Recording drums with vocal mics

pintspiller

Any tips for recording demos with a live kit using two dynamic microphones? 

The kit will be set up in one room with two AKG D5; guitar, bass, keyboards in another room DI'd; vocalists in another room using Shure SM58s.

Do the mics on the kit face from the front, above, from below? 

octatonic

The problems you are going to have with dynamic mics in this way is going to be due to the polar pattern & the proximity effect.

You are going to have to experiment to see what works in the room- getting a balance with two mics is possible but it would be better if they were condensers.
Try them as overheads but I reckon what will work better is one close to the hi hats and snare and one close to the kick/ride cymbals and then use the pan controls to try to get some sort of limited stereo balance.
You'll get a degree of spill from the other 'side' as it were but because of proximity effect you'll find they are thinner and lower in volume.

If that doesn't work then try a mid depth stereo room mic type of affair- about 1m form the kit and pan each side a bit.
Don't go too wide- it won't sound natural.

Winny_Pooh

I would try one at the snare pointed across at the toms and another on the kick

Danny1969

The trouble with dynamic mics is they generally make the cymbals and hi hats sound all trashy ... so I think you might get better results using one on the kick and  one on the snare .... Try pointing the mic across the snare rather than pointing down on it. There will generally be enough hi hat bleeding into the snare mic ... that's the 3 basic things covered ... it wouldn't be stella but I think it would be more controllable and useable than using the mic's as overheads

You can use your phone as a cheap drum room mic ... place it as far away in the room as poss and once recorded import the audio file into the daw so it sits with the other tracks 

Stuckfast

Actually you can get pretty good drum sounds from dynamic mics. Because they have a relatively slow transient response they sound thicker and chunkier than condenser mics. However, the problem with using stage vocal mics like the 58 or D5 on drums is that they tend to have a built-in bass roll-off, so it'll be hard to get a full sound.

One thing you could try is positioning a single mic somewhere near the drummer's right knee, pointing at the snare. That should get you a reasonable balance of all the different drums, then if any of them aren't loud enough you can position the other mic to capture that.

Cirrus

Stuckfast said:

Actually you can get pretty good drum sounds from dynamic mics. Because they have a relatively slow transient response they sound thicker and chunkier than condenser mics.

I agree with the proviso that not all dynamic mics are equal. You've got your RE20s, SM7s, MD441s... you've also got your PG56s and your £3.99 Maplins own brand.

I think in this situation it's always going to be some quite severe compromising, I'd position the mics based on the part and the song - ie if it's a jazzy thing try a pair of overheads, if it's heavier stuff and the kick will be important, put one of them down near the kick to get more of that and put the second one somewhere complimentary.

Sometimes you can get good snap off the kick and snare with a mic a couple of feet out near floor level at the side of the kit so it can see the kick batter head and snare underside. Or if the part's got lots of toms, try the "weedywet" method - a mic in front of the kit quite close in, kinda looking at the snare over the high tom at around belly height, and a mic at the side of the kit at hip height, kinda looking at the snare over the floor tom. position for stereo image and balance of toms to rest of kit.

PolarityMan

I'd use on on the kick and one on the snare. Weve experimented quite a bit with this and even with 2 condensors I think 2 overheads your aiming at a 70s era soud at best. With bass and snare you at least have the option to process an retrigger samples for the bass an snare then hi-pass the crap out of the originals to approximate some cymbals. Youd have the bury them in the mix obvs but I reckon that would be the highest fidelity method.

pintspiller

We practise in the keyboard players front hall. The drummer uses half a kit and plays with brushes. I put my D5 close to the rim at the back next to the snare (didn't bother with one on the kick) and it turned out fine for quick and dirty rehearsal-tape-style-demo.

https://m.soundcloud.com/user-419806609-89894362

digitalscream

The Recorderman technique works very well:

http://jonstinson.com/the-recorder-man-drum-miking-technique/

However, having a mic on the kick as well will definitely improve things, if you can find a way to get an extra mic in there.