Two mic drum technique book

Position the second mic over the ride cymbal side of the drummer s shoulder, and also pointed at the snare. How to record drums with only two microphones tutorial duration. While you can get a pretty good drum sound with only a single microphone, using two mics is even better. But legendary producerengineer bob clearmountain the rolling stones, bruce springsteen shows you an even simpler way. Using the twomic drum recording technique linkedin. With the snare, place your mic a couple of inches above the rim angled across the snare. Ian schreiers sm57 drum mic seminar am highlights duration. The glynn johns three mic drum recording setup jon stinson. Otherwise, it would get lost underneath everything else in the final mix, making the drums lose a bit of punch. Kick drum microphone technique using the akg d112 microphone with russ long. Here are some typical twomic techniques for achieving a stereo recording assuming youre working with cardioid mics, ignore any of the options showing omnibidirectional mics. I had a problem with my setup, which consists of karma k10s for overheads, a sm57 on the snare, and a sm57 in the kick drum hole. Were talking a basic kit with kick, snare, ride, crash, hihat, 1 floor tom, 1 rack tom.

As a general overview, the book begins with descriptions of certain playing techniques, drum set up information and pearls of wisdom from the man himself. Close microphone placement can be added to the two mic setup we just described, but be careful to listen how this affects the low frequencies. Point the mic towards the center of the drum head, make sure that the mic stand isnt touching any drum hardware to prevent the mic from picking up any unwanted vibrations. Take one of the most complex instruments to record, an acoustic drum set. When you record using the xy technique, keep these points in mind. So, using the glyn johns drum mic technique, you can get the majority of your from just two wa87s. Both brian and bob were very excited to work on the song and be part of the duet 2 launch. If youve ever recorder a band rehearsal, youve already, probably experimented witha single mic technique. It is possible to share one mic with two toms, but then, a microphone with a wider polar pattern should be used. Two simple yet firstrate methods for recording drums jon. And one cardioid dynamic microphone pointed at the snare drum at a. Popular microphone techniques for vocals, guitars and. A good way to think about it is that each mic gets half of the kit so they should be placed accordingly.

The first bass drum mic placement is slightly off center and. This includes such artists as eric clapton, the rolling stones, the who, steve miller, and the eagles, just to name a few. Another interesting technique that is quite popular is making a. This is a very minimal drum miking technique that yields. I then, however, mentioned to bob that i really wanted the drums to be recorded with only duet 2 and with only 2 microphones. The purpose of this mic is to fill in the kick drum so that it is more apparent and punchy in the drum mix. The fat mic drum technique video recording revolution. In this particular example, the golddiggers team went with a 5mic setup, keeping the neumann m 149 at the front of the kit. The xy technique is easy to set up and results in a decent sound, so. One mic goes right inside the kick drum the large floor drum and two other mics are placed on either side of the drum kit to capture a realistic stereo sound. The stereo image the placement of the instruments in the sonic environment isnt as wide or realistic as it is in real life. Johns recorded just about everybody of importance during the 1960s through the late 1980s.

So, what drum micing techniques are there for micing a kit with 6 mics or less. Use two drum sticks as a ruler to place your mics the same distance from the snare drum, and a cable or string to get them equidistant from the kick beater. The xy arrangement results in a realistic, but not dramatic, stereo image, similar to listening to a drumset from several feet in front. When recording drums there are so many choices to consider.

The second position moves the microphone to the batter head. He then takes you along his journey of the different bands that he worked with and solo artists, which were. Id be interested to compare this mic technique with using room mic s in the more conventional sense i. The kick drum moves a lot of air, and the diaphragm needs to be able to handle high spl without breakup. Simply put, glyn johns is a master recording engineer. That being said, microphones that are too bright arent good for this technique, and mics that are very accurate are also a potential problem. How to mic drums for recording, part 1 two microphones. Ab placement is two mics placed parallel to each other, facing the kit.

One,two,and threemic setups for a more natural sound. The mic on the right side records the right side of the spectrum and the left mic records the left. Double mic setup when miking with two microphones its important to pay attention to balance. Position the first mic so that it is about two drum sticks height directly above the kit, and pointed straight down at the snare. Close micing individual drums will be covered in more detail as part of approach number 2, which looks at a more surgical approach to recording drums, by close micing almost every element of the kit. Mic the bottom of the snare to aid air and sizzle to the sound, blending the two snare mics can yield many different sounds when mixing. The brendan obrien two mic drum recording setup jon stinson.

If you only had two mics to record your drum kit, where. The recorder man drum miking technique position the first mic so that it is about two drum sticks height directly above the kit, and pointed straight down at the snare. Just two microphones into duet 2, connected to a mac book pro, and recorded into logic. Look at the video for more details, its a great technique and also shows how to mix drums in this scenario. Legendary producer bob clearmountain on recording drums. Thats not to say you wont find any condensers or small diaphragm dynamics in the kick, but when you do they are usually part of a twomic setup. The glyn johns drum recording method recording revolution. Book depository books with free delivery worldwide. These two microphones will serve as the overhead mics. But legendary producerengineer bob clearmountain the rolling stones, bruce springsteen shows you an. Nearcoincident pair uses two directional mics with their grilles angled away from each other at 90 to 110 degrees. Popular microphone techniques for vocals, guitars and drums.

