Recording drums with one mic ?

[stevenkeith]

Will it sound reasonable? I was thinking sm57 -> tube mp -> cheap compressor -> laptop.

[reggaejunkie001]

It really depends on the size of the room, size of the drum set, and the quality of the microphone. If you have a smaller room it should sound decent for demo quality but remember to place the mic facing the drums in the middle of the room. Another way is to set the mic above your shoulder and about 1 or 2 feet back.

[Monstar1790]

Apparently, most of the drums on The Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin album were recorded with one mic, and they sound pretty awesome. I don't know how they managed to pull that off, but you could try it.

Link for reference:
http://pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/17748/Flaming_Lips_The_Soft_Bulletin

"Drummer Steven Drozd gets mad props for his thundering percussion which, for the most part, was recorded on one microphone."

[Ethan.]

Make sure your drums are tuned as close to perfection as you can.

Experiment with mic placement and find your favorite spot. I think about 6 feet in front of the set and 4.5 feet high is a good place to start.

Make sure you use an EQ when you get it on the laptop. A good way to make it sound less cheapish is to scoop out some of the mids.

[Tiger]

If youre going to do this, a single condenser mic placed behind the player is going to be your best bet.

Its going to sound bad regardless.

[stevenkeith]

At the mo the only equiptment i have is a dynamic mic (sm57), mic preamp(tube mp) and a laptop(with software), aswell as mic cables etc. What would be the minimum purchase(s) i'd need to get the best one mic'd sound possible(i'm not too keen on getting lots of items to do the full 4/5 mics, mixer thingy at this time - mainly due to a lack of funds).

Eg, "just add the cheap compressor" or "the cheap compressor and condensor mic" or just try it without anything as it wont add much to the recording etc.

Thing is, the drummer lives down the road so it would be handy to only have to do this the once, so if i was to try out something that would definately be no good then its quite a waste of time.

[Ethan.]

Well if you need a drum track, then do it.

You're not going to get anywhere close to a professional sound, but it would be better than writing a drum track on a drum machine or going without drums at all.

Just make due with what you have for now, then maybe re-record it with all the equipment if you guys decide to buy mic's/mixer for the drums.

[Seafroggys]

If youre going to do this, a single condenser mic placed behind the player is going to be your best bet.

Its going to sound bad regardless.

it won't sound bad, it just won't sound contemporary. The Beatles' first album the drums were recorded with just two condensor mics, and while the drums aren't as punchy as they would close miced, they still sound good. Many great jazz albums have been made with just room mics.

[10571z]

I would use 1 condensor and just a cheapish vocal mic on the bass drum.

[Tiger]

it won't sound bad, it just won't sound contemporary. The Beatles' first album the drums were recorded with just two condensor mics, and while the drums aren't as punchy as they would close miced, they still sound good. Many great jazz albums have been made with just room mics.



Except he's talking about doing it with 1 SM57. Its going to sound bad.

Micing a jazz kit is one thing. Three mics is usually enough. But one dynamic mic on an entire kit is a waste of time.

[stevenkeith]

Yeah it would be sm57 at the moment. :(

I could get a cheap condensor if that would help. What about the compressor ?

[10571z]

cheap condensor would be good. You could use the sm57 on the bass drum and the condensor over head..

[Seafroggys]

cheap condensor would be good. You could use the sm57 on the bass drum and the condensor over head..

yeah, the sm57 might be able to handle the SPLs of the bass drum for the time being, but don't press your luck too hard.

[Ethan.]

Whats wrong with recording drums with a dynamic mic? I thought sm57s are good too.

And if you need compression, which you will, just do it when it gets on the computer.

[cadencethefire]

don't waste your time with recording the drums on one mic unless the mic is an incredibly good condensor mic... even then i wouldn't plan on keeping the recording as long term material

[Ethan.]

I don't see why you guys think its such a waste of time. Telling him not to record because he has only one mic is rediculous.

If the guy wants to record something and he doesn't want to spend the money on, or doesn't have the money for more than one mic, why does this mean he shouldn't even bother?

It doesn't.

I think he knows he's not going to get anything close to what the drums on the latest Tool album sound like, but he still wants to do it.

Anyone who knows a thing or two about mixing/mastering/etc. can get them to sound decent, granted there is a difference between decent and good.

[Tiger]

Whats wrong with recording drums with a dynamic mic? I thought sm57s are good too.

And if you need compression, which you will, just do it when it gets on the computer.

Dynamic mics are fine for drums when you're close micing. But they do not reproduce the sound as accurately and generally lose a lot of response when they get slightly off axis (which doesnt take much as most of them are cardioid or smaller)

Condensor is going to pick up everything a lot more clearly and reproduce the transients better, helping to make up for the lose of clarity that micing a drum kit in mono is going to create. (if not just a little)

[The_One]

When I mix drums, I usually turn the cymbals and hi-hat down a lot and bring out the snare, toms, and bass drum which provide the main beat. Recording with only one mic, you won't be able to do this, so you're going to either have way too much cymbal clutter or a softer overall beat, which will make the song lose a lot of it's drive. It's not going to sound that great, but it's definitely worth a shot.

