Disclaimer: this technique is suitable to record with only 2 mics.
Author’s Note: this is my go-to setup when demoing drums.
For this technique, it’s preferred to have 2 identical condenser mics, placed at around 3 feet to the left and right of the bass drum, and try to have them at the same distance to each side. You can go further, but the further you go, the less definition you might get. You should create a triangle between each microphone and the center of your snare.
Author’s Note 2: with this approach, I never got a measuring tape or anything like that. I eyeballed the distance. The final decision was determined by my ears and not the measuring tape. The idea behind this setup is to be very quick to set up and go.
When using this approach:
- Condensers are highly recommended, since you’ll be capturing the entire drum set sound, room included.
- As you move the condensers closer to the drum set, remember to turn on the dB “pad” to avoid distortion, because you’ll most certainly overpower them.
- The reason why they’re in front, and not the back, is because both mics pick up the bass drum, so you’ll get a very decent amount of low end from this approach.
- Because both mics pick up the bass drum at more or less the same rate, the bass drum serves as a nice anchor, even if you pan both mics hard left and hard right, the bass drum will stay very close to the middle.
- Don’t place the mics too high. 2 to 3 feet should do the trick. You don’t want them too high, so you’ll miss the bass drum’s low-end, and you don’t want them too low, and be too far from your cymbals.
Pros of this approach:
- Very easy to set up.
- You can get a very good stereo image of the drums. If you pan left and hard right, you’ll get your hi-hat on one side, your ride cymbal on the other; but the bass drum in the center and snare pulling towards the closest mic (usually the one on the hi-hat side).
- Fairly good toms sound.
Cons:
- This approach is very sensitive to your balance. If you play too loud, especially the cymbals, things can get out of whack.
- The bass drum will sound a bit dry. Since the mics are to the side of the bass drum, you don’t get a direct sound projection from them, so the usual result is bass drums on the dryer side of the spectrum. When you sit at your DAW, you might need to boost the low-end a bit.
