place the microphone underneath the hi-hat, facing up but during recording it's the other way around. Why? I don't know. Probably just force of habit.
Toms
Those drum fills need to sound good. The toms need to sound clean, defined and tuned. There's nothing worse than a tom that rings for seconds after it's hit. Assuming you have made all the necessary arrangements and made sure each drum sounds as good as it can then you only have to worry about the right microphone and placement thereof.
Microphone - Dynamic microphones such as an Audix i5, Shure SM57 or a Sennheiser MD421 are a good bet to capture a full and powerful tom sound. Especially if you are playing any sort of hard music then going for dynamics is the way to go. Experienced engineers sometimes use condensers and even ribbons(!) but as always, you have to careful about not overloading those more delicate microphones. In live sound I used to use AKG C519 clip-on condensers for toms. They work really well through a powerful P.A. and can also work well in the studio. Each sound company has a drum miking package that is usually a good bet if you don't have anything to work with.
Placement - The microphone placement is very similar to that of the snare drum. If you want more attack and stick sound from the toms you should angle them towards the middle. If you want a thicker, boomier sound you should angle them straight down towards the edge of the tom so that the microphone picks up the full resonant sound of the toms.
Underneath as well? - If you have a crazy amount of microphones, an amazing kit in a sweet sounding room then more microphones will add to the sound right? Yes, well and no. If you have the resources to mike both sides of the toms then you probably shouldn't be reading this article. But the same rules apply as if you were recording the snare with two microphones. Beware of phase and make sure both microphones are capturing something different.
Overheads
Overheads are usually placed over the drum kit, both to capture the complete kit but also to accent the sounds of the cymbals. There are a few microphone techniques that you can use to accurately and effectively capture both the cymbals and overall drum kit.
X/Y - The X/Y microphone technique can be used effectively as overheads. You don't have to worry about phase problems when using this stereo technique since they are a coincident technique. Meaning that you place them beside each other at a 90° angle facing down onto the drum kit.
A/B - This is the typical one microphone over each side of the drum kit. It's a good rule of thumb to adhere to the 3:1 rule so that if you place one microphone a foot (30 cm) over the cymbal the other microphone must be placed at a distance of 3 feet (or 90 cm).
Accent the cymbals - Just like engineers that place microphones on the hi-hat, some engineers want to accent specific cymbals. For example, if we're recording a minor blues shuffle we might like to record that crucial ride cymbal, giving you added control over its sound during the mixing stage.
Room/Ambience
We've talked about how to mike up every individual sound source of the drum kit. That is, every drum has been covered as a single sound source. Now we need to step back and look at the drum kit as one instrument. When we use room microphones we want to capture the complete kit as well as the room that is complimenting it. If you are in a dead room there should be more thought put into capturing the kit as one instrument, whereas in a great sounding room, there is more preference to finding a good spot where the room and reflections help heighten the drum sound to a different level.
Microphone - I'd like to say that anything goes here. If you are trying to get a nice sounding complete drum kit” sound then a large condenser will do the trick. However, ribbon microphones can do a very similar job, and often a better one since they sound so good. Even normal dynamic microphones can be used to get an extra dimension to the drum kit by placing it in the room.
Placement - Placing a simple SM57 in front of the kit facing up towards the ceiling can give you some ambience from the room. A condenser that you want to use to capture the complete drum kit without adding too much room ambience should be placed at around waist level facing towards the kit. To get the drums an extra stereo dimension, two condensers can be positioned in the upper corners of the room.
Experiment - Lastly, room microphones and ambient miking is very fun to experiment with. There might be a weird place in the room where the drums just really work. Walk around with headphones and try to find where the best place to position your mics is. A long hallway outside the drum room might have a great alternative sound that can work for you.
Throw up a few room microphones all over, record a few measures and see which ones work best.
Conclusion
We've covered some important aspects of recording one of the most complex instruments that us engineers face. The complicated puzzle of multiple types of microphones, placements and techniques is sure to make the beginner engineer nervous. But if we break it down into small pieces, looking at each drum as part of the puzzle and then combining it into one sound source we can more easily understand what makes drum recording such a difficult, but ultimately enjoyable subject.
Sure, you can experiment with different mixing techniques and try different production tricks later down the line, but the first order of business is to nail that drum sound. If your kick drum sounds like a cardboard box beaten with a marshmallow then no amount of mixing is going to fix it. Get it right at the source or don't do it at all.
Correct placement and microphone selection is important to the sound of your recorded drums, but so is the room you are recording in. Let's get busy with some drum recording tricks.
Room
Clap your hands say yeah! Indie music aside (not a big fan), clap your hands. Do it. Right now. If you're in a typical office or living room then chances are it's not going to last that long. The echo will die down within a second since the size of your room don't allow for a lot of buildup of reverb or reflections.
Now, imagine if you were in a gymnasium and clapped your hands. The perceived bigness” of the echo and reverb of the sound is dictated by the size of the room you are in, therefore clapping your hands inside a big gymnasium will result in more reflections, a larger reverb and a longer decay” time for the sound of your handclaps to die down. For more on reverb and reflections see my other Basix tutorial How the Hell do I Use Reverb Anyway?!? ”
So, if we intend to record drums we need to take the room into account, since those reflections from your handclap are just peanuts compared to the amount of echoes and reflections a whole drum kit will make inside a gymnasium. Your ears heard them, and your microphones will most surely do so too.
If you have a mobile recording rig, which today means a laptop, an interface and some microphones and access to some different rooms you can create a whole different feel to your drum sound depending on which you choose. Many engineers opt for a dead, or a very quiet room to track drums in since that will allow them to add the type of reverb they want later on during the mixing process. While this method is sound and valid, just look at all those great rock records that were made before the advent of digital reverb. Recording studios used to have amazing sounding live rooms to track drums in, and that became an inherent part of the drum sound.
If you want to go the safe route, try to find a nice (preferably acoustically treated) room that doesn't have a whole lot of liveness. But if you are up for experimentation then finding an interesting or great sounding room might yield some impressive results.
Pre-production
Gourmet dishes are not cooked from leftovers. You don't wear dirty clothes to a wedding. And you certainly don't record worn heads and out of tune drums if you want great results.
Make sure to replace each drum head and tune it so that each drum sounds both great in its own right and as a part of the kit. If you, or the drummer don't know how to tune a drum properly (I don't really know how, and most drummers are pretty bad at it) get someone that can.
A great sounding drum kit in a great sounding room and you've won half the battle. Next we have to look at what types of microphones we want to be using.
Microphone Selection
A few considerations when choosing the right microphone for recording drums.
How Many? - How many microphones are you going to be using? Are you trying to mike up the kit with only one microphone? Then a full sounding large condenser should be the best bet. It has a broad frequency response and will most accurately capture the kit, especially compared to a dynamic microphone.
Condenser microphones - Condenser microphones (small or large diaphragm) are usually the default microphones of choice used as overheads. Overhead microphones are placed over the drum kit to capture the overall sound of the drum kit from a close distance. Condenser have the capacity to capture all the nuances of the drum kit, from the low end of the kick drum to the swash of the cymbals.
Dynamic microphones - Dynamic microphones can take more volume, but they lack the frequency response and accuracy of a condenser. They can take the pounding and volume of the kick drum and they have no problem with the incredibly loud whack of the snare. If you decide to close mike every drum, then you would usually opt for a good sounding dynamic at each drum; kick, snare and each of the toms.
Ribbon microphones - Ribbons might be a good choice if you can afford it, especially if you are only using a few microphones. Ribbons have a smoother sound, but they are more delicate than the average condenser, and way more fragile than a sturdy dynamic.
Remember, each microphone sounds different and they will all act as a piece of the drum recording puzzle.
Collection of Instruments
One of the things you have to be aware of is that recording drums can be much more complex than recording a regular” instrument that only has one sound source. Take vocals for example, the most standard way of recording vocals is placing a microphone in front of the singer's sound source, i.e. his mouth.
But when you are recording drums, every single drum is a sound source, and you also need to portray the overall sound of the kit as a whole. That's the reason why modern drum recording puts a microphone on every drum and then some overhead mics to capture the complete kit.
