Just because many people use a lot of microphones to record a drum kit doesn’t mean it’s the only (or best) way to do it.
In fact, a strong case can be made that the fewer mics you involve the likelihood of your recording sounding better is higher. I know, it sounds crazy, but it’s true.
Today I want to share with you four reasons why recording with the fewest mics possible (i.e. one mic) is a great way to work.
Via eyeliam Flickr
Absolutely Zero Phase Issues
Did you know that anytime you have more than one microphone capturing a single source (acoustic guitar, piano, drum kit) you introduce potential phase issues?
Phase cancellation is really the problem – and it means a chunk of your sound waves are being cancelled out, leaving you with a thin and un-fulfilling sound. Not cool.
Obviously, with careful consideration of mic placement and some strategic polarity inversion, one can get a relatively phase free drum recording with multiple mics (I’m not trying to scare you away from using more mics), but the simple truth of the matter is that a drum recording that involves only a single microphone will by definition have absolutely NO phase cancellation whatsoever.
That is a wonderful thing because it saves time, hassle, and it works as a hack – a guarantee of no phase problems, no matter where you put the mic.
An Instantly Punchy Sound
Drums are inherently punchy. And yet many of our attempts of home drum recording with 6+ mics leads to a very NON punchy sound. Why is that?
A huge reason is the above problem of phase cancellation. What sounds good to us in the room can get cancelled out with multiple mics.
The other reason is that we can overthink mic placement and have very un-natural sounds (maybe too close to a drum) that just doesn’t sound like what we all know drums to sound like in real life.
If you only have one microphone, by putting it anywhere near the kit, you can’t help but get a punchy sound because the drums are by their nature, punchy.
What your ear hears, the microphone hears (tonally maybe not quiet the same – but we’ll touch on that next). It’s that simple.
Easier To Find The Right Balance
When using multiple mics on a drum kit, it takes a lot of time and effort to get just the right balance.
You have to balance the overheads to the close mics to maybe even the room mics – all to get that perfect picture of the kit.
But with one microphone balancing becomes super simple. Put the mic somewhere, listen back, and assess what you hear. Too much cymbals? Move them closer to the other drums. Too little kick? Find a better position and angle to “see” the kick more.
You place it, record, and listen back. Each time you hear what is good and what is missing you only have one mic to adjust to find that balance.
Now, obviously the one mic option limits your tonal balance (you can’t get the sound of the inside of a kick AND above the cymbals) but it also forces you to make quick compromises allowing you to land on a great sound faster.
Super Fast To Mix
The fourth and final reason recording drums with one microphone is so powerful is that when it comes time to mix, things go super quick.
With no phase issues to work through, and no individual drum mics to process, you simply have to take your one drum track and wield it the best you can.
This saves a ton of time and brain power. Get a good sound (fix any EQ problems, give it some more smack with a compressor, and maybe use a touch of reverb to widen it up) and then move on to the rest of your mix.
This was how mixing went many years ago – fast and to the point. Seems like a good dream if you ask me!
Give One Mic Drums A Chance
Why am I harping on this one mic drum recording thing?
Well for one, if you’re a band or singer/songwriter that is getting into your first home studio setup, you might only be able to afford one mic. And I’m here to tell you that you can do an entire full band production with that thing!
And two, I believe there is much to be gained by focusing on simplicity, minimalism, and an overall “less is more” approach to recording. In recent years we’ve veered to the “more is more” approach.
More plugins, more tracks, more mics, etc.
I’m of the mind that going back to a more focused and simpler setup and approach can be both liberating and sonically satisfying. What say you?
How many mics do YOU typically use to record drums? And have you ever tried just using one?
Do Not Create Another Song Until You Read This Guide
(Price: $17 Free Today)
Discover the 6 Steps for Creating a Radio-Worthy Song From Scratch
My name is Graham Cochrane and I'm the founder of The Recording Revolution, one of the world's most loved audio recording and mixing blogs with over 200,000 readers each month. 
Graham,
Awesome!!
And You learn how to place a mic to achieve the best sound possible.
I do a ton of live recording with a Tascam DR-08. It is a little stereo PCM recorder but if I place it right, I can make pretty killer liver recordings with it.
Thanks for this advice!
I’m considering something like this, specifically for easily creating Instagram videos of myself playing.
I’d like to use my phone to record video, and sync up audio from something like this. Anyone got any experience doing that?
I’m a proponent of the one mic approach for many reasons!
