Recording Drums

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Recording Drums : February 2003 SoundOnSound q

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Workshop

The drum kit can be oneof the most time-consuming andfrustrating of instrumentsto record, so it's worth

taking a structuredapproach.

Hugh Robjohns

The phenomenal advances inintegrated drum machines andsample-based drum sourcescontrolled by sequencers meanthat few of us bother recordingreal drum kits any more. However,

there are still a large number ofdrummers out there (they haven'tall been caught yet!) and some people still like the sound of real drums.So this article has been written to try to provide some useful pointersand guidance on how to record drums effectively with the resourcesavailable.

Setting Up The Drums

The typical drum kit consists of a kick drum, snare, a couple of tom-toms mounted on stalks from the kick drum, a floor tom, a hi-hat, and acouple of cymbals maybe a crash and a ride. Obviously, manydrummers have a lot more to hit than this simple list, while some make

do with less. The overriding element, though, is that it is all percussion.It sounds obvious, doesn't it so why say it? Well, the thing aboutpercussion is that it is very transient-rich and it's usually damn loud!Naturally, that affects the kinds of microphones we choose and use, thekind of processing that we apply, and the problems we can expect toencounter along the way.

Recording Drums

Published in SOS February 2003

Printer-friendly versionTechnique : Recording/Mixing

Photos: Richard Ecclestone

Tuning The Kit

All drum kits are not the same there are different types ofbatter head, shell, and drum stick the combination of whichdefines the overall sound. For example, snare drum heads

with a black sound dot tend to have a fairly damped response,whereas plain ones ring on for longer. Heavy, thick heads tendto be louder and duller, and decay quicker than light, thinheads, which sound noticeably sharper in their attack and ring

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on longer. Likewise, cymbals will sound very different,depending on their size, manufacturer, shape and intendedpurpose.

As may now be obvious from the preceding paragraph, I'm noexpert in drum kits, just as I know little about the different

makes of Tuba or Bassoon the choice and detail is down tothe musician playing the instrument. Howev er, I do know thatif the kit is not tuned correctly, justas if the bassoon is not tuned, theresults of a recording will be verydisappointing. Tuning a drum kit isa reasonably complex job, notunlike tuning a piano there arelots of tensioning adjusters totwiddle and they have to be correct

in relation to one another to provide the ideal tuning.

With tom-toms and snares it is important that the head is

tensioned equally around its rim. This is best done by backingall the tensioner keys off completely, then winding them up byhand until they just start to get tight. From this starting point,adjust keys in pairs on opposite sides of the head, much likeyou would the nuts on a car wheel. Start with a full turn (maybetwo) to take up the tension, then apply a heavy pressure to thecentre of the head to stretch it a little and help it to equalise itsposition. Next, continue winding up the tension a half turn at atime, working on opposite pairs of nuts all around the head,until the desired pitch is achieved. You can check for an even

tension by hitting the head close tothe rim between each pair ofadjusters the pitch should beconstant all around the head.

The drum shell forms a resonantcavity and so the tuning of the headis dependent on the tuning of the

shell get the two properly matched and the shell reinforcesthe sound of the head, giving a loud, full tone. On snares (andtoms if applicable), the bottom head is tuned in the same way,but its tuning relative to the top head is the critical thing. Whenthe bottom head is removed from a tom it tends to make thedrum louder, and affords a wider tuning range because theresonant frequency of the shell is broader. However, if thebottom head is fitted its tuning is critical. Tuning higher thanthe top head (up to about a fourth) gives a slightly dullerattack, but an interesting pitch bending effect. If tuned lower,the attack is sharper but the sound is more damped.

Depending on the tuning and the condition of the heads, youmay find some drums ring too much most often the snare.Sometimes t his can be cured by simply retensioning the skin,

without changing the actual tuning.Some tom-toms have an internaldamper which can be used although in my experience they tendto rattle more than anything elseand, since they tension the head atonly one point, often don't do aparticularly good job. A commonsolution is to make up a thin pad oftissue (or a handkerchief or duster),When tuning a drum, make

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Before the drummerstarts to assemblethe kit, ask if thereare any elementsthat won't be usedin the songs thatyou will be

recording. Notrigging superfluousbits saves time andmay reduce thelikelihood of rattles,although emptyfittings may alsorattle more you'll have to make an assessment with the drummer atthe time. I once spent twenty minutes before recording a live gig tryingto optimise a close tom-tom mic and the associated gate in the deskchannel. A week later, when I was remixing the multitrack, I discoveredthat that particular drum wasn't used in the entire recording!

