| yes mic placement is important but no matter how a mic is placed if the source sounds bad the mic will always pick up a bad sound. So I will slightly disagree with you. YES IT IS IMPORTANT BUT IT ISN'T THE FIRST STEP TO TAKE AND IT ISN'T GOING TO SOLVE THE ISSUE ENTIRELY. NEVER IGNORE ANY ELEMENT OF THE SIGNAL, EVERYTHING BIG AND SMALL CONTRIBUTES TO THE END RESULT.
But seriously if you want effects and you are in the DAW realm stick to plugins it's always easier to add effects to a dry sound than to go in reverse. when you incorporate sculpting EQ and comp, etc into the signal you cannot take it out.
The room and the drums are the most important thing to get right. It's really not an argument...if they aren't right you won't get the BEST POSSIBLE SOUND NO MATTER HOW WELL POSITIONED THE MICS ARE OR WHAT GEAR YOU USE....IT JUST WON'T HAPPEN....I'm not saying go buy a DW kit or whatever I'm just saying get a good sound out of what you have
A cheap drumset can sound good-great if it's well tuned, in a good room, etc but even the most expensive drumset can sound bad if it isn't tuned, it's in a bad room, etc. Why let the source limit you? Buying nice cymbals, nice heads, etc....and spending the time to tweak them to perfection will make any kit sound awesome.
Head selection, stick selection, drummer's playing, cymbal selection, tuning, etc. are the MOST IMPORTANT ASPECTS TO MASTER.
Depending on what you play I can probably give you some great ideas for drum gear and tuning styles. I am a percussion major and I play kit and record all the time. I have a mediochre drumset to play most of the time (2002 Pearl Export Mahogany...I am saving to build/buy a new kit thinking either a DIY acrylic kit or a step up from my kit like a Yamaha Tour Custom or something all maple) but I have a nice snare drum Ludwig Aluminum with upgrades (die cast hoops, Puresound snare wires (personally I use the Twisted series), tube lugs, etc), I use all REMO drumheads (clear pinstripes on toms, clear powerstroke 3 on kick, coated powerstroke 3 on snare), all DW 5000/9000 series hardware, and I got a nice set of K Custom Hybrid Cymbals from the Zildjian Sound Lab. Most people (aside from some of us uber gear snobs) can't tell that I'm playing an intermediate drumset because of how the kit is tuned, played, and the room I'm in and how I miked the kit. I tune my kick pretty low to get a nice tight, punchy sound. My toms are more of a mid-range not too tight but not flabby/boomy. My snare is pretty high tension and I like it tight and dry sounding with a nice crack type of rimshot sound.
Next important is mic selection.
I would do preamps after mics or at the same time. Make sure you pair your mics to your preamp. Try to optimize your tone when possible. And in all honesty if you want to stick with Pro Tools maybe you should consider getting some kind of 8 Channel mic preamp. Something like a Focusrite Octopre or Mackie Onyx 800R will be a slight upgrade over the M-Audio preamps (which are kinda crap as we've all said before...these will be a noticeable improvement not like M-Audio vs Avalon -or w/e highly regarded pre you want to insert- but they will be quieter and more transparent). If you really want to jump up in quality there are countless options and the price can be thousands of dollars and then you'd have to tell us what sounds you want from different elements of the kit or if you want a multi-channel pre so everything sounds more universal/cohesive, etc...
Then after all those elements are under control would be the time (if you still need it) to look into effects. Like I said I think you'd be better off going with nice plugins. Duende by SSL is nice (firewire), Waves (SSL pack, along with many of the other bundles), UA stuff (a lot of cool plugs available). Like I said it's better to get a good natural dry sound and then to modify it later when you need effects than to start with a wet sound that you can't change.
A couple of inexpensive products I reccomend to help with recording are the Earthworks KickPad and the KikBrik. Using those two pieces get you to a nearly perfect kick sound in a hurry (for most styles). A DRUMDIAL is a MUST because it is the most accurate way to check tuning. I have a good ear and I sitll use a drumdial when I record or play a big concert (even like timpani, etc I use my drumdial). No ear could ever be as accurate or consistent as a drumdial (it's just physical limitations of the human anatomy).
Aside from that Moongel can be cool, but I try to reccomend using as little dampening material as possible. If you tune properly dampening and muffling is unnecessary unless you are going for a sound where it's ok to choke/kill everything (ie an effect). |