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Chris Bell
The purpose of this blog is to stress the importance of the preparation involved in miking a drum kit.Even someone well adversed in recording drums goes through a series of "pre recording" steps to insure a quality recording one of the most difficult of all the instruments to record. Partly due to the fact that it is several or more elements individually miked then balanced as a whole instrument. If a bit of care and research is done, anyone with the proper knowledge of their space and tools can get good drum tracks. Having great mics and a great kit is not going to help without the knowledge of their propor use. So someone without alot of experience should not be suprised if they throw a few mics up and the drums aren't good. There are many things to consider when tracking drums; the room, the kit, the player, the mics, the cables, the preamps, phase issues, channel availability, what sound are you going for. It all matters. Basically choose the right tools first, and save some aggrivation.Here's a link to help understand some basic home drum recording techniques.http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun07/articles/acoustic_drums.htm
If all you have is a 50's era jazz kit, it wont sound like Bohnams drums. Do your research, find out what sound youre going for, what's the budget, do you have a suitable room, will you need recording supplies(stands, cables, mics, dampning material, new heads... Etc) do you know how to tune a kit properly, can you play to a click track, will you be going to a studio, if so be prepared to pay for setup also. You wont walkin and start tracking right away. If youre doing it yourself take advantage of a lower overhead and really learn how to track drums before you commit to tracking. No one in the band wants their time wasted, and theyll appreciate having someone in the band thats knowledgable in recirding. That knowledge and preparedness can save time and cash in a pro studio too. Knowledge truely is power. Finally once you have mics on the kit do some tests of just drums. Record 20-30 seconds, stop and listen on a good set of monitors. Trust your ears, does it sound good. Make adjustments if needed. Listen for phase, try to get isolation between drums by mic placement. Then record again, rinse, repeat. You'll be suprised at how noticable the progress is after a little experimentation. Lastly have fun!
