Mic-ing drums, How do you do it?

[Candlelight Chaos]

My group and I tried doing it yesterday with my bass drum through a spare bass amp we had. It worked alright, and sounded okay, but we were too scared it would fry the bass amp.

Any thoughts?

[32ndHeartBeat]

what is mic-ing?

[bongobro]

what is mic-ing?

"Mic" is short for "microphone" (also shown occasionally as "mike")...so "mic-ing" or "miking" refers to what you and your buddies did with your bass drum.

There are several different types of microphones; the difference is in how--and what--the mike picks up. An "omnidirectional" mic literally picks up everything within its range--which is not what you want if you're miking a drum or drums.

A "unidirectional" mike picks up sounds in only one ("uni") direction. In our church's guitar group, we have two unis pointed at the group in general (the same set up as the adult choir). The mics pick up the voices, and little else.

For miking solo instruments (such as my congas or your bass), your best choice is a "cardioid" microphone. As the name suggests, it picks up sounds in a heart-shaped pattern...closer to the sound source like a uni, but it also picks up sounds if you're not straight-on, either. Here's how I do it with my three congas and pair of bongos:

Seated on my drum throne, the conga (medium size) is in front of me; the quinto (smallest one) is to my left and pulled back a little and the tumba (the biggest one) is to my right and pulled back in line with the quinto (picture Vicki, the conga player in the "Tonight Show" band and you'll have a great visual of what it looks like). My bongos are on a stand between the conga and the tumba and angled about 15 degrees toward me so I can jump from congas to bongos and vice versa without too much stretching. The mic is tilted down over the conga head and angled toward the bongos and tumba; the cardioid pattern also picks up the slaps on the quinto and my vocals...

CC, unless you had your amp cranked to 15 on a scale of 1 to 10, you wouldn't fry anything. If you have it up too loud, you will either distort or create mucho feedback...OR your guitarists will complain they can't hear themselves play!

Hope this helps, man...

[hellsbells58]

I thought you meant for recording Candlelight. I've never bothered to mic up my drums for practice, I mean, the drums are the only acoustic instrument to keep up with electic and amped guitars (for the most part, until your guitarists have speaker walls and huge power amps).

I don't get why when we do gigs at the Youthie, the sound tech mics my kit. It's so much overkill, you can barely hear the vocals over the sounds of two half stacks and my mic'd drumkit.

HB58

[Candlelight Chaos]

Thanx for the info Bongobro! Really that truly helps!

As for hellsbells comment:
I'm not exaclty in the same situation you are dude, we are just three guys in a shed trying to shred.
You actually can't hear my kick when Dale turns all the way up (but whenever Josh (bassist) plays you really can't hear him either, except when he has his 150 watt amp and his 60 watt amp both connected, then you can hear him fine.)
Our rhythm...he is just out in the cold, with a 25 watt amp, and me all you can hear is my snare and hi-hats (but only barely).

When they balance (which they often do) you can hear me just fine. But I'm one of those people who like it loud. THE LOUDER THE BETTER!!!

Then when we try to do vocals, we run it through one shrimpy-limpy 10-watt amp, mic it and run the mic through another 15-watt amp and blast those hosses as loud as they'll go!

*whistles* dang... longer post than I thought.

[funkymcstain]

i can give you some good tips on mic'ing, but the way it sounds with what you guys are working with and the fact you are in a small space, the best advice i can give is to tell you guys to play quieter to mix with each other. now by quieter, i do not mean mellower, slower or with less intensity but with better dynamics. it will only make you and your band better in the long run. playing volume and dynamics are some of the things that really seperate the pros from the garrage bands.
as far as mic'ing goes, there are several options. some good mic packs out there for fairly cheep like the sure pg 6 mic pack. or the audix fusion set. there are some even cheeper ones by nady, samson and other brands that i do not trust (especially nady).
what i use on my seven piece for recording is....akg d112 on the kick, sure sm57s on snare and toms, and 2 mxl 993 condensor mics for overheads.

[hellsbells58]

I'm with Funky, I'd just tell your guitarist to stop being a knob and turn his amp down. If you don't have other equipment to keep up with it, you're going to have to work your dynamics.

I mean, the vocalist is using a 10 and 15 watt amp? How is that meant to keep up with 100W of guitar amp?

HB58

[mexicancounciloffood]

i also got a brilliant article on drum miccing.....along with the trick pedal review i hope to have it up sometime on friday...