Bootstrapping Your Drum Sound – Drum Recording Techniques

I’ll be doing some drum recording with my new band The Long Wait, this weekend. It’ll be good to get some rough demos out and doing some pre-production on the eventual album.

We’re recording in a living room, with only 8 inputs, 5 of which can only be used on drums. So it’s a bit of bootstrapping to make sure each track counts and everything sounds as good as possible. I’m used to mics on every drum but this will force me to look at things differently.

During my research on how to make every mic count I discovered a few great links and resources on drum recording.

First of all, you need to get it great at the source, so be sure to tune your drums.

A Run Through of Different Microphone Techniques

Here’s a very interesting video on a few different miking techniques, and a particularly good point on positioning an X/Y pattern.

One Microphone Technique

Here’s a cool clip of how good a drum kit can sound with only one great microphone in a great sounding room.

Microphone Positioning

I’m a big fan of the Bill Gibson recording books, and have used his book for inspiration on many occasion. Microphone position is important, and the video shows you how much the sound can change using different placements.

Creating a Sub-Kick

A sub-kick is a great way to get all those extra lows from your kick drum. It’s basically a speaker used as a microphone. I actually thought you could just use a speaker that has an output but I might be wrong. You can buy the Yamaha sub-kick or you can make your own.

Any Tips?

I’m always on the lookout for any secrets my fellow engineers have so feel free to share your tips and tricks in the comments below.

I’ll be posting more about bootstrap drum recording in the next few weeks so stay posted.

P.S.

For practical and easy-to-use recording tips

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