I've done a number of 2-mic drum recordings that I've been quite happy with. It always ends up as one on the bass drum and one overhead.
The overhead is usually either a 4033 or a 414.
The bass drum is either a D112/RE20 (for the rock), or a 414 (for the jazz), or a 4033 (for the anything).
best,
Bob
recording drums with 2 mics
13if you'd like to hear an example of a 2 mic drum recording bob made, and $$$ put a dollar in my pocket $$$, get the love of everything record 'total eclipse of the heart.' he used a 414 overhead and a 4033 on the kick. all opinions on the music or drumming aside, it sounds pretty great. probably helps that the drums were a kick ass old rogers holiday kit in their own decent sized room with 12' ceilings, and the 3 different drummers involved all played appropriately.
hi bob.
hi bob.
recording drums with 2 mics
14conny wrote:I've just been experimenting with using less and less mics while recording.
I've got perfect results on drums using two Royer 121 placed in front of the kit, about 2 feet from the floor, 1,3 feet apart from each other, about 1-2 feet away from the bassdrum, slightly left of the bassdrum and IMPORTANT! in a position where bassdrum and the snare are in one axis. In this position you get a perfectly balanced kit, every instrument has the right level and the tonal balance is superb. You'll have to mess around a lot with the position of the mics turning them in and out because the Royer are very directional and slight changes affect the stereo balance radicaly.
yes! i used a very similar method to this for years when i only had 4 tracks to work with. i didn't have Royers and APIs to work with (though i'd love to hear the results of that), but any old cardioid pair seems to work just fine. i really love the natural width of the snare and bass drum and all the other components tend to fall into the stereo axis believably. i eventually started to use close up mics simply to get more of the resonance, but you can definitely get a cool sound with 2 mics this way. (though it can get buried fast if you have a lot of instrumentation)
recording drums with 2 mics
15the matt clark wrote:if you'd like to hear an example of a 2 mic drum recording bob made....
I will say 'ditto' to one mic on the kick, one overhead... whatever you would normally use in such placements... It is worth noting, like all recordings of drums (or anything else for that matter) that you only get back what you put in...that is, if the drummer plays like shit, then it sounds like what he or she played...shit. If the drummer can take it easy on the cymbals, etc. then it should be useable. its possible to do more corrective mixing with a multiple close-mic'd setup. your mileage may vary.
recording drums with 2 mics
16If you use one overhead, copy that channel and delay one copy by a small amount (10 - 30ms) pan both channels hard left and hard right respectively, and this will create a 'stereo' effect by widening the image. It's all to do with psychoacoustics 
Good luck,
Neil.
Good luck,
Neil.
recording drums with 2 mics
17neilius wrote:If you use one overhead, copy that channel and delay one copy by a small amount (10 - 30ms) pan both channe\0\0?%?+\0\0\0\0%?P\0?ard right respectively, and this will create a 'stereo' effect by widening the image. It's all to do with psychoacoustics
Good luck,
Neil.
Just hope that no one ever listens to it in mono. The result is most unattractive.
It's probably more effective to invert the phase of one of those channels rather than delaying it... kind of sounds similar, plus if anyone hits 'mono' there's no problem (other than the overhead mic disappearing from the mix... i think that's good in mono though, it keeps the mix from being cluttered.)
recording drums with 2 mics
18If you invert the phase of one channel you'll get lots of nasty comb filtering and things being cancelled out. True about the mono compatability thing. The summing of both signals will cause a similar comb filtering effect, especially with small delay times.
Neil.
Neil.
recording drums with 2 mics
19neilius wrote:If you invert the phase of one channel you'll get lots of nasty comb filtering and things being cancelled out. True about the mono compatability thing. The summing of both signals will cause a similar comb filtering effect, especially with small delay times.
Neil.
But if the sound information contained on the room tracks is significantly different than that of the other microphones than the comb filtering wouldn't be so bad would it?
How far away would the room mics have to be before the comb filtering effect is made null?
recording drums with 2 mics
20I heard about a 3:1 rule or something, so they have to be 3 times the distance away from eachother than they are from the sound source.
Neil.
Neil.