In many cases it is unnecessary to mic the hi-hat as it is often very present in the overheads. When a mic is needed on the hi-hat, a small diaphragm, or “pencil”, condenser can be placed above it at a distance of 3–4″ (see Fig. 138).
For more information see How To Mic A Drum Kit.
Toms are usually miked with a cardioid or hyper-cardioid dynamic mic. On larger toms, a mic should be used that is fairly sensitive in lower frequencies. When miking toms individually, the mic is usually placed 1–2″ from the skin, just inside the rim. As with all drums, care should be taken to avoid the possibility of the mic being struck by the drumsticks.
More than one tom can be picked up with the same mic by placing a cardioid or bi-directional microphone above and between them (see Fig. 137).
For more information see How To Mic A Drum Kit.
Snare drums are commonly miked with a cardioid or hyper-cardioid dynamic microphone. Common placement is to place the mic slightly above (approximately 1″) and inside the rim of the drum pointing towards the drum head at an angle of approximately 30–60˚ (see Fig. 136). Care needs to be taken to place the mic where it won’t receive any blows from errant drumsticks, and it is usually a good idea to place it so the hi-hat is in the pickup pattern’s angle of most rejection.
It is also common to use the same placement on the bottom skin of the snare drum to pick up more of the sizzle of the snares. Miking both the top and bottom skins will allow flexibility when mixing. It’s important to note that the signal from the bottom head will usually be 180˚ out-of-phase with the mic on top and the overheads, in which case it is necessary to reverse the phase of the bottom mic signal.
For more information see How To Mic A Drum Kit.
Because of the huge amount of sound pressure being created by the kick drum, it is important to use a mic with a high SPL rating. By far, the most common mic to use is a wide-diaphragm dynamic mic, though some condenser mics are rugged enough to handle a kick drum. The mic also needs to have a good low-frequency response, particularly when recording heavier styles of music.
Placement options for a kick drum mic include:
Another interesting technique that is quite popular is making a drum mic from an old speaker. This is traditionally done with the woofer from a Yamaha NS-10 monitor, though any woofer will work. Results will vary from one speaker to the next. The speaker is removed from its cabinet, wired to a mic cable, and mounted to a stand placed 1–2″ from the resonant head of the kick drum. This generally results in a signal with plenty of low end thump. There are many ways to build such a mic, and there are plans readily available on the internet.
Low-end thump can be added to an existing recording by playing the kick drum track through a subwoofer, then miking the subwoofer and recording it onto a separate track. The recorded subwoofer track then has a low-pass filter placed on it and is blended with the original kick drum track.
For more information see How To Mic A Drum Kit.
The drum kit is arguably the hardest instrument to mic because it is really several instruments together. Drums are also a very important instrument to record well for many types of music because they provide the drive that moves the song forward. It is a good idea to allow plenty of time in a session for experimenting with mic placement on the drum kit.
The importance of properly tuning the drums before recording is often underestimated, but the effect can be significant. The tuning of the drum will affect its pitch, sustain, and tone. Additionally, poorly tuned drums often have a high-pitched ringing sound that follows the note, which is difficult to get rid of in a recording.
The best approach for miking drums will depend greatly on the style of music and the tone you are looking to achieve. In softer styles, such as jazz, a somewhat minimal setup is generally used that involves a mic, or pair of mics, placed above the kit (referred to as “overheads”) that are responsible for picking up most of the kit. This is usually reinforced by a mic on the kick drum and possibly the snare (see Fig. 133).
For heavier styles, like rock, it is more common to mic each piece of the kit individually with “close mics”. In this setup, the overheads are used to pick up the cymbals, to add some “air” to the tone of the kit, and to fill out its tone (see Fig. 134). Below we’ll look at some common placements for the individual pieces of the drum kit.
Because of the huge amount of sound pressure being created by the kick drum, it is important to use a mic with a high SPL rating. By far, the most common mic to use is a wide-diaphragm dynamic mic, though some condenser mics are rugged enough to handle a kick drum. The mic also needs to have a good low-frequency response, particularly when recording heavier styles of music.
Placement options for a kick drum mic include:
Another interesting technique that is quite popular is making a drum mic from an old speaker. This is traditionally done with the woofer from a Yamaha NS-10 monitor, though any woofer will work. Results will vary from one speaker to the next. The speaker is removed from its cabinet, wired to a mic cable, and mounted to a stand placed 1–2″ from the resonant head of the kick drum. This generally results in a signal with plenty of low end thump. There are many ways to build such a mic, and there are plans readily available on the internet.
Low-end thump can be added to an existing recording by playing the kick drum track through a subwoofer, then miking the subwoofer and recording it onto a separate track. The recorded subwoofer track then has a low-pass filter placed on it and is blended with the original kick drum track.
Snare drums are commonly miked with a cardioid or hyper-cardioid dynamic microphone. Common placement is to place the mic slightly above (approximately 1″) and inside the rim of the drum pointing towards the drum head at an angle of approximately 30–60˚ (see Fig. 136). Care needs to be taken to place the mic where it won’t receive any blows from errant drumsticks, and it is usually a good idea to place it so the hi-hat is in the pickup pattern’s angle of most rejection.
It is also common to use the same placement on the bottom skin of the snare drum to pick up more of the sizzle of the snares. Miking both the top and bottom skins will allow flexibility when mixing. It’s important to note that the signal from the bottom head will usually be 180˚ out-of-phase with the mic on top and the overheads, in which case it is necessary to reverse the phase of the bottom mic signal.
Toms are usually miked with a cardioid or hyper-cardioid dynamic mic. On larger toms, a mic should be used that is fairly sensitive in lower frequencies. When miking toms individually, the mic is usually placed 1–2″ from the skin, just inside the rim. As with all drums, care should be taken to avoid the possibility of the mic being struck by the drumsticks.
