Drum Recording
Everything You Need To Know.
A good drum sound can be the make-or-break of any song, which is why it's imperative to get the recording process right from the start. This guide will cover everything you need to know about drum recording, whether you've got a small home studio in your parents' attic (where I started) or a state-of-the-art professional recording studio - I hope this appeals to everyone! So let's begin.
In This Guide:
#1 - Drum Tuning
Let's start with one of the most important aspects of a great drum sound, and easily one of the most challenging to master: tuning. Drummers - I feel your pain! After 10+ years of playing and recording drums, I still don't feel 100% confident that I know what I'm doing when it comes to tuning a kit, and it's certainly not a quick and easy process. There are countless ways of tuning a drum, and everyone has their personal preference, so I'll try and keep this as simple as possible!
Once you've put a new drum head on (I hope) the next thing to do is to figure-tighten each lug and then seat the head - This will help keep the head in tune and ideally done the day before going into the studio!
Next, grab your favourite drum key and turn each lug one full turn, making sure to stick to the star turning pattern showed in the image which will keep an even tension on the head. Repeat this process by a half turn on each lug until the wrinkles disappear and, the drum starts to produce a tone.
It's important at an early stage to make sure that each lug is in tune with the others as this will be harder to do the tighter the head gets. You can check this by lightly tapping about an inch in from each lug with your finger or a mallet, aiming to have every lug the same pitch if possible.
Once the head is sounding in-tune with itself, its time to get to the desired pitch. Some preach that you must always tune your heads to specific pitches to match the song you're playing, other people go for whatever sounds best for the drum without worrying too much about the note. I'd say that unless you're playing jazz, you don't necessarily have to tune your drums to the key of the song, although it does help if you can. Another thing to keep in mind is the relevance of the resonant head in what pitch you end up hearing when hitting the drum - I usually tune the resonant head either equal to or about a third above for the toms, and a fifth above for the snare. You can experiment for yourself with different combinations on the batter and resonant heads to see what works best for you and the music you're playing.
#2 - The Player
This one might be more difficult to tweak than the others on this list, but it plays a vital role in achieving a great drum sound for any recording. In an ideal world, your drummer (or you) would be confident playing to a click, know the song(s) inside out, how to play to cater for the music and of course have professional gear.
To keep this guide simple, I've highlighted three valuable lessons I've learnt over the years when working with producers and artists in the studio:
Have a variety of gear available - You never know how your drums and cymbals will sound in different studios, as the room plays a huge role in what you hear. Be sure to bring a few different options and don’t be afraid to switch things around!
Use dynamics - If you're in a small room, then you're going to want to hold off on smashing up those 20-inch crash cymbals! Dynamics are essential to getting a great drum sound at the source; if the drummer can solve problems in the room by hitting certain things softer, that will make things a million times easier for the producer.
Don't be afraid to dampen - You may have just spent hours tuning your kit to E major, but sometimes you need a bit of MoonGel to control that ring.
#3 - Sound Of The Room
The sound of the room is almost as important as the drum kit itself and the person playing it, the reason being is that sound bounces off reflective surfaces such as walls and ceilings, leaving you with a coloured sound. You can take advantage of this science by choosing your drum room to suit the vibe of the music, if you have that luxury available. For example, a small dead sounding drum room might be ideal for a Motown style track, but a modern-day rock song might require a much larger space to help create some natural reverb and give the drum sound a larger-than-life sound that compliments that genre so well.
Most of you reading this will probably not be in a large purpose-built recording studio and more likely will be setting up in a small room with low ceilings, meaning you will need all the help you can get to create an exciting room sound. There's plenty you can do to help fine-tune the sound of the room you're in, and even some simple tricks to making your small box room to sound like a lively drum studio!
Here are some tips to achieving a great drum room sound:
Build acoustic panels
Forget about buying acoustic foam or hanging a duvet on your wall, building acoustic panels yourself will solve many more sonic issues in your room and do so without draining your bank account. There are plenty of DIY tutorials online for this; I used Rockwool insulation for my panels which work a treat - Make sure you treat the corners first with bass traps, followed by the first reflection points and then the ceilings and walls if possible.
Rockwool used for acoustic panels
Acoustic panels are used here behind the drum kit
Utilise the space you have
You can only get as good a result as the room you're playing in, which means you have to make the most of what you have! If you're working in a tiny box room, then you have to accept that you're not going to get any natural-sounding reverb (at least none that sounds good), the best practice for this situation would be to try and make the room sound as dead as possible, by treating walls and other reflection points with things like the acoustic panels mentioned above, or anything else you can get your hands on that will absorb sound (sofas, duvets).
Move your kit around the room
There will be an optimal place for your kit to be for it to sound as good as it possibly can in the room. The bass response will usually be the thing to listen out for, especially in corners where these low frequencies congregate (unless you have some bass traps). Try to avoid placing your drums into a corner as this will cause the kick and low toms to rumble quite a bit! If you can, I would suggest placing your drums as close to the centre of the room as possible, especially in smaller rooms.
#4 - Drum Mics
Next up we have every engineer's favourite topic, microphones! When it comes to drum mics, the possibilities are endless and extremely subjective. Despite this though, some mics have become the absolute go-to for many engineers when it comes to recording drums, like Shure's SM57 on a snare drum. No matter what equipment you have, I'm confident you'll be able to achieve the perfect drum sound, especially if you've taken everything mentioned previously into account. One thing I would say is that when it comes to choosing your microphones, remember the old saying 'quality, not quantity' which is vital here. If you have the option to buy a couple of expensive, high-quality microphones or a cheap set of 8, please go for the expensive ones! You will have plenty of time to build up your collection, so don't rush - you can achieve a superb drum sound using just one microphone.
