has anyone recorded drumset with ALL SM57's?

[Ceasar]

does anybody have any recordings they might have done with recording an entire drumset, minus the kick and room mikes with only sm57s?

i dont have that many 57's to try out but i was wondering if miking a kit with only 57s make the outcome sounds too 'low endish'?

i read everywhere that 57's sound great on everything.
so yeah.. good or bad?

[Bob Olhsson]

I understand most of the Creedence hits had the drums recorded with all 57s (including kick) except for Sony C37s on the cymbals.

[KeithMoonwannabe]

I've done a kit including overheads/cymbals with 57's they work great

[mva801]

I'm pretty sure there's a link around here somewhere to a recording done entirely with 57's. It can sound fine as long as you have fine sounding drums and drummer...

[Ceasar]

Originally Posted by KeithMoonwannabe

I've done a kit including overheads/cymbals with 57's they work great

could you provide a link?

[theskycouldfly]

when i was working at an ssl room in hollywood i wanted to do a whole record with just 57's. maybe someday.

[michael2]

I am not really an engineer, but I try. here is a track where pretty much everything was with a 57:
http://rabbitearsmotel.files.wordpre...11-dustmp3.mp3

[Fertil]

Kick, snare, OH:s...

The All 57 Song by Kelly McGuire

[Teej]

Isn't the story that the drums on Blood Sugar Sex Magik were all 57s?

[KeithMoonwannabe]

Originally Posted by Ceasar

could you provide a link?

I don't know if I still have it I made it 5 years ago in college and it's possible it was on the hard drive that failed but I will dig around and search for it.

But seriously the 57 works well all over the kit I wouldn't hesitate using it all around. I like spot miking my ride bell and hi hats with em obviously kick snare and toms shine with em.

What more do you want?

[noah330]

For years when I was younger that's all I had, so it's what I used. I used to use a pair of 451s (the old ones) for overheads though.

Worked great - direct to TSR-8. Those were the days!

[iluvstrats]

Both of these clips use sm57's on snare, tom, and floor. 52 beta on kick.

SoundClick artist: Joe Davies - page with MP3 music downloads

SoundClick artist: Joe Davies - page with MP3 music downloads

[Bob Olhsson]

By the way, when the Creedence stuff was recorded with the 57s (actually 546s) the Wally Heider's mike closet had plenty of U47s and anything else you'd want available. It was not about budget.

[Crash]

The kits on this project were all done with SM-57's, except kick was Beta 52, OH's were KSM-27's and HH was an AT 4050 as I recall. Snare and toms were all 57's.

Bob Charles Band | Blue Sky Black | CD Baby

[mikethedrummer]

I'm real tempted... Would only take a few minutes to set up...

[Tom Hakala]

Originally Posted by Teej

Isn't the story that the drums on Blood Sugar Sex Magik were all 57s?

They sure had lot's of SM57 while recording the album. But I remember seeing MD421 on toms when watching Funky Monks. I read an interview years ago where Brendan or Nick or some of the STP guys said that they used SM57 a lot on Purple. Anyways, those are in my top 10 of all time best albums.

[Fhl]

This is recorded with SM57's only. Sound pretty good

[NewAquarius]

I think I read somewhere that Tom Scholz used only 57s on the drums when recording the Boston album. I wouldn't say that the cymbals had "sparkle," but the sounds were definitely good.

[AbbeyRhodes]

I definitely agree with what some of the others are saying, the drummer is the most important thing.

I wouldn't say the 57 sounds good on anything, rather the 57 will always reliably capture a good performance on a good sounding instrument. I would rather have a world class drummer and 4 x SM57 than a poor/average drummer with a world class mic locker. A good drummer who knows how to tune the kit appropriately and to get good tone out of the drums will never sound "low endish" regardless of mics.

[spandexstallion]

I don't have a link, but have used entirely 57's on a kit and it works out fabulously. A little lacking in sub bass on the kick, but everything was quite useable. I rather liked them as overheads.

I would also like to bring up the point that, while a good drummer is the most important, the second biggest factor is the drums themselves and the tuning of those drums. If you want your drums to sound good, learn to tune, and to use the right drum for the application. 90% of drummers I work with will use a floor tom that is too large and/or tuned too low to speak in the track, and will tune their snare completely out of key with the song.

Here's a song that I did with a VERY cheap CAD drum mic set and a set of gt-55's as overheads.

http://www.ryantruso.com/songs/weddingfeast.mp3

It's not all 57's, but illustrates that a good drummer and proper tuning is FAR more important than mics

[diogo_c]

This thread has just encouraged me! thumbsup

[rainsinvelvet]

I posted a quick song in the " drums with sm57s only" thread or something to the effect.

I was surprised how good it came out. Just goes to show you-

ERic

[Maur Bighley]

One of my first location recordings had a band with 2 drummers. I had one SM57 over each of them panned slighty off center and I was pretty impressed with the result.

Wasn't suitable for release (it was just a bunch of older guys jamming on some covers) but the band liked it.

[Jidis]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

By the way, when the Creedence stuff was recorded with the 57s (actually 546s) the Wally Heider's mike closet had plenty of U47s and anything else you'd want available. It was not about budget.

Speaking of which, I almost lost my lunch a while back reading that Mix article on them and discovering that they used 18" hi-hats.

The scariest part is imagining the stands that were available back then trying to handle that. I used to hate getting stuck with anything older than mid-seventies hardware where you had to spread the hi-hats way apart to have any chance of getting them to open in any decent time. You almost had to play with your whole leg. Takes some getting used to. I wonder if Creedence used an "over the counter" hi-hat stand, or if they had something custom made.

Take Care

(and sorry for the slight off-topic)

[Stitch333]

So the story goes:
Van Halen 1984 was recorded entirely with SM58s.

[A4722]

I've got a friend who was recording at some pro studio in SoCal (he didn't say which). The longtime engineer said he only likes to use his Harrison console with 57's for the entire band.

Didn't get any names etc. but this guy had apparently worked with some of the Big Boys going way back.

My friend was shocked and the guy said it was more about placement and balance than anything else.

[Heartfelt]

Audio Instruction

Russ Long recorded a complete song with 57's. I was impressed with the outcome.