Drum Mic Tutorial - Part 1: Equipment

This video describes the equipment I use to record drums.

If you are already familiar with certain aspects of this tutorial, feel free to skip around to other parts using these links:

Introduction - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvqLVo_HeqU

Part 2: Mic Placement - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp1LEhZMITE

Part 3: Recording Preparation - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8BIJEbV9mY

Part 4: EQ Settings - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZfwjISwNao

Part 5-1: Compression and Reverb - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwxf3Zmdh2g

Part 5-2: Compression and Reverb - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFKzbbX5uOo

Part 6: Noise Gates - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fpm2Dm8DR0

Pay attention to how many times I say "relatively" or "inexpensive." Apparently I was on a "relatively inexpensive" kick the day I recorded this!

I hope you enjoy these videos, and more importantly I hope they help you become better at recording drums!

Background music: "The 1st Chapter" by Circus Maximus

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Mic
• Tutorial
• Introduction
• Part
• equipment
• JD
• Drum
• Drums
• Cover
• How
• to
• make
• drums
• sound
• good
• record
• EQ
• Compression
• Reverb
• Noise
• Gate
• Gates
• microphone
• CAD
• pro
• pro-7
• Presonus
• Firepod
• recording
• toms
• snare
• bass
• kick
• Snarespectre
• Snare
• Spectre
• DMT

[raulxaguilar]

Hey, nice job on the videos. I'm finding them extremely helpful. Quick question: How do you feel about internal miking on toms? I want to try it live. So far, I've got a Behringer XENYX X2442 mixer with a dbx 266 compressor. Any thoughts?

[SnareSpectre]

@raulxaguilar

Glad you're finding them helpful - to be honest, I have no clue about internal micing. I feel like you'd have a hard time getting the sound you want because of all the airflow going on inside the drum, though.

[colingtr1]

can u send me a link where u got ur firepod? 

[SnareSpectre]

@colingtr1

I got them used from someone - I'm not sure they're selling this exact model any more, but there are new ones like "FP10" and "FireStudio" that *I think* have the same capabilities.

[lpjdrummer12295]

Hey man, I'm looking in to getting some recording equipment, and I was wondering, do you think the TASCAM US-1800 USB 2.0 Audio/Midi Interface is a good audio interface to infest in? I noticed it's nearly the same as your firepods.

[SnareSpectre]

@lpjdrummer12295

I honestly couldn't tell you since I only have experience with these, but as long as it can record 8 SIMULTANEOUS inputs (and that's the key....since it's USB 2.0 it sounds like it will only do 2), then I'd say go for it.

[mattlikesdrumming]

Your videos are EXTREMELY helpful. I have one question.. I'm on a pretty tight budget (high school -__-). I'm definitely getting the CAD mics that you have, I just need to know what mixer/audio interface to get. I don't even know what the difference between the two are! I need something to plug my mics into that I can use for home recording, and for live situations. Can you recommend something not too expensive that I can use?

[1waatb]

can u hear the track while recording

[OrangeAvACounty]

@SnareSpectre I just got a mixer and im still new at recording, but i'm still confused, on mixers you can connect an adio interface but whats the difference than just connecting the mixer straight to my computer through USB?

[Pir44tti]

Can I get the same, compressed sound If I use usb audio interface and 4 chan mixer? Or does the sound get easily blurred if I use mixer? Or am i able to route the mixer channels to separate auxes in my DAW ( Logic in this case)? If i use mixer, am I only able to adjust the global eq etc..?

[lpjdrummer12295]

@Cadmiumboy Ok sounds good, the interface seems to be the winner since it comes with the software as well. 

[Cadmiumboy]

@lpjdrummer12295 well I probably wouldn't recommend using a mixer even for that; it would color your signal, and not in a good way. your best option would be running tube preamps into your interface, or just plugging straight into the interface itself like I do

[lpjdrummer12295]

@Cadmiumboy I honestly don't remember. But it's controlled through USB, and has 8 XLR inputs. The only reason I'd consider that instead was for live settings, but I'd rather have a good interface. The mixer would just be icing on the cake.

[Cadmiumboy]

@lpjdrummer12295 what type of mixer is it?