1) zero phase issues
2) the importance of mic placement is revealed in playback.
3) limitations force creativity (I’ve learned how to perform to the mic. I.e. Want less cymbals in the mix? Hit cymbals lighter. Etc.)
4. less choices = less decisions to make and less second guessing
5. Easy set up break down
I have a Sennheiser 419 (sibling to the famed 421) with the 3 switch position as opposed to 5. And I have a modded Sm 57.
Interface – Apogee Jam
iPad-Auria
P.s. My friends that have studios ( and access to high brow toys) are always amazed that I used a one drum mic setting
Intriguing idea, Graham. But with only one mic, your drum track would by definition be in mono. Wouldn’t you need at least two mics to have a stereo field and a sense of L-R panning?
This was my thoughts also, I’d be interested to hear from Graham on this! I am all for making my life easier, but I did wonder how a strong stereo balance could be achieved if I only use one mic on my drum kit
But what says drums always need to be in stereo? Some of my favourite drum recordings were in mono…The Beatles and most from the 60’s/early 70’s.
Sounds much more natural in that way…though it’s just my opinion 😉
Imagine you are listening to a band playing live in front of you, 10 – 15 meters away from you. Can you still hear souns of hihat and ride coming from opposite sides of “stereo image”? No way. To hear that way, you should go really near the drums.
One thing I’ve found helps is putting a super wide reverb on the drums, that can add some width.
You could use a mild stereo reverb with the wideness set really far out to give them more space. But also mono drums could be a good thing, gives your other instruments more room in the outside field.
Exactly!
Who says drums should be in stereo?
Haha .. you’re right, it doesn’t ‘have’ to be. I guess I’m just used to thinking in terms of big drum kits with a large array of toms and cymbals spaced out left to right, and I just take for granted that the way to capture the placement of all the pieces is to have it in stereo (replicating how you’d hear it if you were standing in front of the kit) . I should experiment with a more minimalist setup in mono too. Thanks for the ideas 🙂
>>
Graham
Who says drums should be in stereo?
>>
In my view, it is more natural for drums to be in stereo for two reasons:
1. We hear with two ears.
2. Drums are not a point source. In fact, many of the individual drums are not themselves point sources, since they have a top and bottom head.
Recording with one microphone and then counting on reverb to widen the sound and make it more natural to our two ears seems like the more artificial approach. Of course, so does setting up 8 microphones (or 10), since we never hear with 8 ears.
The reason engineers use more than 1 or 2 microphones is for more control. But, the more complex the setup, the more knowledge and experience is required to avoid pitfalls like phase cancellation, uneven balances, or simply not being able to see the forest for the trees.
Those sound like arguments for 1 microphone, but please consider the paraphrased quote from Albert Einstein, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” By reducing the microphones to a number fewer than the number of ears we have when attempting to capture a very complex, multi-piece instrument, have we perhaps tried to make things too simple?
I like my drums in stereo (but the kick had better be in the center), not forgetting to check the sound in mono. Your ears will tell you what works for you.
If you like drums to be in stereo then you should record them that way. Just pointing out that drums were never always recorded in stereo. Lot’s of classic records made with mono drums.
I love this. I’m a drummer, and will start experimenting with recording my kit with one mic tomorrow. I’ve heard many contemporary recordings using mono to great effect. Matt Chamberlain, for one. Another perspective – mono pushes us to look at the drum kit as a single instrument. Yes, there are many parts, of course, but mono creates some very interesting potential. I listen to a lot of jazz from the 50’s too, and the mono recordings, for me, sound better than the forced stereo they often apply to reissues.
Yeah, reverb can help. A two-mic setup would help too, without adding too much complication.
But I agree with Graham too, who says the drum kit *has* to be stereo? I mean, I love stereo drums, and depending on your production goals you may need them. But I can see many cases where a mono drum kit would actually be just fine. It’s at least worth a try.
If you must have stereo-ed drums, the MXL V67Q Stereo Condenser Studio Microphone with X/Y Capsules can do the trick and I have seen it for about $200 clams or so… but it throws off Graham’s budget of $300.00 – I do concur with most comments… Drums are for the most part robust enough to stand on their own even as a single track… Playing with positioning and distance with the one mic available to you is half the fun in this particular recording exercise.
🙂
~S.
