[ddots-l] Re: micking drums
- From: Bryan Smart <bryansmart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:45:03 -0400
It's the same thing. Either your audio interface has enough inputs, or you add
more inputs via an A/D converter that connects to your adat port. The adat port
only supports 8 inputs and 8 outputs at 44Khz, and so this is what pretty much
every A/D converter will give you.
Try the Presonus Digimax for something that is reasonable quality without
breaking the bank. Lots of people use those.
It sounds like you haven't recorded live drums before. Something to keep in
mind is that recording live instruments isn't usually like the MIDI world. You
rarely get total isolation for each track. When you record your drums, the kick
mic will probably pick up cymbals, the hi hat mic will pick up everything, etc.
You don't use multiple mics on a drum kit to get each part in isolation. You
use multiple mics so that yu can balance the sound between different parts of
the kit, and so that you can capture those parts with mics that suit them. For
example, you might use sensitive condensers overhead to get a stereo image of
the kit, but you would use a dynamic mic for the kick drum. You record all of
those perspectives so that you'll have them available when it comes time to
mix. You don't have to use them all, but you want to capture them so that you
have options when mixing. If you just record the kit with stereo mics, for
example, and later decide that you want a stronger kick, your only option is to
EQ the entire stereo drum mix. You might not be able to get enough low end for
the kick without coloring up the snare too much. If you had the kick on its own
mic, then, yes, you'd hear it through the stereo mix, but you also could turn
up/down the kick track in order to boost just that component of the mix. There
are all sorts of possibilities. When it is time to mix, you route all of your
drum tracks to a bus, balance them with each other, and, from that point on,
the bus represents the mixed drum kit.
Like has been said, you could record with just a single overhead and a mic on
the kick. Depending on the sound that you're going for, that might not even be
necessary. Even in the 60's, way before DAWs and virtually unlimited track
counts, people would both make multi-mic drum sub mixes that went to tape, or
would track drum mics individually. Just about anything that you've ever heard
by the Beatles was recorded and mixed with drum sub mixes. In fact, since most
of their stuff was tracked to a 4 track machine, all instruments in most songs,
not just drums, were sub mixed, and recorded in layers. However, many Motown
tracks never bothered with that. They'd have a single overhead mic, and would
compress and EQ the hel out of it. They came out with huge sounding drums. Part
of that was due to the recording space for the kit. The point is that you don't
have to use lots of mics in order to record a drum kit. Of course, if you're
going for a dynamic and ultra clean sound, then a dry space, with many mics,
all recorded very close, together with a stereo image is what you'll have to do.
You're also going to need to spend a lot of time becoming accustomed to mic
selection and placement. It isn't so much a matter of rules, as knowing what
the different options will do to the sound. The above example of dynamic vs.
condenser mics is the basics of mic selection. Since it isn't as sensative to
quiet sounds, and is commonly directional, a dynamic mic is perfect for a kick
drum. If you put a condenser right up against a kick drum, the high sound
pressure would make it easily clip. If you moved it back far enough not to
clip, its high sensativity would mean that it would pick up too much of the
rest of the kit. Placement matters for clipping and tone. Snares can be loud,
but cymbals can be louder. You don't want your overheads so close that hard
cymbal strikes clip them, or that the positioning of the snare or hat mics
means that cymbals will make them clip, also. Use meters to figure this out.
Tone is subjective. You'll notice that depending on if the mic faces directly
at a drum, is off-axis, and even the distance, will affect the tamber of the
tone. There isn't a right way. There is only the way that gets the sound that
you want. Of course, in order to know what you want, you have to learn what you
can have. The only way to learn that is to experiment. Maybe get your drummer
to come over and practice while you listen through headphones.
Bryan
-----Original Message-----
From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Omar Binno
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2010 10:41 AM
To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ddots-l] Re: micking drums
what about what phil mentioned, using external preamps through an adat port?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Smart" <chris_s@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2010 10:37 AM
Subject: [ddots-l] Re: micking drums
> At 08:24 AM 7/30/2010, you wrote:
>>Not if you've just got a stereo mix going into your computer.
>
> To do that you would need an audio interface with enough inputs
> that you could assign each one or each pair per track.
>
> PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE!
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