Recording drums can be a pain...

I've been messing around with recording drums for a while now, and I spend a lot of time on getting that "perfect" sound. This article is the best way I've found so far...

Start at the beginning... mics. In the kick drum I use a Samson S-11 vocal mic. I'd suggest using an actual kick drum mic, but my budget doesn't allow for one just yet. It doesn't really matter what mic you use... just put something in the kick. For the snare I use an SM-57. (I swear by these mics. They can do anything.) I place the mic right at the rim pointed at the center of the head. This does a pretty good job of picking up the hi-hat, the splash, tamborine and the cowbell in my setup. This is where my technique begins to differ from the others found on this site. I place another SM-57 between the 2 mounted toms. This also picks up my crashes. One more SM-57 on the floor tom, also picking up the ride and china.

My setup forces me to mix these 4 mics into one track, which means I have to EQ these mics before they go to the 4-track... or dare I say I'm starting to use my computer? On the kick, I cut the highs, leave the mids flat, and boost the lows. On the snare I boost the mids and highs, and I leave the lows flat. For rack toms, I leave the highs flat, boost the mids and lows. On the floor tom I keep the highs and mids flat, boost the lows. Or something like that. I'm still playing with it.

From there I just mix the mics until they sound good, which can be a challenge in itself. Hope something in there helps.