Hey Guys, Any tips for recording live drum tracks? I've only got 1 mic, and am going to the drummer's place with my portable rack. Where should I position the mic? Should I get separate tracks of the kick, snare, toms and cymbals so I can play with the panning later? The genre is acoustic: Jack Black/John Mayer-ish stuff. Thanks for any help. Andy

do some searches, to find a lot of talk about this kind of thing already.


you're gonna need a minimum of 3 mics, to do any decent recording, and even then, you've gotta have some andy johns-level recording chops to make anything good out of those...

not to mention a great sounding room, great sounding player with a great sounding, well tuned kit....

Think a soft synth and my controller'd be a better idea? Have tons of kits, but man, I hate to do it..

How did you intend to get separate tracks with only one mic?  Are ya gonna have him play the whole song just the kick?   Then ok... snare this time...?  I can't imagine that would sound even remotely natural even if the drummer was great and could do it that way it would lose all feel.

it's fine for writing, and doing demos.

but serious recording?
gotta have the right tools. 

Ok, I'm gonna break down and but 3 more mics. Guitar center, here I come.

CO2s are cheap for decent overheads-like $100 for a set.  

2 Overheads and one decent one on the kick and you can really play with it in Sonar

Thats what I did my last messing around and turned out pretty good I think. Still messing with it but all in learning it myself.

What I do with the recording is create a track folder and drop the drum tracks in it
Then add about 5 extra audio tracks.
Name them

Kick Far 
Kick Near
Snare
Overhead Left 
Overhead Right
Toms

Once Ive done that then Ill copy the Kick and drop one on each Kick track and EQ out as needed to get the attack and beater on the Far and boom on the other

I make copies of the over heads and drop them onto the other tracks made

Once ya got that Slip edit out all but what you after then go to town with the EQ and pan each out as you like to create the drum kit

Heres a cover song Im messing with thats a good example of how its turning out with the 3 mic setup
http://soundcloud.com/dig...dence-day-44100-16-320

Wow you live close to me, just noticed. 

Man, that sounds great.. Crazy. Just got back from Michigan 10 minutes ago. Rehearsal in New Buffalo. Sweet little town.

Hit the Casino while you were there?     Maybe get some free mics out of them