Quote:
Originally Posted by VEGANGELICA
I have a new question for you drummers out there:
When I record my drums, I've found that the microphone attached to the high tom to record both the high and mid toms also picks up a very low vibration from the bass drum (to which the tom-toms are mounted). Is having the microphone on its own stand (not mounted on the toms) the best way to prevent this low rasp?
I have tried reducing the low frequencies in the high/mid tom recording with an EQ audio plug in, without success so far. So, I've resorted (for now) to just recording the bass drum separately (played alone). I'll plan to get a new microphone stand, but I thought I should ask first if there is another way around this problem.
Ideally, I would like to record all the drums at the same time. How do people usually avoid the low rasp of the bass drum being picked up by the microphone(s) attached to the high and mid toms?
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Short answer: Yes.
My toms aren't attached to the kick drum as they have their own stands, but even in that situation find it more than a matter of preference for all microphones to have their own stands as to reduce the effects of vibration and maximize flexibility.
If you're only having this issue with your tom mic, the easiest way will be to just buy a stand for it, or (if possible) try to attach your mic clip to anything close enough to do the job without being physically attached to the toms.
Are you recording each drum mic into individual channels in your program? If so, (and you should probably be doing the following anyway for everything but the overhead mics) you probably have a mute tool in your program that you can use on each recorded drum channel to scrub-mute out everything where the individual hits aren't, or simply use a gate on each channel and set the threshold so that only the audio that reaches it in DB will trigger the gate and pass through. (some experimentation is required, especially with release and knee parameters).
Doing this provides very tight and controlled drum channels that don't have phase issues and unwanted noise, which you can individually effect/pan/etc and mix in with your overheads to fill your sound out with clarity.
Conversely, if you're recording your drums into a single stereo channel in your program, you're far more limited and most of your tune-ups and mixing decisions will have to be done externally.