Well it depends, what says that drums (by rule) always need to be in stereo? Some of my favourite drum recordings/sounds were in mono. All those Beatles records for example 😉
Also, personally, I always here drums as a mono sound, compact punchy and full. Much more natural, than having cynbals splashing to the left and the right.
T
Aldo, yes you are correct.
However there are Condenser Mic’s like that of the ‘MXL 990 Condenser Stereo Microphone’.
This mic is a stereo condenser microphone set up in an XY pattern. It comes with a plug that allows you to plug in 2xXLR cables. This means it is creating a ‘Stereo sound’ as it has separate signal flow for Left and right. This is perfect for capturing natural and precise great recordings for tracking drums.
Hey Graham, great idea! Just watched your 1 mic for drums video a couple days ago and it was an eye opener. I’ve just recently started recording drums and have used both an 8-mic setup and a 2 mic setup.
My latest drum recording was done with 2 condenser mics. One over the snare and the other pointing at the kick, properly spaced to avoid the phase problems. Sounded great and I didn’t have to bring my big interface to record in the practice studio. Will definitely try the 1 mic approach next. Thanks!
It’s true! I recently did a test where I’d mic the drummer with just one mic and the drums sounded punchier than when I’d mic the drums with a bunch of great mics all over the place. However, when I’m trying to get a big, roomy drum sound I’ll always go for a multiple mic setup.
Hey Graham,
Nice idea. Can I hear an example somewhere?
A
Hey Ashton,
Go back to the previous post with a video of Graham recording drums with one mic. It actually sounds pretty stinkin’ good:
The $300 Studio Challenge: Recording Drums [Video]
That’s not a one-mic setup. The stereo separation on the cymbals is a dead giveaway.
Um – it IS a one mic recording 🙂 In the second part of the video you might be hearing the slight reverb I added. The video tells you when the FX are on.
Sorry, Graham. I was replying to someone else. Your blog seems to be putting replies at the bottom, not threading them to the original post being replied to.
Or, maybe I’m just blog-challenged.
Hi Graham, can you tell me which mic you are using for 1 mic recording?
and are there any better/cheaper alternatives available these days, maybe some you might have stumbled upon?
I’ve used mostly large diaphragm condensers like the Rode NTa for this kind of thing.
Very cool Graham. I work with songwriters working up demos and this is a great way to get a live drum feel without hours of drum mixing. Thanks!
Zero. That’s because I use drum sampler, hehe! 🙂 But, if I had a drum set sitting in my studio, I would definitely consider this approach.
For a while I was recording with all 8 of my Saffire Pro 40’s inputs. 2 Overheads, Snare top/bottom, kick, couple of toms, and a room mic.
But lately I’ve been experimenting with my own variation of the recorderman technique. One pencil over the snare gives me a lot of the brightness, a large diaphragm across the toms for a lot of the fatness, and then I only close mic kick and snare because I never have enough of those 2 in the mix otherwise.
Listen to these 1-Mic-Drums https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGw4-7WMDiQ . This technique makes drums sound so much more real than multi-Mic-Drums.
Awesome drum sounds here !
That’s not a one-mike recording. I can hear at least two mics there, probably three or four. The giveaway is the stereo sound on the cymbals. The snare and kick almost certainly have their own mics.
Yeah those drums do sound pretty excellent!
GREAT POST Graham……and I have to say that I have been a firm believer in this for years. I think drums are HIGHLY overmiked in almost every situation. As a matter of fact, in live sound situations in small clubs or even medium sized clubs, there should be NO mikes on the drums, guitars and bass whatsoever…the only thing that should be miked is the vocals. Drums and amps push way enough air to be heard perfectly loudly in a club. The next time you play a club with your band, mike only the vocals and be amazed at how much more balanced, clear and punchy your live sound is and your audience will love you forever for it. This thing about putting 20 mikes on a drum kit is a curse that comes from the early days of stereo, but it has completely ruined countless records and live concerts for decades with hideous bombastic unbalanced deafening ugly sound.
Just vocals when we play clubs sounds great…and everything bleeds through the vocal mics anyway….
Your dead right buddy. If your playing relatively small rooms just put the vocals through the PA. I do it every time I can and I always get people saying what a great clear mix it is. It’s quick and uncomplicated.
I have only electronic drums so I don’t worry about it its finding a good drum sound in my slate plugin lol. But I do agree with above comments drums sound mono to me and really the only thing I like stereo is inst tracks but more and more mono is just how I like it just my op
A drum kit should be thought of as ONE instrument, not 15 discrete instruments.
case in point:
I wanna do this from now on!!
