Mic placement - Posted on 2016-05-25 by William Hayes

This week we were setting up mics for a drum kit, Steve asked me how many mics would you use for this drum kit. I said three,not really knowing the answer. He told me to set up the stands and the microphones and then come get him when I'm done. And when I went to retrieve him he kind of chuckled and said that not right, and proceeded to show me the correct way to do it. He started off by telling me to look at the drum set and to see where the wear marks are, that is a tale sign to see if you have a good drummer. If there are marks all around the edges, you know that your drummer is wild. So while tracking, you want your mics close to the edge so the don't get hit by the stick. We use a total of 7 microphone, one was on the snare to her on the toms one was on the symbols and we had to condenser mics to track as room microphone. When using a lot of mics like in a situation like this you have to be aware of phasing issues. Another thing is to none of your equipment can be in the way of the drummer, like your mic stands chords and excetera. The two room mics were Audio-Technica 4050 s side address condenser mics, the mic that was on this on this share and one of the tom what is a shore sm57 small diaphragm Dynamic mic, and on everything else like the other toms and the kick drum head sennheiser's md421 large diaphragm Dynamic mics front address.