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How do you record your drums? What mics do you use, where do you put them and how many? Do any triggering? Do any acoustic work on your room?

Let's hear it!

Mike

Mike,
I do all live drums in my studio. (I play five piece fusion type kit).
I record with Sampson mics @ 24/96 input sample rate.
They have variable adjustments to height and pitch or angle. I am usually just off the heads.
I use to trigger years ago, but don't since I have a drum studio now. There are too many drawbacks to triggering. Dyanamics is a huge factor. I actually like my drum tones better than what I have heard on many modules. I like the trasnperacy of real live recorded heads. Whe you are recording yourself, you can engineer and mix so many variables (stick attack is proabably one element that you can't mix into a triggered drum sample. Unless the sample already has it in it, but they seldom do! This variable also varies alot between one hit and the next. Its things like that that make a huge difference for me. Another huge factor is snare work. Ghost notes on the snare breath alot into drum parts. These are very difficult if not impossible to get exactly right by triggering. So no I don't trigger!
Acoustics work great in my studio!
Listen for yourself. Be mindful that the samples on the link are MP3's/ I send WAVs of finished work not MP3's.
You have to know how to mix to get great tones. NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!
Check out my samples I have put online to give you an idea of my tones.
Great Post Mike,
Tommy

What I'd like to find out is what to people use to record drums that are not your standard/jazz/trap whatever you call it kit. I'm talking the latin percussion, boudhrans, djembes, djun djuns, bendirs,doumbeks, etc.

The fun stuff.

Tom,
That depends. You can still use tom mics, SM57's 58's, Condensers. Same input devices. The positioning changes as little. You need more than just one mic per instrument. For some instruments, I use a mic aimed at the outer rim of the instrument to pick up slap attacks at the rim for dynamics.

When we put bodhran on Lesley Schatz' three cd set of folk music for Bear Family Records, we used a Neumann U-87. In that case, the bodhran was going to be the primary percussion. Razzy Bailey cuts additional percussion in the main room, usually with a TLM-103. He's usually adding to kit stuff. For the Dakota album, on Ra Records, I played tambourine to Steve Turner's drums (Steve's wonderful, played on a bunch of Travis Tritt and Dolly Parton hits.) Brad Hartman engineered and used a Groove Tubes mic in the vocal booth.

At home, for percussion, I either use a Rode NT1, or a Shure SM-81 depending on how "close" or "roomy" I want it to get.


Great stuff, Tom and Tom...the Tom Tom's at the drum forum

Mike

We need a kick, Anyone named kick here?

Yea, Corny! Its wha I do!

Kix Brooks? Maybe he's a hat act. Thanks, I love corny.

maybe one of you guys should change your name to "Tim Balies" if you feel latin, or "Tim Pannies" if you feel more classical.

maybe one of you guys should change your name to "Tim Balies" if you feel latin, or "Tim Pannies" if you feel more classical.