Before even unfolding the first mic stand, it is absolutely essential thatthe drum kit sounds good in the studio. A soggy, rattly kit will alwayssound soggy and rattly, no matter what magic you do with yourmicrophones and sound desk. A tight, good-sounding kit will be a loteasier to record and will sound a lot nicer as a result, so it's well worth

and tape this to the side of the headleaving the side facing the centreopen to vibrate freely and therebyhelp to damp the ring. Alternatively,putting thin strips of plasticinsulating tape in wide parallel lines(or even a noughts and crossespattern) across the skin can help a

lot too. Take this damping too far, though, and you will suck allthe life out of the kit your drummer may as well play a pile ofcardboard boxes so listen critically to any modifications youmake.

With a snare drum, a tight batter head gives a crisp, sharpsound, whereas a lower tuning provides a deeper, 'fatter'sound. Equally, setting the bottom head to be fairly loose givesa deep resonant tone, while a higher tuning gives a muchcrisper snare effect. The snare is probably the most frequentcause of unwanted rattles. Check the mechanics of the snareaction and damp with masking tape if necessary. Some tissue

paper folded between the snare wires and head can helpcontrol unwanted vibrations try moving the tissue pad fromthe edge towards the centre to find the optimum location.

As regards the kick drum, a tight, well-tuned beater head givesan identifiable tone and a full body, whereas a looser headgives a more clicky sound with obvious attack you arelooking for the compromise that best suits the musical style.Clearly, a harder beater will also provide more attack and clickthan a soft beater.

In my experience there isn't much that can be done with

cymbals (other than putting them back in the box), althoughradial strips of masking tape can help to dampen the ring, iffound necessary. Once everything is tuned up properly, listenfor squeaks and rattles. Loose hardware can be damped withmasking tape, and a squirt of WD40 can cure most squeaks.

sure to tighten nuts in oppositepairs, as you would with a carwheel. It's also worth applyingheavy pressure to the centre ofthe drum head with your hand

now and then in order to helpeven out the tension across thehead.




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spending an hour retuning and sorting out the kit, compared with a daymessing about with gates!

Professional studios usually havea dedicated booth in which thedrums (and drummer) are placed.This serves several purposes.

First, it helps stop the drummerfrom breaking anything expensiveout on the studio floor no, onlyjoking! The walls of the booth maywell be made of brick or stone, togive a hard, bright, reflectivesound that often suits rockdrumming, or it may be welldamped and absorptive so that itadds no character at all. Thebooth also provides a very highdegree of isolation so that thedrum sound does not spill onto themics over a string section on the

studio floor, for example. Very fewhome studios have the luxury ofsuch facilities, but it may bepossible to improvise somethingsimilar if you have a large multi-room venue at your disposal.

If the drum kit has to be in thesame room as the rest of the

band, then acoustic screens are a good idea to try to stop too muchdrum sound finding its way into the other instrument and vocal mics.You can make very effective temporary screens out of piles ofcardboard boxes or mattresses with simple wooden frames to hold

them upright. You can either use a double mattress on its side, orseveral singles on end or a combination of the two the idea is toscreen off as much of the kit from the rest of the band as possible. Thiswon't provide total isolation of course, but it should make a considerableimprovement and is generally worth the effort.

It's not just about stopping the drums from leaking into other instrumentand vocal mics, though. If the backline is loud you may well find its spillgetting into the drum overheads. Hanging a duvet from a ceiling beamin front of the kit to provide some screening for the overhead mics canbe helpful in this regard. Give some thought to sight lines too thedrummer may find it easier to play if he (or she) can see the rest of theband.

Enter The Microphones

Okay, so we have a well-tuned, good-sounding drum kit in an appropriateacoustic be that well-damped withmattresses and cardboard boxes, or in alive room. The next thing to do is decide onhow to mic it up. Almost every engineer willhave their own preferred technique, andthis is one area where there really are veryfew rules. This is partly because, of all theband instruments, recorded drums areprobably the one source where an

inaccurate, unnatural sound is often adesirable thing.

