Minimal Drum Micing

[ev33]

Originally Posted by ScumBum

Do you have any advice on minimal drum micing , for rock music ? Getting a great sound with only 4 channels ? Thanks ,

I think for me, the most important thing for successful minimal micing on drums, is how the drums are played. It becomes a way way bigger issue when you don't have a lot of control over the balance of the individual drums or cymbals in the kit. I have had a lot better luck with it when I am playing drums myself. At this point I can't say that I am much of a drummer, because I just don't play very often, but the one thing I've gotten pretty good at is playing the drums so they sound balanced through microphones. I use to always have one mic setup up on my drum kit when I use to practice or play to Zeppelin records. I would listen back to the recordings and it slowly just started changing how I played. I play with a very heavy foot and very controlled hands. I play the cymbals very soft while still hitting the snare a sort of medium hard as consistently as I can. I never bash any of the cymbals ever. A good example of me playing to try and accomodate minimal micing is the Persephonees Bees 'Notes from The Underworld' record. There are some songs on the record that are only 2 mics and most of it is 5 mics or less.

Minimal micing on rock stuff sometimes is impossible. For example, Mark O'connell is a way way better drummer than I am, but it would be absolutely impossible to record his drums with one or two or four microphones. he plays insanely hard and breaks cymbals all the time. I have to use close mics to maintain a balance between the punch of the drums and the aggressive wash of the cymbals. As much as I love minimal micing, I would never ask him to play the way I do because it wouldn't sound like Mark O'connell and that would suck for TBS.

I was able to pull off a minimal approach on the Slash song 'By The Sword' because Josh was able to play in that very controlled heavy foot way when I asked him to... and it suited the song. That song is basically 4 mics.



With that in mind, this post in the "underheads" thread is a really good example of one of my favorite ways to use 4 mics on a kit.

Eric Valentines Underhead issues

EV

[ScumBum]

Thanks Eric ! I did exactly what you said and it sounds great . Heavy Kick , Medium Snare and very soft cymbals , Mono mic in front of the kit with some Low End EQ added , like in the underheads thread , and it sounds REALLY good . I'm gonna practice recording myself with the one mic and continue to adjust my playing and get it down . Very cool , thanks for the help !

[Sofa King]

Originally Posted by ev33

I think for me, the most important thing for successful minimal micing on drums, is how the drums are played. It becomes a way way bigger issue when you don't have a lot of control over the balance of the individual drums or cymbals in the kit.

.....SNIP.....

I use to always have one mic setup up on my drum kit when I use to practice or play to Zeppelin records. I would listen back to the recordings and it slowly just started changing how I played. I play with a very heavy foot and very controlled hands. I play the cymbals very soft while still hitting the snare a sort of medium hard as consistently as I can. I never bash any of the cymbals ever.

This is so right on the money...
Can we put this on a T shirt?