Jeff Strong by Home Recording For Musicians For Dummies

Author:Home Recording For Musicians For Dummies [Dummies, Home Recording For Musicians For]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Published: 2011-10-07T05:00:00+00:00

Figure 9-7: You can place a mic in several places to get a good kick-drum sound.

If your drum sounds thin after trying these mic-placement approaches, you can try these two things:

Tune the drum slightly up. In your quest for a deep bass tone, you may have tuned the drum too low. (This is especially common if you have a large bass drum.) In this case, the drum’s fundamental tone may be too low to be heard clearly. Raising the pitch a bit usually solves the problem.

Create a tunnel with acoustic panels. Putting the mic in the tunnel often helps if you have a room that’s too dead. Place two of the panels on their sides (reflective surfaces facing in) with one end of each panel near the outside of the drum. Angle the panels out so that, where they are farthest from the drum set, the distance between them is just under 4 feet. Then lay the other two panels (reflective surface facing down) across the side panels to create a tunnel. You can also place a piece of plywood on the floor under these panels to further increase the resonance. Place the mic halfway into the tunnel, facing the center of the drum.

Setting up the snare drum

The snare drum is probably the most important drum in popular music. The bass guitar can cover the kick drum’s rhythm, and the rest of the drums aren’t part of the main groove. A good, punchy snare drum can make a track, whereas a weak, thin one can eliminate the drive that most popular music needs.

Because the snare drum is located so close to the other drums, especially the hi-hats, a cardioid-pattern mic is a must. The most common mic for a snare drum is the trusty Shure SM57. The mic is generally placed between the hi-hats and the small tom-tom about 1 or 2 inches from the snare drum head (see Figure 9-8). Point the diaphragm directly at the head. You may need to make minor adjustments to eliminate bleed from the hi-hats. This position gives you a nice punchy sound.

If you want a crisper tone, you can add a second mic under the drum. Place this mic about an inch or two from the head with the diaphragm pointing at the snares. Make minor adjustments to minimize leakage from the hi-hats.

If you have the available tracks, record each snare mic to a separate track and blend the two later during mixdown. If you don’t have the available tracks, blend them until you have the sound you want.

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