When it comes to drum micing, the tried and true methods of achieving that classic drum sound have more or less been standardized. Experience has dictated the specific mics you use for each drum and where you place them to optimize performance.
However, it’s important to consider a variety of variables when you’re laying down your own track. Which method you choose will depend to some extent on the style of music you’re playing. What works well for a jazz piano trio will likely be less effective on a death metal track.
Though following those established drum micing conventions can help you achieve that standard sound, perhaps you would do well to break them in the name of the alternative drum sound you’ve been chasing after.
Choose Your Drummer Wisely
Regardless of whether you’re looking for a classic kit sound or something totally unique, your kit and your drummer are of utmost importance.
Begin your process by finding a skilled drummer with experience in the studio. Playing live shows or simply possessing good technique are very different skillsets than being a good studio drummer.
Many common problems can be lessened or avoided entirely if the drummer knows how play evenly, accurately, and dynamically without requiring a lot of corrective measures.
The same goes for the drum kit – the quality of your kit will directly impact how your drum track turns out. An excellent recording on a poor drum kit will only ever be exactly that.
How Many Mics to Use
Conventional setups generally consist of a minimum of four microphones: one each on the kick and snare and a stereo pair overhead primarily to capture the toms and cymbals. These may be supplemented with mics on the hi-hat, the individual drums, the bottom of the snare, and even individual cymbals.
It is also fairly common to place a mic a few feet in front of the kit to capture its sound from that perspective. In the same vein, placing one or more room mics farther away from the kit can capture more of the flavor of the room.
That said, some of the greatest drum sounds ever recorded were cut using only three, two, or even a single well-placed microphone.
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Placing Your Mics
Whichever combination of microphones you choose, their placement will be critical. That doesn’t mean getting them generally into the optimal position, but making sure that they are place very specifically. In many cases, even the slightest adjustments to proximity or orientation can result in significant sonic differences.
Also, the more microphones you use, the more likely you are to encounter phase issues as they interact with each other. You’ll have to be very alert to that reality while placing your mics.
Which Mics to Use
Common experience has established some general guidelines when it comes to picking which mics to use for which source.
For your snare, use a dynamic mic like a Shure SM57 or a Sennheiser MD421. The Shure Beta52A or AKG D112 are both dynamic mics that work best for micing your kick drum. A pair of condensors like the large-diaphragm AKG C 414 XLII or the small-diaphragm Neumann SKM 184 are the best choice for overheads.
Alternative Mic Setup
Though the above examples are tried and true when it comes to achieving the best-sounding results, it is important to know that “best-sounding” in a general sense might not be best-sounding for you. That said, engineers may well use any mic they choose on any source, depending on the circumstances.
If you’re seeking something a little bit different to spice up your sounds or searching for an alternative to a conventional drum sound altogther, you might begin by doing something “wrong” just to find out what happens.
For example, if one or more of your microphones offers multiple polar patterns, try changing from cardioid to omnidirectional or figure eight. In some cases, this change can alter the sound fairly radically.
Try repositioning a mic in an unorthodox way – pointing it away from the source or toward the floor or ceiling – just to see what happens. Generally, mics are positioned toward the kit to limit the amount of reverberation noise, so positioning your mics in this way will intentionally catch that noise. Perhaps put mics out of phase on purpose, or attach a contact mic to the snare.
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Pick Your Recording Space
Similarly, recording drums in an appropriate room can greatly enhance the overall sound. But recording them in a reverberant space, such as a garage, stairwell, or any room with highly reflective surfaces, can yield very interesting ambient effects.
In these reverberant spaces, try placing the drums close to a wall and positioning a mic or multiple mics to catch the reflections off of the wall. This technique will give you short delay effects (distance = delay time).
Conversely, position the mics to capture reflections off of the opposite wall. You can also do this just for overdubs of particular drums giving you, for instance, an alternate snare or tom sound.
Trash Mics
Another very effective way to get aberrant sounds is with a “trash mic.” This is usually a dynamic microphone, like a Shure SM57, that is positioned to capture more or less the entire kit. In some situations, though, it might be important to focus on particular frequencies.
The idea is to process the signal coming from the mic to create a nasty or “trashy” sound that can be blended with the other tracks to add some edge. You might overdrive a mic preamp, or use a distortion plug-in like the Soundtoys Decapitator, the Thermionic Culture Vulture, or an amp simulator. And why not try a fuzz pedal?
Heavy compression can also effectively trash-up the sound. Choose your least-transparent signal squasher, dial in a high compression ratio, and fiddle with the attack and release times until you get it pumping and breathing like crazy. Then move the mic around so that the compressor locks onto mostly cymbals, mostly kick, or mostly snare until you find a compelling sound.
Try adding in the distortion, a phase-shifter, a Leslie simulator, a tape delay, a spring reverb unit, or whatever you have on hand. You might even take “trash mic” literally, and use a really low-fi sounding microphone, like the Placid Audio Copperphone.
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Aberrant Techniques
Additional techniques for getting atypical sounds include attaching a cardboard, plastic, or metal tube or container to the business end of a mic for sound-funneling effects. You can also try placing a second kick drum (or floor tom) in front of the drum you’re playing on and recording its sympathetic resonance.
Recording into your smart phone’s memo recorder through the built-in mic and syncing the track in your DAW is another example of using unlikely technology right from your pocket to alter the way your kit sounds.
A personal favorite is playing existing drum tracks through cheesy speakers – perhaps in a resonant space, like your shower stall – and syncing the track in your DAW.
If you’re looking for a DIY spring reverb-type sound, try placing springs and a mic in a metal bucket and positioning the bucket in front of your kick drum.
Final Thoughts
Whether you choose to stick with the traditional methods to achieve the classically best-sounding drum track, or you delve into the creative world of aberrant techniques to achieve a drum sound no one has heard before, we hope this guide provides a guiding light into your studio endeavor.
MicrophonesAbout the Author:
Barry Cleveland is a San Francisco Bay Area-based journalist, author, guitarist, and composer. He was an editor at Guitar Player magazine for 12 years and at Mix and Electronic Musician magazines before that. His book, Joe Meek's Bold Techniques is a cult classic, and he also contributed to Whole Lotta Led Zeppelin. He has released five albums, as well as composing music for film, television, and video games