Recording HUGE Drum Sounds In A Small Room
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- Опубліковано 6 жов 2021
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In this video, I share with you my favorite techniques for recording huge-sounding drums in small, budget spaces.
Common drum recording myths:
1) You need a massive, professional, acoustically treated space for capturing those huge drum sounds heard on your favorite records.
2) Just ditch the room mics in your project studio and rely on reverbs for size.
3) Don't even bother trying to record a great drum sound without a huge space, high-end preamps and expensive converters. Just use samples or program your drums. 🤦🏻
Well, I'm here to tell you that these are all TERRIBLE pieces of advice and complete bologna!
I've been recording massive drum sounds out of my budget project studio (and with cheapo gear) for over a decade and you can do the same.
In this video, I show you exactly how I do it.
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Finally, drums without samples. This is where I want to live. Thank you!
I love the mic placement, was making me giggle when you kept finding more hidden mics. Great video and those drums sound super tight
Hey thanks for the heart! I absolutely love this channel and all the work that goes into these videos
Bravo! Excellent approach. Thank you for sharing. You are a natural teacher/mentor. By putting positive knowledge out into the world, well, it will come back to you many times over. Cheers.
Awesome video dude! Your drum mixes sound great always!
Really enjoyed this. Thanks for sharing! I couldn't believe what a difference the room/hallway mics made when you muted them. They add so much!
Great video! This stuff really works! I love that people are still getting big sounds without samples.
I love the approach you are taking, very practical. Very punchy and powerful!!!
Great video, loving the mics in the corridor certainly gives the drums a great sound
Thats a lot of room / ambient mics! :)) Killer setup! I'm an absolute fan of your drum sounds! Just wow!
Great video. I always put a mic in the hallway. It's literally what makes the kit sound!
This was great man! Thanks for this - took a lot away from it! Keeping the room mics low is brilliant!
Thanks for watching, Bobby!
I believe I read an article years ago regarding zeppelin’s recording process where the article mentions the placement of a mic at the bottom of a stairwell. It’s genius 👍
Adds life to the sound of the drums.
Good stuff!
Excellent video!!!! Thanks!!!!! Sounds great!!!!
Great approach!
Really impressive. Without the hallway mics it may sound like a "small room" kit but in the most ideal way possible. Not much horrible comb filtering, well tuned drums, and of course it sounds like you have a pretty badass player smacking the shit out of them.
The hallway definitely takes it to the next level and makes it sound like a real studio space. Great job working with what you got! I was mega impressed when you first hit play.
Quick question: Do you ever have phase wash from when a drummer is riding on the crashes? How do you handle that? I deal with that when I get my overheads too low.
Awesome video. Thank you veey much.
Cool the hallway trick is actually cool!!
This is super cool. We'll be tracking drums soon in a split garage studio space and this has inspired me to toss a mic or two in the next room over.
Nice! Sounds killer! Would be interested to see your approach for phase aligning all of the drum mics. Great video once again. Thanks, Bobby!
Thanks Matt! I actually never have to phase align drums when recording in this way. At most, I'll flip the phase on my bottom snare and tom mics.
@@FrightboxRecording Why do you think this is? It must have something to do with the overheads?? Maybe because you're not lining up the overheads equidistant to the snare?? Even though I think of my "overheads" as primarily cymbal mics, there is NO WAY I could place them without making sure they are equidistant from the snare... I am way too OCD for that... Ha! You are obviously an absolute professional, however, and know far more than I do -I also don't know how to mix, so I do this just to ensure that things are, like, 100% centered, just in case.... I wish I would just do this cymbal micing technique! Haha!
Classic move with the hallway mics. Game changer for a small dead room.
Awesome tip with the hallway. Going to be using that very soon.
Give it a shot! You'll love it.
omg! its a really nice hallway sound!
Great video Bobby!
Thanks man!
I'm learning to record a full band, and this really helped get a great sound. My big question, what DAW are you using?
