Studio Sessions - Take an insight

Set Up Drums

Hey guys. Let’s continue with our studio session for our new album. As I have given you a little review about the Shure SM27 microphons, as well fort he JBL LSR 308 active monitors. In this section, I want to give you an insight to how we set-up the drums.

First, my brother Gilles uses for this recording session a different set up of his drum. Besides the usual stuff like Snare, Kick, High-Hat, Ride, he plays with only one Mid-Tom and one Floor-Tom. On top, he uses two Crashes, one China, and one Splash. Let’s consider the microphone set up.
 

Of course it makes sense to use the Shure SM27 as Overheads. I put them on the right and on the left side of the drum (A/B). It is important to have a space of 0.5 meters between the top of the Crashes and the Overheads. I pointed the Overheads in direction of the Snare though it should slightly catch its sound. Overheads need to catch the sound of the whole drum, but specially the sound of the Crashes. I don’t put a solely microphone for the Ride, but for the High-Hat. This so, because the one Overhead sucks the sound of the Ride directly into it. Therefore, I only need to put a little PG 81 on top of the High-Hat. Actually, I can’t give you the right advice to set up the microphone for a High-Hat. I only recommend to experiment and vary with the position of the microphone. Find out what works for you the best.

For the Kick, I place a Beta 52 in the middle of the Bass-Drum. This so, because I want to have the aggressive Kick a little bit more directly into the microphone and still catch the boom and sound of the Bass-Drum. Of course, I could use a Beta 91A (uniform half-cardioid polar pattern) for the kick and put the Beta 52 on the outside of the Bass-Drum. But I prefer only to use one microphone. 

For the Mid-Tom, I use a PG 56 and for the Floor-Tom a Shure PG 52. 

For the Snare, I put on top a Shure Beta 98DS, and the bottom I put a PG 56 as well. In my opinion, it is necessary to put two microphones for the Snare not only for the heavier bam, but also for the sound. The Beta 98 gives your Snare the perfect snatchy crunchy sound which is sustained by a deeper bam of the PG 56. So you see, it is impossible to get out of one microphone a precise mid-high-end sound and at the same time, you need a precise low-mid sound to adjust delicately.
And here we are. The set up for the drum is done. We started recording a few weeks back. Let’s see when the other instruments will be recorded. If that’s the case, I will give you another insight on the set up.

Below, you'll find some pictures to see, how we set up the mics on the drums.

Have a nice summer and take care.

Enjoy Seasplash!