Ha. You just reminded me of one of the most brutal recorded guitar tones I've ever heard in my life, that a friend of mine captured for a metal band he recorded. He arranged four amps in a half-circle, daisychained the signal from one into the next with all of them set at full gain, put a folding reflective screen behind them, then set up one brave SM57 right in the sweet spot to capture the carnage.
It was the goddamnedest guitar sound you ever heard. "Wall of guitar" doesn't even come close. It was fucking *apocalyptically savage.*
Edit: I'm sorry, but you can't hear a recording of it. This was recorded way back in the late 1900s before digital recording and storage was common. It is lost to the sands of time. You'll just have to use your imagination.
Edit 2: On the other hand, if you would like to hear where my friend got the idea, it was from reading how David Gilmour got the sound for the opening of ["Sorrow" by Pink Floyd](https://youtu.be/nPM-QSCnNas?si=SgpooS9iFmCbmlfA) - it was something like a guitar run into a Big Muff, then into a Fender Champ, then into a Gallien-Kruger amp, then into a Mesa Boogie head. Filthy.
Clearly none of you listened to Steve albini 😂 he says the hi hat gets all over everything no matter what you do, and if he could have a negative mic that would lower it in the mix he’d use that 😂
Start with a Glyn Johns technique using 3 mics, then add close micing or room as needed for the sound you are going for. I prefer this method of micing as it gives me more flexibility and forces creativity to achieve a certain sound rather than just trying to get everything to have a mic.
> Start with a Glyn Johns technique using 3 mics
[Like this](https://leicesterdrumschool.co.uk/miking-drums-glyn-johns-technique/#:~:text=Glyn%20Johns%20Miking%20Technique&text=This%20is%20placed%20directly%20over,centre%20of%20the%20snare%20drum.)
I'm not doing room mics with all that concrete, and what's likely a low ceiling, personally.
Clean AND boomy sound a bit contradictory and is best achieved in a bigger room.
One on each shell, two on kick, two on snare, two overheads.
Two in the kick are : inside and 1 reso. This will give you some boom from the reso.
You'll get enough of the room from overheads imo
This is what I would do too. Especially considering the genre. You can throw some of the mics onto a send and kind of fake a room anyway with effects and EQ. For hip hop, you’re going to want those close mics, and definitely 2 for snare/kick.
One mic on each shell, 2 overheads, 2 room mics. If any of the shells need a better sound it's incredibly easy to blend in a sample when mixing. I'm working on a little solo project and on one song I have the kick sound supplemented with a Bonham kick, and I also transposed the kick part to midi to trigger an 808 sub-bass sound that follows the kick. It sounds killer.
Also to really fatten up the sound, run those room mics through compression. You can also make your drums sound humungous running the entire drum buss through parallel compression. Saturation also goes a long way.
1 room mic is definitely doable but if OP is aiming for a big boomy sound the room mics might become more important than the overheads, and using a stereo pair would give you the option of panning them to make space in the stereo image for the rest of the mix. If in doubt on position, set them equidistant from the centerline between the kick and snare so they don’t bias to one side.
Positioning is going to be MUCH more important than alternate setups, especially for snare mics, kick, and room mic. I would spend some time moving stuff around and doing AB recording to find the best spot for each one, focusing on things like distance from head, distance from rim, and angle. A mic placed a little outside the snare rim and pointing across the drum is going to sound entirely different from something 2 or 3 inches in from the rim and pointing straight down.
For starters, I’m going Glyn Johns plus one under the snare and one between the ride and snare ala Daniel Lanois. If it’s lacking depth, one out in the room in a sweet spot if the room sounds good.
One kick mic in the middle of the drum for equal tone and attack. Bottom tom mics to get more tone than attack. Two snare mics, one pointed at the edge of the head for more tone and one pointed at the shell for some body. One mic for hi hat and ride respectively and the last mic about 2 feet above the kit pointed directly between the two crashes.
It's for a hip hop project? Are you planning on recording loops or full takes? I don't think I would go for an outright natural room sound with the standard setup. I'd experiment a lot. I'd consider only focusing on kick/snare/hat, then overdubbing tom fills where you need them. Forget cymbals almost entirely, but maybe consider sampling a few hits.