More than one tom can be picked up with the same mic by placing a cardioid or bi-directional microphone above and between them (see Fig. 137).
In many cases it is unnecessary to mic the hi-hat as it is often very present in the overheads. When a mic is needed on the hi-hat, a small diaphragm, or “pencil”, condenser can be placed above it at a distance of 3–4″ (see Fig. 138).
As with the hi-hat, cymbals are usually present enough in the overheads that miking them individually is not necessary. If individual mics are needed or desired, small-diaphragm condenser mics are usually a good choice. They can be placed at a distance of 3–4″, but clearance should be checked so they are not hit by a swinging cymbal.
In a simple setup, a single overhead mic can be placed above the drummer’s head. A more interesting drum sound comes from a pair of overheads panned hard left and right to create a stereo drum sound. The two overhead mics should be the same make and model and have a cardioid pickup pattern. Small-diaphragm condensers are most common, though wide-diaphragm condensers are also a good choice.
Overheads can be set up as a spaced pair, with one mic over each half of the drum kit, or a coincident pair can be used in an X-Y pattern by placing the two mics together at a 90˚ angle to one another. The mic on the left will pick up the right side of the kit, and the mic on the right will pick up the left (see Fig. 139).
Experimenting with distant mics on a drum kit can yield big, fat drum sound. This can take some trial and error and is heavily affected by the acoustics of the room, but the results are often worth it. A few possibilities include:
It is very common to record electric bass directly by running it into a DI box (see Fig. 132). The main advantages of this are ease of setup and prevention of sound bleed from other instruments recorded at the same time. Additionally, the tone from direct recording an electric bass is usually quite good, so many choose to stick with this method.
When direct recording, the performer can have their signal run through headphones, though some bass players prefer to have their amp running because they are used to feeling its rumble as they play.
If a bass amp with desirable tone is available, miking the amp is also a great option and in many cases can result in a better tone and solid low-frequency response. As with miking a guitar amp, the mic can be placed very close (1–2″) to the amp, and placing the mic at the center of the speaker will result in brighter tone, while placing it towards the edge provides mellower tone.
The desired tone for an upright bass will depend on the style of music being played. Common microphone choices are a large-diaphragm condenser mic or a large-diaphragm dynamic mic, usually in a cardioid pickup pattern. It is important that the mic chosen have a good low-frequency response.
Getting the right tone from an upright bass can be tricky, so it is important to take time to try different mic positions. Here are some places to start:
When miking a guitar amplifier, the most common mic choices are a moving-coil dynamic or a wide-diaphragm condenser in a cardioid or hyper-cardioid pickup pattern. The Shure SM-57 has long been a standby as a workhorse dynamic mic and is a popular choice for close miking guitar amps. When using a condenser mic in a close placement, it’s advisable to check the SPL (sound pressure level) rating of the mic to make sure that it can handle the volume that is coming out of the amp.
Close miking an amplifier can be done on- or off-center to the speaker (see Fig. 131), meaning that it can be directed either at the center or the cone of the speaker. Miking the center will give a brighter tone, with the tone becoming more mellow as the mic is moved towards the edge of the speaker.
Placing a mic inside the back of the speaker cabinet provides thick, full tone from some amplifiers. Note that this placement will be 180˚ out-of-phase with mics placed on the front of the amp, so if they are being blended together, the phase will need to be reversed on this signal.
Placing mics at a distance of a few feet from the amp can also create a big sound, although the tone will be heavily affected by the room this is done in.
Recording the output of the guitar directly is also an option but has its own set of considerations. For clean, jazzy styles of music, the direct signal can be recorded by running the output of the guitar into a DI box. An overdriven electric guitar, however, creates some harsh sounding harmonics, which are smoothed out by the amplifier’s deliberately unresponsive speakers. For this reason, it is usually best to use an amp or speaker emulator when direct recording for rock, blues, and other gritty styles of music. Amp and speaker emulators can be found as standalone units or in software.
There are two main benefits of recording electric guitar in this manner. First, setup is more convenient and problems of signal bleed are reduced or eliminated when recording multiple instruments in the same room. The second benefit is that amp emulators offer the tone of a wide range of amplifiers, adding tonal versatility at a relatively low cost.
Many novice recordists fall into the pitfall of recording an acoustic guitar by placing the mic directly in front of the soundhole. While this placement provides plenty of volume, it rarely offers great tone. Below are a few popular placements (see Fig. 130). Most engineers will choose a bright-sounding condenser mic for these applications.
The most common mic to use on acoustic instruments is a condenser mic. The choice of pickup pattern will depend on the acoustics of the room and if there are any other instruments or sounds in the room that you are trying to avoid. Cardioid or hyper-cardioid patters are safest, though in a nice-sounding room it can be beneficial to experiment with bi-directional or omnidirectional microphones.
When recording multiple vocalists at once, the choice of mic placement will depend on the size of the group, the style of music, and how the track will be used.
For small groups of 2–4 vocalists, often a single large-diaphragm condenser mic placed 3–4′ from the vocalists can be enough to mic the group (see Fig. 129). The group should stand in a semi-circle around the microphone. If the group is experienced, they should have no problem self-mixing to make sure no individual is overpowering the group. Experimenting with mic distance will allow control of the amount of presence in the track.
For larger groups and choral ensembles, stereo miking is often a good option. Techniques such as X-Y, ORTF, and the Decca Tree can be used. These techniques are all explained in the Stereo Miking Techniques section of the Encyclopedia of Home Recording.
In some cases, miking each vocalist or each vocal section, if it is a larger group, separately can provide more versatility during mixdown.