Great demo !
VULFPECK is pure awesomeness.
Thanks Graham,
I haven’t tried the one mic yet, but have been working the Glyn John’s method. Being limited to four inputs, I was surprised by how well this works. The drums are very punchy, has a great stereo image, and really don’t mind the work of checking phase. Not as minimalistic as one mic, but produces great results for me.
Cheers
Great article!
More things = more problems
Hey Graham,
I used to record my whole kit with one stereo mic: a zoom H1 to be precised.
Did a couple of song covers and a friend (pro sound engineer) did some EQ on my track and mixed it with the original song. He was amazed of the sound I could get with that single mic.
Definitely a way to go for me !
Just as an example if it’s ok:
The mic was located on the left side of the kit, on the top of that box (mic is actually hidden by my hi-hat cymbals).
The overall sound is pretty good with only one mic. Check the rack and floor toms…
Well, at least it does sound good to me !
wow – that is some impressive sound from a single stereo mic.
Editing flub?
https://youtu.be/npvQb0t7ZQ8?t=2m30s
🙂
I never would have thought of putting the mic in front like the graphic shows. Great idea and something I’ll try next time. I would have started with the “over the right shoulder” approach. Adding more weapons to my recording arsenal. Thanks Graham!
I agree with Graham completely. I know, from experience, that spending an extensive amount of time setting up and recording and mixing drums, and everything else just turns out sounding more processed, not better. I’ve gone back to “less is more”, “simple is satisfying” over the last few years. Keeping it fun and getting a realistic, organic sound, for me, beats struggling to make everything “pop perfect”. It’s allowed me to accomplish much more too. I’ve been finishing several songs in the time it was taking me to do one.
Hey guys, love the one mic challenge. Using one mic, I’ve found that a good position is low to the ground (anywhere from 3″ from floor to top of the kick hoop), directly in front of the kit. Place it too high and I get too much cymbals. I like to point the mic down towards the floor sometimes too, if it’s too bright. Of course those cymbals will come through no matter where the mic is. On a related note, even with a sparse 4-mic setup (kick, snare, overheads) I’ll sometimes place the, “overheads” a couple inches from the floor, pointing down at a 45 towards the kit, on either side. The, Glyn Johns 3-mic technique (search this) is neat to experiment with too. It’s fun to play with, good luck!
So glad you’re / I’m on board here! You have been teaching me a lot of nice tricks that work really well. On this “one mic drum” idea , it makes so much sense that it answered and fixed a problem I was having. It made me realize of how important it is to just KISS everything your doing with recording = KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID! Even using a Coat Hanger on a cymbal can give ya what ya need at times :). Thank you so very much!
Phase isn’t really an issue. You Just have to listen. There are a lot of plugs to correct the phase (even freebies like phasebug). And if phase cancellation is ruining the Sound, good phase matching make the Sound a lot more dense and add a lot of depth and punch. So yeah, if You don’t know what you’re doing, it’s probably safer to record with one mic. In fact, if you’re really don’t what you’re doing, Just but an e-drum and ezdrummer 2 and ask the drummer to play on it.
We have tried a lot of configurations on a Jazz Drum kit. Close miking with more and less, Glen Whats his name, 2 LDC’s in front of the kit live, 2 LDC ‘s over the Drummers shoulders live.
The 2 in front of the kit do an amazing job of capturing the kit. And this is a full kit with 5 cymbals, hi hat and 3 toms. Cymbals sound great and the kick and snare come through. The only problem is I got more bleed from the other instruments than I did with a close mic setup. Guess it has to do with the axis of the LDC mics as it seems they are terrible at rejecting sound from directly behind them.
Any way you can hear some of the results on Billies Web page and her Reverb Nation page.
The Red Bastille video was recorded with 2 mics behind the drums and a mic each on Guitar and Bass amps. Works pretty well for a live recording in a great sounding space.
https://youtu.be/6yqBGB0CYro
Thanks
Mike and Billie
Usually my “go to” drum solution is 4 mics- kick, snare, hat, and one LDC over the kick to catch the overall picture of the kit. I start mixing with the LDC then add other channels to taste.
I’ve done the overblown 8 channel setup, and haven’t found it to be that useful. I’d always start with kick and snare but then have trouble getting everything else to sit in the mix.
Every once in a while I’ll do just one channel and am always happy with the sound. I just like to have a little more control and parallel compression versatility, which is why I use 4.
