First time post, long time reader...

Ive used this site and steve's old site at pro sound web to learn a ton of stuff. These forums are great. I was sad to see steve leave at pro sound....

Anyway, I Have a small home basement studio, Ive done what I can with it (my money is limited). The issue im gonna have is that Im doing a punk band, And im not sure of how to mic the drums for the sound they want.

All they said was RAW and LOUD.... That helps a lot right....

My Gear is:

1 Akg CS1000
1 Rode NT1
2 AKG Perception 200
1 Blue Kick Ball
1 SM 57
1 SM58
3 JM27
2 EV RE11
1 EV RE 16
2 ev 664 ( I need some cables)

Im running into a firepod using Digital Performer 5. Tons of Plugins... This limits me to 8 inputs at a time... Sucks I know...

Like I said Im working with little and what work I do get,gets put back into gear. This will give me another $500 bucks to put in.

So any suggestions on mic placement for what I have.

My standard setup is:

57 top snare
kick ball (I hate this mic) Bass
2 JM7 left and right OH
2 Perception 200's about 3 feet in front of the kit.
cs 1000 back 6 feet from front of kit pointing center
NT1 In between toms Where I can.


I realize this is all fucked up... I just move shit around until I like how it sounds with the kit.

I know people on forums hate questions like this.... so sorry.

Anyway, suggestions will help me greatly...

I thank you in advance for all your help.

if they want raw and loud just use 3 mics. use the ball mic on the kick. use two matching condensers on the kit, really close in, pointed basically at the drummer. assuming a right-handed drummer with a standard setup, have one condenser aimed at the snare, pointed away from the hi hat, the other between the tom and the floor tom. aim them away from the cymbals, away from the dude's sticks, and try to get them 90 degrees apart. if you want extra punch you can mic the battering side of the kick as well.

PEPPER! wrote:if they want raw and loud just use 3 mics. use the ball mic on the kick. use two matching condensers on the kit, really close in, pointed basically at the drummer. assuming a right-handed drummer with a standard setup, have one condenser aimed at the snare, pointed away from the hi hat, the other between the tom and the floor tom. aim them away from the cymbals, away from the dude's sticks, and try to get them 90 degrees apart. if you want extra punch you can mic the battering side of the kick as well.

Hang a ball over the kit in addition to this. You'll mix that overhead low in comparison to the rest of the kit. Also, maybe swap out the ball on the kick with a gun if you hang the 58.

PEPPER! wrote:if they want raw and loud just use 3 mics. use the ball mic on the kick. use two matching condensers on the kit, really close in, pointed basically at the drummer. assuming a right-handed drummer with a standard setup, have one condenser aimed at the snare, pointed away from the hi hat, the other between the tom and the floor tom. aim them away from the cymbals, away from the dude's sticks, and try to get them 90 degrees apart. if you want extra punch you can mic the battering side of the kick as well.

I've never used a snare mic and wished it wasn't there later. I would do everything mentioned here, as well as put the 57 on the snare top, maybe throw the 58 on the kick as well as the blue ball. For punk stuff I'll usually mic the toms, and more times than not end up gating them. Have the overhead pair catching everything, and stick to close mics for the rest. You don't need all those other condensers floating around 3 and 6 feet back making all sorts of phase problems for you.

Tune, tune, tune those drums.

Its cool that you guys are willing to help the small man on the totem pole out.

i'm trying to record local bands really cheap just so they can have something to sell at local shows for their fans. There is just too much good music that never is recorded because some some angry suicidal kid and his friends have little to no money.

I've found from recording heavy bands, that in the mixing stage its useful to gate the kick drum. Get a lot of room ambience on the rest of the kit, and the gate gives the kick just a little more knock and a little less bleed. Very satisfying for the client who wants his or her kick drum to hit hard.

I wouldn't bother micing the toms, but maybe having the NT-1 on the underside of the snare would be cool? Sometimes its nice to get that snap. Flip the phase of course.

sonicdeath wrote:There is just too much good music that never is recorded because some some angry suicidal kid and his friends have little to no money.

. . . usually the best music there is

Just do it the way you have been . I know nothing about that kick mic. One thing about punk is that the most important part is that snare, I usally make a copy of it and compress the jesus out of it, and blend that one in with the normal one to get that tight snare sound that will split your head open. I myself am against gating anything on the drums. Thats just me though and I'm positive alot will disagree with me, It just changes the tone of your drums when you do this, more so with "punk",R&B is a bit different when it comes to gating. Also pay close attention to your kick sound make sure its a tight sound not huge or anything. And as for your overheads as long as you are straight on your phase you will be good to go, experiment with the hight or em . Leave the plugins out of it, that would be the RAW part they were probably talking about.

I will start recording this weekend, I will let you know how it goes and maybe even put up some of the files for you to listen to. Thanks...

sonicdeath wrote:I will start recording this weekend, I will let you know how it goes and maybe even put up some of the files for you to listen to. Thanks...

When you post, please include your placements. :)