Drum recording techniques, by joe hirst miloco miloco studios. Heres the best video description ive seen, to better illustrate. I find this helps avoid phase issues on lower frequencies, where they tend to become most noticeable. In fact, this was a classic setup for so many hit records of the 50s and early 60s. I understand people use a variety of differnet types of mirophones for this purpose, but two that i have noticed more than once is a single omnidirectional condensor, or a figure of. This placement gives you a sharp attack from the beater hitting the head. I would use the dynamic as a kick drum mic and the condenser either as a room mic or some sort of overhead. Place it where you get that fullness and attack that you want to compliment your first two mics.

It doesnt matter if you are using just two microphones or using 10 or more, there are many easy techniques you can use to get a good drum. A basic twomic drummiking setup, with a kick drum mic and an overhead mic. The snare requires a mic that can handle very high spl, so a dynamic mic is usually chosen. Guitar and drum miking techniques and tips 5 miking. On stage or in the studio, use a pair of condenser mics over the drum kit to capture the cymbals. Starts off with how he got into music and into working behind the scenes as an engineer. But to get the clearest, sharpest sound out of a drum kit, youll want to mic each drum separately. Using stereo overhead miking techniques to supplement a. The recorder man drum miking technique jon stinson. Stand in front of the drum kit and look at it as a whole.

The exercises in the book focus on triplet exploration and 4 way coordination. The third mic will be positioned as a close mic on the kick drum. Of course, it would take a book to describe every available microphone, so we limited ourselves to. Position the second mic over the ride cymbal side of the drummers shoulder, and also pointed at the snare. Below the drum throne, pointed at the spot where the beater makes contact with the batter head. Consider using a purpose built kick drum mic to boost the bass drum and either a dynamic or condenser to emphasise the snare. Here is an unusual but effective technique for miking the snare that can bring some great results with the right drum and drummer. With your overheads sounding good, things get simple. Ribbon microphones typically pick up sounds equally well from either side of the microphone, which is why they make good candidates for the twomic technique.

This gives a depth and stereo image to the overall kit. You dont have a lot of options, so it would pay to try at least those two combos. Fitting a resonant head with a hole in it to the kick drum, i reused the same five d112s in a line, roughly one in front of the other. The objective is to get a good overall balance of the whole kit, as they will function as the main drum sound. Sound man the life of glyn johns, was just an okay book. Use dynamic mics near the head of each drum and the hi hat.

The mono signals from each microphone are assigned to the left and right channels of a stereo track to create a sense of width in the recording. We left the kick mic as it was in the twomic setup. Recorderman overhead drum mic technique hometracked. This is the standard way to mic a kick drum if you have the outside head off or if a hole is cut in it. You can modify the preceding miking technique by moving the mic back so that its about halfway inside the drum. Grab your kick mic and place it close to the resonant head or inside the drum. There are a few variations on it esp distance to, or in front of, or somewhere around the bass drum but the overly simple approach is 1. Sometimes a third mic is used in the center to avoid an overly exaggerated stereo effect. The microphones are placed at a 90 degree angle to one another at about 3. Do you have any info on phasing issues with two mics on drums graham, i.

Recording drums with two microphones apogee electronics. Its not as simple as placing a mic on each drum and two more above the kit, and bringing up the faders. There is something beautiful about simplicity, especially when it comes to music making. This technique works especially well for jazz and acoustic music where you want a realistic but not hyped representation of the drumset. It takes awareness and understanding of how the sound propagates from the drum and out through the room, and how the mics respond to that phenomenon. How to mic drums for recording, part 2 four microphones. I tend to go with two on the snare sm57s, one in the kick plus a sub mic ev re20 and a small speaker attached to a mic cord, two overheads akg 451bs or shure ksm44s and a sennheiser 421 on each tom. And this gearslutz thread on overhead drum mic placement has more discussion and pictures. Heres two extremely simple approaches to miking a drum kit that yield high quality results, yet minimize. This technique uses two condenser microphone with cardioid polar patterns. Rather than use condensers for the full kit, aea r84 ribbon mics were used for the floor tom and overhead, a neumann u 47 fet was put in front of the bass drum, and a shure sm57 was used on the snare. If you have a limited amount of gear available or your aim is to recreate a vintage sound,its possible to use a minimalist miking technique and achieve a completely different effectthan with the tried and true basics described earlier. A really highquality kick and snare mic are a must in any microphone arsenal, but the johns method depends on the quality of the overhead microphones. Stereo recording is a technique involving the use of two microphones to simultaneously record one instrument.

Recording drums for any other genre usually requires adding a mic per tom, hi hat, and possibly the room. Place a large diaphragm dynamic mic inside the hole in the front head of the kick drum. Most classic kick drum mics are of the large diaphragm dynamic variety. Typically the modern studio reaches for 12 or more microphones to capture the entire kit well. In a pinch, overheads and a kick drum mic will suffice. That microphone will stay in place while we try two different placements on the bass drum. My drum instructor also produces albums professionally, he says he has recorded with as few as two mics. One cardioid dynamic microphone placed inside the kick. The xy stereo mic approach uses two matched microphones placed close together. I have heard about the 3 to 1 idea for two mics, i. The spaced option is another name for ab placement. Video mic setup the mic setup shown in the video above is simply a tascam dr07 mk2 positioned above the drum set. Technique one the first 4mic drum recording technique uses a stereo pair of overhead mics.