Most often I use 4 mics. I did a session last week with 9 because the client really wants the “in your face” close tom sound … think 80s hair band. That is more work … and to me it is not a “natural” sound for a drum kit, but it is what they want and I am here to serve their musical vision. I have not tried a 1 mic session but I have used e drums like superior … easy peasey. This sound like a great way to train your ears though … i am training a foh engineer candidate right now and I may well use this technique for part of the in studio time with him.
I’ve been messing around with a 3 mic setup. I thought that was simple enough for me but Im always open to learn more ideas. Does it really matter what types of mics? In the video I think you used a dynamic right?
Very cool article. I agree actually. I recorded my last bands song with just 2 mics on my ludwig kit. 1 overhead and 1 kick. You can check it out if you’d like https://thedeepgreenflame.bandcamp.com/releases
What about editing? Wouldn’t one-mic recording make drum editing more of a pain? I guess you could always find a perfect drummer. . .
Definitely a good point, Jerry. You certainly wouldn’t have the same sort of flexibility for editing.
It really depends on what kind of sound you’re going for. If you want a really tightly edited sound, then you will probably need more mics for the flexibility.
But if you have a good drummer, you may not need it. A little bit of imperfection sounds natural, and as long as the musician is good, there’s often nothing wrong with an imperfect recording.
If anything, it will simplify it slightly.
That’s the beauty of limitations right there. Simplicity 🙂
Very true Alex, but I just meant that you have slightly less work to do in your DAW; not that you are actually limiting your performance editing capabilities . 🙂
Graham,
Madness! It’s madness, I say! Seriously, though, you’ve made many valid points. A lot of great classic recordings were made with 1 or 2 mics. If the kit sounds decent, and the drummer is good and you find the sweet spot to complement the song and style it would be much easier.
I started in the 80s with a Tascam 4 track and I still used 3 or 4 mics on drums. Now with my 4 piece kit I use 1. kick, 2. snare 3.tom1, 4. tom2, 5. hihat, 6. ride, 7. overhead/room.
I my take up your challenge myself!
I’m a crazy person – what can I say?
Use PZM two (pressure zone mic) for drums. One for kick and place one in the middle between floor Tom and cymbals.
Being myself a guitar player I have always thought about drum recording like the hardest task to do (though I haven’t done it so far), so this resource is a real load off my mind, however also wonder if it doesn’t make EQ way more difficult as drums and cymbals are mixed together?
You don’t have as much EQ control, that’s true.
Recording drums with one mic requires a good sounding kit, and a good drummer. The problem is that you can’t go in and fix the snare drum sound, or the kick, or individual toms. If any one thing sounds particularly bad, you can’t just go in and fix it in isolation.
The good news is that with a good sounding kit, you often don’t need to. I find that my mixes have been leaning more in the direction of bus processing lately, where I’ll do as much work on the drum bus as I can, and then only add compression and EQ to the individual tracks that need them. I think that with a recording of a good sounding kit, the limitation of only being able to EQ the kit as a whole wouldn’t be a problem for me.
Hi Graham, your gracious teaching approach always demystifies music production. Raises confidence levels as well. I appreciated that!!!
As I can’t fit a drum kit in my studio, I’ve opted for EZDrummer 2. This software is unbelievably helpful in many phases of the project: writing, arranging, and mixing. The samples are great as well – None of my music production friends knew I wasn’t using a real drummer until I told them.
Just thought I’d put that out there 🙂 Regards, Phil
EZDrummer is fantastic. One of my songs on my EP was done in EZDrummer. I didn’t program though, I used a Roland electric kit and recorded the MIDI through EZD. It ended up sounding really good. In some ways, better than my own acoustic drum kit, since the samples are recorded so much better, and on much better quality drums.
I like this idea. If you listen back to some of the doors tracks from the soft parade they put the drums in mono and panned them all to the left. I found this to be an extremely interesting approach to mixing and the recording. A lot of the older mixing was done in what today would be unconventional.
I love this topic!
I am a rookie recording engineer and started recording my drum kit (5 pc Sonor) with the help of a drummer friend that is also getting in to recording his kits (7pc Pearl & 7pc DW)
In our experiments we’ve done single mic tests, usually the Rode NT2a, to individually mic’d drums using a our combined collection of mics from AKG, Audix, MXL, Rode, Shure. Regardless of which mics we have decided to use we have had a great time fooling around in my home studio and have learned a few things along the way.
