Walk (Foo Fighters Cover) - LITLR - Flux Theory

[Tony W]

I hate being a post whore, but this does present another option for recording drums.

I have a Yamaha MG206c mixer (20 channel) that I use for gigging. What if I were to run all the drum mics into it, and use the XLR left and right outputs going back to the BR-1600. I could mic the shit out of the kit, set the levels at the mixer, set the panning at the mixer, and only use 2 inputs at the BR-1600.... Is it a pipe dream?

[64Guitars]

Shure has a few good tutorials on mic'ing drums.

http://www.shure.com/americas/how-to/index.htm

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=drums&as_sitesearch=www.shure.com%2Famericas%2Fhow-to%2F

In theory, you only need two mics to record a drum kit in stereo. But the placement is crucial and, in practice, it's very hard to get it right. If you don't, there's no way to fix it in the mix. You can put a mic on each drum and record them all to separate tracks so that you can fix level problems in the mix, but that requires a lot of tracks just for the drums. A good compromise is one mic for the snare, one for the kick drum, and a stereo pair for everything else. This only uses four tracks and gives you some control over the level of the snare and kick drum relative to everything else when mixing.

[Blooby]

I think this sounds killer.  You'll dial in the drums soon enough.  Found this.  Hope it helps.

Blooby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiFOD1EeKhQ

[Rata-tat-tat]

Hey Blooby... thanks for posting this...I had seen it once before and wasn't able to find it again. I like the string Idea!!! Keeps everything spaced out evenly... I've found that even the slightest movement of the overheads will cause the cymbals to sound different. Therefore I wanted to be able  to get an exact way of repositioning the mics between takes if I ever need to redo a track without redoing the entire track!!!

 

I think this sounds killer.  You'll dial in the drums soon enough.  Found this.  Hope it helps.

Blooby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiFOD1EeKhQ

[fenderbender]

Great recording Tony
you guys are on your way ---
dont forget the poor when your driving by

[launched]

A good compromise is one mic for the snare, one for the kick drum, and a stereo pair for everything else. This only uses four tracks and gives you some control over the level of the snare and kick drum relative to everything else when mixing.

That's what I know is true...

If you want to mess with miking every last drum, cymbal, etc. no problem, but it's tough to mix and is a huge hassle. I believe the mic kit you guys have has a couple decent condensers, so I'd just mic the kick and the snare and hang both of those from the ceiling somehow. Yes, there will be some instrument wash but I'm confident you will like the sound better. You're recording demos anyway, so a little wash won't matter as there will be no overdubbing.

I've tried using 7 mics along with every other thing before (Vocals, guitar, bass, etc) and it is such a pain in the ass to get it dialed in and have it be agreeable with everyone else giving their opinion. In the end, I would only use 3 or 4 mics unless the kit was multitracked separately. Hell, on "Green Ginger" I slapped two condensers on a stand, banged away and it didn't sound that bad at all (Not the best setup, but you get my point).

I'm just thinking you should start with hardly any mics at all and get good & quick with that setup, then build up to the dream config. And I hate to be detracting from such an awesome band and performance - I just think a little "top end" will complete what is almost 100% to begin with.

[Tony W]

Yeah, I'm really digging the advice here. There's a lot of good info. You guys are great!

Spank, I think you're on to something there. When we recorded Matt on the kit (St. Joe on the School Bus), we used a single SM-57 and it didn't come out bad at all.

I love the idea of condensers hanging over the kit like Blooby posted, but the wash scares the shit out of me. I've got a few recordings where the wash really loaded up the wireless vocal mic, and there was a slight offset that annoys the crap out of me.

The next round, I'll setup the kit, reduce the number of mics that I currently own, and see what I can come up with. I might just spend a couple hours with the drummer alone.

[Redler]

Damn, this is cool cover! FF is one of my favs! The live feel has captured well here! Great job by you all!

Kari

[StephenM]

I can honestly say that to my knowledge I have never heard the foo fighters.... I kind of quit listening to radio after the 80s..... but this song, done by this artist....is very compelling.... love the vocals and the guitars.... could use a bit more bass for me though.... and a bit louder drums...but that is being very picky... especially like the voice...