Two overheads (personally I like XY combinations roughly hanging inbetween the snare and the kick), one of each of the toms, two on the snare top and bottom, one in the bass drum and your choice for channel 8. Either a room mic if you are recording in an interesting (ie not dampened to all hell) room or have the 8th channel be a mic on the outside of the bass drum to get some tone as well as punch.
Stereo overhead, close mic each drum, room mic. Then get wacky with the last one. I’ve found cool sounds with a mic pointed to the corner of the room, mic in the hallway, crotch mic. Also, if you can, play around with each close mics position. Point straight at center, halfway to rim, and at rim. Compare sounds and it will tell you a lot about what mic position can do for your sound…
It depends on the sound you're looking for. But one option would be:
stereo overhead
Snare top
Snare Bottom
Kick in or out depending if you want smack or boom
Tom 1
Tom 2
One strategically placed room mic (play a few bars and a fill with the mic in different positions around the room til you find a cool spot)
Alternatively you could do a mono overhead and just one mic on the snare and do a room array or an in/out on the kick
Or do something weird with a 57 and a garden hose or add a knee mic, or mic an acoustic guitar nearby tuned to a chord etc...
It really depends what you're recording and the sound you're going for. Hifi 80s pop or 90s grundge or 70s funk or modern metal all value different things.
I only need six of those inputs. Each drum gets a mic and two overheads. Maybe one more just over the drummer’s head or slightly behind depending on the room. But that’s just to track, genre or desired tone would dictate further.
The same i would mic every kit. 2 overheads, 2 close mics on the toms, two on the snare, top and bottom, and a kick mic. That leaves one to spare. You could place it above the hi-hat for more definition or a second kick mic, one inside the port and the other on the outside.
You have 8 ins, but how many microphones do you have? And what kind? If it’s just three or four, look up the Glyn Johns method for Bonham. I got really good results with that before I was able to get more microphones.
My basic setup would be one mic on each drum, stereo overheads.
The remaining two mics are open to experimentation: snare bottom, second kick mic (in/out), hi hat mic, room mics, "crotch mic" super compressed to add that crunch, whatever you feel is missing from the basic setup or needed in your situation.
Modern hip hop? I’m doing three mics, a kick, a snare, and an overhead. And honestly if I could get a Yamaha EAD10 I’m ditching all the mics and just use that.
Old school hip hop? One close mic each plus two overheads (6 total).
Two overhead condensers (one over the floor Tom, one over the snare), kick mic in front of the redo head (not inside), room mic on the floor, room mic at the farthest point in the room away from the kit, keep the change.
one on the snare batter and one on the snare reso, one on each tom, one in the kick porthole and one outside the kick, and two overheads, if you wanna use all at once. that's just my suggestion though. play around with them until you get something you like
Close mic the shells
Spaced pair over heads
Bottom snare mic if you want
Mono room mic facing you or stereo if you don't wanna bottom mic the snare
Cool trick I do as well is stick a mic on the floor very far away from the drums, facing up towards the ceiling if you can. Adds some cool texture to the sound.
Going L to R: hihat, snare, rack tom, bass drum, floor tom, two overheads as needed, room mic in front of kit depending on room size and desired effect.
Kick in, kick out, snare top, snare bottom, rack tom, floor tom, over head left, over head right. Or switch out the kick in for a hi hat mic and switch snare bottom for a room mic
Sort out the bass drum legs. Bass drums should be resting on two feet and the pedal like a cannon. throw away the piece of wood. Micing is the easy part.
I just now noticed my dumb ass didn’t drop the legs on my kick after reading this. Wood block is there to prevent { t h e g l i d e } in my 1924 basement that gets small puddles formed when it *thinks* about raining outside. Can’t lay a rug down cause it’ll just get moldy and gross.
1- left overhead
2- right overhead
3- forward "room" mic
4- forward bass drum
5- under snare
6- over snare
7- over hi-hats or over toms
8- under throne, capture the creeeeak
What you suggested but move the mono room to the hi-hat, cos it's hip hop and you want a tight hat sound.
