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[Music]

today I want to talk to you about miking

a drum kit there's about a million ways

to do it and I'm just going to tell you

about my technique and what works for me

and hopefully you'll get some pointers

from it so on a kick drum I'll typically

use two microphones one on the inside

that's closer to the beater it'll pick

up the attack of the drum and I'll do

like a beta 52 or something like that on

the outside right here in the hole to

kind of fill out the bottom in a little

more and usually I'll just kind of throw

them in there to start and then listen

to see what it sounds like I'll put the

the ninety one right in the middle of

the drum and the fifty two kind of right

in the middle of the hole and you can't

just put a mic on a drum and assume it's

going to work because every drum sounds

different every drummer hits different

sounds different and if you hearing that

there's too much attack on the inside

mic then you can pull it away from the

beater a little bit or if you need more

attack you can put it up closer to the

beater that's the biggest part on how to

get a drum sound that you like is moving

the mic a lot of people will try to just

use the the EQ they don't like it which

it's a great tool to have but I want to

start with the best sound I can get by

just moving the microphone to the sweet

spot of the drum one thing that I think

is really important in kick drums is

having something inside to dampen the

sound a little bit if you just get a

kick drum with with nothing inside it a

lot of times to me it sounds like you're

bouncing a basketball on the floor and

maybe you like that but it's not what

I'm going for so typically if you put a

little pillow inside or a blanket or

just something to put up against the

front head and it will help tone down

the basketball so on the snare drum I

also like to use two microphones

whenever possible my default is sm57 on

top I've tried other mics here and there

and they work but every every time I go

back to the 57 and I just think it

sounds the best every time on the top

mic I'll do the 57 and typically I'll

get it almost almost parallel with the

drum just up and angle a little bit I

know some other people like to angle it

more and and kind of aim it right in the

center but I'm weird and different like

that I guess I'll do it maybe an inch or

two two fingers off of the drum right

here and kind of kind of shooting

towards the middle of the drum but right

on the edge of the rim is where the the

head of the microphone sits I like to

use a bottom microphone

whenever the resources are available to

pick up the sound of the snares because

if you just use a top mic sometimes it's

a little too snappy and you don't like

if you're standing here and you hit the

snare you hear the snares rattling on

the bottom and that's just the natural

sound of a snare and I like to hear that

so it helps a lot if you put a mic on

the bottom of the snare to pick that

sound up a little bit more and then you

can just blend them in however necessary

if you just have a bottom snare mic by

itself you're probably not going to like

the way it sounds because it's going to

be all ratalie snares but I like to put

a condenser on the bottom right now we

have a KSM 1:41 sure microphone I think

it sounds great

so we want these two mics to be in

polarity with each other that's how

you're going to get your best snare

sound but just know that doesn't always

mean that you go to your console and hit

the polarity button there could be a

cable wired backwards or just somewhere

along the line something wide backwards

it's just not always a hard and fast

rule to hit the polarity just listen to

what it sounds like if it sounds good

don't mess with it so on the hi-hat I'll

use a condenser we've got the ksn 141

here I don't really get extremely

technical with this most of the time

because with Jesus Culture he uses these

huge high hats they're actually crash

cymbals and they're really loud I barely

even need this mic really it's just

there for like the quiet moments wanting

you to turn it up I'll just mic it kind

of right on the edge of the hi-hat here

maybe an inch inside you don't want to

get it right too close to the edge

because you'll get this weird whooshing

sound when the cats hit together

sometimes depending on the hi-hat sound

I'm going for all my

get a little bit closer to the bell in

the middle of it get a little bit more

of that bell sound but typically right

here couple inches off right inside the

edge of it on the Tom's we've got the

beta 98 and I'll try to put them about

two to three fingers away from the drum

I actually prefer the sound when it's a

little further away like three three or

four fingers but if you got a big symbol

right next to it like this the closer

you get the better otherwise you're

going to get a whole lot of cymbal bleed

for the overhead mics we've got the KSM

32s here for my overhead sound I like to

try to get kind of an overall full drum

kit sound I'm not going specifically

just for the cymbals like some people

may do so I'll take a cable and measure

from the center of the snare drum to the

microphone and you want to make sure

that your two overhead mics are about

the same distance and see how that's not

that's a few inches off right now so

that's actually going to give us a

little bit of phasing problems that you

may or may not hear in your mix but it's

just better if you can try to try to

line those up to the the loudest thing

on the kit you got allotted a lot of

drums here a lot of stuff going on so

it's it's really difficult to try to

time align all of that but if you just

try to line them up to the loudest thing

on the kit which is your snare drum for

sure then it should help you