Building A Drum Sound pt1

“I put a mic on every drum. Why doesn’t it sound good?”

I’m sure at some point we’ve all asked ourselves that question. I know I have! Either it just didn’t sound good or it was completely the wrong sound for the music. Building the “right” drum sound is about more than just setting up mics on all of the drums.

The drum set isn’t a collection of different instruments. It’s one instrument made up of different pieces.

This is a very important, and often overlooked, aspect of recording a drum sound that has body, depth, and punch. For this very reason I always get the majority of my drum sound from as few mics as possible.

Even if I’m setting up 20 mics on a drum set the majority of my tone will come from 3-5 microphones. This is how I make sure that I’m capturing the drums as one instrument as well as getting a nice, full tone. From this point on I let the music tell me what mics I need to add to achieve a sound that works for the song.

In part 1 of “Building A Drum Sound” I’m going to show you how to capture the drums with only 2 microphones. I’ll explain what mics I use, where I positioned them and why I chose them. Then you’ll hear those mics with our song to see how they fit.

My challenge to you this week is to pick 2 microphones out of your mic locker and get the best drum sound possible. This is also a great way to experiment and learn how your mics sound!

I’ll see you next Tuesday with part 2. Happy recording!

Charlie