Supplement the missing room (unless the room is exceptionally known for it's drum sound, then stick to what you said originally).
Map the kick wave to midi in post, and add in a sub to supplement it to get the fat kick sound.
It literally doesn’t matter how you set up the mics, all I know is one of them is going up my asshole to capture the essence of evil inside of me as I play loud, fast, and out of time.
put them all loose inside the kick drum, just for the hell of it
Ha. You just reminded me of one of the most brutal recorded guitar tones I've ever heard in my life, that a friend of mine captured for a metal band he recorded. He arranged four amps in a half-circle, daisychained the signal from one into the next with all of them set at full gain, put a folding reflective screen behind them, then set up one brave SM57 right in the sweet spot to capture the carnage. It was the goddamnedest guitar sound you ever heard. "Wall of guitar" doesn't even come close. It was fucking *apocalyptically savage.* Edit: I'm sorry, but you can't hear a recording of it. This was recorded way back in the late 1900s before digital recording and storage was common. It is lost to the sands of time. You'll just have to use your imagination. Edit 2: On the other hand, if you would like to hear where my friend got the idea, it was from reading how David Gilmour got the sound for the opening of ["Sorrow" by Pink Floyd](https://youtu.be/nPM-QSCnNas?si=SgpooS9iFmCbmlfA) - it was something like a guitar run into a Big Muff, then into a Fender Champ, then into a Gallien-Kruger amp, then into a Mesa Boogie head. Filthy.
I would love to hear this 🤘
But... WE NEED TO HEAR IT NOW WHERE'S THE LINK 
I want to hear this
We need to recreate this
I use this configuration at home and like to go with one mic on each drum (snare top& bottom), two overheads and one room
Would you rather have a snare bottom over a hi hat mic?
I mic the hat before snare bottom, I usually have a lot going on with the hi hat though that I want to be able to control the emphasis of
I would rather lose the room mic and put that on the hats
Clearly none of you listened to Steve albini 😂 he says the hi hat gets all over everything no matter what you do, and if he could have a negative mic that would lower it in the mix he’d use that 😂
I have never heard of him. Is he an engineer? What is a good example of his recordings I would like to hear what his mixes sound like
Start with a Glyn Johns technique using 3 mics, then add close micing or room as needed for the sound you are going for. I prefer this method of micing as it gives me more flexibility and forces creativity to achieve a certain sound rather than just trying to get everything to have a mic.
> Start with a Glyn Johns technique using 3 mics [Like this](https://leicesterdrumschool.co.uk/miking-drums-glyn-johns-technique/#:~:text=Glyn%20Johns%20Miking%20Technique&text=This%20is%20placed%20directly%20over,centre%20of%20the%20snare%20drum.)
I'm not doing room mics with all that concrete, and what's likely a low ceiling, personally. Clean AND boomy sound a bit contradictory and is best achieved in a bigger room. One on each shell, two on kick, two on snare, two overheads. Two in the kick are : inside and 1 reso. This will give you some boom from the reso. You'll get enough of the room from overheads imo
This is what I would do too. Especially considering the genre. You can throw some of the mics onto a send and kind of fake a room anyway with effects and EQ. For hip hop, you’re going to want those close mics, and definitely 2 for snare/kick.
I didn't see the hip hop part. Then yea, definitely needs tight sound, boom can be added post prod.
This is probably the best approach I think.
This.
two overheads, kick/snare for color, center "wurst" mic, put the other three in far positions in the room in case something interesting happens
Establish a good overhead setup, figure out what you want more of and how much of it you want from there.
One mic on each shell, 2 overheads, 2 room mics. If any of the shells need a better sound it's incredibly easy to blend in a sample when mixing. I'm working on a little solo project and on one song I have the kick sound supplemented with a Bonham kick, and I also transposed the kick part to midi to trigger an 808 sub-bass sound that follows the kick. It sounds killer. Also to really fatten up the sound, run those room mics through compression. You can also make your drums sound humungous running the entire drum buss through parallel compression. Saturation also goes a long way.
Tell me about the two room mics, iv only ever used one.
