Micing a drum kit with only 2 inputs

ORIGINAL: Cromberger

ORIGINAL: mattplaysguitar

I only have two mic inputs, that is my biggest limitation. Can't get any more for this project. The music is piano and singing based. We have an AWESOME drummer, so he can pretty much make the drums sound awesome even if they aren't recorded well. The drums are only needed to provide some beat so don't need to be full-on miced and edited and everything.

So, I have a Behringer B1 condenser and an sm58. I was thinking one overhead then the 58 near the kick. I could then use some slight delay/verb or other spatial techniques to give some stereo image to it.

I was thinking of recording in a university student theatre theatre. Not a bad sound in that room, though very wet and bright, as it's designed for vocal projection and loudness. I also have six 5x2 foot acoustic panels that I could use somewhere. Maybe set up drums in the room then surround the drums with the acoustic panels to still keep the natural ambience, just reduce it a bit, then play around with perfect space. Should give it a nice stereo aspect that way.

I may POSSIBLY be able to get two overhead mics for some stereo micing, but then there will be no kick.

So, how do you guys recommend I go about recording this? Effects, micing techniques etc... Looking for a very natural/casual and not in-your-face sound.

Cheers!!
Matt

Hi, Matt,

That's a very interesting situation you have there. I'm *not* and expert on doing the sort of recording you are going to do but I'm wondering why you'd want to devote one of your two mic's to the kick drum? Are you looking for a huge thumping kick?

If you can access a nice theater, you might even be able to capture a really nice mono sound with just your condenser mic, like they used to do back in the old days of recording. The kick should come through just fine without it's own mic, espeially given that you are only using a piano, vox and drums.

Also, if you do wind up getting access to the two overheads you mentioned, then you might want to use the other two mic's on the vocalists and piano so that you'd have some sort of control over them in the mix. The overheads should give you plenty of good drum sound, assuming that the drums are really not the "main" instrument.

I'll be watching this thread to see what the guys who really know how to handle this situation have to say. I'd like to learn more about this sort of thing, too.

Maybe you'll be able to experiment a bit with your mic placement and ensemble before you do your recording? Then you could find out, for sure, what sound's best for your desired end result. In any case, best of luck in finding the perfect solution to your problem.

Best regards,
Bill