Recording drums with condenser mics

cornbb

Hey all,

I'll be recording some drums later this evening and I'm lucky enough to have a few nice large diaphragm condenser mics at my disposal. I was wondering if there's a danger of damaging these by subjecting them to high SPLs, eg in front of the kick drum? Or should I proceed without worrying and simply switch on the pad switch at the mixer?

jtsuited

DO NOT put any large diaphragm condenser mic in front of a kick drum, unless it's got a pad switch on the actual mic.
Coincidentally I was using an AKG c414 today with the pad in on a kick drum.

It was the nicest kick drum sound i've ever heard!!! Pity they're sh1te for everything else.

squibs

Use them as overheads - a few feet above the drums as a stereo pair (hope you have the mic stands to do this). Then mike the kick and the snare/hats (toms if you can) with a few dynamics.

If you have mics to spare and a nice sounding drum room, put a mic or two a distance from the kit and fade those channels in for your ambience - better than a digital reverb any day.

The kick will benefit from an appropriate bass mic like an AKG d112. Use the overhead pair as your main drum sound and bring in the other drums to taste, giving you control over the overall relative volume of the main constituents of the kit. e.g if the hats are a little weak in the overheads then bring up the hats fader.

Watch out for phase issues between the overheads and the dynamics. When two different mics are recording the same sound source from different positions they can cancel each other out a little in the mix - you may have a phase invert button on your mixer to counteract this if it becomes a problem.

Spend a lot of time positioning the mics (get a lackey to do it, while the kit is being struck and monitor with headphones) - it'll save you hours of trying to correct the balance and tonality in the mix.

Good luck!

jsuited - Never heard a kick thru a 414 - did it cope with the stuff below 100Hz? Got an mp3 clip of the result?

jtsuited

d112's on kick (while being the normal mic for kicks) is the most boring and dull sounding method of micing. I've got better results out of 58's than i have out of d112's

Don't have a clip of it (the 414 that is), but trust me it's well worth doing if you have the chance. You will be blown away by it. Just remember to stick in the 20db pad.

squibs

d112's on kick (while being the normal mic for kicks) is the most boring and dull sounding method of micing. I've got better results out of 58's than i have out of d112's

I can certainly believe it - the d112 is a signature sound, so using a different mic could definitely give you a fresh take on the kick sound. It's a matter of taste. I've mic'd very few kits in my life, but I think response curves are important here. The 58 starts to roll off sharply from 150Hz down where a lot of the kick sound lives, whereas the d112 actually boosts in that range. I guess nobody ever got fired for using a d112

frobisher

squibs wrote:

I can certainly believe it - the d112 is a signature sound, so using a different mic could definitely give you a fresh take on the kick sound. It's a matter of taste. I've mic'd very few kits in my life, but I think response curves are important here. The 58 starts to roll off sharply from 150Hz down where a lot of the kick sound lives, whereas the d112 actually boosts in that range. I guess nobody ever got fired for using a d112

I've used 58s on a kick as well, worked fine. Not as good as a 57 though! Lots of dak dak but still plenty of boom boom.

jtsuited

i think it's that the d112 makes the kick sound really artificial and almost electronic. You spend half of mixing time trying to boost around 7k to give it some cut!!! Then realise that the rest of the kit spill is sounding crap because of the cut, and then you wonder why people are so quick to use these monstrosities on drums at all.

Down with this sort of thing!!

squibs

Where you boost at 7khz, I'd probably be putting in a lo-pass filter at 4KHz

I tend to be quite brutal with certain intruments, panning, eq-ing and filtering to give everything its own space in the frequency and stereo spectrum. I nearly always put a high pass filter on electric guitars for example. I'll use a scope plug-in to mix by eye as well sometimes. I am well aware that there are many people who would have me shot as a heretic for this kind of thing, but hey - it works for me.

jtsuited

getting my shotgun ready squibs

Alter-Ego

Careful Now.

teamdresch

jtsuited wrote:

DO NOT put any large diaphragm condenser mic in front of a kick drum, unless it's got a pad switch on the actual mic.

Not necessarily.
Listen.
If the kick sounds a bit funny/distorted/nasty, then try the pad. I've used LD condensers a bunch of times in front of a kick without the pad in. In fact, I rarely use anything else in front of a kick.