Schlagzeugmikrofonie (Drummiking)

Um all dem Wirr-Warr um die perfekte Schlagzeugmikrofonie mal ein bisschen Luft zu schaffen, hab ich mich entschlossen hier ein kleines Beispiel zu präsentieren.
Die im Folgenden besprochene Mikrofonie erzeugte perfekte Ergebnisse im Zuge einer längeren Produktion mehrerer Songs.

Vorab direkt der Rest wird erstens in Englisch sein und zweitens kein Non-Plus-Ultra ich kann nur garantieren, dass eine sehr gute Signaltrennung und ein sehr guter Drumssound (bei entsprechend gestimmten Trommeln) gewährt ist.

Starting of with the proper miking of the Kickdrum which will be mono miked with a single Sennheiser MD421. The placement of the microphone is slightly into the drum about 2 - 3 cm thereby reducing other unwanted noises. In addition to this it is possible to warp a bit of foam around the microphone capsule thereby cutting the highs a little around 6 - 20kHz. Since the very highest frequency of the specific kick of the Kickdrum is around 3 - 5kHz in general it will cause no loss of signal important to the recording. If you point the capsule of the mic directly to the area where the beater hits the skin of the drum you get a clearer kick signal. The choice of this microphone is due to two facts. First it has a very intense and warm bassfrequency reproduction therefore capturing the tune of the drum. Secondly it has little boost around the high-mids (from 2,5kHz - 5kHz) which impacts in a clear kick sound.

Next is the Snaredrum with its very own tune by its added floor that can be tightend and loose. In generel this drum is a high tom with a high resonance frequency and therefore a proper miking would be the same as for the toms. By looking at it closely you will find a specific way how and where the different tunes of the snare are created. For example if you point the mic more to the middle of the drum and widen the angle to the rim the recorded sound will have a smoother and slighter tune. If the angle is tighten to something like 40°- 30° degrees the recorded tune will be heavier in attack and punch. Keeping this in mind you have many possible ways of capturing your own sound. Therefore the choosen microphone can vary. In this example and workshop we recorded metal songs with a very rough tune. We choose a shure SM57 because of its frequency boost at 2,5kHz - 5kHz therefore the sound will have more attack. Also this is featured by the placement with an angle of approximatly 30° degree to the rim to maximize the attack. In case of more crystal and metal sound it could be useful to add a microphone at an angle of 90° degree to the rim with a distance of 1 - 2cm. Although by now we have discussed two possibilties of miking the snare in most situations it is important to consider a microphone place at the bottom of the snare since the floor is the most significant object on the snaredrum. For recording a proper sound of just the floor and nothing else you could go ahead and insert a hard low cut at around 500 - 600Hz with a quality of 18 - 36dB per octave. This is how we used this microphone. If you consider using this mic as the only snaredrum signal it would be best to insert just a soft low cut at around 80 - 100Hz to purify the signal from the crosstalking kickdrum sounds. Either way you choose to record it is important to use a condensor microphone not only cause all the good recording engineers use thoses mics but to get a clearer and differenciated signal of the snare. It is best positioned near to the snare bottom and also it must resist extrem soundpressure therefore it is very important to use a microphone with a maximum SPL of at least 150dB only to ashure no damage through the recording. We used an AKG C-414 with a -20dB Pad and low cut at 150Hz. It was placed near the snarebottom with a distance of approximately 1 - 2cm. Notice that both microphones are directly pointed at each other theirby causing one of the to be out of phase. Since their will be other microphones pointed from the top to the bottom of the set it is best to invert the phase of the bottom mic. Otherwise it is needed to invert phase on all mics but this particular snare bottom mic. The result will be the same no matter what way will be choosen but the first is definitely the faster one.

Now we get to the toms these are miked in the same way as the snare top speeking of the microphone and distance to the skin. The angle is slightly different with 50° - 60° degrees. This angle provides a more tunefull then attackfull signal. This is important to those drums because neither the attack nore the pressure but the resonace frequency give the tom its distinctive tune. For that matter it is highly important to make sure all the toms are perfectly tuned before recording since their is not a single possibility to retune them with equalisation or other effects afterwards.

Following up the most significant rhythmical instrument on the drumset is the hihat. To capute its characteristical "tss" sound while closed and also the "sch" sound while opened one best uses a high quality condensor mic. We used an Oktava MK012 with an ordinary cardiod characteristic place over the hat at a distance of 15 to 20cm thus eliminating the pressure overflow while closing and opening. The microphone is pointed from the middle of the hat to the outer rim away from the snare and the other instruments. The angle will be of a range between 40° - 50° degree. Since the mic has no generic low cut we inserted it afterwards. It is not important where the filter is placed in the signalchain from the mic to the multitracker but if you use one of a lower sound pressure resistance it is usefull to activate the pad. In case of much spill from the snaredrum you can warp a screen of foam around the mic but notice that the high frequencies will be absorbed slightly. The most important frequencies are around 4 to 6kHz to capture the "Tss" to feature the "Sch" you need to record the very highs around 8 to 16kHz. For that the foam could affect the signal cutting the extrem highs. The ride cymbal is miked exactly like the hihat but its featured frequencies are a bit different for the original tune and formant is placed around 3 to 4kHz and 8 to 9kHz. With an Oktava MK012 it is no problem to capture those frequencies clear and warm. Again it is usefull to point the mic away from the snare thus reducing the spill.

For the overhead miking we used an XY-stereophonic system to precisely reproduce the exact positions of all the instruments of the drumset. Since this stereo-miking system has nearly no timedelay of the sound waves between the two microphone capsules it is perfectly compatible with a mono monitoring system. We used the overhead mics just to record the width of the sets cymbals. Therefore we inserted a dramatic low cut at around 500 - 600 Hz to eliminate spill of kickdrum and also much of the snaredrum. This has the effect that by turning up the volume of the overhead signals the snare remains in its predefined position to the stereo panorama and depth. The kickdrum has to be cutted to avoid a muddy signal due to volume changes on the overheads. We used two Shure SM81 with an intern lowcut at 85Hz and a quality of -18dB per octave. They were placed at around 50cm to 1,5m over the highest cymbal of the drumset pointing exactly to the middle (mostly the kickdrum). The angle was about 90° - 80° degrees depending on the position over the set.

Many engineers tend to other stereomiking systems like A-B or ORTF since the sound gets a wider and softer. I prefer a combination of AB and XY to vary the sound throughout the song while mixing. The time limited this recording to the XY only. There are many other stereomiking systems that can be used with a variaty of microphones so again this is only one way and the only thing I can ashure is that the signals will sound very nice and you have a minimum spill. The use of spillreducers like those from sE-Electronics can be useful but also complicate the close miking of the drums.

I hope this little guide will be useful to the first few recordings you have to face.

Sincerely yours, Stephan Plesnik