People want to control each drum as a specific sound source and then treat the whole drum kit as one sound source as well. Then, by mixing and matching the overall volume of all the tracks in the mixing phase people have more control over what kinds of sounds they can get from their drums.
Kick Drum
I don't care what anybody says. The kick drum is the most important part of the drum sound. You can argue that the snare sound is all you want, and it certainly is important, but if the kick drum lacks power and definition the overall drum sound is going to suffer. The kick drum is also the trickiest sound to get right since the placement of the microphone plays a pivotal role.
Microphone - Your best bet, if you are just using one microphone to record the drums is a large dynamic microphone, such as the AKG D112, Audix D6 or Shure Beta 52A. They will usually have the frequency response needed to get the thick low end coupled with the snap of the beater.
Placement - The default position to try is just inside the outer head (I hope there is a hole in the outer head) pointing at, or just a little off axis towards the beater. In this position the microphone is far enough away as to capture both the boom and the snap. Microphones placed too close to the inner head (the beater side) can't capture the full resonance of the drum since they are facing away from the drum and are picking up too much click” from the beater.
Placing the microphone outside the shell can give you great results, but there is a possibility of the microphone capturing too much bleed from the other drums and that it will lack definition from the beater. Great if you want a natural bass drum sound, but bad if you want a isolated and click” heavy sound.
Best of both worlds? - By using two microphones you can capture both the beater and the boom by placing the microphones at different positions. Positioning one inside the kit close to the beater head and the other just outside the shell will result in two different sounds that can be mixed together to great results. Boundary, or PZM (Pressure Zone Microphones) work really well on the inside since they react well to transients and can usually just sit on the shell.
By combining a PZM that reacts well to transients (initial attack) at the beater and a big dynamic picking up the low end on the outside you can get the best of both worlds.
Snare Drum
The snare drum is the master of the backbeat, and thus must sound great in order to capture the groove. Whether you are producing a heavy rock song or light jazz, careful consideration must be put into the snare drum sound.
Microphone - A trusty Shure SM57, or any other type of dynamic is a great starting point when capturing snare drum. If you looking for a different, more vintage sound then using a large condenser or a ribbon can give the snare a much different feel. Take into account how loud the drummer will be hitting the drum. If he's going to be whacking that drum for all he's got then a condenser might overload too easily, leaving you with a distorted snare instead of a smooth and full sound.
Placement - Consider angling the microphone 45° into the middle of the drum to get the right amount of attack from the snare. For a rounder sound you can angle the microphone into the edge of the drum. Make sure that the microphone isn't in the drummer's way since whacking the microphone will not result in a better sound. In general, for more harmonics angle the mic towards the edges, but if you want more resonance and/or attack then angling the microphone more towards the middle and center will yield greater results for each respective sound.
Above & Below - If you want to achieve a direct sound from the top but want to accent the rattle the snares you can place another microphone underneath the snare pointing up. If you decide to do this make sure you flip the phase of the under-mic either during the recording or at the mixing stage. Most audio programs have a phase invert switch that allow you to flip the phase of your waveform. I touched upon the why's and how's of this practice a long time ago in A Guide to Effective Drum Mixing Part 1
Hi-hat
If you want to have added control over the hi-hat during the mixing stage, then adding a separate microphone for it wouldn't hurt
Microphone - You usually want a small condenser to record the hi-hat. Due to the fast transient nature of the hi-hat you want to capture all the definition and clarity of the hi-hat, even though you're recording a garage rock track.
Placement - Placing the condenser by the edge give you a much different sound than placing it at the center bell of the hi-hat. Also, try placing it in the middle and angle it to or from the edge until you find the sound you are looking for.
Over or under? - Some people swear by under-miking the hi-hat, others don't see why anybody would do such nonsense. Personally, in live situation I place the microphone underneath the hi-hat, facing up but during recording it's the other way around. Why? I don't know. Probably just force of habit.
Toms
Those drum fills need to sound good. The toms need to sound clean, defined and tuned. There's nothing worse than a tom that rings for seconds after it's hit. Assuming you have made all the necessary arrangements and made sure each drum sounds as good as it can then you only have to worry about the right microphone and placement thereof.
Microphone - Dynamic microphones such as an Audix i5, Shure SM57 or a Sennheiser MD421 are a good bet to capture a full and powerful tom sound. Especially if you are playing any sort of hard music then going for dynamics is the way to go. Experienced engineers sometimes use condensers and even ribbons(!) but as always, you have to careful about not overloading those more delicate microphones. In live sound I used to use AKG C519 clip-on condensers for toms. They work really well through a powerful P.A. and can also work well in the studio. Each sound company has a drum miking package that is usually a good bet if you don't have anything to work with.
Placement - The microphone placement is very similar to that of the snare drum. If you want more attack and stick sound from the toms you should angle them towards the middle. If you want a thicker, boomier sound you should angle them straight down towards the edge of the tom so that the microphone picks up the full resonant sound of the toms.
Underneath as well? - If you have a crazy amount of microphones, an amazing kit in a sweet sounding room then more microphones will add to the sound right? Yes, well and no. If you have the resources to mike both sides of the toms then you probably shouldn't be reading this article. But the same rules apply as if you were recording the snare with two microphones. Beware of phase and make sure both microphones are capturing something different.
Overheads
Overheads are usually placed over the drum kit, both to capture the complete kit but also to accent the sounds of the cymbals. There are a few microphone techniques that you can use to accurately and effectively capture both the cymbals and overall drum kit.
X/Y - The X/Y microphone technique can be used effectively as overheads. You don't have to worry about phase problems when using this stereo technique since they are a coincident technique. Meaning that you place them beside each other at a 90° angle facing down onto the drum kit.
A/B - This is the typical one microphone over each side of the drum kit. It's a good rule of thumb to adhere to the 3:1 rule so that if you place one microphone a foot (30 cm) over the cymbal the other microphone must be placed at a distance of 3 feet (or 90 cm).
Accent the cymbals - Just like engineers that place microphones on the hi-hat, some engineers want to accent specific cymbals. For example, if we're recording a minor blues shuffle we might like to record that crucial ride cymbal, giving you added control over its sound during the mixing stage.
Room/Ambience
We've talked about how to mike up every individual sound source of the drum kit. That is, every drum has been covered as a single sound source. Now we need to step back and look at the drum kit as one instrument. When we use room microphones we want to capture the complete kit as well as the room that is complimenting it. If you are in a dead room there should be more thought put into capturing the kit as one instrument, whereas in a great sounding room, there is more preference to finding a good spot where the room and reflections help heighten the drum sound to a different level.
Microphone - I'd like to say that anything goes here. If you are trying to get a nice sounding complete drum kit” sound then a large condenser will do the trick. However, ribbon microphones can do a very similar job, and often a better one since they sound so good. Even normal dynamic microphones can be used to get an extra dimension to the drum kit by placing it in the room.
Placement - Placing a simple SM57 in front of the kit facing up towards the ceiling can give you some ambience from the room. A condenser that you want to use to capture the complete drum kit without adding too much room ambience should be placed at around waist level facing towards the kit. To get the drums an extra stereo dimension, two condensers can be positioned in the upper corners of the room.
Experiment - Lastly, room microphones and ambient miking is very fun to experiment with. There might be a weird place in the room where the drums just really work. Walk around with headphones and try to find where the best place to position your mics is. A long hallway outside the drum room might have a great alternative sound that can work for you.
Throw up a few room microphones all over, record a few measures and see which ones work best.
Conclusion
We've covered some important aspects of recording one of the most complex instruments that us engineers face. The complicated puzzle of multiple types of microphones, placements and techniques is sure to make the beginner engineer nervous. But if we break it down into small pieces, looking at each drum as part of the puzzle and then combining it into one sound source we can more easily understand what makes drum recording such a difficult, but ultimately enjoyable subject.
