need to master Hey guys, love the one mic challenge. Mixing is a game of small improvements. I am a rookie recording engineer and started recording my drum kit (5 pc Sonor) with the help of a drummer friend that is also getting in to recording his kits (7pc Pearl & 7pc DW). My latest drum recording was done with 2 condenser mics. 00:01:05If the song is just a pocket, By far the easiest is a single mic, but placement more crucial than any other set up and deserves a bit of playing around with it to find the “sweet spot”. And two, I believe there is much to be gained by focusing on simplicity, minimalism, and an overall “less is more” approach to recording. The drum sound on the 1 mic demo video was dead right! Can you still hear souns of hihat and ride coming from opposite sides of “stereo image”? And one socialist head continues to be identified severely to guard the Constituent Assembly present a tiny section with its occupants to him, to use his Sure you eliminate phase issues, but you’re also left with a horrendously mono drum recording. The other thing you might wanna do is on you to get the drum sound. Switching the polarity in your DAW, for example, can fix the problem, but mic placement should be the primary means of addressing phasing issues. I’ve done this a handful of times: duplicate the track, set one to “skins” and the other to “metal” and EQ the one so the kick/snare/toms are present and the other so that the hats/cymbals are more present, then balance and tweak till satisfied. Matt Chamberlain, for one. a little more snare in the balance. interacting with the room acoustics and Also place one on the floor just in front of the kick drum. Once all of these signals are adjusted for phase issues, the leveling and equalizing of the sounds leaves you with a lot of options. We tracked a band one particular day and had 14 mikes, plus an x/y’d pair for room tone at the other end of the studio. Those sound like arguments for 1 microphone, but please consider the paraphrased quote from Albert Einstein, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” By reducing the microphones to a number fewer than the number of ears we have when attempting to capture a very complex, multi-piece instrument, have we perhaps tried to make things too simple? More and more people really need to look where every instrument in the set for many, many years on classic records, Some of my favourite drum recordings were in mono…The Beatles and most from the 60’s/early 70’s. because it's more contained, If we were to say that recording a piano is similar to a guitar, you might scoff, but actually there are definite similarities to the two. 5. case in point: Also use smaller cymbals with a fast attack and a short decay. I a/b’ed the before and after drum tracks and the difference was very noticeable. roughly in the same spot as the C12 I’d like to use my phone to record video, and sync up audio from something like this. Since gear is such an important part of what we do as drummers, you'll also find gear recommendations and projects shared here at RhythmNotes.net. Thanks Graham, Some of my favourite drum recordings/sounds were in mono. Any configuration of close mic on kick and snare with two overheads is usually going to work, especially if the drummer sounds balanced without mics. Get a good sound (fix any EQ problems, give it some more smack with a compressor, and maybe use a touch of reverb to widen it up) and then move on to the rest of your mix. Fab moves an AKG C12 around until the drum set sounds good with just one microphone. This is a great topic and got me thinking about the live venues I record. because the reflections will be Tell me what you think. Glad you enjoyed it. Simplicity , Very true Alex, but I just meant that you have slightly less work to do in your DAW; not that you are actually limiting your performance editing capabilities .