Probably the most purist approach is

Miking close to the plane of the cymbals (toppicture) will reduce their relative recordedlevel. Miking from above the cymbals(bottom picture), on the other hand, will givea more cymbal-heavy sound.




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required in acoustic jazz, so let's start withthis situation. Much like orchestralpercussion, the most natural sound can beobtained with a high-quality condenser micpositioned overhead and either in front ofor behind the kit. Most engineers prefer large-diaphragm condensers inthis role, although small-diaphragm mics can be just as effective in mostapplications. You will see almost everything used in this role, includingthe Neumann U87, TLM170, TLM103, KM84 and KM184; the AKGC414B, C3000B, C4000B, C1000S and C451; the Sennheiser E664;and the Audio Technica AT4033 and AT4040. Pretty much any cardioidcondenser will do. On pure jazz recordings, Coles 4033 ribbon micsalso work very well indeed.

Back in the days when I was working in mono television broadcasting(actually it was only ten years ago!), I found a single, wide-cardioid micplaced above and behind the drummer's head worked very well. Placinga stereo mic (the Soundfield works extremely well in this role) in thesame place usually provides a very natural and well-balanced soundtoo. The exact mic position will need to be played around with a little,naturally, to find the best balance of drums and cymbals in the acoustic,

but it is quite a good starting point.

It is worth bearing in mind that, while the cymbals tend to radiate soundin a bipolar or figure-or-eight pattern above and below the metal plate,the hi-hats tend to radiate sound horizontally. This information providestwo clues to help position your mics. Firstly, you can reduce the level ofcymbals relative to drums by bringing the mic closer to the plane of thecymbals, where they will radiate little energy. If you want more cymbal,move higher and more directly above them.

Since the cymbalsradiate up anddown, you can also

place mics belowthe cymbals, closerto the drumsthemselves. In fact,this used to be avery common wayof miking up kits indance bands often with just asingle condensercardioid mic in frontof the bass drum onthe plane of the hi-hat (to ensure it was

heard clearly), andangled towards the snare. I wouldn't advocate this technique thesedays, but it is an educational thing to experiment with. However, ingeneral, a better overall kit sound is obtained by going overhead, andyou can often find an acceptable balance of most of the kit anywherebetween two and three metres above the floor, and either behind or infront of the kit. The more distant positions obviously require a goodacoustic environment and low levels of spill from other instruments.

Clearly, there is the potential for your mic stands to overbalance,especially if you've got the mic on the end of a long boom arm extendedhigh over a drum kit. For this reason it is important that you use standswith heavy bases, or that you weight the bases with sandbags or some

other suitable, stable, counterweight. If using a stand with tripod feet,make sure that one leg extends directly under the boom arm to ensuremaximum stability.

For more stripped-down jazz anddance-band kits, a single mic infront of the kick, on a level withthe hi-hat and pointing at thesnare, can do a fine job.

When using spaced drum mics for stereo, don't worry toomuch about them being set up symmetrically , as long as thebalance of the instruments is right.




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If the coincident stereo miking approach is not to your liking, or youhave to work with closer overhead mics because of the ambientconditions, then the most popular configuration is a pair of cardioidcondensers set up as overheads and spaced apart to cover each half ofthe kit separately. Again, some experimentation will be required toobtain the best balance, and don't worry about keeping the micssymmetrical either in their height or position. In this role they areeffectively covering independent elements of the one large instrument.Place them where you find the best individual sound balance for theappropriate section of the kit much as you would place two mics in agrand piano to capture the high and low ends independently.

Miking The Kick Drum

In general, and certainly in acoustic jazz, the sound from the overheadmics will be the defining sound of the kit, and the basis on which youmight want to add further 'spot' or 'accent' mics to obtain the desiredcomposite sound. In almost every case, you will want to add a mic tobolster the kick drum.

The size and repetitiveness of thepressure wave emanating from akick drum makes this a relativelytough job for any microphone towithstand. For that reason I neveruse my best condensers, and rarelyuse a condenser at all a moving-coil mic is actually better suited tothe job, being inherently morerobust. A good high-frequencyresponse is clearly not required inthis role, and a thicker diaphragm isless likely to become stretched andfloppy over time. An extended low-

frequency response is usually anadvantage.

