All language subtitles for How To Mic a Drum Kit For Live Sound

I got an idea let's take the loudest

person on stage and cram a bunch of

microphones all around him today I'm

staring out of mic drums did you get the

best drum sounds of your life now it all

starts at the source so be sure to check

out this other video on how to tune the

drums but after they're tuned mic

placement and mic choice are your best

bet for getting great tone out of your

drums I mean I love EQ but I'd rather

fix it the source hey if you're new

you're going hit subscribe and being a

little bell to get notified every time I

post a new video you'll be glad you did

[Music]

so let's jump into my keema kick drum

now for any other drum you can use just

about any instrument mic you want but

for the kick drum you have to make sure

that it's got extended low frequency

response now I've had a lot of success

with the Audax d6 and the AKG d112 but

other ones work too like the ones from

sure Audio Technica sennheiser

electro-voice

there's a whole bunch out there each mic

has its own flavor but it's got to fit

your drummer the drum and the sound that

you're going for with the kick drum

we're trying to balance snap punch and

sustain there's basically two methods

you can use you can go inside the kick

drum or outside the kick drum on the

front head inside the kick drum you're

gonna get more beter sounded more snap

while outside the kick drum you're gonna

get more punch and sustain now I tend to

use EQ to compensate for whichever one

I'm using but in live sound there's a

special consideration because we've got

giant subs not too far from the drum kit

there can be feedback coming in through

the kick drum microphone if you got it

cranked way up if this is the case I'll

put the kick drum mic inside the drum

and crank up the bottom and on the board

this is just a safety issue because I

don't wanna have to deal with feedback

now the thing we're trying to avoid with

the kick drum is a cardboard sound

unless you're mixing jazz but if you're

mixing jazz at church maybe I should

come to your church you'll get the most

cardboard sound right in the center of

the drum head so I try to avoid that

spot now even on the inside of the kick

drum you can still have some tone

control by moving the mic closer to the

beater head or further away to get

either more or less snap

one more thing to look out for on the

kick trump is to make sure that nothing

is touching the resonant head anything

touching the sound hole can make it tear

and that'll destroy your sound faster

than Michael Vick leaves with Peter Ali

now one other thing that's a little less

conventional is to use a pzm or a

pressure zone microphone on the inside

of the kick drum with a regular large

diaphragm microphone on the outside this

gives you the punch and snap on the

inside while getting the sustain and the

beef on the inside

sure and Crown make mics that are

designed specifically for this and I

found this PB one lying around in the

shop and gave it a try so gonna listen

stick it in there on some of the

dampening and we'll make sure that this

cable is up and out of the way

I'm gonna put my kick-out mic over here

and when I flee vacu inches so that I've

got some room in between there I never

want to touch the drum head I'm gonna

put the cable over this on the mic stand

for that so that it's not touching the

head you see there it's not touching now

when a snare drum is mics just right it

gives me chills

now snare drum has a few different parts

to it and the more you mix it the more

you'll be able to dissect the different

areas so we're making the snare drum you

got a couple different variables you've

got the angle you've got the distance

from the drum and you've got the

position over the rim now directional

microphones are brighter when they're on

axis so the more you point the mic right

where the stick hits you're gonna get

that initial transient the more you suit

it across the drum you're gonna get more

of the top end from the resonance as

well and again this is kind of like

splitting hairs but after you do it for

a long time you'll really get to dial it

in now when you point the microphone

down at the drum at a steeper angle it

seems a little bounce here and I really

like the sound of that I'm wondering if

it's because of the diaphragm and the

drum head resonating with each other but

either way I don't love it alright so

here we got three snare drum microphones

there are different angles you can see

they're all about the same distance from

the head or from the rim but the

different angle makes a difference in

the drum tone

now when it comes to height I like to

set my microphone capsule about two

fingers above the drumhead you can use

one finger or you can use something else

to measure but this is built-in on me if

it's on me all the time unless I

borrowed money from the Irish mob and

got some fingers cut off when it comes

to my kite the closer you are to the

drum the more you're going to get some

proximity effect higher up off the drum

it's going to be a little bit thinner

closer down is going to be a little bit

thicker

[Music]