While there is an undeniable level of control with individually mic’ing a kit, it also creates a TON of work to get everything into position so that you don’t hit the microphones, cables don’t get tangled in remote pedals, or “where the heck is that vibration coming from?etc…
My default set up now is the Glynn Johns 4 mic rig: kick, snare, right OH, and left OH. This works great (duh) by giving us the most control with the least amount of hassle. By far the easiest is a single mic, but placement more crucial than any other set up and deserves a bit of playing around with it to find the “sweet spot”.
As always another great topic and I can’t wait for the next one.
This is a great topic and got me thinking about the live venues I record. From a live setup, I run with 9 mic’s and the kit sounds wonderful, big, and punchy. I’m limited to 8 inputs on my audio interface currently so to record the venue’s drum kit, I setup a mix bus on the board with a separate mix of the drum kit based on all the mic’s being used. In this process, I’ve found I do not need to have all those mic’s mix’ed in the drum’s bus. As a result, I’m eliminating some of the mic’s since there are not all in the mix.
Based on this article, I’m thinking I might setup one “recording” mic for the kit and do an “A|B” comparison from a recording standpoint. Setup is important whether one mic or 9.
Cool post. If you are recording with multiple mics, how do you know if your recordings have phase issues and how do you fix it. Also how could I prevent phase issues in the future
Simple. Place it, listen to it, move it, listen to it. Did your second placement sound better? Could it sounds better still? Move it again and figure out what works. The more you do it, it will become easier to predict what to do and you’ll have a better idea of what works and what doesn’t. After you get more experience, you can start to explore “rule breaking” to get some unique sounds.
Yeah I agree. Listen to the recording. If it sounds good to you, then it’s fine.
It took me a while to be able to recognize phase issues. Sometimes they can be pretty subtle, and don’t always make a huge difference. Just being careful with microphone placement and making sure to listen and see if it sounds alright to you is often enough.
I had some multi tracked drums and what I did was this. I took the left OH and right overhead and zoomed in really close, Then I nudged one track so that the snare hits lined up exactly. I then nudged all my close miked tracks so they lined up exactly with the corresponding hits on the overhead tracks. I a/b’ed the before and after drum tracks and the difference was very noticeable. The after tracks were way more punchy.
Great article! When I took the ProTools certification program several years ago, our teacher placed emphasis on using twelve or more mikes on the drums. We tracked a band one particular day and had 14 mikes, plus an x/y’d pair for room tone at the other end of the studio. It took a long time to get things set up, placements, testing, etc. I have since decided to embrace the Glyn Johns 4 mike method. For one thing, it means using up only 4 input channels instead of 12 or more. For someone like me with limited inputs, that’s huge. Phasing isn’t as big a risk because kick and snare are no where near each other. The way the overheads are placed also mitigates the phase issues, having the one overhead being elevated to the side of the floor tom and pointing at the snare at a different angle than the one above the kick. Also, some of the most famous rock and roll recordings ever made utilized the Glyn Johns method. A 57 pointing at the snare, a D112 for the kick, and a couple of condensors as O/H would be a nice combination. My biggest worry of all in recording drums is having them be properly tuned. That’s my weakest point in doing recording
I usually use 4 to 6 mics and admittedly I struggle with getting the sounds I want. I’m sure that’s mostly do to my level of experience. I think this approach is great and I would definitely try it on some projects, but the bulk of what I do is metal so one mic doesn’t quite do it. I have gotten some pretty good results with a single over the should over head and a kick mic in the past though. Another idea I got from Graham.
I’m definitely a fan of the minimalist approach especially for amateur or beginning recording engineers, or those doing it as a hobby.
One mic though? Sure you eliminate phase issues, but you’re also left with a horrendously mono drum recording. A drum set has width, and that should be represented in your mix (of course there’s always exceptions!), and leaving it up to the reverb to widen it up falls into the “fix it in the mix” mindset. And with rock or pop songs, you want that in-your-face drum sound you can only get with close miking.
It all comes down to spending time with placement from the beginning and capturing the best sound at the source. For a good minimalist approach, find a good stereo array that works, and I would also recommend experimenting with mid-side technique, as it doesn’t suffer from phase cancelation.
Graham, these are just my thoughts. For the most part, you give really good advice and tips. I just happen to disagree with this one.
It all depends on the situation. I think there are times when a mono drum sound can work.