Given the physical abuse of themic's diaphragm when recording akick drum, I allocate one micspecifically to the purpose, and markit clearly. This is for two reasons:firstly, after an extended period

recording kick drums it is likely that the diaphragm will have stretchedand deteriorated, and therefore not sound as good as a microphoneused for less arduous duties. Secondly, I really don't want all mymoving-coil mics to suffer the same fate unnecessarily, so marking one

mic purely for kick drum duties preserves the life of the others.

Ideally, I would use a purpose-designed kick-drum mic, and mostmanufacturers have dedicated models, pretty much all of which aremoving-coil designs. AKG have their D112 (and the classic D12 beforethat), Beyerdynamic have the Opus 65, and Sennheiser have the E602,for example. These are all fine performers, although the AKG model issubstantially more expensive than the other two.

When placing the mic, it is a good idea to stay away from the centre ofthe drum head, because there will be a wider and better balance ofharmonics closer to the edge. If the front head has been removed, orhas a large enough hole cut in it, then place the mic on a stand and

position it close to the beater head, about halfway between the centreand edge. Small changes in position can make a big difference to thesound, so before reaching for the EQ knobs make sure you have putthe mic in the best place to start with.

The most common positioning for thesnare mic is pointing over the rear lip ofthe drum towards the centre of the skin.Try not to have the mic too far over thedrum, otherwise the drummer mightinadvertently hit it!




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Again, if the front skin is missing, make sure the unused fixings don'trattle. A blanket, heavy pillows or other dense fabric placed in thebottom of the shell and pressing against the beater head will helpdampen any ringing and provide a much tighter, more rock-orientedsound.

Depending on the relative

position of the overhead micsand the kick drum mic, the initialwavefront from the kick drummay reach them in differentrelative phases. If the polaritiesare reversed then a lot of lowenergy will cancel out, leaving athin sound. It is thereforeimportant that you experimentwith the phase switch on thekick drum channel to find theposition which provides thefullest bass end with theoverhead mics faded up.

With most kick drums, I have found it generally useful to thin out themid-range a little with the desk EQ, around about 450Hz, which reducesthe tendency towards sounding like a cardboard box. A little presenceboost around 3kHz helps the beater click to cut through, and you canfilter off everything above about 5kHz to remove cymbal spill.

However, I recommend recording flat and introducing the EQ onlyduring the mixdown stage, as the precise frequencies and amounts willdepend on the other instrumentation and the overall mix. The key is tomake the kick drum and bass guitar (or acoustic bass) complement oneanother without creating a stodgy, muddy bottom end. That oftenmeans thinning out the bottom of the kick drum to leave room for the

bass.

At this stage, you should have a well-balanced, natural sounding drumkit with a nicely weighted kick drum and a good overall sound throughthe overheads, panned for stereo if required. If the drummer is a goodone, the snare, hi-hat, toms and cymbals should all sound in theappropriate proportions. A surprisingly common problem, though, is forthe drummer to be a little light on the snare drum and heavy on the hi-hat. If this is the case then you will have to consider adding anotherspot mic for the snare drum.

Snare Drum & Hi-hats

There are as many ideas for miking snaresas there are for the rest of the kit puttogether! A small pencil-type mic is themost practical to squeeze in above thesnare, and this could either be a condenserlike an AKG C451, or a dynamic mic like aShure SM57. A dynamic mic is often themore attractive option, since it is morerobust (the drummer might accidentally hitit) and it has a restricted transient responsecompared to the condenser mic. What thismeans is that the microphone's relativelyheavy diaphragm can't respond quickly

enough to follow the entire dynamictransient of the snare drum, and so acts asa kind of limiter. Whereas this would be abad thing in the context of recording thepercussion section of the LSO, it can be a

If you place the snare mic too close to the hi-hat and on a plane with it, the blast of air fromthe hi-hats opening and closing will becomeaudible.

In those rare cases where youneed more definition on the hi-hat, a good strategy is to mic




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very good thing in this situation, as it helpsto produce a better-controlled, fatter,bigger snare sound. Again, because Ibelieve mics are delicate little things to be handled with care and love atall times, I have dedicated a single dynamic mic for snare duty and ithas already acquired a dent courtesy of a careless 'Rambo' drummer!