Great video
I love white coated heads! I mic the shell of the snare very closely from the side with a 57 and that's it. I want lots of SHELL!!! The overheads get the rest of the snare sound. Must time-align the mics in post, accounting for varying distances, of course. Might not work with your approach here, considering you want very little snare in the overheads.
This is so helpful and revealing! BTW you are one lucky bastard to have a quiet hallway like that one (no door slams, no footsteps!)
There's actually activity in the hallway due to other bands rehearsing down the hall. Luckily it's not noticeable since the mics are placed right outside of my room.
Those PZM mics are amazing for kick drums. Put it inside the kick on top of a small blanket or whatever you’ve got in there for muffling and you get huge booming kick with plenty of sub, it sounds massive.
Love it!
Are you planning making impulse responses of that hallway? I think we need that. It's too cool.
Great idea!
awesome hallway sound dude :-)
I've never tried single cymbal mic'ing drums for an overhead image - never thought to try that method but also never had enough inputs in the interface. Added a cheap ADAT preamp to expand the I/O recently, so I will give this a try. My drum sound has always been lacking, so hopefully the combination of room mics, single cymbal mics, and a hallway mic will help. Thanks!
You'll definitely notice a massive improvement.
Perfect Square Room = LUCKY😳?!
The drums sound like the song Low from Testament...🤘
Great sounding natural drums! Especially for room like that! I have to give the hallway mic a try myself! Curious as to how high you place your overhead mics on those crashes? They look like maybe a foot or two, but I may be off.
I always mic the outer edges to obscure the mic's line of sight from the hats and shells. Usually 1-2' above the crashes.
the high ceilings... makes it a great room
Tried the multiple mics on the cymbals instead of overheads thing.
It was possibly the most difficult mix I've ever had in terms of getting the cymbals to work. Cymbals need air and space to sound right. They just sounded choked and harsh. I do not recommend this approach. Compared to overheads it was much much worse.
The rest of the tips are spot on.
Yet another great video, with killer content! By the way, as your last name "Torres" is Spanish, could you say it in a future video with a genuine Spanish pronunciation? Greetings from a French-Spanish guy!
To what exact frequencies or tones do you tune the snare hats in this case? Sounds amazing :)
The top head was tuned to 250-Hz and the bottom is cranked way high at around 400Hz.
@@FrightboxRecording Thank you so much ☺️
Nice video Bobby
In drums recording feels like shells seems to be talking the most. I wonder about cymbals, i see you use a high end cymbals.
I wonder will entry level can be saved? Bcs pro drummer also tell that doing cymbals roll with let's say Zildjian planet Z vs K series, it's easier to do roll with the K series.
Also entry level cymbals seems to sounds less sustain and sounds too much like choked in the crash
Thanks Bobby
Yes please.
I wonder about cheapo cymbals too where it's sounds not as washy as high end cymbals
any crappy drum Can sound decent with proper heads and tuning, but you cant Fake cymbals
I know your a pro tools user and I know you did a piece with reaper but are these interfaces compatible with reaper?
I love the hallway approach it made a huuuuuuge difference!
100% compatible! I use them with Reaper all the time.
@@FrightboxRecording Excellent!
Now these have usb connections?
I do see after a little research that the motu are FireWire I don’t have that port on my computer
sm57 on a tom? ah all shure mics set up
Does the foam on the walls work? Ive heard so many cons about it...
It certainly helps with the high frequencies, but it's not perfect. Then again you don't need a perfect space to produce pro results.
@@FrightboxRecording wow awesome. I hear so many other channels say it is worthless and building acoustic treatment with insulation and etc is how you have to do it
thanks for the EQ sheet btw!
So... How do you know if your cymbal sound is good when you listen back?? How do you know the frequencies are not comb filtering and canceling each other out and all that and you're good to go?? Is there some type of setting on your DAW or plug in that you use to "check", or do you just go by ear ("If it sounds good, it is good...")? I'm recording in my basement (typical carpet and drywall), and this is kind of the last piece of the puzzle for me... I think it sounds pretty good in there (no slap back echo), but with big Zildjian cymbals it's pretty fuckin' loud and "crashy" down there, so... How do I know my cymbal sound is good enough to record/ commit to tape??
