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In Reply to: RE: recording drums in a reverberant space posted by nwilke on October 26, 2007 at 18:50:45
Drums in reverberant space = dying slow and terrible death.
That being said, keep the drums out in the open as much as you can. Or move them to another room and place a plastic bag over the drummer's head. With the drums as far away from the walls as you can get the sound will have more time to decay before hitting a hard reflective surface. Using a mic kit won't help with the verb, but it will make it less noticeable in the recording. The farther away the mics are the more "other stuff" they'll pick up, including reverb. Along these same lines, you will help keep bleed from the drums out of other mics by getting everyone else as close as humanly possible to their mic. But you already knew that.
A drum mic kit from most any manufacturer should have what you need. Obviously steer away from Samson and Nady unless that's all you can afford, and between the two take Samson. Shure makes a good kit and so does Audix. Or build your own with a SM-57 or your favorite instrument dynamic for each tom, high hat and the snare (and snare bottom if that's your thing) and good kick mic and two hyper-cardioid pencil condensers for overheads.
Heavy drapes and curtain rods, if you can drill into the walls. There really isn't any other way to make blankets hanging on the walls look very good at all. I'm assuming the reason you're recording here is because people will be watching, and gaff taping blankets to the walls probably isn't what they want to see.
Follow Ups:
i'm looking at mics now, and i'm really overwhelmed with all the mics out there. there are so many mics, and so many conflicting opinions. kinda sucks.... ideally, i could go to a store, try out a mic for a few days, and take it back and try another until i find the one. unfortunately, i don't have that time. i have a month to buy the gear and record. i have a lot of possibilities in terms of mics, but only a few decisions made so far. i'm still stuck on:
-overheads for the drums (cardiod or hypercardiod?)
-a condenser pair for the piano (have looked at karma audio k-micros, various mxl's, studio projects, audix, akg)
-condensers for the flutes (ideally, i'd get a 414, but don't have the funds)
-a cello mic
bah. this is a little frustrating. i've looked for days and days, read many reviews, talked to a few engineers in person, over the phone, and through email (none of which were helpful, btw). is finding a consensus on good mics always this hard? i guess normally people get to hear them more than i can. again, i don't have the time :-(
I left my reply open in case you had strong opinions about microphones like most people do. Some people recoil at the mere mention of Shure mics while some others hesitate to use anything else (just the classic example, there are other rivalries out there but none nearly as interesting). There are some good forum discussions here and also at http://www.fohonline.com/forum about microphone choice.
To save you some time, a great budget choice for condensers is the AKG C1000S; vary the pattern by changing out a little head that fits over the mic capsule. Better mic, but three times as expensive is the AKG C451B. These make excellent all-around condensers to have one hand for pianos, group vocals, singers who are afraid of mics, podium mics, etc. I think the Shure KSM series (109 and 137) are excellent microphones as well, but I'm not sure of their price.
I suggested hyper-cardioid for overheads to avoid bleed from other sources, but if you've got some experimentation time get a mic with selectable patterns (C1000S comes to mind) and try both.
Don't forget to look into piano pickups like Barcus Berry too. A clip-on for the cello is going to be best, but I can't even begin to get you going in the right direction with them, I've never used one. Hope I've helped more than hindered, feel free to yell at me if I say anything really stupid.
thanks for the suggestions. i really appreciate it. the c1000s and the shure ksm 109 both look great for the money. the barcus berry looks nice, and i've heard some decent reviews about it, but for my budget, i don't think i can afford such a specialized piece. i'm in a similar situation with the cello clip-on microphone. it would be nice to find some kind of versatile ribbon mic i could use for various strings when i need to. any suggestions for that? you've been very helpful.
Akg 451 are great as well as any Sennheiser MKH series....I never mic closly any drum kits there loud enough...Unless you like multi mic mono panning to two track...Yes Shure also has some great mics...and very reliable. Belden is all you need for mic cable..
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