The mic should be placed near the edge of the head for two reasons:firstly to minimise the chances of it getting hit, and secondly because afuller range of overtones is present near the edge. Also, being acardioid mic, the proximity effect will help to lift the low end, giving aneven fuller sound. Aiming it toward the area where the drum sticks hitthe batter head will help to provide the maximum attack.

However, be wary of placing it too close to, or looking directly at, the hi-hat, since the 'chuff' of air produced when the hi-hats close is usuallysufficient to cause blasting on the snare mic. A hypercardioid mic issometimes a better choice than a cardioid, as it can usually bepositioned to make more effective use of its nulls to reject the hi-hat. Aswith the kick drum mic, it is important to check the relative phase of thesnare drum mic against the overheads and the kick drum. Normallyoneposition of the polarity switch on the desk channel will soundobviously better fuller and more cohesive than the other.

If the overall snare drum sound is okay, butyou want a little more 'zizz' from the snarewires, you could place the mic under thesnare or even use mics above andbelow. If the latter, remember that thebottom mic must be switched to theopposite polarity of the top mic, becauseits diaphragm will be moving in theopposite direction to the one on the batterhead mic when the drum is struck. Once

recorded, a little boost around 250Hz canimprove the fullness of the sound, but don'ttake it too far or you'll end up with itsounding muddy.

Since the hi-hat is in the area, I have rarelyfound it necessary to mike it up separately there is almost always enough hi-hat inthe overheads and/or snare drum mic.However, should you feel the need forgreater control and definition, anothercondenser mic can be placed about 10-15cm over the outside edge of the hi-hat, looking down on the side

furthest away from the snare. Since the mic is seeing the hi-hatperpendicular to the plane of the cymbals it will be immune from the airchuff emitted when the hi-hats close. A little lift at the extreme high-frequency end (10kHz or so) can enhance the sizzle and sparkle ifrequired.

Adding Tom-Tom Mics

In our purist, jazz-based kit, the toms very rarely need separate miking,because the main balance is obtained from the overheads. However, inmore rock-oriented music everything is close-miked, as much for effectas anything but this is a situation of diminishing returns. The moremics you have open, the more spill. The more spill, the less control, and

the harder it is to balance the kit.

Some degree of control can be reinstatedby using gates to remove the spill when

from above on the opposite sideto the snare.

An extra mic below the snare canhelp provide more tonal options,but it's usually necessary toswitch it out of phase with theother snare mic.




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there is no wanted sound entering eachmic. However, gates inherently chop offthe opening transient of the wantedsound, changing the character of thesound, so the result starts to becomemore artificial and processed hence thesometimes rather odd drum sounds wehave become accustomed to today.

This multi-miking approach is,nevertheless, sometimes the best solutionfor a particular musical style, or if theentire band is playing in the same space(or on stage). In this situation the moredistant overhead mic placement simplywon't work, because of excessive spill, sowe have to close-mike everything andbalance the kit at the console. We havealready talked about mic placement for thekick drum, snare and hi-hat, and theseideas still apply. The overhead mics can

be brought a lot closer now, as, instead oftrying to find a position where they capturethe entire kit, they simply have to pick up

the cymbals. How close you can go depends on the number andarrangement of the cymbals, how they are mounted (since this governshow far they will swing), and the kind of sound you are after, butsomewhere between 20cm and 100cm is the typical range. Aim themics towards the outer edges of the cymbals. Be careful with any EQ too much can leave the cymbals sounding like harsh sheets of tin and watch that headroom!

The tom-toms are best miked up like the snare drum, with dynamic micspositioned just over the rim looking at the centre of the head. The rear

null of the mic should be angled up to reject as much cymbal aspossible again, hypercardioid patterns often work better in this role,since they don't have to be angled quite so steeply, although watch outfor that rear tail picking up something you don't want.

With small toms mounted close together,you may get away with a single micpositioned between the two drums andpointing straight down the middle.However, this really only works well if youare using a mic with a very wide cardioidpattern, as both drums are well off axis ofthe one mic. A better approach is to use amic with a figure-of-eight pattern, since this

can be arranged to see both toms whilealso providing the maximum rejection ofthe cymbals above. However, this meanseither a ribbon mic (not really a good ideaon a rock drum session) or a condensermic. I have used a Sennheiser MKH30 inthis role before, quite successfully, but it isa very expensive solution to a fairly trivialproblem.

