Miking up your own drum kit

[Nutmeg II.]

Where is the point?
Use the sampler and a keyboard.
Or do you want the human feel? => use drumpads, trigger, audio to midi...

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO ARCHIV BY USING REAL DRUMS????

[kataztraphy]

My point is i want to stay fresh and have my own drums that nobody else has or can buy anywhere.I just want my drums to sound like hip-hop drums instead of rock n roll or acoustic sounding and miking up my own drums is the only way i can think of to have my own drums.Thanks

[Nutmeg II.]

IC

So you want your own custom sounds.

You don't need to record them!
Just tweek sounds you have, layer tehm, process them, eq them, use ADSR envelopse on...

[kataztraphy]

Yeah,That sounds like a good idea.Thanks.If you dont mind can you please explain that a little bit more.I'm a beginner when it comes to eq,envelopes,ect.So you can actually change a sound like a snare you have and make it sound different?Thanks

[Nutmeg II.]

Come to the chat!
E-cue is there too right now!

[mpr3]

I think most of what you are looking for can be achieved in the mix using a mixture of normal acoustic drums, samples, and gated tone generators.

There is an excellent thread around here about how to get a rather large sounding kick. Try searching Gearsultz.

[kataztraphy]

Cool,thanks for the help.

[kataztraphy]

do you think you can point me to the thread?

[djui5]

kata,
you could track real drums. It would sound really cool if you got the right engineer and room. You'd need a small room with a good sound to it and a proper mic set-up. If you list the mic's you have access to and studio equipment I could suggest some things...but it really comes down to the drummer being able to play something like that.....

[jazzius II]

with enough gear/knowhow you can make your drums sound anyway you want.

[kataztraphy]

Hey, I can have access to pretty much anything and if it's not in the studio i could always rent it.If you can suggest the best equipment for the job that would be great and also mabye how i should play the drum to get that hip-hop sound.Thanks

[anima]

i usually use akg d202 on a floor tom, placed around 4-5 inches above the rim, facing the middle of the skin, 3 mics for bass drum - akg d12 and d112 (old and new version of the same bass drum mic, but i like using them together for more natural sound as d12 -older mic - is too bright, on the other hand d112 seems far too bassy) inside the drum, couple of inches away from the skin, facing where the beater hits the drum and one akg d202 right on the outside by the rim, facing the inside (more or less where the others). shure sm57 is quite good for high toms, again, placed 2-3 inches above the rim facing a middle of a skin. a pair of akg c1000s for overheads, quite close to one another, facing away to each other, about 1 foot above the cymbals. akg c418 (clip mic) for snare - no need to explain - clipped to the rim, facing the middle of the drum. akg c451 for hi-hats, placed just couple of inches above where the cymbals close, facing about the middle distance between the edge and the middle. you can also try placing the mic below the hi hat, at the same position. some people also use the second mic for snare to mic it up from below so you could experiment with that - again, i would recommend shure sm57. bare in mind, akg c451, c1000s and c418 are condenser mics so you will need phantom powering on.
all depends how many pieces you have got on your drum kit. generally though, the principle is, you place the mic so the capsule is few inches above the rim, facing the spot where you hit it. in the case of hi-hats, you want to be careful so it is not placed where the cymbals close, as during open-close you get an air to the mic which will never result in a good recording. as for mics, dynamics are usually best for drums, as they pick up more of a low end, considering you have to match them so they gradually raise the range of picked up frequencies starting from bass drum being the lowest and going up, so you can distinct which one is which. for cymbals i would suggest condenser mics as they tend to pick up the bright and precise signal. involves lots of experimenting but as soon as you work out your favourite setup then you can just enjoy the sound you like and just slightly improve it or alter according to your preferences while mixing down. as a sound engineer, i strongly recommend a real sound over samples. it is unique and it is yours. also, if you have a chance, try out recording a drum kit on tape - the sound is massive. adds a lot of warmth and depth to it.
good luck.

[cyjanopan]

Few days ago we tracked live drums for something like hiphop/triphop. The fact is if you know what to do, you can do almost anything with any drums. Tunning, playing, miking, and postproduction can do wonders. We tracked old Trixon kick drum with leather heads, some old ludwig snare tuned really low and damped a lot, played with brushes but with rimshots. Coles 4038 as overhead, m201 as snare mic, MD441 as kick drum, with PSP Oldtimer and PSP Vintage Warmer = AWESOME.

[Benlittlejohn]

Originally Posted by cyjanopan

Few days ago we tracked live drums for something like hiphop/triphop. The fact is if you know what to do, you can do almost anything with any drums. Tunning, playing, miking, and postproduction can do wonders. We tracked old Trixon kick drum with leather heads, some old ludwig snare tuned really low and damped a lot, played with brushes but with rimshots. Coles 4038 as overhead, m201 as snare mic, MD441 as kick drum, with PSP Oldtimer and PSP Vintage Warmer = AWESOME.

not that it matters but if you wanna spend the time telling me...

im interested in what pres you used for what.

thanks

ben

[vhaghar]

I know this post is really old, but for anyone interested.......if you're not looking for an acoustic sound at all, but want to actually play live drums, just find your favorite samples and replace everything but overheads and hats with drumagog. (you could also throw a subkick on the bass drum and keep that in) That's definitely worked well for me.

[trebleone]

so are you going for the sounds like kanye west/black eyed peas ect?? cos you wont sound like them with a real kit (maybe with an electronic drum kit) but most of their sounds come from an 808 drum machine/sampler.

for more underground or real sounding hip hop try using distortion on your drums with an fx send through your mixer, also use EQ on all the sounds and possibly try not miking up the bottom of the snare or if you do have its volume down low so there isnt as much ring, you want the snare to be sharp like a "bap" sound...

anything can be accomplished you just have to mess with it