First Drum Recording Tests

[Guido tum SudenKeymaster]

Hi everyone,

Almost everything I needed for recording my very new drum-set arrived. I still had to borrow 2 mics, stands and some cables.
Attached is a recording I tried (first time playing to a click track not as a keyboarder ;-).
Gain staging included a lot of running (me alone in my studio but luckily with an iPad).
This is the raw 14-tracks recording, no eqs or compressors on the way in and no plugins used.
All faders are at 0 dB.

I would highly appreciate your opinions. Please let me know what you think, what can be left alone and what should be changed.

Drum Pattern Sequence copied 7 times.

1. Complete Pattern (8 Bars)
2. Kick In, Kick Out, both Kick Mics (2 Capsules in 1 x Lewitt DTP 640 REX)
3. Snare Top (Lewitt MTP 440 DM), Snare Bottom (Oktava MK 012), both Snare Mics
4. Tom 1 Mic (Lewitt DTP 340 TT), Tom 2 Mic, Tom 3 Mic, Tom 4 Mic (Lewitt LCT 550), all 4 Tom Mics
5. Hi-Hat Mic (Oktava MK 012), Overheads (2 x Lewitt LCT 340 in ORTF), sometimes alone, sometimes together
6. Room Mics (2 x Audio Technica Pro 45), Flur Mic (Behringer ECM8000), all 3 Mics
7. 2 x (w/o Tom Mics, with Tom Mics), 2 x (w/o Room Mics, with Room Mics)
8. All together now

- Lewitt: https://www.lewitt-audio.com/products/microphones/dtp-percussion/dtp-beat-kit-pro-7
and: https://www.lewitt-audio.com/products/microphones/lct-recording/lct-550
- Oktava: http://www.oktava-microphones.com/mk012.htm
- Behringer: http://www.music-group.com/Categories/Behringer/Microphones/Condenser-Microphones/ECM8000/p/P0118
- Audio Technica: http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/wired_mics/bd750dd0662d571c/index.html

Room is 4 m x 3 m x 2 m (13' x 10' x 6.5')
Flur is German for corridor or hall which is the adjacent room with a tiled floor.
Kick, Snare, Hi-Hat and Overheads recorded with Focusrite Clarett 8PreX.
Toms and Room recorded with MOTU 8pre.

So, what do you think?
Guido

• This topic was modified 6 years ago by Guido tum Suden.

[Jeff MacdonaldModerator]

Hey Guido,

These drums sound good. You got a great stereo image. Isn't it fun trying to record yourself while watching 14+ channels to make sure you have good levels and aren't clipping channels? haha

I am quite impressed with the Lewitt tom mics, I may have to check those out myself.

The only real thing that stood out to me was the abundance of snare wire in the bottom snare mic. This is just a personal preference thing, but I always try to get a bit more body out of my bottom snare mic and try to avoid pointing it at the snare wires. Again this could be just the result of recording it hot and leaving faders at 0. I would hazard a guess that if that fader were backed off on the bottom snare mic the snare wires would blend quite nicely.

I think you achieved an excellent and clean drum sound that should mix really well into anything.

I have an ECM8000 that is collecting dust that I might have to try as a room mic after hearing your flur mic.

Cheers,

Jeff

[KipParticipant]

i think you did a great job recording those ..remember that 80 percent of the drum shell sound is the tuning and the heads
the toms sounded alittle like 1 ply clears? to me but some moon gels are cheap and great fix
that has been the only really hard part for our studio is when guys bring in drums and the heads are so wore that they wont tune.. or they have the heads that came from the guitar center
but as far as core recording of the kit id say you did a great job...the rest will be taste on the style of sounds your after
nicely done

[Guido tum SudenKeymaster]

Thank you both,

The drum heads are Remo Emperor, so, yes. There's already on piece of Sky Gel on every tom and two on the snare drum.

Two more questions (at the moment 🙂
– Is the room sound okay? Is it so good as to use it on all accounts? I'm asking, because I'm calculating how much cable I have to buy. I can certainly use the mics I borrowed all the time because we'll only need them at school once a year. OTOH maybe a few extra meters are not bad, so I can change the placing whenever I want.
I just hung the once I used 5" from the ceiling so they are not in the way and I don't have to use stands.

– I used ORTF on the overheads, so I have no phase issues and I rather like the sound. But then I could just pick up the cymbals with the overheads to have less bleed and add more room sound for the overall sound. What would you do in my case?

Guido

[Guido tum SudenKeymaster]

Just did a little mixing with the same tracks.

[Jeff MacdonaldModerator]

Hey Guido,

I think the room sound you got was good. I would get enough cable to make sure you can place a mic anywhere you want in your room - you can't stretch cable to0 easily ;).

As for the ORTF overheads, those gave you a nice stereo image and that's all that matters. I prefer spaced pairs myself, but that's just a personal opinion. I like to get my drum sound from my rooms and OH with close mics blended to add weight and snap to the sound. I would stick with whatever is giving you the best results but perhaps experiment first to see if there is a better way, just make sure the OH mics are equidistant from the centre of your snare drum to get a good image.

Cheers,

Jeff

[Author]

Posts