Miking Techniques: The Drum Kit - Posted on 2013-06-25 by Heath Drum

This week during my lesson with my mentor, we talked about miking techniques. My mentor began by introducing the drum kit. The drum kit, considered to be the most complicated instruments to mic, can use a number of mics to get an overall pleasing sound to the engineer or producer. After going over some of the basic techniques, my mentor started off by miking the kick drum, placing a condenser microphone inside the kick drum. He explained that this can give an overall great thump and bump sound, which is what the kick drum is known for. Next he moved on to the snare drum. Most engineers only mic the top of the snare but my mentor explained that miking the bottom of the snare gives a great sound when both sides are recorded. After the snare, my mentor set up two overhead mics, one on the left of the drum kit and one on the right. He also pointed out that when the engineer is in the control room it is easy to forget that the overheads are placed opposite of our own left and right image. If we want to boost the level of the mic on our left then we should look for the mic on the opposite side. After the overhead mics, we moved on to the high hat. Some engineers place two mics on the top and bottom, but he only used one on the top. He finished up with three mics on a low, mid, and high tom, placing the mics on the top of each tom. It's interesting to note that mics can be easily placed out-of-phase, meaning that the mics are not correctly angled at the desired instrument. My mentor explained that it is a good idea to set the mics, have the drummer play each instrument, and make adjustments accordingly to make sure that the mics are set to record in-phase.