Monday, 5 September 2016
A Primer On Recording Drums At Home
Like many other Tape Op readers, I have a home studio. Although I've had numerous opportunities to record in "real" recording studios, I often prefer the laid-back comfort of my own living room. My home setup has neither the carefully constructed walls nor the special acoustic treatments of a well- designed studio — but the no-cost, no-rush feeling of working in my own space and the comfortable amenities of my home (a fridge stocked with more than just cheap cans of beer, windows that let in sunlight, a back porch to sit on) have been compelling arguments to stay at home.
Over the years, my goal has been to make recordings in my home that approach the quality of recordings made in pro studios — and I've since discovered some techniques that can make my modest living room sound more like a big studio. For me, the sound of a "real" studio versus a home setup has more to do with the live sound than it does the cost of equipment: It's the interaction of the instruments with the room and how that interaction is captured on tape. With no other instrument is this more evident than with a drum kit.
A typical home recording of a drum kit sounds exactly like it was recorded at home — in a small room. On the other hand, a drum kit recorded in a pro studio will tend to sound bigger — with the ambience of a large tracking room giving life to the drums. This recipe is one way that I achieve that bigger drum sound in the confines of my humble home. Let's go through this recipe in steps.
Control the acoustics in your room.
Most rooms in a house are boxes with parallel walls, floors and ceilings. Parallel surfaces tend to accentuate some frequencies while attenuating others, and corners in which surfaces meet collect and release low end. To capture as smooth of a sound as possible, you want to reduce the detrimental effects of your room's square geometry. You can spend a lot of money on special treatments, or you can use what you've got lying around the house. Let's go the cheaper route and save the money for buying more mics.
Here's what I did in my living room. Equipment racks, large tape machines, and tall shelves are pushed into the corners. I found some surplus acoustic foam and placed it on one wall. I attached remnants of a shag rug on the opposite wall and covered the ugly rug with a curtain. A heavy cotton futon pushed against the wall with the largest unbroken span makes a great bass-trap, soaking up unwanted bass resonance.
Be careful not to over-treat your room. If you use too much foam or too many rugs, you'll end up with a room that sounds "dead". Higher frequencies will be absorbed while lower frequencies will run rampant, leaving you with the typical bedroom sound.
Experiment with the position of the drum kit.
I would recommend that you start with the kick drum facing a piece of furniture that operates as a bass-trap. Doing this will reduce the nasty lower- mid resonances that small rooms typically exhibit. These resonances contribute to the muddy sound of small rooms — anything you can do to reduce these resonances will make your room sound less like a box. I like to face the kit into my aforementioned futon "bass-trap". Play around with different floor surfaces. Don't just settle for what you have.
I used to use a shag rug (the remnants of which are now on the wall) as a drum rug. It was ugly, but it protected my wood floor from scratches and kept the drums from sliding everywhere. One day, I found a perfectly sized and not-as-ugly rug for sale at a local supermarket for $12. Unlike the shag rug, this one was tightly woven and quite stiff. It made a huge difference in the sound of the snare drum. The mics picked up much more of the snare's crack. If you're pining for an even "brighter" floor surface, try a localized treatment. A clipboard placed underneath the snare drum can really liven up the snare.
Start with a good pair of overhead mics.
Think of your overheads as more than just cymbal mics. While close mics tend to focus on the attack of each drum hit, carefully positioned overheads will pick up more of the "body" of each drum, affording you a fuller sound than what you could achieve with just close mics. My preference is to use two overhead mics to pick up a stereo image of the whole kit.
As a general rule of thumb, two mics recording the same sound source should be the exact same distance to that sound source when you're trying to achieve a phase-coherent, mono-compatible, stereo spread. Otherwise, you'll end up with phase cancellation of some frequencies. Recalling that the box shape of the typical home studio tends to accentuate some frequencies while attenuating others, any additional phase cancellation will further detriment the sound.
I prefer to set up my overhead mics in a modified X-Y pattern, with the diaphragms of the two mics as close together as possible. This way, everything they pick up will be phase-coherent: All sounds will hit both mics at the same time. Therefore, the pair of mics will not contribute additional peaks and dips to the frequency response of the room.
You can vary the relative amounts of drums versus cymbals by moving the pair of mics up and down or forward and backward, or by pointing the mics closer into the drums or further outward toward the cymbals. I usually start with the overheads about six feet off the ground, directly above the drums. Because the signal from the overheads will be the foundation of the drum sound, choose your best mics and mic preamps for this task.
Add close mics as necessary.
Once you're happy with the sound of your overheads, you may want to add close mics to spice up some or all of the individual drums. I'm a big fan of using omni mics on the kick and snare, especially the Earthworks micro- diaphragm condensers. Because omni mics don't exhibit proximity-effect, you can place them right up to a sound source without picking up an unnatural boost of the low- mid frequencies. Be cognisant of phase-cancellation as you bring in more mics. You may need to flip the phase on some of the individual close mics or move the overheads closer to, or away from, the drums.
Close-mic'ing picks and techniques:
Snare: An Earthworks TC30K is positioned within 1/2'' of the shell. You may be surprised at how realistic a snare sounds when mic'ed via its shell. By changing the height of the mic along the shell, you can vary the amount of top head versus bottom head in the signal. The hole on the side of the shell is a good place to pick up the "blast" of the snare. Make sure that the blast doesn't blow air directly onto the diaphragm of the mic. An Earthworks SR69 cardioid mic is positioned to pick up "slap" from the top head. This slap is especially useful in driving a reverb unit if artificial ambience is required in the mix.
Kick: A second TC30K is used for the front head. A piece of foam is wedged between the kick drum's floor pins and the edge of the head to provide a teeny bit of damping.
Toms: A Sennheiser E604 placed over the floor tom. Pointing the mic at the center of the drum results in more "boom," while bringing the mic closer to the edge of the head usually results in more "stick."
Room: A Royer SF-12 stereo ribbon mic in one corner of the kitchen is used to pick up ambience. Without a direct line-of-sight to the drum kit, this mic picks up less cymbal splash and more drum reverb. Don't worry if you don't have an expensive mic to dedicate to this application. I've used SM 58s and Radio Shack PZMs with great success.
Don't rely on EQ to define the sound of your room.
EQ'ing multiple mics or even EQ'ing one mic out of a multi-mic setup won't sound as good as getting all your mics to pick up the right sound in the first place. Furthermore, an EQ can't smooth out the sharp peaks and dips of a poor sounding room. Therefore, unless you're using the EQ as an effect, use it sparingly. Focus first on making your room sound good.
Then play with mic position to obtain the sound you desire. Use room mics to add ambience — you can place these room mics in another room if possible.
"Room Mics"
A typical mic setup in a large studio involves setting up room mics far from the drum kit to pick up the studio's natural reverb. Oftentimes, these room mics are faced into walls to pick up less direct sound and more reflected sound. Unfortunately, using this technique at home usually results in a smaller sound, not a bigger sound. You end up accentuating all the anomalies — and therefore the acoustic character — of a small room.
Fortunately, homes tend to have multiple rooms. So it's easy enough to open a door and place your room mics in an adjoining room. I prefer mic'ing my kitchen, with its hard surfaces providing natural reverb and the large appliances providing ample diffusion. I place the room mics near one corner of the kitchen, making sure there isn't direct line of sight through the open doorway between the mics in the kitchen and the drum kit in the living room. If I need an even bigger sounding space, I'll delay the room mics during mixing by 10-15 ms.
Experiment.
Think of this article as one person's starting point. Then explore your own tangents and break your own boundaries. Try something new. Celebrate serendipity, and revel in the fact that you're not paying big-studio rates to record in your living room.
Tape Op is a bi-monthly magazine devoted to the art of record making.
Over the years, my goal has been to make recordings in my home that approach the quality of recordings made in pro studios — and I've since discovered some techniques that can make my modest living room sound more like a big studio. For me, the sound of a "real" studio versus a home setup has more to do with the live sound than it does the cost of equipment: It's the interaction of the instruments with the room and how that interaction is captured on tape. With no other instrument is this more evident than with a drum kit.