now the position over the rim and the

drumhead makes the difference - I forgot

to record this when I shot this with

Travis but basically the further in you

go into the middle of the drum you're

gonna get a different tone rather than

when you're by the rim I like it right

over the rim and it just works now the

other thing you have to think about is

rejecting the hi-hat because the drummer

is probably bashing on there right there

and it's right next to the mine now if

you have a cardioid microphone you'll

want to point the back of the microphone

as much at the hi-hat as possible this

is gonna give you the most rejection

other microphones are super or

hyper-cardioid and so they'll have an

off-axis rejection to the sides a little

bit more it can be a little bit tighter

pattern and get you a little bit more

rejection here let's listen to the sm57

and the beta 57a and hear the difference

between the two now in the name of

science let's swap the positions on

those C and see if there's a difference

there too

[Music]

now for the snare drum you could use an

audix i5 and that wouldn't make me mad

at all but if you can't get a snare drum

to sound right with 57 it's not the 57

fault

it's your fault now if you're feeling

funky and you've got the mics you can

try an electro voice re 20 or a

sennheiser 441 the 441 gives you a lot

of focus and the re 20 gives you punch

for days it's awesome you should give it

a try now the snare bottom is not a

completely necessary mic there's usually

enough of a snare sound coming into the

top mic but if you want it here's what

you can do I tend to place my bottom mic

at about the same position as the top

mic but at a 90 degree angle so if my

top mics coming in like this I'm gonna

set my bottom mic like this and I'm

gonna try to get the capsules to be

about the same distance from the drum

heads now remember you've got to flip

the polarity on the snare bottom mic or

else you're gonna lose all your bottom

end and no amount of EQ is gonna bring

it back

[Music]

a57 works great on the snare bottom but

if you're wanting something a little bit

brighter you can try a small diaphragm

condenser but be careful if you compress

this too much you can get noise from the

kick drum and that can get a little

annoying now one other thing that can

take it up a notch is to line up the

snares with the drum line this can make

it a little awkward for your drummer to

hit the snares on and off but hey it

sounds better and you get a little bit

more of that pop out of it

now on Tom's the same principles apply

the steeper you have the mic pointed the

drumhead the more attack you're gonna

get but if you have it pointed more

across the drum you're going to get more

resonance and sustained

[Music]

