Drum recording - Good mic placement!

Drum recording can be a difficult task. Not only is it about selecting the right microphones and placing them, but you have to be aware of how each and everyone of them interacts with each other and the room around the drum-kit. This is no easy feat, as each drum is different and you are not recording one instrument but rather recording a group of instruments together.

Different types of music warrant different types of microphone placement and selection and in this article I'll be going into detail about how I recorded a drum-kit for a vintage blues project.

Blues has a more natural sound than the modern drum sound in rock recordings. I'm going to go into how I aimed for a more natural and organic drum recording.

Mic selection

I wondered what types of microphones to use, as vintage blues was often recorded with one or two mics I didn't want to go overboard in mic placement. Still, I decided to use microphones on each drum just to make sure. I could always discard them later, not putting them into the mix.

It also meant I could make two different mixes, a vintage one using only the overheads and room mics and a modern one using all of the resources I had at my disposal. That way, the extra work spent during the drum recording phase didn't go to waste.

Note: If you are confused by the microphone terms I am using, check out my Microphones 101 article and then promptly return here to read more about drum recording.

So in the end, these are the microphones I used:

For the inside of the bass drum I used a Sennheiser PZM electret microphone.
For the outside I used the AKG D112.
On top of the snare I used an AKG 414 large condenser. This made the snare come to life and was much fuller than if I would have stuck a SM57 on there.
To get the rattling of the snares I used a small diaphragm AKG C391.
For both toms I used a pair of Sennheiser MD-421.
For overheads I used a pair of AKG-414 large condenser. I decided on the large diaphragm in order to get a more full range thicker sound that I wouldn't have gotten if I had used a regular pair of small condenser.
To catch the full kit and a little bit of ambience I used a Neumann U-87 as a room mic. It captured the full range of the kit and although the room didn't sound that good it worked out nicely with the rest of the kit.

Now, I know for some of you, those microphones aren't within your reach budget wise. A Neumann U-87 is a classic and a very expensive mic to buy, as well as the AKG 414, let alone three of them!

If you aren't able to use these exact mics, don't worry, try to get as close as you can using the mic selection you have at your disposal.

For instance, if you can't get two 414s as overheads, at least try to use large diaphragm condensers instead of small ones. It certainly gives a distinct sound, regardless of the model you are using.

Microphone placement

Now in order to get the best drum recording possible obviously I had to place the microphones well. The room was not a great sounding room as it was quite dead and didn't have anything special to offer. So I resorted to close miking everything as best as I could and get a great room sound in the mixing phase.

Here's how I placed the mics.

Bass drum

The bass drum was using two mics, one inside and one outside. The PZM was put very close to the inside head in order to get the sound of the beater.

The D112 was positioned right outside the sound hole.

Snare

snare drum miking The 414 on the snare was positioned very close and at 45° pointing at the center. It was set to hyper-cardioid pattern in order to make it more directional.

Having it more directional decreases bleed from the hi-hat as it picks up less sound from the side, where the hi-hat was positioned.

Under the snare I positioned the C391 directly pointing to the snares. Using two microphones on the snare, pointing in opposite directions you have to be aware of phase problems.

If you don't reverse the phase of this microphone the snare will most surely sound dull and lifeless.

Hi-hat

I put another C391 pointing away from the drum-kit on the hi-hat. Positioning it on the outside border and away resulted in a very clear sound.

drum recording

Good mic placement is crucial to your drum recording

Toms

The toms were a typical 45° angle pointing at the center of the toms to get a little bit of attack from the sticks. Nothing super exciting here, just the simple and normal way to do it.

Overheads & Room microphones

The overheads were positioned quite closely as I wanted to minimize the room sound. You can see on the picture below that they are fairly close to the drum kit.

It's crucial that the overheads be positioned at the same distance from the snare drum because you could end up with annoying phase problems when the snare sound hits the overheads at different times.

So as you can see, they are both tilted towards the center of the kit, in order to minimize any problem I might have with the snare.

recording drums

Lastly, the Neumann U-87 was positioned in front of the drum-kit. It picked up the whole kit nicely, and being in cardioid pattern didn't pick up a lot of the room. Although, it being farther away than the other mics, the room sound was definitely a factor.

Listening to the drum recording in the control room, leveling off the faders it was obvious that we had accomplished a pretty good drum sound.

Conclusion

Although these microphones and placements were used for blues, it does work for other styles as well of course. As somebody probably says, a good sound is a good sound is a good sound. It pretty much depends on the performance of the player and the style of music that's being recorded what type of sound you will get.

After drum recording, check out my mixing page for mixing techniques.

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