Drum Mic Techniques from Various Sources

Drummers: can't live with them, can't really jam without them. For as much as they're the bane of the rest of the band's existence, they're the life and soul of rock n' roll. As a sound engineer, you're better off learning how to best capture the sonic onslaught they give you, and leave the rhythm (and the excuses) to the "experts."

Recording drums is one of the hardest tasks to accomplish properly. In between all the incessant noise there's a lot of nuanced soundsmithing going on (no shit!), so the sooner you learn how to best capture the character of the percussion (no matter the inherent deficiencies of the drummer) the better your mixes will sound. The following are several introductions compiled (pilfered) from the web.

Probably the simplest method that delivers surprisingly good results is the Recorderman method and only requires 2 condenser microphones to capture the whole kit.



For a little more complete mic'ing setups check out the following:





And for a discussion of the finer nuances of capturing the drums as a complete instrument: