Recording Challenge: Drums

Hi Forum Members

I'd like to get any advice I can on obtaining a decent recording of Drums. I posted a similar topic called Recording Drums awhile back but I need to be more focused on my question.

I have a Delta Audiophile 192 sound card. It has two balanced inputs (Left and Right). Therefore I -guess- it has only one stereo input.

What I'd like to do is record my drummer but how do I obtain an okay recording using only ONE Stereo input (or two mono inputs-Left and Right)?

I only have three mics. A Shure SM58 and an inexpensive AKG and an inexpensive Sam Ash mic.

Please, no "gear head" advice. I've got kids school tuition due. I know ALL the other stuff I need (including more mics) to bring my status up to what's called "pro level". But right now, I just want to learn the basics of recording my band and burning a CD. If I'm happy and content with the results, it will encourage me to invest further into my studio. If it works out okay, I'll eventually take the plunge and invest in a sound card with more inputs, purchase more mic's, etc...

I'm currently running Sonar on a windows 2000 Operating System. I appreciate any and all advice on the challenging task of recording my drummer using simply what I have to work with:

3 mic's

M-Audio Delta 192 sound card with two balanced inputs (left and Right)

Dual pentium III running windows 2000 512 MB Ram (Computers awesome. I built it myself back in 2002). Very stable.

Sonar

Mackie VLZ SR24-4 channel board

Alesis microverb 4 effects

Alesis MEQ 230 stereo EQ

I can't remember where I heard this, but I did hear that to record drums, I should record evry part of the drum kit onits own track i.e. Snare on track 1 , Kick on track 2, Tom Tom track 3, Hihat on track 4 etc. etc.

While this sounds interesting (considering the limited inputs on my sound card), I doubt there are any drummers out there that actually enjoy this method. So let me see if I understand this correctly. Say for example, I have a drummer with an 8 piece drum kit . If he uses all 8 pieces of his kit during the recording of a particular song, does that mean I have to record 8 seperate tracks??

The songs we record are nothing outrageous, just simple blues songs (Basic I-IV-V progressions).

Thanks all
discover

Whoops sorry, didn't pay attention to your input amounts...you have two eh?

Well it is kinda up to you. Perhaps two overheads will do it. You may have to experiment and just move your mics around until you get a general balanced overall sound. Again samples later on may help you.

I would say try what you have and listen to the recording and see if there is anything wrong with it and take it from there. Don't send a lot of research trying to find the "best" way to do it. Even a bad recording is a good learning experiance. Many pro studio recordings are still done with one mic on drums, for some styles of production that's all you need. Many of the classic recordings we all love were done with less gear then you have.

As a strating point I would put one mic to cover snare and hi-hat, one for the kick, and the third one above the kit to get the full sound of the kit and add some air to the recording, use your best mic for this. A condensor would be nice for the overhead but even a dynamic mic will work just fine. In fact with digital recording all those extra highs are some times hard to mix. In real life you lose a bunch of that anyway when you hear a drum set from a distance so a mic that has poor high frequency resonse can help create the illustion of the distance and air and fit better in the mix.

To get that stereo sound I would use a 3 mic technique given what you have and go stereo drum submix into the card.
Using 1 mic for kick, one for snare and one OH won't give you a stereo drum track. Unless you clone the OH in Sonar and pan the original to the left and the clone to the right (maybe delay the clone slightly or do something to it to make it slightly different than the original). That might be something to try too.

But anyway...

I just punched Glyn Johns (the guy famous for this technique) into google and this came up...use 1,2and 4.

This ain't bad but I'm sure there are tons of explanations out there if this doesn't work for you. Just google 3 mic drum technique or Glyn Johns and you should find some good stuff.

Of course better mics (I would use condensers for the overheads- maybe the kick too!) and a good sounding room will yield better results but it's worth a try. Not to mention a great drummer.

Hope that helps