I've never used a room mic for drums because I've always recorded with a full band and it seemed like just one more thing to fight with while mixing, but I have the chance to spread out a little and have a separate drum room for a while, so I am going to set something up in front of my kit. On hand I have a cheap omni, 1 ldc, a pair of sdcs, a couple of high-spl ldds, and an assortment of 57/58 types and drumkit dynamics. I'm going to test the omni and ldc first of course, but it's had to get to my studio much right now and so I want to be prepared. If I don't have to buy another mic to do this that'd be great, but tell me what mics inspire you. Where do you want them ideally, and where have you compromised?
Side-quest: should I track with a room mic even with the full band? When we record scratch vocals there's so much bleed that having a mic to intentionally pick it up seems counterproductive, especially if we replace the guitar etc with dubs, which I want to maintain the ability to do if the best drum takes don't line up with the best takes of other instruments.
Re: Room mic recs: what, where?
2Random thoughts from the low end!
My recording setup is extraordinary lo-fi. I've always used a mono room mic (whatever I have; often the much loathed c3000) but recently I tracked some stuff in a much nicer room than usual and used a pair of u47 clones (not mine) and now I don't know if I can go back to mono. Particularly gating them/snare key as per..
If you're worried about spill, why not reamp the drums in the room after you've finished with the rest of the stuff?
My recording setup is extraordinary lo-fi. I've always used a mono room mic (whatever I have; often the much loathed c3000) but recently I tracked some stuff in a much nicer room than usual and used a pair of u47 clones (not mine) and now I don't know if I can go back to mono. Particularly gating them/snare key as per..
If you're worried about spill, why not reamp the drums in the room after you've finished with the rest of the stuff?
Re: Room mic recs: what, where?
3I'm interested in this thread, but my situation is I have a small room with unimpressive acoustics. I've pretty much stopped using room mics and just fix it in the mix with a convolution reverb. After fighting for a long time, I have admitted to myself that impulse reverb sounds great if you don't have a naturally nice sounding acoustic space.
Re: Room mic recs: what, where?
4Even in a best case scenario I think room mics should be mixed in very sparingly, or it just smears up the whole image. Distant 'overheads' and a smidge of compression captures enough room sound for me typically. But if you have the extra tracks and mics it doesn't hurt to play around with.
Re: Room mic recs: what, where?
5* mind blown *Adam_I_III wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 6:45 am If you're worried about spill, why not reamp the drums in the room after you've finished with the rest of the stuff?
I'm absolutely going to try this at some point - and sending a signal of just drums w/ no cymbals (minus whatever bleed of course)....
Re: Room mic recs: what, where?
6Yeah I had to re-read it a couple of times for the concept to really sink in.Garth wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 9:02 am* mind blown *Adam_I_III wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 6:45 am If you're worried about spill, why not reamp the drums in the room after you've finished with the rest of the stuff?
I'm absolutely going to try this at some point - and sending a signal of just drums w/ no cymbals (minus whatever bleed of course)....
Re: Room mic recs: what, where?
7Back to original topic:
Lately I've been using a ribbon for a room mic but LDC before that which is probably more standard and use just a single one in mono (see OH thread for reasons). I'll also put baffles in front of the cymbals to try to reduce some of the cymbal bleed in the room. I tend to keep it about center-kick in height and then just squash the bejeepers out of it w/ the nastiest limiter/compressor I have on hand.
I then just bring that up and under the drum mix. More for stank, but mostly just wanting to kill some of that sterile sound.
Lately I've been using a ribbon for a room mic but LDC before that which is probably more standard and use just a single one in mono (see OH thread for reasons). I'll also put baffles in front of the cymbals to try to reduce some of the cymbal bleed in the room. I tend to keep it about center-kick in height and then just squash the bejeepers out of it w/ the nastiest limiter/compressor I have on hand.
I then just bring that up and under the drum mix. More for stank, but mostly just wanting to kill some of that sterile sound.
Re: Room mic recs: what, where?
8The drums on 'bullet the blue sky' are reamped. I've done it, it doesn't sound the same as room mics recording the live drums, but it'll work, worth trying for sure.
My default room mic position since like 2005 has been a pair of earthworks omnis on the floor about 6' in front of the kit, aimed at the kick drum spurs. Looking at them, they're pretty close together, maybe 2' apart. They look like they should be further apart but they sound super wide like this already. The stereo image was too weird with them further apart, so this is where they ended up and have stayed for going on 2 decades now.
I usually use a lot of these mics in the mix. Tons of compression. I get a lot of high frequency definition on the kick and KAPOW on the snare.
Here's two examples, same levee breaks beat, same mic setup and processing, drastically different rooms. First one is my old loft in Boston, giant room, really live:
And these were recorded in my new mastering room, which is big but as dry as a room can be without being an anechoic chamber:
My default room mic position since like 2005 has been a pair of earthworks omnis on the floor about 6' in front of the kit, aimed at the kick drum spurs. Looking at them, they're pretty close together, maybe 2' apart. They look like they should be further apart but they sound super wide like this already. The stereo image was too weird with them further apart, so this is where they ended up and have stayed for going on 2 decades now.
I usually use a lot of these mics in the mix. Tons of compression. I get a lot of high frequency definition on the kick and KAPOW on the snare.
Here's two examples, same levee breaks beat, same mic setup and processing, drastically different rooms. First one is my old loft in Boston, giant room, really live:
And these were recorded in my new mastering room, which is big but as dry as a room can be without being an anechoic chamber:
Re: Room mic recs: what, where?
9Yeah, the best part of this strategy is you can decide how much of each drum to send. When I do it it's usually a lot of snare, a little less toms, and just a bit of kick.Garth wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 9:02 am* mind blown *Adam_I_III wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 6:45 am If you're worried about spill, why not reamp the drums in the room after you've finished with the rest of the stuff?
I'm absolutely going to try this at some point - and sending a signal of just drums w/ no cymbals (minus whatever bleed of course)....
Agreed that it doesn't sound like a regular room mic, but it can be quite good when used sparingly.
Re: Room mic recs: what, where?
10These sound great!MoreSpaceEcho wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 10:46 am Here's two examples, same levee breaks beat, same mic setup and processing, drastically different rooms. First one is my old loft in Boston, giant room, really live:
And these were recorded in my new mastering room, which is big but as dry as a room can be without being an anechoic chamber:
Side note: I just took a look at your website and saw something unexpected that you had a hand in. "Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time". I've known Ben Taylor (and his wife Emily) since he moved to Chicago like 20 years ago or whatever. Looks like you were also in a band with him way back in Boston. Cool.