On kits where the bottom tom heads areremoved, there is also the option ofinstalling mics inside the toms,

approaching the head from the inside. This technique provides muchmore isolation, both from neighbouring toms and the cymbals, andkeeps the mics out of the drummer's way, but typically the sound ismore resonant and has less of the stick attack than a more conventional

If you're multi-miking the drum kit,then the overhead mics effectivelyact as spot mics for the cymbals.In this case, you can afford tomike fairly close to the cymbals,

although it's best if you choose adirection and location to minimisespill from other instruments.

A single cardioid mic can be usedto cover two closely mountedtom-toms, if necessary, but awide polar pattern is preferablehere.




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external position. If possible, fade out any mics on drums which won'tbe used during the recording of a particular song, to minimise the spill,but, if in doubt, leave the mic up. There's nothing worse than everythingin sharp, defined, close-up sound and then an occasional distant tomhit!

One serious problem when you start multi-

miking a drum kit is that of the forest of micstands. The more metalwork you place inclose proximity to the kit, the greater therisk that something will come in contactwith something else as the kit starts towander around the floor, as they almostalways do. Then you will start to getpercussive noises reaching the micsthrough the stands, rather than throughtheir diaphragms, which is not good.Fortunately, the invention of the clip-ondrum mic has really revolutionised thewhole drum-miking scene. The traditionalforest of mic stands can be completely

dispensed with, since the clip-on mics stayexactly where you put them on the side ofeach drum. Even better, they can bepositioned far more accurately than mostother types of mic because they are somuch smaller. Personally, I've only used

the Sennheiser clip-on drum mic the E604 but I've heard goodthings about the slightly cheaper Beyerdynamic Opus 62 too, and Irecommend investigating further if drum kits figure frequently in yourrecording life. They also provide the benefit that they are obviouslydrum and percussion mics (although they are very effective on brassinstruments too), so there is less chance of your favourite vocal micsbeing trashed!

Once all the mics are in place, it's time to check the relative phasingagain. The kick drum, being the loudest drum with the lowestfundamental frequency, is the reference and will tend to spill into all theother mics to some degree. With the drummer working aroundeverything on the kit and just the kick drum faded up, fade up eachother mic in turn and flip the polarity switch on its channel until you findthe position that gives the fullest sound.

Be careful if you areusing top andbottom snare mics I usually setthephase of the

bottom mic to givethe best sound withthe kick, and thenset the top mic tothe oppositeposition withoutchecking further. It'smore important thatthese two mics areopposite polaritythan that they areboth phasedcorrectly with the

kick, and since the bottom mic is closer, that seems the more logicalreference. Don't bother checking the cymbal spot mics after applyinga hefty dose of low cut to reduce drum spill there won't be much kick leftin them anyway.

You can mic a tom-tom in muchthe same way as you would asnare.

A complete drum kit setup the signal from the more distantmic in the background could be mixed in to make the soundmore ambient.




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Recording & Mixing

With all your mics placed, plugged, phased and working properly, listento each carefully for spill, rattles, buzzes, or anything else that shouldn'tbe there. You need to do this quickly, though, for two reasons: first, thedrummer will get tired, and, second, the rest of the band will be leaningover your desk trying to tweak the EQs and push the buttons by now!

You need to get them back in the studio and start rehearsing for a take.

Panning the mics for stereo is, once again,personal taste. Traditionally the kick drumis placed in the centre a hangover fromvinyl record days. However, there are otheradvantages to keeping the kick drum in thecentre, such as sharing the load on bothchannels of the power amp, and being ableto put more and better-balanced LF energyinto the listening room. Likewise, insurround, many engineers are placing thekick in all five channels.

With a minimalist miking scheme, theoverheads will define the stereo image either as a coincident or spaced pairdepending on how they have been rigged.Most engineers pan these fully left andright, but I prefer less width to create morespace for other instruments and to make amore realistic sound stage.

