Recording drums

Teetonetal

So my band have asked me to do a demo recording... the only thing I have no experience with is recording drums, mainly as for my own projects I have a Yamaha DT eXpress iv which I use as trigger for EZ Drummer.

Now I suggested that our drummer could use this as it would be much easier to record, but he uses a bigger kit and wants to try a real recording, he has all the mics but really I don't know where to start!  2 OH + Bass and Snare mics...?

Also how to make the recording is vexing me a little, should we play to a click then re-record the parts or just do it live (issue here is I only have 8 tracks available at once..)

Any suggestions welcome, especially if you have a sure fire method

Will be recording via Zoom R24 into reaper

Danny1969

The success you generally have recording  drums basically comes down to 3 things in this order :

The drummer, the kit and the room the drums are recorded in

A good beginners method is what's known as the recorder man method and it uses 2 overheads and an easy method of keeping things in phase, take a look at this link :

http://www.hometracked.com/2007/05/12/recorderman-overhead-drum-mic-technique/

Once you have a good image of the kit in your overheads you can add kick and snare mics and advance from there. Drums are one of the hardest things to record well so don't expect studio results straight away. 

I would use a click if the drums are going down on their own, it makes editing a lot easier. Find the right tempo, send the drummer a click and get someone to give the drummer a scratch vocal and guitar so he knows where he is in the song. Once you have some good drum takes you can build up the tracks from there

Teetonetal

Ohhh that's interesting... first up to try me thinks...

ecc83

Just FYI: The R24 only has phantom power on two inputs so check what mics the drummer has!

Might need a spook juice PSU or a loan of a small mixer.

Dave.

Cirrus

I'd second the recorderman method for overheads - it's relatively foolproof in that it gives you a decent stereo spread, keeps kicka and snare centered, minimizes room sound which is handy if your recording space doesn't sound great, and being so close in on the drummer's side of the kit you get lots of stick attack which makes for nice clear sounding drums.

The downside it that it's kind of prescriptive and not that exciting, plus being quite close in you can lose something if the space DOES sound good.

As for click tracks, I'd do whatever makes the drummer perform best. Some are fine just to a click, others are stifled. Some prefer to play along to actual musicians to feel the groove, in which case a guitarist and bassist playing into the drummer's headphones can be good. The number one priority in recording at any level is to facilitate a good performance!

What mics exactly does the drummer have? Bear in mind that drums are LOUD. It's very hard to break a mic, but be wary of putting sensitive mics in kick drum air blasts. Also mic levels will be hot so having pads to keep from overloading your interface will be important. You want to be aiming for the PEAKS of your recorded signals to be no more than about -12dBfs, otherwise you're driving your converters too hard.

For close mics, positioning is everything;

Kick - Mic outside the reso head for middy thump/ sustain for a more '60s/ john bonhamish sound. Assuming the kick has a hole cut in it, mic juust inside the hole pointing at the beater usually reaps a reasonably balanced punchy tone. move the mic deeper in to get more beater thwack and less low end. Try to avoid the centre line of the drum, things can sound a little thin there.

Snare - Start with the mic 1.5 inches out and an inch above the top rim (so it's actually hanging over space, not over the drum), pointing at the far edge of the top head. That usually yields a nice balanced snare sound that isn't too dull, thwacky or ringy.. Try to keep the null of the mic aimed at the hi hat to minimise spill, research the mic's polar pattern to check where the null is.

Toms - I kind of treat them the same as the snare, sometimes getting closer and at a steeper angle which gives more low end thump.

Apart from that, the tuning of the kit is vital. New heads all round, stretched in, is important. Drum tuning is hard, so make sure you or someone you know can do it well otherwise the best you can hope for is an excellent recording of something that doesn't sound good.

)

Teetonetal

All good info there, thanks!

So we have a mixer with more phantom power channels if needed, however, drummer has a 7 piece mic set, 2 OH mics are powered, rest are dynamic.

I'm keen to play to a click for selfish reasons, I use a lot of time based effects - during the gig I use tempo tap regularly to keep in time and I guess that would be possible also on the recording but setting to a click is so much easier and would mean I can do some extra funky stuff Drummer sys click should be ok, but we will do a few rehearsals first to make sure... 

As for drumkit tuning - that is a dark art to me, I think the drummer's sounds good, so I hope he knows how to do it, he certainly seems to spend time before each gig checking so I can only hope. 

Thing is we have nothing riding on this recording so I guess if it doesn't work we try again