[cadencethefire]

I don't see why you guys think its such a waste of time. Telling him not to record because he has only one mic is rediculous.

If the guy wants to record something and he doesn't want to spend the money on, or doesn't have the money for more than one mic, why does this mean he shouldn't even bother?

It doesn't.

I think he knows he's not going to get anything close to what the drums on the latest Tool album sound like, but he still wants to do it.

Anyone who knows a thing or two about mixing/mastering/etc. can get them to sound decent, granted there is a difference between decent and good.

I didn't say don't record them, i said use a condensor mic... TS: you'd be surprised with what a condensor mic and a multiband compressor can do with one audio signal :)

Dynamic mics are fine for drums when you're close micing. But they do not reproduce the sound as accurately and generally lose a lot of response when they get slightly off axis (which doesnt take much as most of them are cardioid or smaller)

Condensor is going to pick up everything a lot more clearly and reproduce the transients better, helping to make up for the lose of clarity that micing a drum kit in mono is going to create. (if not just a little)

I wouldn't use a dynamic mic for anything but vocals really... we used a couple on our toms in our last recording and it made them sound boxy, the signal for other tone was there but those mics just brought out all the bad frequencies

When I mix drums, I usually turn the cymbals and hi-hat down a lot and bring out the snare, toms, and bass drum which provide the main beat. Recording with only one mic, you won't be able to do this, so you're going to either have way too much cymbal clutter or a softer overall beat, which will make the song lose a lot of it's drive. It's not going to sound that great, but it's definitely worth a shot.

like i told TS, you'd be surprised with what you can do with a condensor and a multiband compressor

[Tiger]

I wouldn't use a dynamic mic for anything but vocals really... we used a couple on our toms in our last recording and it made them sound boxy, the signal for other tone was there but those mics just brought out all the bad frequencies




Then you need to learn to use your dynamic microphones better, really. : /

You cant just slap a mic on a tom head and expect all the work to be finished, theres quite a bit more to it than that.

[cadencethefire]

Then you need to learn to use your dynamic microphones better, really. : /

You cant just slap a mic on a tom head and expect all the work to be finished, theres quite a bit more to it than that.

I know how to mic an instrument... when you say dynamic the first thing i think of is sm58... which is what i used. (usually people call 58's dynamic mics and 57 instrument mics even though both ARE dynamic) I'll bounce out the drums tonight and you can tell me what you think

EDIT:

so to clear things up, I wouldn't use a 58 if that's what you're saying
if you're only using one mic to rule them all i would never use a dynamic mic of any kind 57 or 58 or i5 or... a decent condensor will do the job, you could even use it on the bass... and if it's got an eq cut on it... you could probably use it to mic the guitar too

[Seafroggys]

I would never use a 58 on drums.....the only thing I'd use a 57 on would be the snare, everything else would use better dynamic mics (including toms and bass).

[cadencethefire]

i was kind of limited on resources it was either that or not at all... but we have access to some i5's that have a good enough frequency range to do the job enough where i can make it sound pretty in post

[Tiger]

I know how to mic an instrument... when you say dynamic the first thing i think of is sm58... which is what i used. (usually people call 58's dynamic mics and 57 instrument mics even though both ARE dynamic) I'll bounce out the drums tonight and you can tell me what you think


You...dont know what you're doing/talking about, so dont argue over it.

[Ethan.]

I didn't say don't record them, i said use a condensor mic... TS: you'd be surprised with what a condensor mic and a multiband compressor can do with one audio signal
OK my mistake. I didn't catch that detail.
Didn't mean to jump all over ya either ;)

[Moseph]

Are we still talking about this?

To Threadstarter: Try it and see if you like it!

Problem pretty much solved.

If you need to purchase new gear, I'd save up and get the correct gear, rather than spending extra money by purchasing a hackneyed equipment closet and then spending again to get it right.

On that note, can a mod please close this thread. I'm sick of seeing the bickering over something so pointless as to how everyone would prefer that somebody else did their work a certain way.

[Ethan.]

Now its about who knows more about dynamic or condensor.

[Benzum]

You can record drums with one mic, it will just sound really really bad that's all

[Ethan.]

Not necesselery.

[cadencethefire]

Try to get ahold of at least 3 mics... even if you're only borrowing them for a day... at least it's better than micing the whole thing with a 57

if not: "What it really boils down to is knowing how to use what you have. Use what's available, but know your mics well enough to take advantage of their strengths and weaknesses."

Quote taken from the below link
http://www.drumdojo.com/tech/mikingstudio.htm

this helped me a lot when i was tracking drums, so it might help you too, if not now... maybe in the future :)

[girlshapedlovedrug]

I record all of my drums with one mic - it's a rode condenser though. As for the positioning, I've found it sounds better with my kit to mic it from the front, not behind. If you've only got one (dynamic) mic, the best bet is just to point it at the snare drum from behind you, but make sure that it's not in a place where air from the hihats or cymbals will rush by.