If you have added a spot mic on the snare, it should be panned to thesame position as the snare heard on the overheads, otherwise you willhave a blurred and confused image. The easiest way to adjust thesnare pan is to listen to the stereo overheads, focus on where the snareis in the image, and then fade up the spot mic. If the spot is panned tothe centre initially, as it is faded up the image of the snare will pull backto the centre as the spot overwhelms the overheads. Pull the snareback down, pan the channel in the appropriate direction and fade up thesnare again. This time the image of the snare will not pull as far, or maypull in the opposite direction, so adjust the pan a little more in theappropriate direction and try again. Repeat the process until fading upthe snare just makes the snare louder, without pulling the image. Itsounds long-winded, but will only take two or three goes with practice.

If you have gone down theclose-miking path, there shouldbe enough separation between

mics to allow you to pananything pretty much anywhere.The toms are usually arrangedto span the entire stereo image,with the kick in the centre, thesnare and hi-hat panned eithercentrally or slightly right, and thecymbals scattered asappropriate to fill in the image.In surround, some engineershave chosen to put variousdrums literally all around thelistener (which I personally findrather disconcerting), but the

choice is entirely yours.

Depending on the drummer's playing style and the type of music, youmay want to apply a little compression the snare and/or kick drum to

Where the tom-tom only has onehead, you can try miking insidethe drum for greater separationand less attack.

Keep an eye on your mic setup duringrecording, because you can get veryunpredictable results if any mics or standscome into contact with the drum hardware.




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provide a more even and thicker sound. Pay careful attention to the attack andrelease settings, since too fast an attack will damage the initial transients, andtoo long a release will negate the compression anyway. Start with a mediumattack and short release, and adjust the threshold and ratio settings to achievethe desired degree of squash bearing in mind that more compressionmeans louder spill.

Now, with everything up and running, the session can proceed. There's justone last thing to mention a drum kit rarely remains in the state you left it forlong! When the opportunity arises throughout the session, perhaps during arehearsal for another take, audition your drum mics again to see if anythinghas changed. Fittings can work loose, the drum tuning can change withtemperature and humidity in the studio, and if the kit creeps across the floor itmay come into physical contact with the mic stands, causing unwantedmicrophony. If you have heavy mics on the overhead stands, the boom armsmay even droop slightly. Keep a constant eye and ear on these things and thesession should go smoothly.

Although many engineers pan their overheadmicrophones hard left and right, a narrower

setting can often create a more realistic soundstage.

Beware of setting too fast an attack time when

compressing drums, as this can damageessential attack transients.

Effects & Processing

If the drums are set up in an ambient room, some distant roommics might provide all the reverb and ambience you require.Placing a pair of mics on the floor about eight or ten feet upand spaced slightly wider than the kit often works well. Moreusually, though, you will be using a digital reverb. The choiceof programs will depend entirely on the style of the music you may want a general ambience program over the entire kit,or perhaps ambience on the kick and a longer reverb (even a

gated reverb) on the snare. Just remember that, although thedrums are percussive, any reverb they generate is morecontinuous and so will fill the gaps in their sound. This will tendto muddy the mix, so less is preferable to more. If in doubt,take the reverb returns back another 5dB.

Something which is probably not done as much these days asit was in the height of the disco era is to add synthesised tonesto the kick. Essentially, the kick drum signal is used to trigger agate to allow through a 40Hz triangle-wave tone. The attackand decay parameters are adjusted to complement the realkick drum and the tone adds a lot of weight and solidity, whilethe real kick provides the transient attack.

Talking of gates, in my experience they are best avoided if atall possible, and should never be recorded to tape. If thedrummer is not very consistent, it will be all but impossible to




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Published in SOS February 2003

set a reliable gate threshold, resulting in false triggers ormissed drum hits. Analogue gates also have a finite attacktime which can cause the initial transient of the drum to be lost.Likewise, setting the release and hold times has a dramaticeffect on the sound: too long a release and the spill willbecome obvious, too short and the resonance of the drum willbe cut short prematurely, although a little reverb can mask thelatter quite effectively. Also, don't automatically assume thatmaximum gate attenuation is the best option you may wellfind you get better results with a more modest amount of gainreduction. A range setting of 12dB is still 12dB less spill, andthe initial transients will survive far better. In digital mixingdesks the gates are often provided with a look-ahead facility.This enables the gate to open fractionally in advance of thewanted sound so that the initial transients are preserved intact,which is far better.

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Recording Drums

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