Help makeing a shoping list for some drum mics. Any advice would be great :)

Hi guys !

So Ive been useing Superior drummer 2 with the addons for all my drumming since starting home recording about 7 months ago.

I will be moveing to a new place soon and I will have the room available to mic up my kit so I was hopeing to start puting together a shoping list of what equipment I will need

So far what I am thinging is
2 x Sm57 for Snare top and botom
1 x Beta 52A for inside the kick drum

The only reason I have said theys mics is because I remember useing them time and time again when tracking drums in studios around scotland.

What would you guys recomend for....
Hi hat mic ?
4 x Tom mics  I would prefer clip on mics
How about a mic for the ride ? So I can have more control over it Ive seen guys do this in the studio in the past but never knowen what they have used.
3 X over heads ?
I know most people would say just 2 over heads but I play my 2 chinas and an extra 20inch crash far round on my right hand side so I have had engineers put an over head over that area aswell.

If there is some sort of over heads I could use for other tasks around the studio aswell that would be awesome such as useing the Sm 57s for guitar cabs etc.

I am unsure about mics as you can tell but I want to learn and I am about to start haveing a good read up on google

Thanks for any help on this guys

I am not in a major rush to buy I am just looking to find out how much its going to cost me and what amount I need to get together what options are out there etc....

Thanks again to everyone

Norrie 

Listen to this , it's the president of TAXI music talking about his days as a recording engineer in the studio.

He starts talking about miking drum kits at about 30 minutes in to the show. He talks about room ambiance, mic positions, phase issues, and of course the mics he preferred to use in the sessions.

Guitarhacker


Listen to this , it's the president of TAXI music talking about his days as a recording engineer in the studio.

He starts talking about miking drum kits at about 30 minutes in to the show. He talks about room ambiance, mic positions, phase issues, and of course the mics he preferred to use in the sessions.

I actualy seen you link this in another thread and started watching the first 20 mins of it it was good from what I seen so I have book marked ot for when I have time to sit and watch it all properly :)

Norrie, what Mike is saying is that great preamps will help get a great sound - probably better than a host of mics through regular old convertor preamps.  If given the choice, I'd go w/ less mics more quality.  You can get outstanding results w/ fewer mics.  Here at home I get some good sounds using 3 mics, overheads and a middle mike (a pzm on a wood floor that manages to pick up a lot of bass).

For good drums a great drummer is the first thing, along w/ a nice kit.  That makes all the difference than some kid who can't keep time but can bash the bejebbers out of the drum.  Of course, that is probably not your call, but the first thing.  You can make sure the drums sound good, new skins, battened down for squeeks and creaks and tuned (I think you've made a point of that before Mike).

When mixing I find I mostly use the overheads, get a good sound from their and augement it w/ spot mics (Kick, snare, toms etc.).  More mics is harder to set up, harder to match session to session and usually means lesser mics/preamps.  But even on stuff from good studios I start w/ the OV.  I would really try to get 4 mics/preamps and work my way up from there -ov, snare and kick.  SDC, 57 and RE20 (or the new RE320, tho I haven't heard it).  In fact, I'd rather have one outstanding room mic (room permitting) in the right spot than 12 lesser signals to work from.

@

PS, haven't heard the octapre thing, but the VS700 is good.  Not as dear as the API etc. stuff to engineers, but more than qualifying as a transformerless pre.

AT


Norrie, what Mike is saying is that great preamps will help get a great sound - probably better than a host of mics through regular old convertor preamps.  If given the choice, I'd go w/ less mics more quality.  You can get outstanding results w/ fewer mics.  Here at home I get some good sounds using 3 mics, overheads and a middle mike (a pzm on a wood floor that manages to pick up a lot of bass).

For good drums a great drummer is the first thing, along w/ a nice kit.  That makes all the difference than some kid who can't keep time but can bash the bejebbers out of the drum.  Of course, that is probably not your call, but the first thing.  You can make sure the drums sound good, new skins, battened down for squeeks and creaks and tuned (I think you've made a point of that before Mike).

When mixing I find I mostly use the overheads, get a good sound from their and augement it w/ spot mics (Kick, snare, toms etc.).  More mics is harder to set up, harder to match session to session and usually means lesser mics/preamps.  But even on stuff from good studios I start w/ the OV.  I would really try to get 4 mics/preamps and work my way up from there -ov, snare and kick.  SDC, 57 and RE20 (or the new RE320, tho I haven't heard it).  In fact, I'd rather have one outstanding room mic (room permitting) in the right spot than 12 lesser signals to work from.

@

PS, haven't heard the octapre thing, but the VS700 is good.  Not as dear as the API etc. stuff to engineers, but more than qualifying as a transformerless pre.

From what I hear the Octa-capture pres are the same as are what are in my VS 700 thats why I was thinking that way :)

Looks like I have a lot of thinking to do.

My Mapex saturn is an awesome sounding Kit useing Aquarian SQ2 skins on it I have recorded it in and out of studios for about a year and had great compliments from the engineers on regards to the sound from it.

In regars to the Mixing I agree 100% I would mix from the rom mics and over heads first then start to bring everything else in

Thanks again

Norrie