A typical home recording of a drum kit sounds exactly like it was recorded at home — in a small room. On the other hand, a drum kit recorded in a pro studio will tend to sound bigger — with the ambience of a large tracking room giving life to the drums. This recipe is one way that I achieve that bigger drum sound in the confines of my humble home. Let's go through this recipe in steps.
Control the acoustics in your room.
Most rooms in a house are boxes with parallel walls, floors and ceilings. Parallel surfaces tend to accentuate some frequencies while attenuating others, and corners in which surfaces meet collect and release low end. To capture as smooth of a sound as possible, you want to reduce the detrimental effects of your room's square geometry. You can spend a lot of money on special treatments, or you can use what you've got lying around the house. Let's go the cheaper route and save the money for buying more mics.
Here's what I did in my living room. Equipment racks, large tape machines, and tall shelves are pushed into the corners. I found some surplus acoustic foam and placed it on one wall. I attached remnants of a shag rug on the opposite wall and covered the ugly rug with a curtain. A heavy cotton futon pushed against the wall with the largest unbroken span makes a great bass-trap, soaking up unwanted bass resonance.
Be careful not to over-treat your room. If you use too much foam or too many rugs, you'll end up with a room that sounds "dead". Higher frequencies will be absorbed while lower frequencies will run rampant, leaving you with the typical bedroom sound.
Experiment with the position of the drum kit.
I would recommend that you start with the kick drum facing a piece of furniture that operates as a bass-trap. Doing this will reduce the nasty lower- mid resonances that small rooms typically exhibit. These resonances contribute to the muddy sound of small rooms — anything you can do to reduce these resonances will make your room sound less like a box. I like to face the kit into my aforementioned futon "bass-trap". Play around with different floor surfaces. Don't just settle for what you have.
I used to use a shag rug (the remnants of which are now on the wall) as a drum rug. It was ugly, but it protected my wood floor from scratches and kept the drums from sliding everywhere. One day, I found a perfectly sized and not-as-ugly rug for sale at a local supermarket for $12. Unlike the shag rug, this one was tightly woven and quite stiff. It made a huge difference in the sound of the snare drum. The mics picked up much more of the snare's crack. If you're pining for an even "brighter" floor surface, try a localized treatment. A clipboard placed underneath the snare drum can really liven up the snare.
Start with a good pair of overhead mics.
Think of your overheads as more than just cymbal mics. While close mics tend to focus on the attack of each drum hit, carefully positioned overheads will pick up more of the "body" of each drum, affording you a fuller sound than what you could achieve with just close mics. My preference is to use two overhead mics to pick up a stereo image of the whole kit.
As a general rule of thumb, two mics recording the same sound source should be the exact same distance to that sound source when you're trying to achieve a phase-coherent, mono-compatible, stereo spread. Otherwise, you'll end up with phase cancellation of some frequencies. Recalling that the box shape of the typical home studio tends to accentuate some frequencies while attenuating others, any additional phase cancellation will further detriment the sound.
I prefer to set up my overhead mics in a modified X-Y pattern, with the diaphragms of the two mics as close together as possible. This way, everything they pick up will be phase-coherent: All sounds will hit both mics at the same time. Therefore, the pair of mics will not contribute additional peaks and dips to the frequency response of the room.
You can vary the relative amounts of drums versus cymbals by moving the pair of mics up and down or forward and backward, or by pointing the mics closer into the drums or further outward toward the cymbals. I usually start with the overheads about six feet off the ground, directly above the drums. Because the signal from the overheads will be the foundation of the drum sound, choose your best mics and mic preamps for this task.
Add close mics as necessary.
Once you're happy with the sound of your overheads, you may want to add close mics to spice up some or all of the individual drums. I'm a big fan of using omni mics on the kick and snare, especially the Earthworks micro- diaphragm condensers. Because omni mics don't exhibit proximity-effect, you can place them right up to a sound source without picking up an unnatural boost of the low- mid frequencies. Be cognisant of phase-cancellation as you bring in more mics. You may need to flip the phase on some of the individual close mics or move the overheads closer to, or away from, the drums.
Close-mic'ing picks and techniques:
Snare: An Earthworks TC30K is positioned within 1/2'' of the shell. You may be surprised at how realistic a snare sounds when mic'ed via its shell. By changing the height of the mic along the shell, you can vary the amount of top head versus bottom head in the signal. The hole on the side of the shell is a good place to pick up the "blast" of the snare. Make sure that the blast doesn't blow air directly onto the diaphragm of the mic. An Earthworks SR69 cardioid mic is positioned to pick up "slap" from the top head. This slap is especially useful in driving a reverb unit if artificial ambience is required in the mix.
Kick: A second TC30K is used for the front head. A piece of foam is wedged between the kick drum's floor pins and the edge of the head to provide a teeny bit of damping.
Toms: A Sennheiser E604 placed over the floor tom. Pointing the mic at the center of the drum results in more "boom," while bringing the mic closer to the edge of the head usually results in more "stick."
Room: A Royer SF-12 stereo ribbon mic in one corner of the kitchen is used to pick up ambience. Without a direct line-of-sight to the drum kit, this mic picks up less cymbal splash and more drum reverb. Don't worry if you don't have an expensive mic to dedicate to this application. I've used SM 58s and Radio Shack PZMs with great success.
Don't rely on EQ to define the sound of your room.
EQ'ing multiple mics or even EQ'ing one mic out of a multi-mic setup won't sound as good as getting all your mics to pick up the right sound in the first place. Furthermore, an EQ can't smooth out the sharp peaks and dips of a poor sounding room. Therefore, unless you're using the EQ as an effect, use it sparingly. Focus first on making your room sound good.
Then play with mic position to obtain the sound you desire. Use room mics to add ambience — you can place these room mics in another room if possible.
"Room Mics"
A typical mic setup in a large studio involves setting up room mics far from the drum kit to pick up the studio's natural reverb. Oftentimes, these room mics are faced into walls to pick up less direct sound and more reflected sound. Unfortunately, using this technique at home usually results in a smaller sound, not a bigger sound. You end up accentuating all the anomalies — and therefore the acoustic character — of a small room.
Fortunately, homes tend to have multiple rooms. So it's easy enough to open a door and place your room mics in an adjoining room. I prefer mic'ing my kitchen, with its hard surfaces providing natural reverb and the large appliances providing ample diffusion. I place the room mics near one corner of the kitchen, making sure there isn't direct line of sight through the open doorway between the mics in the kitchen and the drum kit in the living room. If I need an even bigger sounding space, I'll delay the room mics during mixing by 10-15 ms.
Experiment.
Think of this article as one person's starting point. Then explore your own tangents and break your own boundaries. Try something new. Celebrate serendipity, and revel in the fact that you're not paying big-studio rates to record in your living room.
Tape Op is a bi-monthly magazine devoted to the art of record making.
Wednesday, 24 August 2016
Five Tips For Recording Your Drums
Planning to take YouTube by storm with your drumming skills? Want to listen back to your groove to see if you're on the money? Penning the next Stairway with your band mates? Then you'll need to record yourself playing drums. Follow our guide and you'll be well on your way to getting the perfect drum sound.
1. Do I record with acoustic or electronic drums?
Recording drums can be a technological minefield. There's no right or wrong way, but for the majority of drummers wanting to record their playing, the ‘best' way to record drums is clear: achieving the best result, as simply as possible, quickly. Whether you go for acoustic drums or an electronic drum kit, the aim is the same; to capture the drum recording so that it can be treated or edited.
Recording acoustic drums is a science in its own right. When you consider the cost of decent mics, preparing a live room, then the hours of post-production work to perfect the sound, it can get expensive and time consuming. And that's if you know what you're doing. For most people, it pays to hire a studio and engineer who can do this for you.
Recording digital drum kits has several advantages; there are several ways to record (more of which later on), there's no need for microphones or a live room (keeping costs down), the set-up is less of a headache than mic'ing up acoustic drums (for example achieving separation; separating cymbals from drums with no audio bleeding across the microphones), and best of all you can achieve a result that equals the best drum recordings. In the professional recording industry, recording electronic drums is becoming more and more common for all of these reasons.
