Recording a full band...especially drums

[FuckJesus]

i play bass in a band...and we try and record our stuff in the singer's garage...and we can actually produce some pretty good sounding stuff...

i was just wondering about methods to record drums...and make them sound good..

also, do you think its better to mic amps or to run them in directly...?

[The_Naked_Stalk]

Check out my recordings on the poll thread I posted. If you like the way that sounds, I can go into detail about one relatively painless way to get pretty high quality recordings quickly, constantly, and cheaply.

[elevate]

i was just wondering about methods to record drums...and make them sound good..
There are so many methods, that for brevity's sake, it'd be better to inquire as to a method that would suit a particular arrangement of mics, preamps, mixer, etc...

[imtheism]

depends on the sound you're trying to get, and are you recording all at once? or are you multitracking an mixing?

[FuckJesus]

well...we want to do both, record all at once when we're jamming and shit...just for the hell of it...and when we're recording songs it would be nice to record the drums and bass at the same time...but i dont know how to go about doing this..i mean-we have our primitive ways...but the sound quality is not that good (i know a lot of things could play a role in this..)

[elevate]

What gear do you have to work with and what gear, if any, do you plan on getting?

[Seven Deep]

I want to answer this guys question
but I dont feel like writing a "how to" book right now.

[elevate]

but I dont feel like writing a "how to" book right now.
Exactly. It'd much easier and quicker to come up with an application for a specific combination of gear.

[paraflux]

Boy, you two are high and mighty**

Just answer the guy's question.

ahem

The best way to record drums is to put a tarp over half of the garage and put one mic on the OTHER side of the drums, one mic stuck in the garage door opening framework, and one stuck up your guitarist's ass while he's jerkin off in the next room.

[Seven Deep]

Boy, you two are high and mighty**


I'm not "high and mighty"
I feel I can give alot of pointers in this topic
(seeing as I have a degree in audio engineering)
I'm just not wanting to type out sixteen pages of recording method.
get Hubert and runsteins "recording method" book
that will answer many of your questions

I'll give you a few pointers on the drums....
- use a Shure Sm57 or similar type mic on the snare....it's frequency response is almost a soul mate to those put out by a snare drum......clip or aim the mic from the top left side (from drummers perspective) in towards a spot about 3 inches from the hoop of the drum. This should do a fairly balanced job of eliminating hi hat bleed and getting the fullness of the drums shell to tape. Use your EQ and cut a few decibels at 7 kHz.....just enough to take out the rasp the snares can give off.

- If you have enough mics to do each tom, great.....use a similar method as described with the snare drum, but with a more extreme angle pointing in towards what would be the centre of the bottom head. The mics should be facing almost completely downwards. This is to prevent the cymbals from splattering into the mics. Use highly directional mics to isolate the sound further.
You may or may not have to move the clip depending on how your drummer sets his kit up, but try not to have the mic directly under the bow of a cymbal. EQ settings greatly vary with Toms, but I've gotten some great sounds by cutting about 3-4 Db at 800 Hz or putting a high pass shelf on them at about 80 Hz, and boosting 2 or 3 Db at 7-10 kHz depending on the size of the toms.

-the bass drum is a very "preference" oriented instrument......some people want a tight concise "clicking" sound, but smart people want a bass drum to sound like a bass drum. ...if the front head has a hole cut into it.....angle the mic stand so that the mic is about 3 or 4 inches into the drum, about 3/4 of it's dimension in height.....then angle the diaphragm so that it points to a spot about 1 inch below the point that the beater strikes the batter head....this will give you an "attacky" sound, but with enough fullness to balance out the sound. move the mic further in or back out to suit your tastes, if the head has no hole, you can place a larger diaphragm cardioid mic at a spot about 3'o clock on the front head, aiming into the smae point described before...and remember....if you want a big boomy sound, and arent getting enough attack.....you can boost 8 kHz in the channel to bring out the "click" Also, if your board allows it....try cutting about 4-6 Db out of the bass drum at about 250-300 Hz......it will eliminate some of the boxy rumble the drum can give off, plus free up those frequencies for the bass guitar. and dont stick the bass drum mic so far into the drum that your meters are redlining at normalized fader positions..., too many people make that mistake.

-cymbals....I dont know how much cash you have put into mics and a board.....but if you're playing in a garage, you dont need to mic the cymbals at all....

[elevate]

I'm not "high and mighty"
Note the starcasm.