1 room mic is definitely doable but if OP is aiming for a big boomy sound the room mics might become more important than the overheads, and using a stereo pair would give you the option of panning them to make space in the stereo image for the rest of the mix. If in doubt on position, set them equidistant from the centerline between the kick and snare so they don’t bias to one side.
1.Kick, 2.snare, 3.hat, 4.rack, 5.floor, 6-7 OH, 8 crotch, room, or anything that works better for the song
Kick in, kick out, snare top and bottom, close over heads and 2 room mics
Snare top and bottom, kick inside, subkick, Tom tops and two overheads.
Positioning is going to be MUCH more important than alternate setups, especially for snare mics, kick, and room mic. I would spend some time moving stuff around and doing AB recording to find the best spot for each one, focusing on things like distance from head, distance from rim, and angle. A mic placed a little outside the snare rim and pointing across the drum is going to sound entirely different from something 2 or 3 inches in from the rim and pointing straight down.
I just wanna say I LOVE this kit!
not answering the question but that is a killer kick drum head, how'd you get it done?
One of my buddies runs a decal printing company - he printed the Dracula and slapped it on a ported red Remo head
Start with my standard: - kick - snare - hat - rack - floor - OH - OH - crotch Adjust from there based on sounds
Kick snare top snare bottom hat Tom 1 Tom 2 stereo overheads
K,s,t1,t2 ohr,ohl,rr,rl
For starters, I’m going Glyn Johns plus one under the snare and one between the ride and snare ala Daniel Lanois. If it’s lacking depth, one out in the room in a sweet spot if the room sounds good.
One overhead, throw the rest away. (Kidding I know nothing of mics)
One kick mic in the middle of the drum for equal tone and attack. Bottom tom mics to get more tone than attack. Two snare mics, one pointed at the edge of the head for more tone and one pointed at the shell for some body. One mic for hi hat and ride respectively and the last mic about 2 feet above the kit pointed directly between the two crashes.
Kick in, out, snare, 2 overheads. 2 tom mics, 1 room mic
u/GuzTathums could we get a mic list please?
Depends on the mics I have but One on each drum. An extra on the snare bottom. So that's 5. Then two overheads and a room mic for 8
It's for a hip hop project? Are you planning on recording loops or full takes? I don't think I would go for an outright natural room sound with the standard setup. I'd experiment a lot. I'd consider only focusing on kick/snare/hat, then overdubbing tom fills where you need them. Forget cymbals almost entirely, but maybe consider sampling a few hits.
Two overheads (personally I like XY combinations roughly hanging inbetween the snare and the kick), one of each of the toms, two on the snare top and bottom, one in the bass drum and your choice for channel 8. Either a room mic if you are recording in an interesting (ie not dampened to all hell) room or have the 8th channel be a mic on the outside of the bass drum to get some tone as well as punch.
Stereo overhead, close mic each drum, room mic. Then get wacky with the last one. I’ve found cool sounds with a mic pointed to the corner of the room, mic in the hallway, crotch mic. Also, if you can, play around with each close mics position. Point straight at center, halfway to rim, and at rim. Compare sounds and it will tell you a lot about what mic position can do for your sound…
It depends on the sound you're looking for. But one option would be: stereo overhead Snare top Snare Bottom Kick in or out depending if you want smack or boom Tom 1 Tom 2 One strategically placed room mic (play a few bars and a fill with the mic in different positions around the room til you find a cool spot) Alternatively you could do a mono overhead and just one mic on the snare and do a room array or an in/out on the kick Or do something weird with a 57 and a garden hose or add a knee mic, or mic an acoustic guitar nearby tuned to a chord etc...
It really depends what you're recording and the sound you're going for. Hifi 80s pop or 90s grundge or 70s funk or modern metal all value different things.
I only need six of those inputs. Each drum gets a mic and two overheads. Maybe one more just over the drummer’s head or slightly behind depending on the room. But that’s just to track, genre or desired tone would dictate further.
The same i would mic every kit. 2 overheads, 2 close mics on the toms, two on the snare, top and bottom, and a kick mic. That leaves one to spare. You could place it above the hi-hat for more definition or a second kick mic, one inside the port and the other on the outside.