now the Onyx d2 and d4 are fantastic Tom

mics but there's one thing that I don't

love about them and it bugs me just a

little bit the mount makes it so that

the capsule wants to be further in on

the drumhead than I want it to be I want

it to be right over the rim just like I

have it with the smear drum

so to do that you've got to kind of bend

it in a weird position and crane it back

and it probably bends back while the

drummer's hitting it anyway now because

we've got rack and floor tops for Tom's

are much bigger and in general a bigger

drum you want to come a little bit

further off the drum again you can use

your fingers as a guide to select the

distance that you are above the drum now

again this is a compromise because we're

not just trying to pick up drums we're

trying to not pick up cymbals and I see

some guys point the mic right down at

the drum head right beside the rim and

some guys over at a church in Northern

California that's quite popular right

now I like to do it that way but it

doesn't get me the greatest results the

attack doesn't feel natural and it kind

of feels choked off so if you run into

that try pointing the mic more toward

the middle of the drum now it does get

you better signal-to-noise ratio so

sometimes you just have to compromise

now you couldn't gate the Tom's to get

the simples out of them but that never

really works well for me either it

doesn't open up in time or I'm chasing

it around trying to get the threshold

set just right and then the middle of a

set I want to be mixing musically not

technically chasing around Tom gates now

the real solution for this is actually

to move the cymbals higher but you got

to convince your drummer to do that

now with the overheads you can mine just

the symbols or you can overall KITT

sound if I can I really like to get the

whole kit sound for my overheads that

way I have a whole lot more texture

options and that's really exciting even

if I don't quite get the kit just how I

want it I can always just roll out the

high-pass filter and just use the

overhead mics as simple mics with stereo

overheads you generally want to use a

space to pair and live sound because of

the noise on stage or the reflections

from the drum booth I don't usually use

X Y or a mere coincidence for making

overheads the space pair gets me the

best signal-to-noise ratio and the

driest cleanest cymbals in a minute

we'll head over to the nerd zone so you

can learn how your ears hear things in

stereo and you can learn how not to set

up your overhead mics in today's nerd

zone I'm gonna teach you how to not be

ridiculous with your overhead mics they

can get a super wide stereo image let's

dive in there are three things that your

brain uses to tell which direction

something's coming from timing intensity

and frequency balance your brain is a

timing supercomputer so we can hear the

difference between the sounds arriving

at one year versus the other since sound

travels at 1,130 feet per second when

your ear hears a sound coming from one

side before hears at the other side it

thinks hey it's coming from that

direction if a sound is louder in one

year than the other that's another way

that we can tell what direction it's

coming from this is why your pan knob

works lower frequencies can bend around

your head and reach both ears but higher

frequencies can't so when we have a

higher proportion of high frequencies

coming from one side rather than the

other that tells our brain hey it's

coming from this direction so here's why

using a space pair and pointing them

toward the center of the drum kit is

wrong when the drummer hits the crash

symbol on the right side of the drum kit

the sound travels from that cymbal and

arrives at the right microphone first

the sound does arrive at this left

microphone later however it's not any

darker than it is at the closed

microphone because this symbol is on

axis to this microphone however when we

point our overhead microphones straight

down or even away from the center of the

kit we're utilizing mics polar pattern

to reject more of the higher frequencies

coming from the other side of the drum

kit so we're still getting the timing

difference but we're also getting a tone

difference and that is why you shouldn't

point your overhead microphones to the

center of the kit that's it for nerd

zone now back to safe for everyone nerd

levels so if you space out the overhead

so that they look great from the front

you're not gonna have the kick in the

snare in the center of your stereo image

and yes the beater sound of the kick

drum does come through the overhead mics

so to fix this I like to orient the

center axis of the overhead mics along

the kick and the snare it might look a

little funny but it gets you a great

stereo image I tend to measure from the

center of the snare drum to get this to

happen this way the snare drum is

arriving at both of them at the same

time having the snare drum arrive at

both mics at the same time make sure

that it's in the center of the stereo

image and it makes sure that they're at

the same phase now when you have more

than one eyebrow I mean when you have

more than one microphone on a sound

source you have to worry about the face

when you have one microphone close and

one microphone further away there's

gonna be a timing difference between

Windows microphones pick up the sound

source this timing difference can turn

into a phase cancellation so when you're

setting the height on the overhead mics

listen to it with the smear drum mic so

that you can make sure that the phase

isn't cancelling out sometimes you can

flip the polarity to fix that and

sometimes you have to actually just move

the bikes now if you're wanting to just

like the cymbals just like the cymbals

try to get the mics about the same

distance from each of the symbols so

that they sound balanced the Jesus

culture method to do this is to measure

with a drum stick from the cymbal to the

overhead mic

[Music]

some people will try to mic from

underneath the cymbals

well that might look great no really gun

that sound great for me your mileage may

vary now I love serial over hips but

sometimes you just have mono and you got

to roll with it

in this case you just have to put the

mic in the place that picks up all the

different symbols about the same then

there are other situations when the

overhead mics are just there for show

because so much is coming through the

singer mics anyway even in those

situations still put up the mic anyway

you never know when a drummer is gonna

come out with the shaker all right so

let's hear all the results I'm gonna

have Travis play groove and I'll isolate

each mic and let you hear Maul in

context but before we do if you want

help getting your sound team set up for

success download my free guide how to

lead your troops sound team the links

down in the description below Travis

[Music]

and hey if you got more drum miking tips

drop them in the comments below I'd love

to hear from you be sure to hit thumbs

up if you like this video thumbs down if

you hated it share with a friend hit

subscribe meaning a little belt and

we'll see you back here next time

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]