2. Do I trigger a module, MIDI or software?
Here, there are three choices; record the performance and sound directly from the module; record a MIDI performance and add drum sounds later, via software; trigger sounds in computer software (such as Toontrack's EZ Drummer) as you play. Generally, the choice comes down to the amount of control you want to have over the drum sound and the drum mix.
Recording directly from the module lets you choose the instruments you want to play, edit them so they sound just right, and then record your performance as an audio track.
Depending on the module you use, you'll be able to record a stereo track or record each drum and cymbal as an individual channel. This is perfect whether using a multi-track recorder, analogue mixer or DAW software in your computer and gives you a similar level of control as having each part of the kit mic'ed up separately.
Recording MIDI allows your drum performance to be recorded in your computer as MIDI data, although no actual sound from the module is recorded. The MIDI file can be edited and played through drum software, or through the module (if that module has MIDI inputs and outputs) so that the sound is recorded separately from the performance.
Triggering software allows you to trigger software as you play the drums. The drum sounds from the software can be recorded at the same time.
3. Choosing the right module for you
The choice of module will determine what you can and can't do. For example, the HD-3 V-Drums Lite kit has great drum sounds, but they can't be edited and there is just a single stereo audio output. The MIDI out connector means this kit is a prime candidate for recording MIDI data or triggering software in a computer. Triggering in this way uses the sounds or instruments within the software and allows them to be recorded.
On the other end other scale, the TD-30 module has highly advanced tone editing with thousands of instruments on tap, complete control of the recording ambient environment (so you can select and experiment with different ‘rooms' or spaces in which to record). You also have multiple ‘direct outputs', so that every drum and cymbal has a separate channel in the recording software, mixing desk or DAW controller. In the drum world, this is like placing a mic on every individual drum and cymbal. This gives the ultimate control when mixing and for many drummers, the ability to edit their instruments and then edit the entire drum mix is the best result of all.
The TD-30 module (or brain) also had MIDI inputs and outputs. This means that if you record a performance using MIDI, you can edit that performance in your computer (for example removing errors or correcting the timing via quantisation) and then play that performance back through the module to re-record the tones or instruments in the TD-30.
In the middle of the range, modules found in the TD-11 and TD-15 V-Drums kits have many more instruments and tones available than the HD-3. You also have control of the ambient environment, and a choice of stereo audio outputs, MIDI and USB audio (stereo). This will record left and right audio channels straight into your computer. When recording stereo outputs though, you do have less control in mixing the drums, as all the instruments are blended in the final audio signal being recorded.
4. Don't forget latency
Latency is the length of time between hitting a drum and hearing the sound. With electronic drums, consider what happens when you hit the drum pad. The pad senses that it has been hit and converts this into an electronic signal, which is then sent to the module via the jack cable. The module processes this signal, triggers the appropriate sound, and sends it via the audio output cable to headphones, a monitor or an amp. The greater the latency, the longer it takes between the hit and the sound being output. Latency is measured in milliseconds, and the lower the number, the better.
Latency is bad news when you're drumming. When you're playing drums, if there is significant delay between playing and hearing the sound, it can really put you off. Latency makes your playing feel like it's ahead of the beat, or the sound lags far behind your playing - which in turn affects your performance. In previous years, latency was more an issue than it is today.
By recording the sound and performance directly from the V-Drums module, latency is virtually non-existent. You will simply monitor the drum track by plugging headphones straight into the module, as you would when practicing or playing live.
When triggering software in a computer using MIDI, latency can occur. This can be affected by the power of your computer, the speed of the processor, the quality of audio and MIDI interface, and how many programs your computer is running at any one time.
The latest V-Drums with SuperNATURAL technology has the lowest-ever latency of any V-Drums kits with the lowest latency available in the industry. So, when recording MIDI or triggering software using MIDI, latency is reduced to the point that it doesn't really matter.
5. Next steps
It's just a matter of weighing up which is the right way of recording for you. There are pros and cons with each method. But in any case, recording your V-Drums kit provides a range of options for multiple situations, and is by far the easiest way to lay down a reliable and solid drum track.
1. Do I record with acoustic or electronic drums?
Recording drums can be a technological minefield. There's no right or wrong way, but for the majority of drummers wanting to record their playing, the ‘best' way to record drums is clear: achieving the best result, as simply as possible, quickly. Whether you go for acoustic drums or an electronic drum kit, the aim is the same; to capture the drum recording so that it can be treated or edited.
Recording acoustic drums is a science in its own right. When you consider the cost of decent mics, preparing a live room, then the hours of post-production work to perfect the sound, it can get expensive and time consuming. And that's if you know what you're doing. For most people, it pays to hire a studio and engineer who can do this for you.
Recording digital drum kits has several advantages; there are several ways to record (more of which later on), there's no need for microphones or a live room (keeping costs down), the set-up is less of a headache than mic'ing up acoustic drums (for example achieving separation; separating cymbals from drums with no audio bleeding across the microphones), and best of all you can achieve a result that equals the best drum recordings. In the professional recording industry, recording electronic drums is becoming more and more common for all of these reasons.
2. Do I trigger a module, MIDI or software?
Here, there are three choices; record the performance and sound directly from the module; record a MIDI performance and add drum sounds later, via software; trigger sounds in computer software (such as Toontrack's EZ Drummer) as you play. Generally, the choice comes down to the amount of control you want to have over the drum sound and the drum mix.
Recording directly from the module lets you choose the instruments you want to play, edit them so they sound just right, and then record your performance as an audio track.
Depending on the module you use, you'll be able to record a stereo track or record each drum and cymbal as an individual channel. This is perfect whether using a multi-track recorder, analogue mixer or DAW software in your computer and gives you a similar level of control as having each part of the kit mic'ed up separately.
Recording MIDI allows your drum performance to be recorded in your computer as MIDI data, although no actual sound from the module is recorded. The MIDI file can be edited and played through drum software, or through the module (if that module has MIDI inputs and outputs) so that the sound is recorded separately from the performance.
Triggering software allows you to trigger software as you play the drums. The drum sounds from the software can be recorded at the same time.
3. Choosing the right module for you
The choice of module will determine what you can and can't do. For example, the HD-3 V-Drums Lite kit has great drum sounds, but they can't be edited and there is just a single stereo audio output. The MIDI out connector means this kit is a prime candidate for recording MIDI data or triggering software in a computer. Triggering in this way uses the sounds or instruments within the software and allows them to be recorded.
On the other end other scale, the TD-30 module has highly advanced tone editing with thousands of instruments on tap, complete control of the recording ambient environment (so you can select and experiment with different ‘rooms' or spaces in which to record). You also have multiple ‘direct outputs', so that every drum and cymbal has a separate channel in the recording software, mixing desk or DAW controller. In the drum world, this is like placing a mic on every individual drum and cymbal. This gives the ultimate control when mixing and for many drummers, the ability to edit their instruments and then edit the entire drum mix is the best result of all.
The TD-30 module (or brain) also had MIDI inputs and outputs. This means that if you record a performance using MIDI, you can edit that performance in your computer (for example removing errors or correcting the timing via quantisation) and then play that performance back through the module to re-record the tones or instruments in the TD-30.
In the middle of the range, modules found in the TD-11 and TD-15 V-Drums kits have many more instruments and tones available than the HD-3. You also have control of the ambient environment, and a choice of stereo audio outputs, MIDI and USB audio (stereo). This will record left and right audio channels straight into your computer. When recording stereo outputs though, you do have less control in mixing the drums, as all the instruments are blended in the final audio signal being recorded.
4. Don't forget latency
Latency is the length of time between hitting a drum and hearing the sound. With electronic drums, consider what happens when you hit the drum pad. The pad senses that it has been hit and converts this into an electronic signal, which is then sent to the module via the jack cable. The module processes this signal, triggers the appropriate sound, and sends it via the audio output cable to headphones, a monitor or an amp. The greater the latency, the longer it takes between the hit and the sound being output. Latency is measured in milliseconds, and the lower the number, the better.
