Drum Room Miking Experiments

[Matteran]

Hi, I love room mics on drums, as i'm sure a lot of people do. So far I've mainly stuck with a stereo pair and I was just wondering if there were any cool ideas/tips/tricks to create increasingly interesting room space.

Stuff like taking a 57 and putting it into the grand piano and push the sustain pedal down or something...

Messed up sounds that still come out musical.

[Kadden Heart]

there's a random wooden box in the place i track at,...hardwood floors,...

i stick a LDC in the wooden box, run through API pre for color, and 1176 set to "kill all dynamics."



orr if the room is big enough, don't be afraid to stick a few snare drums stacked on top of each other and put a LDC behind them.

also once:
we had a PA rigged up in the durm room already (place was huge mind you)
so we went ahead and blasted the kick, snare, and toms through the PA cabs, facing away from the drums slightly towards each other, with,..yet again,..a LDC in the middle.

or if you want more typical,..just face two chinee ribbons in spaced pair facing the walls, great room mics, i don't see people facing mics towards the wall often enough.

[Robert Randolph]

I like to take a cheap condenser and throw it in a glass cup sometimes.

Also quite fun to take a pair of headphones and stick them on an LDC, then crank the drum monitor mix into the headphones. Smash it really hard with an ssl bus comp or similar style.

[Kadden Heart]

dont' forget the most fun two:
!!!!!!!!

make sure you have plenty of room mics (in a big room)
and have your assistant run around them all grunting, humming, whistling, shouting, etc...to the beat

AANNNDDD

again...send trusty assistant into the room with a radio shack dynamic with pop flter on it, have him swing that fu**er around real slowly
make sure ot have a good laugh at how cool it sounds,....and then don't use it...
or,..laigh at it,...put a flange/chorus on it, distort it, and put it in the mix.

(not that i've tried either of these)
but if you do,..please post

[Matteran]

lol, those are awesome suggestions

thanks

[beau]

method #1

i like to attatch a wireless headset mic to my rottweiler. then a lapel mic to the nub tail of a 3 legged cocker spaniel in heat, and let them loose while tracking drums. the stereo image is intense. and some of the sounds you get sound amazing... just make sure you use only vintage neve pres though... otherwise it won't be captured accurately.

method #2

1964 neuman u87. inside a durex shared sensation condom.. drop it in a saltwater aquarium in front of the kit. make sure the filters and bubble makers are off. but only while tracking, or the fish will die. then run that track through vintage calrec, into ssl talk back comp... done...

i believe they used a combo of those 2 methods on some of the early zeplin stuff...


peace

beau

[Nu-tra]

I hire a clown to jungle the room mics while tracking. You gotta let him know where the front of the mic is so he is pointing it at the source. Clowns don't know this.

[DesertDawg]

Originally Posted by beau

method #1

i like to attatch a wireless headset mic to my rottweiler. then a lapel mic to the nub tail of a 3 legged cocker spaniel in heat, and let them loose while tracking drums.

You hack - everyone KNOWS that it has to be a beagle, not a cocker spaniel!!!

Anyway, apart from gimmicky things, there are lots of different placements you can try that don't involve mayonnaise jars, deflated basketballs, inside an old tennis shoe, etc... try sticking a stereo pair right down by the floor, if you have a wood or other reflective surface; or up in the uppermost corners by the ceiling; or at eye level, aimed right into the corners about a foot or two away; for example... there's only about a million placements you could try like this that could sound cool, depending on your room.

And that's even BEFORE you resort to picking up a couple of 8' long/12" diameter PVC tubes & splaying them out at angles from the front of the kit & mic'ing the far ends of them. thumbsup

[Tim Abraham]

Last week I tried a thing that worked out really well. Used a mono room mic (U47 FET) about 5 feet from the kit, about 2' off the ground. 1176 all buttons (not super smashed though) into a Transient designer which I set to kill most of the attack and add quite a bit of sustain. From there into an IBP (which was necessary to keep the low end of the kick). Gave a great length to the kick and especially snare.

[AnthonyRochester]

Today I got a really nice drum room sound using MS miking (using a Rode NTK and a chinese ribbon mic) at the other end of the room facing away from the drums, kind of near the wall..

[Eganmedia]

If there's a spare iso booth during a session, I crack the door slightly and put a pair of Eathworks Omnis in it. If the kit is at the live end of the main room, and I put the mics in the far booth, they're about 45' away from the kit. I slide the distant mics' tracks to come a little closer in time with the close mics. It's like getting two rooms or the price of one.

When tracking in our big video stage, I put mics in the stairwell. Sometimes during mixing I'll send a drum submix to a PA in the video stage and mic the room. I bring the miked sound back into the mix instead of using reverb. That works pretty well too.