Recording Percussion on a Budget - Bedroom acoustics

[kesslerjesus]

Yes, I'm looking to record drums in my 15x10x10 space. I have shipping blankets set up, carpet and bass traps are coming soon, but I'm just basically looking to see what instruments to purchase in order to record my own drum kits.

So far I like the idea of getting some bongos and congas by LP, since they can be had for around 100.

Mics of choice for now are reg. sm57's (haven't bought em yet)

Any suggestions on budget mics that might get the job done better or for percussion instruments that won't take up too much space of bother the neighbors? (it's an apt)

Thanks for your time!

[dfahb44]

I recently went this route.

I was fed up with boxy drum sounds and small room garbage, so this is what I did.

1. Got a MIDI editor, created a drum map, then exported it to MIDI
2. Bought Aptrigga (a sampler)
3. Found great free drum/percussion samples on the internet
4. Downloaded Midi Split to separate the tracks into separate ones and send them all to APtrigga.



This obviously doesn't have to be done in this order , or using Aptrigga, but it's leading me to pretty damn good drum sounds, and honestly, it's really the final product that matters, no one is going to know that you "cheated" as long as you make it sound real using your skills and samples.

Good luck!

[kesslerjesus]

thanks for the input/suggestion. i've considered samplers but i was considering the actualy drum + mic route if it would work in a small room with proper treatment (like i said, i'm getting some pretty cool bass traps soon).

but then again, if no one has had success doing this, i might just reconsider my decision and go back to hardware and samples :(

i also have a small 4x4 iso booth, but don't think or know if drums (congas, bongos etc) would sound great in there since it's basically dead, although the floor has an extra layer of nice wood for a kinda natural reflection thing? lol

any and all suggestions/input are welcome!

[IonicBreed]

Let no one tell you that this won't work! You won't know unless you try it. I do know that your room dimensions will prove to be problematic with flutter echo and low end frequencies. Try to add as much bass trapping as possible!

Now I can't officially tell you what your sound is going to sound like because I haven't visited the room, but I can tell you that the dimensions are a little smaller than I would want for my sound waves to develop. So you're not going to get a "room" tone, more of a boxy tone. This can all be fixed (some of it atleast) with eq. This set up works well if you are working on a budget.

Give it a shot.