Raw Drum Track... advice before tracking/mixing!

[keevhren]

So my band is gearing up to record our full length this weekend and we just got everything set up last night for tracking drums. Our drummer got all new heads, tuned them up and I have everything mic'd up as follows:

Kick In: Beta 52
Kick Out: NS10 Subkick
Snare Top: 57
Snare Bottom: Audix I5
Rack: 57
Floor: 57
Hi Hat: SM7B
Ride: MXL 990
Crash Cymbal Close Mics: Sony ECM-F56's
Overheads: AKG C451B

The Kick In and Snare top are going to a pair of Universal Audio 710 Twin Finity pres, everything else is going through my Alesis studio 32 mixer, everything then straight into pro tools.

I've got everything pretty dead on, phase wise, but think that they could still be improved sound wise. Here's a clip we did last night to listen through everything... note this is completely sans-plugins (other than a single trim plugin to get the snare bottom in phase):

http://soundcloud.com/nocontrolstudios/drum-bounce

One main issue that I've noticed is that whenever I bring the Hi Hat mic into the mix, it pulls the snare pretty hard to the L (Mixing/Micing in Drummers Perspective) as indicated by my master fader and by listening. If I mute the hi-hat mic while listening back my L-R Stereo meters are essentially hitting at the exact same level with every hit, but again, once the hat mic is unmuted, the L of the mix starts to jump up by about 3 or 4db it looks like.

I also feel like they could be punchier/stronger sounding as raw tracks, but am not sure if this has to do more so with my micing technique or if our drummer just isn't hitting as hard as he could.

Is the kick too 'whoofy' sounding?

I like the pop the snare has but again, it just doesn't feel strong enough to me.

We're going for a balance between a modern punk production but with still maintaining some rawness (think a blend of something like this: Kids Of The Black Hole | The Copyrights but a bit more raw/ramones/vintage sounding).

I do typically bring samples up under my recorded tracks when it comes time to mix to beef things up but obviously would like to get as good a sound as possible from the get go!

Much appreciated for any/all help! And for those of you who'd like to check out the consolidated tracks on their own, you can download them here to have a listen to each individual mic:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/32962372/Con...ce%20Drums.zip

And you can hear our previous recordings/releases here: The Haverchucks if you're interested. I also recorded/mixed both of those releases.

[coryk0789]

Tracks sound great. I think the energy that you're looking for is lacking with the absence of room mics. Snare has got a lot of snap in it, which is great and I think the hi hat will mix just fine as well. Don't get down about the snare bleed, you can cut it out, it's hard to get that track at home. Sounds great guys, keep me posted!

[stinkyfingers]

too many microphones, too much phase problems, too much bleed, not enough eq, panning is too wide, drummer has a weak left arm...

[coryk0789]

Originally Posted by stinkyfingers

too many microphones, too much phase problems, too much bleed, not enough eq, panning is too wide, drummer has a weak left arm...

I would say the OHs def need to be wider, or at least mix the cymbal mics with the OHs better. But as stated, no EQ or any sort of mixing is complete. For a home session this is not bad. Mix does sound a bit off balanced, but I think the OHs are the reason why. I'm not hearing unreasonable amounts of bleed and phase..

[tenchijin2]

Really hard to know how these will sound when polished up. My guess is you can get a useful mix out of them, they sound pretty good.

[WantDrums]

Yeah I agree with coryk0789, just pan those OHs a litte more

[jordanvoth]

For the modern punk thing, the drummer needs to "crack" hit the snare.
Other than the snare hits it sounds pretty good.

[couch11]

And no one mentioned timing

[Getdead]

What are you using for your AD conversion?
I have a studio 32 as well. Just curious