Latency is bad news when you're drumming. When you're playing drums, if there is significant delay between playing and hearing the sound, it can really put you off. Latency makes your playing feel like it's ahead of the beat, or the sound lags far behind your playing - which in turn affects your performance. In previous years, latency was more an issue than it is today.
By recording the sound and performance directly from the V-Drums module, latency is virtually non-existent. You will simply monitor the drum track by plugging headphones straight into the module, as you would when practicing or playing live.
When triggering software in a computer using MIDI, latency can occur. This can be affected by the power of your computer, the speed of the processor, the quality of audio and MIDI interface, and how many programs your computer is running at any one time.
The latest V-Drums with SuperNATURAL technology has the lowest-ever latency of any V-Drums kits with the lowest latency available in the industry. So, when recording MIDI or triggering software using MIDI, latency is reduced to the point that it doesn't really matter.
5. Next steps
It's just a matter of weighing up which is the right way of recording for you. There are pros and cons with each method. But in any case, recording your V-Drums kit provides a range of options for multiple situations, and is by far the easiest way to lay down a reliable and solid drum track.
Friday, 12 August 2016
Complete Guide To Recording Drums In Your Home Studio
For home studio owners, one of the hardest things to record is a drum set.
There are so many questions that come up. How many mics should I use? What kinds of mics are best? Where are the best places to put them?
The good news is this: if you already do some recording, you probably have what you need to get a good drum recording.
In this article, we're going to dive into detail on how to get a great drumset recording in your home studio. Whether you have 16 microphones or just one, after reading this you will have the tools you need to get started.
Remember, as with recording anything, recording drums takes practice. So the sooner you start practicing, the better!
Important Preparation
Before you set up a single microphone, you need to understand this fact:
You cannot get a good recording of a bad sounding drumset.
This isn't to say that you shouldn't bother recording if your drumset doesn't sound as good as you'd like.
But it does mean that you shouldn't expect to record your poor sounding drumset and then make it sound great later in the mix. It doesn't work that way.
So before you even touch a microphone, here are some important things you should do to get that drumset sounding as good as possible:
Use nice sounding drums and cymbals. Again, you're not going to be able to make them sound different when you're mixing. Sometimes you can replace them with samples, but the goal here should be to use the best sounding kit you can get your hands on.
Get good drum heads. Old heads eventually start to sound dull and lifeless. Getting some nice new heads can make a huge difference in the sound, even for a less-then-stellar drumset.
For heaven's sake, tune the drums! Drum heads do fall out of tune over time. Spend some time on getting the drums to sound good individually, and getting them to sound good relative to each other.
Another important part of getting the drums to sound good is choosing a good room to record them in.
In a home studio, this can be difficult. Your house almost certainly doesn't have a room that's designed to sound good, and probably the space you have available to you is pretty small.
If you do have some flexibility though, keep the following guidelines in mind:
Bigger is usually better. Drums often sound better in a bigger space. So if you have a larger room available to you, it might be more effective than a small bedroom.
Minimize noise. As with recording anything, if you're in a room with a lot of noise (HVAC system, lawn mower outside the window, etc.) you will quickly run into problems. Particularly in quieter parts of the song.
Treat the room. Bare walls can cause slapback, flutter echo, and comb filtering. If possible, put some acoustic treatment on the walls. Even hanging a few blankets will make a difference.
Get to the point where the drums sound good in the room, and you'll be all set to get a great recording.
Step 1: Overheads
Overheads mics are arguably the most important microphones on the kit. If you can get them to sound good, the rest will fall into place nicely.
In fact, if you need to record the drums with only one or two mics, your best bet is probably to use overheads.
The overheads tend to capture the natural sound of the kit. Think about how you listen to a drumset with your ears. You listen to the whole thing, not each drum individually.
Typically we use condenser mics for overheads. Condensers pick up the detail of the kit and the sparkle of the cymbals. There are no rules, of course, but they are at least a good starting point.
As for techniques, there are many ways to set up your overheads.
First of all, we normally use two microphones, because it allows you to capture the stereo image of the drumset.
However, you can get a great drum recording with a single mono overhead mic. Graham Cochrane from The Recording Revolution has often used a mono overhead.
In fact, Graham created a great video in his $300 Studio Challenge series demonstrating how to record a drumset with only a single microphone This microphone was strategically placed as a mono overhead mic. You should definitely check out that video if you haven't already.
As for techniques with two microphones, there are several patterns that you can use. In a previous article, I wrote about four common Stereo Microphone Techniques , all of which may be used for drum overheads:
A/B Pair (or Spaced Pair): Two microphones, spaced apart. Really good stereo width, but creates potential for phase issues.
X/Y Pair (or Coincident Pair): Two microphones at a 90-degree angle to each other with their pickup locations in the same place. The stereo width isn't as good, but there are no phase issues.
ORTF: A pattern that models how human ears are spaced apart.
Mid-Side: Another pattern which avoids phase issues. Uses one unidirectional and one bidirectional microphone.
A/B Overhead Mics
The most common of these techniques are A/B and X/Y. Feel free to check out the article linked above for more details.
However, there are two other popular overhead techniques worth mentioning. These were developed specifically for drum overheads. Both of these are variants of the A/B technique, but the two microphones are placed in specific locations.
The first is the Glyn Johns technique. This technique uses two microphones. One microphone is positioned directly above the snare drum. The other is positioned to the drummer's right (assuming a typical right-handed setup) past the floor tom.
The key is to ensure that both microphones are the same distance from the snare drum. This way, you avoid phase issues in the snare.
X/Y Overhead Mics
For a much deeper explanation, I'll defer again to Graham from The Recording Revolution. He wrote an in-depth article on The Glyn Johns Technique If you'd like to try it out, I would highly suggest reading his article.
The second technique is called the Recorderman Technique. It's very similar to Glyn Johns, but the difference is in the positioning of the second microphone.
Instead of positioning it to the right past the floor tom, instead it is positioned over the drummer's right shoulder (again, assuming a typical right-handed setup).
As with Glyn Johns, you want to be sure that both microphones are the same distance from the snare drum in order to avoid phase issues.
The idea of the Recorderman technique is that the over-the-shoulder microphone hears what the drummer is hearing, which should make the recording sound more natural.
If you want to try this out, once again, Graham has done a fantastic job describing how to do it. Check out his video on The Recorderman Technique
Mixing Guidelines
In the mix, stereo overheads are usually panned hard left and right. This isn't always the case, but it is typical of the A/B and X/Y setups.
When I started with recording drums, I didn't know which way I was supposed to pan them. Should they be panned so the floor tom is on the right, as the drummer hears it? Or should it be panned the other way, to model the perspective of the listener?
As it turns out, it doesn't matter. Different mix engineers prefer different panning methods. Pick the one that works for you.
Personally, I'm a drummer, so I like panning them the way I hear them as a drummer. That's a perfectly fine way to do it. But panning them the other way is perfectly fine too.
Step 2: Kick Drum
After the overheads, the kick drum is usually the most important drum to get a microphone in front of.
The kick drum (obviously) has a lot of low end. Often this low end is picked up better by a specific kick drum mic, rather than the overheads. Particularly if you use a microphone that's optimized for it.
If you can only use two microphones for your kit, you may want to consider opting for a mono overhead so that you can put a mic on the kick drum.
Typically we use a dynamic microphone for the kick drum. Kick drums are loud and move a lot of air. We need something that will handle it without clipping or being damaged.
There are a few places to try when micing a kick drum:
In front of the resonant head
This is the typical place to start. Try moving it around to find the optimal sound.
Different distances from the drum can have very different sounds. Further away from the drum may give you more low-end, as it takes some space for the low frequencies to develop.
If you do this, you may want to create a tunnel” from the kick drum to the microphone in order to reduce bleed from the rest of the kit.
Inside the drum
Placing the microphone inside the drum is also popular. This may be done through a hole in the resonant head.
Alternatively, the resonant head can be removed entirely. Just remember the very first rule: make sure the drumset sounds good. If the kit sounds better with that resonant head on, then don't remove it just to get the microphone in a good spot.