So here's my list of go-to mics for a standard drum setup:
Kick
I like to use an AKG D-112 or a Shure Beta 52A inside the kick. Both will produce a massive bass drum sound with plenty of low-end punch and high-end attack, without having to do too much EQ. They are also very affordable when it comes to microphones and considered to be industry-standard choices on a kick drum. If you have the luxury of an outside mic as well, try a large-diaphragm condenser (AKG C414 or similar) to capture more of the low-end thud from the front head. The combination of these two mics will give you everything you will ever need from a kick drum.
Snare
As mentioned earlier, the SM57 is still considered by many to be the ultimate choice for the top and bottom of a snare drum. Again if you have the luxury to add another mic, then place a small diaphragm condenser right next to the SM57 on the batter head (AKG C451 or similar) to pick up more of the high frequencies that the Shure will be missing. Always remember to check the phase on the snare mics!
Overheads
You'll want to use a stereo pair of condenser microphones on the overheads, large-diaphragm or small-diaphragm mics will work such as AKG 414s or C451s. LDC mics will provide you with a great overall sound of the kit, especially from an overhead position, whereas SDC mics such as the C451 will pick up more of the high-end frequencies which is ideal for close cymbal miking as well.
Toms
Honestly, any type of mic will work on the toms! Dynamics are most common, such as a Shure SM57 or Sennheiser e604, but condensers and even ribbon mics will give amazing results. I would advise sticking with a dynamic, especially if the drummer is a hard hitter, as this will help keep bleed from other drums and cymbals to a minimum while still providing an immense tom sound.
Rooms
I would consider a room mic as a luxury, because you can get all you need from just the microphones mentioned above and add digital room sounds and reverb in your DAW. BUT, if you can afford to use one, there is no better way to bring your drums to life than by setting up a large condenser in your room to pick up the natural reverb and ambience of your space. Something similar to an AKG 414 will do the job perfectly, or even better a ribbon mic, such as the Coles 4038 which will produce a darker, more beefy drum sound.
#5 - Microphone Placement
Once you've assembled your favourite drum mics, next, you'll have to place them around different areas of the kit while keeping things like phase relationships in mind. Phase is an issue that requires a separate article altogether (you can find one in SOS magazine here), so I won't go into that anymore in this post. But you must learn about phase when using multiple mics on any instrument!
Anyway, it's good to start with the overheads and move onto close mics once you get a clear, well balanced stereo image of the kit. I like to use a couple of C451s in a 'spaced pair' formation above the kit, ensuring they are both equally distanced from the centre of the snare drum (use either a tape measure or an XLR cable for this).
Next, add a kick drum mic inside the hole of the front skin if you have one, pointing directly at where the beater strikes, or just off centre for a bit less 'beater attack'. You can experiment to your heart's content by moving the mic around inches at a time - the smallest movements will drastically alter the sound produced so take your time. If you're adding a second mic, start by placing it a couple of inches away from the reso head near the centre which will create a massive boomy kick sound, and don't be afraid to move this around (even up to 6 feet away) the reso head to achieve different tones.
Moving on to the snare drum next - assuming you have a couple of SM57's to work with, start by placing the top microphone a couple of inches from the snare head, angled at approximately 25 degrees towards the centre of the drum as much as possible to create the perfect balance of tone and body. Try experimenting by moving the microphone further away to reduce the low end, which resonates from the centre of the head (also if the player is a heavy hitter you may find this helpful). For the bottom microphone, start by angling it in the same way as the top mic and see how it sounds. This mic will pick up the high-end crack from the snare wires, so its usually good practice to point the mic towards them as much as possible.
Mic placement for the toms are arguably very similar to that of the snare drum. Placing the microphone a couple of inches above the top head angled at around 25 degrees towards the centre of the drum should yield great results.
Room microphone placement is a much more diverse subject to cover due to the amount of variables involved, such as the room sound itself, the size of the room and the acoustics.
To get a good balanced drum sound, set up a large-diaphragm condenser about 6 feet away from the kit at around knee height. Although fairly uninspiring, you'll get a clear sonic representation of every aspect of the kit. If like me your cymbals are often too prominent in your room, adding an acoustic panel in front of this microphone is a great way to tame those super-high frequencies as shown in the picture below.
Mid/Side (M/S) Mic Recording Technique
One of my favourite microphone placements to create stereo room mics is the mid/side (M/S) technique. To create an M/S placement you will need a pair of condensers (these don't need to be a matched pair, or even the same microphone) and one will need a figure-of-eight polar pattern. Set up the first mic about 6 feet away from the kit facing towards it, with the polar pattern as cardioid or hyper-cardioid. Next place your figure-of-eight microphone either above or below the other mic, making sure the capsules are as close to each other as physically possible. This time though, point the capsule towards the sidewalls, with the null point facing the kit. The magic happens with this setup within the DAW - take the audio from the figure-of-eight mic and duplicate it, then pan these tracks hard left and right and finally invert the phase on ONE of them. You should now have three audio tracks - the mono cardioid track and the duplicated figure-of-eight tracks which have been panned to give you amazing sounding stereo room microphones!
Another room microphone I love to have is an ambient room mic to pick up the natural reverb of the room and give the drums a larger-than-life sound. One way of achieving this no matter what size room you're in, is to use natural reflections to your advantage by pointing a microphone directly towards things like hard floors or walls rather than facing the kit. You can experiment by using different microphones and placing things like plywood around the room to create unique reflections.