1Posted on 03/11/2004 at 18:39:29fatten those drums
Ok so I have been experimenting with mic'ing drums for the last couple of weeks and am now getting a pretty decent recording. But there is still no fatness to them. I have my split up the drums to where I have the kick on an independent track and like wise with the snare. All of the toms and cymbals I have panned out on a stereo track as well. I have my eq settings down as well as my reverb. Although it still lacks that fatness. I put a phaser on the mix to widen the stereo image and that helps. I am starting to get frustrated. I have also tried numerous compression settings but is still lacking. I know there has got to be something I am missing. Please help me out.
I'll start with mic placement, for a thick base sound, kind of a whump rather than a smack, ( think FUEL) I put the kick about 2'' inside the hole in the front head, the snare mic is between the high hat and the snare pointing down at the head at a 45 as to minimize HH. Now tuning, I tune the bass down low. Just take the wrinkles out of the bass head and put about 6 t-shirts inside just touch both heads to remove resonance. Your snare might sound good to your ear but not to the mic, run the head tight, It will actually start to ring and then go past that to where the ringing starts to back off the tighter you get. I usually turn my lugs 4-5 full turns depending on the sound I want. Loose heads sounds good live, but NOT recorded. loosen the strainer untill the snares really resonate when you hit the drum. I've been playing and tuning for 20+ years. your ears will pick up things that they never used to once you start recording....good luck!
