we just tried using only overhead condenser mics for the drums instead of individual mics for everything...

it really gives it that nice vitage dick dale drum sound, i love it! the snare is just bright enough and the cybals sound really splashy and nice.

does anyone else mic their drums like this and get the same outcome?

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I've used 2 overhead condenser mics and a kick drum mic for several years with great success...way simpler than mic-ing the snare, toms, high hat, cymbals, etc. and it sounds fine to me.

Sometimes, less is more.

Jack
aka WoodyJ

The Mariners (1964-68, 1996-2005)
The Hula Hounds (1996-current)
The X-Rays (1997-2004)
The Surge! (2004, 2011-2012)
Various non-surf bands that actually made money (1978-1990)

Triangular micing (2 overheads & a kick drum mic) is a great way to record drums.

If you have time (and unfortunately, it does take time), try setting up the drums in different rooms and find the room that sounds best to you. When you're open micing like that, you're recording the room as much as the drums. For example: There is a church sanctuary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It has a big 2-story rough stone wall that curves around behind the alter. Drums recorded in that room sound massive and complex.

To my ears, drums sound great in tall rooms. Rough, hard surfaces, like stone walls, add countless surfaces & angles for the sound to bounce around on. Now that may not be the sound you want on your surf album, but it might be worth your time to look around and hear what effect different rooms have on the drum sound you record.

Trust me on this. When you find "the room" the sky opens up, the sun breaks through the clouds and life is sweet. You'll go back there to record your drums every time.

Take some time. Find the right room. Have fun!

Cheers,
Chuck
_"Kojack"_

Sounds good Rick!

The Scimitars

PolloGuitar
I posted a fairly long description of low budget micing in this thread:

Click here...

I think two condensors overhead is thee way to go for the vintage sound. First of all, you are going to get a more natural drum sound- Who ever sticks their ear right next to a Tom any way?. Second, I don't think close micing of drums really started until The WHO used it in the late 60s. (Am I way off here? I think it was engineer Geoff Emerick who had the concpt.) so, if you really want the early 60s sound, follow the minimal mic set up.

--fd

ferenc:

I think you are right on the money with this one: close mic'ing seemed to develop around 1967/ 1968: groups like the Who ("Who Sells Out" and "Tommy"), The Beach Boys ("Good Vibrations" "Pet Sounds") and the Beatles ("Rubber Soul" "Sgt. Pepper's") all seemed to make the shift at nearly the same time to close-mic'ing their drum kits.

The difference between early Who drum sounds (like "Can't Explain" "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" "My Generation") and later-60s Who drums ("I Can See For Miles" "Tommy") is very dramatic...the early stuff sounds like all cymbals splashing and crashing, later it's much more emphasis on tom rolls and snare accents....man, that Keith Moon really could play!

-dp

A while ago Ted gave me soe really great tips on recording drums with a simple set-up. I figured it had a place here in this thread. maybe Ted can comment on whether they ever used this set up with Satan's Pilgrim's, that would be a cool reference!

anyway, courtesy of Ted1:

One overhead mic over the whole kit (not a condenser). A stand may be the hardest part for this-maybe there's a pipe you can hang it over or something. I usually put mine at about 2 meters above the floor, and lined up so that it if it fell, it would fall onto my crotch and give me a killer stomach ache:). I say because you don't want it right over a cymbal. Depending on your drummer's setup, it should be behind any cymbals (or at least not in the line of fire). Then, one mic on the kick, usual style, but a big one if you can get it. I use a front head and place it about 3 inches in front. For the snare, I just use one shure 57 type mic. I don't close mic it, but get it on a boom stand pointing right at the middle of the shell at a distance of about 3-4 inches. This distance can be adjusted depending on the sound you want. This combined with the overhead mic will give a real natural snare sound with popping rimshots. The overhead mic will also pick up the toms nicely (usually), except you may need one on the floor tom, depending on how loud your drummer is. You can mix all of that down to one for your 4 channel setup and the overhead also does a lot to pick up the other instruments and room sound, which gives it the clear but not too clean or sterile sound. If you have an extra mic, now that you're not mic'ing the bottom of the snare, try experimenting with a centrally placed room mic. It may help the rhythm section sound cohesive, while your able to still hear each individual piece. Especially with surf, warmth and natural reverberation is good.

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"When in Italy, if the menu says something's grilled, don't assume it is."

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Ah Ted, thanks for clearing that up. incidently, I have an 8tracker with only four tracks similtanous recording, bu I have used a mixing board in the past to mix multiple mics to one track.

I bought this months "guitar and bass" magazine cause it had a feature on budget recording, including simple drum recording set ups, and tips for affordable good mics. It's a brittish mag

WR

Rules to live by #314:
"When in Italy, if the menu says something's grilled, don't assume it is."

https://www.facebook.com/The-Malbehavers-286429584796173/

Ted, what songs were recorded there? was it a whole set? or just a song or few??

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Jeff(bigtikidude)

The studio where we recorded has an in-house echo chamber, where you pipe the source tones up to the chamber, then they have a mic at the end of the chamber to catch the echoed sounds. Also, they have sound damping materials outside which you can add to determine your echo levels.

I would have loved to pipe my theremin tracks through that thing....

~B~

I recorded CHUM's drums with an awesome technique I found on YouTube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IiFOD1EeKhQ

Two condensers overhead, plus I added a kick mic and a remote mic down the hall 30 feet in my back bedroom. It's the best drum sound I've ever recorded.

The key is the measuring the distance of each overhead mic from the drums. When everything is phase coherent, it sounds great. With the added "effect" of a room mic far away from the kit, my living room sounded like a giant studio.

We recorded the entire CHUM CD this way, with everyone playing at the same time, everyone bleeding into each other's mic's a little bit. We embraced delays from mic bleed as our friend, and it makes for a very live sounding record. You'll be able to listen to this sound on the new CHUM disc, Downtown Beach Available in August, 2007.

• Rickshaw

Complete DIY Ribbon Microphone plans available from:
www.RickshawRecords.com