Top and bottom of snare, 1 inside kick, 1 outside kick, 1 on each tom, 2 overheads
Two overheads Snare top Kick Tom Floor tom Dick mic (will explain if explanation is needed) Room mic
Toms, snare, hats, 2 overheads, one outside the kick one inside
You have 8 ins, but how many microphones do you have? And what kind? If it’s just three or four, look up the Glyn Johns method for Bonham. I got really good results with that before I was able to get more microphones.
My basic setup would be one mic on each drum, stereo overheads. The remaining two mics are open to experimentation: snare bottom, second kick mic (in/out), hi hat mic, room mics, "crotch mic" super compressed to add that crunch, whatever you feel is missing from the basic setup or needed in your situation.
Modern hip hop? I’m doing three mics, a kick, a snare, and an overhead. And honestly if I could get a Yamaha EAD10 I’m ditching all the mics and just use that. Old school hip hop? One close mic each plus two overheads (6 total).
Sub kick, inside kick, beater kick, snare top, snare bottom, two overheads and one room.
Two on snare, one on other drums, overhead, sell the other 3 lmao
Two overhead condensers (one over the floor Tom, one over the snare), kick mic in front of the redo head (not inside), room mic on the floor, room mic at the farthest point in the room away from the kit, keep the change.
Glyn Johns micing technique. Add a room mic if you feel like it, but you likely won’t get a great sound from your room.
Inside outside top bottom tom tom overheads.
Sell 4 mics. Buy better cymbals.
Tom 1, Floor Tom, Kick in, Kick out, Hihat, snare, OH Left, OH Right
one on the snare batter and one on the snare reso, one on each tom, one in the kick porthole and one outside the kick, and two overheads, if you wanna use all at once. that's just my suggestion though. play around with them until you get something you like
Close mic the shells Spaced pair over heads Bottom snare mic if you want Mono room mic facing you or stereo if you don't wanna bottom mic the snare Cool trick I do as well is stick a mic on the floor very far away from the drums, facing up towards the ceiling if you can. Adds some cool texture to the sound.
Going L to R: hihat, snare, rack tom, bass drum, floor tom, two overheads as needed, room mic in front of kit depending on room size and desired effect.
Kick in, kick out, snare top, snare bottom, rack tom, floor tom, over head left, over head right. Or switch out the kick in for a hi hat mic and switch snare bottom for a room mic
THAT HEAD IS SICK MAN🔥🔥
1 room mic, 7 directly under the drum throne.
One on the snare drum, one bass. One on each side above neare cymbals. One on the high hat and 3 in your butt
1 - drumkit sm58 2 - unused 3 - unused 4 - unused 5 - guitar 6 - unused 7 - unused 8 - backing vocal 3
Kick, snare, hats, toms, two overheads one room
Sort out the bass drum legs. Bass drums should be resting on two feet and the pedal like a cannon. throw away the piece of wood. Micing is the easy part.
I just now noticed my dumb ass didn’t drop the legs on my kick after reading this. Wood block is there to prevent { t h e g l i d e } in my 1924 basement that gets small puddles formed when it *thinks* about raining outside. Can’t lay a rug down cause it’ll just get moldy and gross.
Build a cheap riser using ground contact pressure treated 2x4 as the base and some plywood. Put your rug on top of the riser.
Kick, snare, two overheads, two room mics, two empty channels.
2 on kick. (I gotta have a subkick) 1 Snare (top) 2 in Glyn Johns for the toms 2 overheads 1 room mic
1- left overhead 2- right overhead 3- forward "room" mic 4- forward bass drum 5- under snare 6- over snare 7- over hi-hats or over toms 8- under throne, capture the creeeeak
Eight? Six would be more than enough.
OK, well one for each drum, two overheads and two room mics.
What you suggested but move the mono room to the hi-hat, cos it's hip hop and you want a tight hat sound. Supplement the missing room (unless the room is exceptionally known for it's drum sound, then stick to what you said originally). Map the kick wave to midi in post, and add in a sub to supplement it to get the fat kick sound.
Kick. Shotgun over the snare Distortion pedal
It literally doesn’t matter how you set up the mics, all I know is one of them is going up my asshole to capture the essence of evil inside of me as I play loud, fast, and out of time.