Snare drum miking - Posted on 2012-01-23 by Chris Bell

Obviously the drumkit is the hardest of elements to track, purely based on the fact that you would be miking several or more elements balanced into one instrument. Without getting too in depth into phase and the room acoustics, lets look at one aspect that plagues many aspiring engineers...The Snare Drum. The snare is almost always a focal point, up front and center. Its what we clap our hands to in our favorite tune. If miked properly one can achieve a good sound pretty easily. Step one if possible have. The song being recorded as well rehearsed as possible, two make sure the snare is in tune and three have atleast one more snare on hand. These three thing are essential prior to recording. Choose your mics, they should offer a good deal of rear rejection from the hi hat and other drums. I would reccomend the Sennheiser 441 on the top and a Shure Beta 57 on the bottom. However you can experiment all day to get the sound you want. A good starting placement is 2-3 inches from the head at a 45 degree angle, top and bottom. Make sure to go througha highquality preamp and flip the phase switch on the bottom mic. The low end loss from an out of phase mic will leave your drums thin and lifeless. It will surely sound like it was not recorded proffesionally. These days technology allows us to be able to afford a decend multitrack setup for little money, however so many think the technology will do the work for us, we should all learn the fundamentals first. We can all appreciate the technology much more after we properly understand the physics of recording. Next thing to consider is your room. Is it "roomy" or "dead sounding" ideally you want a 30% dead room for tracking for a natural sound, although a dead room isnt unuseable. You would just add artificial reverb to simulate a larger room. Most people setting up project studios are of lumited means and usually spend what money they have on gear as opposed to sound proofing...etc. Perhaps do some research and utilize whats already avalable at home. Most home studios exist i on room, say the basement. Dont underestimate thst old couch from grandma as a great bass trap or a bookcase full of audio accessories/supplies as a great diffusor. Apsorption and reflection will be allies or enemies in a studio, depending on how they are utilized