For this video I thought we would take a look at how I mic a set of drums, some
tips, and take a look at some cable management. this gig is for drummer Kenny
Aronoff.
first, to keep things neat I try to limit the number of stands around the set by
using clips that attach to the rims of the drums. I really like the Sennheiser
e604 mics for this. they come with their own Rim Clips. the mics are very low
profile, and they're very durable. that's a real advantage over an sm57. and they
sound good! the rubbery style clip attaches to the drum Rim but won't Mar
the rim. marring the drum rims is sometimes a concern of drummers with
something like a metal LP claw or a Shure a56d clip.
but Clips aren't always the answer. in some cases, microphone stands are
necessary. I like k and m stands for tripods, and I also
like the k m booms. I'll leave links for these in the text below. the ones I use
are very heavy duty and they definitely stay in place!
sometimes though, I might want to mix in a couple of low profile round base
stands. generally that's for space reasons. in that case I count on the
Atlas DMS 10 or the Atlas dms7. here I'm using those for the bottom snare mic and
for the kick mic. they're both using the K and M booms though.
on the snare top is the Shure beta 56 on the snare bottom is the Shure beta 57.
I will sometimes use the Sennheiser e604 on the snare top and skip the stand. it
is convenient, but in cases where a drum tech might want quick access to swap out
the snare drum, in case of a broken head or snares, then not having the snare
tethered to a mic and cable makes a swap go a bit quicker.
of course a shure sm57 is still requested a lot for the snare drum, and I do have
sm57s in the mic case for just those situations.
I like the beta 56 though, because it's similar to the sm57, but lower profile
and more durable. an sm57 generally will not survive a
stick hit on the front of the mic.
for placement, I like it just at the edge of the drum aimed at the center of the
drum.
I like a beta 57 for the bottom snare but a regular 57 works as well and some
people like to use a condenser here. the bottom mic is what I really blend in
to hear the snare snap on the snare drum. I add a high pass filter and I typically
invert the polarity of the bottom snare mic.
I'm using Shure sm81 condensers for the overheads and the hi-hat. For rock I
generally set the high pass filter on these sm81s at the maximum filter
position. for this gig I'm just using the one kick
mic, the Shure Beta 52. Kenny is using a second kick mic a Shure beta 91, but
that's to feed his Porter and Davies BC2 Throne shaker.
you don't have to use the second mic for the BC2. you can just split the single
Kick Drum mic to go to both places- the drum snake and the bc2.
I've ran a sub snake to the drums and then the mic cables connect directly to
the drum sub snake first, and then run to each individual drum mic. that tends to
make for more neater cable management. for kick mic placement, generally with
the kick and a beta 52, I want the mic in the port to the point where the blue
ring on the microphone is roughly equal to the hole in the front head.
on the toms and snare a main priority is simply getting them out of the line of
fire of the drummer's sticks. pay attention to where the drummer will come
across the Toms for rolls and reaching for cymbals, and then keep your mics out
of that path. the e604 mic allows for some positioning
options. there is a thumb screw for up and down
positioning, as well as the head itself will pivot.
as you slide a mic closer to the drum you increase the level of the drum that
the mic hears as compared to the things around it. in theory that means it should
take less gating to gate out any surrounding sounds. and also, due to the
proximity effect, the low end should increase as you move a mic closer to the
drum. angling the mic more at the center of
the drum, where the stick strikes should give you more attack. or conversely,
angling it away should give you less attack. by attack I'm talking about the
sound of the stick hitting the head.
but let's face it, in reality drums are big and loud,
and the mics are close anyway... so there's a lot of margin for error
here. you can experiment with this to listen
for differences, but once you understand the relationship of the mic and the drum
you can generally eyeball this. I'd spend as much time if not more time just
making sure the drummer is comfortable with the mic positioning rather than
solely worrying about the positioning for sound reasons. at least to a point.
nobody wants to hear the drummer stick hitting the mic!
I'm using the overhead mics more for cymbals and the overall Ambience of the
drum set. that's why I'm going to be a little
aggressive with the high pass filter. if I was miking the drums for jazz or a
big band type of thing I'd take a different approach with the high pass
filter and use a lot less of it. [Music]
as the overhead mics are brought closer to the drums you'd lose Ambience but you
increase the signal to noise ratio of what the mics are able to pick up versus
what you don't want them picking up, as far as stage wash goes. I tried to keep
the mics on axis as to the cymbals. one thing to be careful of though is if you
lower them too much you risk them picking up a certain area of the kit too
much. for example if you have one of the overheads over three cymbals and are
really close to that center cymbal then that center cymbal might be picked up
too well as compared to the other two cymbals. as you raise that mic up it
should even that out somewhat... but if you raise their height too much
then they become more susceptible to picking up stage wash versus the drums
and cymbals that you do want them to predominantly hear.
one thing about the overheads, they do interact with the other microphones.
you just want to adjust them so that they interact positively with the other
mics and help the overall drum sound. one thing to experiment with is flipping
the polarity of the overheads.
if you're really wanting to experiment, and have the equipment, you can time
align the overheads and the close mics.
on the hi-hat here I'm also using a Shure sm81 condenser mic, and I'm also using a
K & M tripod boom stand. but this K & M tripod stand actually has three sections-
it can be short, medium, or tall! expensive, but handy!
as for the bc2 throne Shaker, while Kenny was carrying his own mic for it, you can
also just use your normal kick mic and just split it through the drum snake and
the bc2 unit.
if you're not familiar with the concept of a throne Shaker, it's essentially a
transducer mounted to the throne that allows the drummer to really feel the
low end of the kick. it vibrates the throne based on the lows from the
signals that are sent to it. if the drummer is on in-ears, or you just don't
want to carry a large sub for the drum mix, then some kind of a throne shaker
like the bc2 is a great way to get the drummer some lows that they can feel in
their monitor mix. I'll drop affiliate links to all of this
stuff we've talked about in the text below. go ahead and comment below and
tell me what some of your favorite drum mics are, and if you have any questions
go ahead and leave them for me. I have several drum mixing tutorial videos on
the channel so I'll make sure and leave a link to those as well. Likes and
subscribes are always appreciated! please leave any comments or questions below.
check out the other videos... and I will see you next time!
[Music]