It sound like you're overthinking it. I've recorded drums in some of the worst non-pro environments imaginable and I've never once had an issue with phase.
@@FrightboxRecording Well, I don't doubt that you're right... Haha! Thank you for responding! I did another setup where I basically just relegated my overheads to cymbal mics -Man were those cymbals strong!! I still have my overheads out of phase with my snare mic. I just switch the polarity in Reaper afterward, but I sure would like to get it right from the start. I heard it was very common for overheads to be out of phase with the snare, but goal is definitely to get it right from the start... You never have your overheads out of phase with your snare??
On another note, dude your arms are as huge as your drums sound! Great biceps. Also, your studio always looks so cozy and fun to be in.
Question: I'm planning to record an acoustic guitar for a solo acoustic guitar instrumental. All I have is an SM58. I've never been able to get a good acoustic guitar sound with this mic. It's fine for a rhythm guitar, background element but when the guitar is the lead instrument, I can't get a good sound. Any advice? I'm planning to blend the mic sound with the "DI" (the acoustic guitar has a pickup under the saddle). Also I don't have a treated room so what do you think about recording in a car?
I don't have a treated room either. As long as you know your reference setup very well, you'll be good. Even engineers mixing in pro facilities default to the "car test" because we all know what music should sound like in our cars. I've recorded acoustic guitars with both SM57's and 58's. The trick is to pull out a little extra lower-mids and boost a little top-end since those dynamic mics are darker than condenser mics.
@@FrightboxRecording thank you! You are a great source of knowledge.
Also.. this is embarrassing but.. if you come across a weird email from me, please ignore it. I was drunk 🙈
How about re-re-re-re-re-reverb(?)
I'm no expert but I've never heard of using floor mics for drums before. Is that a common practice?
I know Steve Albini does it! If it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me 😂
Boundary mics aren’t “standard practice” but plenty of people use them. Most typically, engineers will place them inside of the kick drum where they pick up a lot of attack. Kurt Ballou uses this method with a Shure beta 91. I’ve also seen them placed inside of a piano in conjunction with condensers. I have seen other people place them on floors or mounted to walls for ambience. I can’t say if or how Albini uses boundary mics, but he does sometimes position his room mics on the floor instead of off the ground to eliminate some potential for phase cancellation. I think he usually uses small diagram condensers (probably km84s) for room mics rather than boundary mics, but again, I can’t confirm for sure.
This is mostly well realised, but I can't help it. In my honest opinion, you need to have your drum sound, well, at least partially based in overheads themselves. Without that it kinda sounds dark and muddy and is lacking stereo image. Also, cutting that snare mud. But I like the approach.
It depends on the genre. If I'm doing indie rock, jazz, or some other form of non-heavy music, I'll go for a traditional spaced pair over the kit and minimal filtering. For heavy music, I prefer as much separation as possible in my cymbal mics. That hats are usually way too out of control with heavier genres of music and end up being problematic in the mix.
I didn't listen to the whole thing as of now but if I am right you are not getting snare in the overheads because you will use samples.
I guess that is great for that metal stuff but the overheads shape the sound and prevent you from having to use samples for that or at least decrease the amount of work that one has to do.
Since we don't all have a pro room yes we still may have to use samples to make up for room mics we don't have . Also the fat mic technique can help greatly in shaping the snare and drum set.
I am old school and I get so frustrated because people who do other genres will use advice like this then give it to me to mix. I don't like using samples unless I have to as mentioned above. Also no one ever gets the snare mic right when it is easy.
However, I understand. Most people recording today, since everything is hi quality and affordable, are musicians and not engineers and that's ok.
But guys learn how to record overheads and the snare. If you know what you are doing and your mixing it then do this. However for everyone else, I like to have the snare drum in my overheads. I want your drum set sound not a sample!
Take care!
Damn you have 6 room mics, that's barely what most people use to mic their whole kit haha
I usually only use two room mics, but felt like experimenting on this project. The two hallway mics are 90% of the room sound on this EP.