Putting the mic inside the drum will get you more attack from the beater. Often, engineers will use two microphones on the kick, one inside and one outside. Then the two recordings can be blended to get a good amount of attack and low end.
In front of the beater head
It may be worth trying to mic the drum on the beater head. You'll get lots of attack, and get closer to what the drummer is hearing. However, keep in mind that you'll probably get more bleed this way.
Step 3: Snare Drum
If you want to record with 4 microphones, a popular solution is to use two overheads, a kick drum mic, and a snare drum mic.
Snare Drum Mic With Clip
The most common place to mic the snare is on top. This can be done with a clip that attaches to the drum (as shown in the image), or with a regular mic stand.
Distance and direction are the tools for tone shaping here. The mic can be placed a few inches away, or very close to the head. It can point very close to the edge of the drum, or right in the center. It's worth trying a few different placements.
It's also common to mic the bottom on the snare as an additional mic for blending. This mic tends to get more of the snare rattle. Keep in mind that you'll need to flip the polarity of one of the recorded tracks, since they will be 180-degrees out of phase.
Step 4: Room Mics
This is something I didn't do for a long time. But it's a technique that can give your drum recording a lot of energy and life.
Essentially, you just place a microphone in the room. You might want to point it at the kit, but often you may want to try pointing it at a wall or the ceiling. You could even place it outside the room in a hallway while leaving the door ajar.
The point of this mic is to capture some natural ambiance and reverb. In the mix, it is common to heavily compress this track and blend it in to give an energetic feel to the drums.
The sky is the limit here. You can use a single room mic, or you can use several. They can be different distances from the kit, different types of mics, different heights, cardioid, omnidirectional, etc.
If you're just starting out, I would recommend keeping it simple. A single room mic would be best. But feel free to experiment.
Step 5: Toms
If you have enough mics and inputs, it can be beneficial to mic the toms.
There's a wide variety of mics to choose from. Some engineers use dynamic mics, others use condensers.
For placement, it's the same idea as the snare drum. Distance and direction are what you want to play with. Typically they are placed consistently across the toms, i.e. the same distance from the edge or center of the drum. But there are no rules.
Mixing tips
Often the toms are panned across the stereo spectrum to give a sense of travel from the leftmost tom to the rightmost tom.
Really hard panning in some cases can sound unnatural. On the other hand, having them all too close together may sound boring. Try to strike a balance that sounds good to you.
Step 6: Hi-Hats
The hi-hats are often recorded with a condenser mic to pick up the detail and sparkle.
Many people use a hi-hat mic. I personally don't. I find that I get plenty of the hi-hat in the overhead mics.
But if you have enough mics and inputs, it's worth trying.
Conclusion
There are many different ways to mic a drumkit. And the only way to get good at it is practice.
You can get a good drum recording with a single microphone. You can also get a good drum recording with 16 microphones.
Remember: the most important thing is to make sure that the drumset sounds good in the room where it's being played. All the rest will follow from that.
There are so many questions that come up. How many mics should I use? What kinds of mics are best? Where are the best places to put them?
The good news is this: if you already do some recording, you probably have what you need to get a good drum recording.
In this article, we're going to dive into detail on how to get a great drumset recording in your home studio. Whether you have 16 microphones or just one, after reading this you will have the tools you need to get started.
Remember, as with recording anything, recording drums takes practice. So the sooner you start practicing, the better!
Important Preparation
Before you set up a single microphone, you need to understand this fact:
You cannot get a good recording of a bad sounding drumset.
This isn't to say that you shouldn't bother recording if your drumset doesn't sound as good as you'd like.
But it does mean that you shouldn't expect to record your poor sounding drumset and then make it sound great later in the mix. It doesn't work that way.
So before you even touch a microphone, here are some important things you should do to get that drumset sounding as good as possible:
Use nice sounding drums and cymbals. Again, you're not going to be able to make them sound different when you're mixing. Sometimes you can replace them with samples, but the goal here should be to use the best sounding kit you can get your hands on.
Get good drum heads. Old heads eventually start to sound dull and lifeless. Getting some nice new heads can make a huge difference in the sound, even for a less-then-stellar drumset.
For heaven's sake, tune the drums! Drum heads do fall out of tune over time. Spend some time on getting the drums to sound good individually, and getting them to sound good relative to each other.
Another important part of getting the drums to sound good is choosing a good room to record them in.
In a home studio, this can be difficult. Your house almost certainly doesn't have a room that's designed to sound good, and probably the space you have available to you is pretty small.
If you do have some flexibility though, keep the following guidelines in mind:
Bigger is usually better. Drums often sound better in a bigger space. So if you have a larger room available to you, it might be more effective than a small bedroom.
Minimize noise. As with recording anything, if you're in a room with a lot of noise (HVAC system, lawn mower outside the window, etc.) you will quickly run into problems. Particularly in quieter parts of the song.
Treat the room. Bare walls can cause slapback, flutter echo, and comb filtering. If possible, put some acoustic treatment on the walls. Even hanging a few blankets will make a difference.
Get to the point where the drums sound good in the room, and you'll be all set to get a great recording.
Step 1: Overheads
Overheads mics are arguably the most important microphones on the kit. If you can get them to sound good, the rest will fall into place nicely.
In fact, if you need to record the drums with only one or two mics, your best bet is probably to use overheads.
The overheads tend to capture the natural sound of the kit. Think about how you listen to a drumset with your ears. You listen to the whole thing, not each drum individually.
Typically we use condenser mics for overheads. Condensers pick up the detail of the kit and the sparkle of the cymbals. There are no rules, of course, but they are at least a good starting point.
As for techniques, there are many ways to set up your overheads.
First of all, we normally use two microphones, because it allows you to capture the stereo image of the drumset.
However, you can get a great drum recording with a single mono overhead mic. Graham Cochrane from The Recording Revolution has often used a mono overhead.
In fact, Graham created a great video in his $300 Studio Challenge series demonstrating how to record a drumset with only a single microphone This microphone was strategically placed as a mono overhead mic. You should definitely check out that video if you haven't already.
As for techniques with two microphones, there are several patterns that you can use. In a previous article, I wrote about four common Stereo Microphone Techniques , all of which may be used for drum overheads:
A/B Pair (or Spaced Pair): Two microphones, spaced apart. Really good stereo width, but creates potential for phase issues.
X/Y Pair (or Coincident Pair): Two microphones at a 90-degree angle to each other with their pickup locations in the same place. The stereo width isn't as good, but there are no phase issues.
ORTF: A pattern that models how human ears are spaced apart.
Mid-Side: Another pattern which avoids phase issues. Uses one unidirectional and one bidirectional microphone.
A/B Overhead Mics
The most common of these techniques are A/B and X/Y. Feel free to check out the article linked above for more details.
However, there are two other popular overhead techniques worth mentioning. These were developed specifically for drum overheads. Both of these are variants of the A/B technique, but the two microphones are placed in specific locations.
The first is the Glyn Johns technique. This technique uses two microphones. One microphone is positioned directly above the snare drum. The other is positioned to the drummer's right (assuming a typical right-handed setup) past the floor tom.
The key is to ensure that both microphones are the same distance from the snare drum. This way, you avoid phase issues in the snare.
X/Y Overhead Mics
For a much deeper explanation, I'll defer again to Graham from The Recording Revolution. He wrote an in-depth article on The Glyn Johns Technique If you'd like to try it out, I would highly suggest reading his article.
The second technique is called the Recorderman Technique. It's very similar to Glyn Johns, but the difference is in the positioning of the second microphone.
Instead of positioning it to the right past the floor tom, instead it is positioned over the drummer's right shoulder (again, assuming a typical right-handed setup).
As with Glyn Johns, you want to be sure that both microphones are the same distance from the snare drum in order to avoid phase issues.
The idea of the Recorderman technique is that the over-the-shoulder microphone hears what the drummer is hearing, which should make the recording sound more natural.
If you want to try this out, once again, Graham has done a fantastic job describing how to do it. Check out his video on The Recorderman Technique
Mixing Guidelines
In the mix, stereo overheads are usually panned hard left and right. This isn't always the case, but it is typical of the A/B and X/Y setups.
When I started with recording drums, I didn't know which way I was supposed to pan them. Should they be panned so the floor tom is on the right, as the drummer hears it? Or should it be panned the other way, to model the perspective of the listener?
As it turns out, it doesn't matter. Different mix engineers prefer different panning methods. Pick the one that works for you.
Personally, I'm a drummer, so I like panning them the way I hear them as a drummer. That's a perfectly fine way to do it. But panning them the other way is perfectly fine too.
Step 2: Kick Drum
After the overheads, the kick drum is usually the most important drum to get a microphone in front of.
The kick drum (obviously) has a lot of low end. Often this low end is picked up better by a specific kick drum mic, rather than the overheads. Particularly if you use a microphone that's optimized for it.
If you can only use two microphones for your kit, you may want to consider opting for a mono overhead so that you can put a mic on the kick drum.
Typically we use a dynamic microphone for the kick drum. Kick drums are loud and move a lot of air. We need something that will handle it without clipping or being damaged.
There are a few places to try when micing a kick drum:
In front of the resonant head
This is the typical place to start. Try moving it around to find the optimal sound.
Different distances from the drum can have very different sounds. Further away from the drum may give you more low-end, as it takes some space for the low frequencies to develop.
If you do this, you may want to create a tunnel” from the kick drum to the microphone in order to reduce bleed from the rest of the kit.
Inside the drum
Placing the microphone inside the drum is also popular. This may be done through a hole in the resonant head.
Alternatively, the resonant head can be removed entirely. Just remember the very first rule: make sure the drumset sounds good. If the kit sounds better with that resonant head on, then don't remove it just to get the microphone in a good spot.
Putting the mic inside the drum will get you more attack from the beater. Often, engineers will use two microphones on the kick, one inside and one outside. Then the two recordings can be blended to get a good amount of attack and low end.
In front of the beater head
It may be worth trying to mic the drum on the beater head. You'll get lots of attack, and get closer to what the drummer is hearing. However, keep in mind that you'll probably get more bleed this way.
Step 3: Snare Drum
If you want to record with 4 microphones, a popular solution is to use two overheads, a kick drum mic, and a snare drum mic.
Snare Drum Mic With Clip
The most common place to mic the snare is on top. This can be done with a clip that attaches to the drum (as shown in the image), or with a regular mic stand.
Distance and direction are the tools for tone shaping here. The mic can be placed a few inches away, or very close to the head. It can point very close to the edge of the drum, or right in the center. It's worth trying a few different placements.
It's also common to mic the bottom on the snare as an additional mic for blending. This mic tends to get more of the snare rattle. Keep in mind that you'll need to flip the polarity of one of the recorded tracks, since they will be 180-degrees out of phase.
Step 4: Room Mics
This is something I didn't do for a long time. But it's a technique that can give your drum recording a lot of energy and life.
Essentially, you just place a microphone in the room. You might want to point it at the kit, but often you may want to try pointing it at a wall or the ceiling. You could even place it outside the room in a hallway while leaving the door ajar.
The point of this mic is to capture some natural ambiance and reverb. In the mix, it is common to heavily compress this track and blend it in to give an energetic feel to the drums.
The sky is the limit here. You can use a single room mic, or you can use several. They can be different distances from the kit, different types of mics, different heights, cardioid, omnidirectional, etc.
If you're just starting out, I would recommend keeping it simple. A single room mic would be best. But feel free to experiment.
Step 5: Toms
If you have enough mics and inputs, it can be beneficial to mic the toms.
There's a wide variety of mics to choose from. Some engineers use dynamic mics, others use condensers.
For placement, it's the same idea as the snare drum. Distance and direction are what you want to play with. Typically they are placed consistently across the toms, i.e. the same distance from the edge or center of the drum. But there are no rules.
Mixing tips
Often the toms are panned across the stereo spectrum to give a sense of travel from the leftmost tom to the rightmost tom.
Really hard panning in some cases can sound unnatural. On the other hand, having them all too close together may sound boring. Try to strike a balance that sounds good to you.
Step 6: Hi-Hats
The hi-hats are often recorded with a condenser mic to pick up the detail and sparkle.
Many people use a hi-hat mic. I personally don't. I find that I get plenty of the hi-hat in the overhead mics.
But if you have enough mics and inputs, it's worth trying.
Conclusion
There are many different ways to mic a drumkit. And the only way to get good at it is practice.
You can get a good drum recording with a single microphone. You can also get a good drum recording with 16 microphones.
Remember: the most important thing is to make sure that the drumset sounds good in the room where it's being played. All the rest will follow from that.
Sunday, 10 July 2016
The Wonderful World Of Microphone Techniques For Drums
Of all acoustic instruments, drums and percussion instruments seem the most elusive to capture with a compelling sound.
Pop recordings are (mostly) driven by an unique and attractive drum sound.
The definition of what makes a good drum sound” has been greatly expanded since the advent of drum machines, samplers and the endless manipulations possible with Pro Tools.
Record producers are looking for the drummer to drive the feel” of the song and their drum sound to fill” a certain amount of space within the song's recording.
Musical tastes and emotion evoke feel while genre and current trends and fashion usually dictate the exact size” and specific nature of the drum sound.
Of course there are always exceptions to any rule.
Size
Size refers to both the actual drum sound itself and the allowed space” the drums occupy within the recording.
Size is equated to all of the following characteristics: realistic (or unrealistic) ambience, a good aural picture” of the drum stage, good internal drum balance between the individual drums, good low frequencies and high frequencies, punchiness or weight” in the low mid-range frequencies and dynamic range or how well you can hear the subtle to the loudest hits without distortion.
Perspective
I find that recording drums has very much to do with your monitor mixing as well as the actual sound you are getting on both the individual drums and the total drum kit.
Sure, if I place the drum mix well above the rest of the backing tracks, I can hype the listener into thinking the drum sound is big and muscular. Tilted monitor mixes can make you think you have a great kick drum sound merely because it is very loud.
Pulling the drum mix back into a more realistic mix perspective reveals the true size of the drum recording as it blends with the rest of the instruments and vocals.
When placed in mix perspective, I can assess the relative tonality and balance of the individual drums and judge the overall kit-ambience quality. Low and high frequencies as well as dynamic range are also better judged at this level.
Like a good foundation of a house, if the drum kit sounds good while in relative balance, then any alternative mixing ideas like loud snare and kick drum mixes will work well.
Pop recordings are (mostly) driven by an unique and attractive drum sound.
The definition of what makes a good drum sound” has been greatly expanded since the advent of drum machines, samplers and the endless manipulations possible with Pro Tools.
Record producers are looking for the drummer to drive the feel” of the song and their drum sound to fill” a certain amount of space within the song's recording.
Musical tastes and emotion evoke feel while genre and current trends and fashion usually dictate the exact size” and specific nature of the drum sound.
Of course there are always exceptions to any rule.
Size
Size refers to both the actual drum sound itself and the allowed space” the drums occupy within the recording.
Size is equated to all of the following characteristics: realistic (or unrealistic) ambience, a good aural picture” of the drum stage, good internal drum balance between the individual drums, good low frequencies and high frequencies, punchiness or weight” in the low mid-range frequencies and dynamic range or how well you can hear the subtle to the loudest hits without distortion.
Perspective
I find that recording drums has very much to do with your monitor mixing as well as the actual sound you are getting on both the individual drums and the total drum kit.
Sure, if I place the drum mix well above the rest of the backing tracks, I can hype the listener into thinking the drum sound is big and muscular. Tilted monitor mixes can make you think you have a great kick drum sound merely because it is very loud.
Pulling the drum mix back into a more realistic mix perspective reveals the true size of the drum recording as it blends with the rest of the instruments and vocals.
When placed in mix perspective, I can assess the relative tonality and balance of the individual drums and judge the overall kit-ambience quality. Low and high frequencies as well as dynamic range are also better judged at this level.
Like a good foundation of a house, if the drum kit sounds good while in relative balance, then any alternative mixing ideas like loud snare and kick drum mixes will work well.
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