Personally, I like the sound of close mic’ed kick, snare, and toms. I also like having a room mic to play with. So I typically use 7 or 8 mics on my drumset.
But I totally think that this *can* be a solid option in the right context. And I think the point really is that you *can* get a good drum sound with a single mic. Sure, there are benfits to using more mics. But there are also benefits to using just one mic. Whatever works for your situation.
No harm in disagreeing. From my end – I don’t see drums as needing (or supposed to be) stereo. So the mono thing doesn’t bother me one bit.
With stereo multi-miked kits I tend to mix them practically mono anyway.
Graham,
The drum sound on the 1 mic demo video was dead right! I expected the kick to sound overloaded and boomy and the rack tom to be too loud but it sounded pretty good. I don’t know if this is the move for a finished project due to our modern ears being used to the “in your face” sound (or drum samples) but for a demo absolutely!
Hopefully, you’ll make the tracks available for download.
Logically , you head has two ears, so two mics should be sufficient right?
I often use the recorderman plus a kick mic and am getting pretty cool results.
and fake the room , using an aux with a verb
I guess the proof is in the pudding, so I’ll give it a try on a solo project.
Hi Graham,
I typically use 8 mics on a kit. Snare top & Bottom, bass drum inside, each of the 3 Toms and 2 overheads. This is generally my approach when I record other bands.
That said I do use a one and 2 mic setup to record drums. I’m currently working on a track where it calls for that drums in the room rather than drums in your face sound. I used one mic to record the drums.
You can also apply drum replacement techniques to anything that’s missing in the oomph zones if needs be!
Great article by the way!
4DBoy
I’ve gotten good results with a PZM on drums.
maybe it’s more justified to use XY stereo pair instead of one mic to get a true stereo and not streching a stereo from mono? or use both with the capsules in the same spot. That will also provide no phase issues and you’ll could choose which to use in mix. And it’s also took out only a few channels instead of multimiking. Tell me what you think.
I definitely agree. It’s much better to capture a real stereo performance than to get in mono and try and force it into stereo. (Not to say mono drums are always a bad thing.)
Also, the mid-side technique provides an extremely accurate stereo representation with no phase issues, definitely a fun one to experiment with.
Hi Graham. I always say to the students “if you understand the BASICS of a subject you are beginning to UNDERSTAND the subject.
I totally agree with your “simple”, down to earth approach with this subject. My feeling is the following:
When I use plenty miks to record the drums, the miks are really doing the job.
When I use only ONE mic I am doing the job! Correct?
Hope this makes sense!
Thanks for your advice and sharing with us your very wise inputs.
Greetings from South Africa!
God bless!
Hennie Senekal
i use 3 mic 2 overheads and 1 for the kick btw im not rich i only put shure pg 58 on kick and for overhead Samson C03 and Bheringer C3. Thats the cheapest ive got. Planing to add another c03
90% of the classic drum machines aren’t in any real stereo and they do just fine.
I Don’t have acoustic drums, only samples or loops at this stage. Thanks Graham as you have liberated me from the belief that I needed to at drums into my music one kick, one snare etc at a time so that I could EQ, Compress and balance the whole kit like a pro.
Provided I can find the best drum loop to fit the occasion (there’s the hard part) then as you said, it simplifies the whole process and move on. What a relief.
Cheers from South Ausi
Hi Graham,
Nice article, but wouldn’t it be more complete if you’d also mention the disadvantages of recording especially drums with one microphone and in what situations it might not give the desired result?
If you see a drumkit as one single instrument, a single microphone would be appropriate, but a drumkit can also be viewed as a collection of instruments/drums, in which case the choice for one single microphone wouldn’t be that obvious.
For example; a latin jazz drummer playing poly-rythmical patterns on his kit might not be suited to record with a single microphone.
I think it all comes down to what you are trying to produce. Most music could benefit from a 1 or few mic technique I think. Personally I have been using 13 lately. The reason being A: My drummers kit is HUGE, and I need all the coverage I can get, and B: I am mixing metal and I need not only an in your face type of sound but I also heavily effect some parts for production purposes and you can’t do that as easily with less control. I like control lol.
Sure it is a pain to get everything lined just up, and fixing the correct phases, and getting everything mixed down to the proper buses just right, but it gives me what I need. I don’t think there is a wrong number or a right number of mics, it just comes down to what you need, or sometimes what you have.
Btw my 13 mic setup is like this:
Stereo area mics in a/b configuration
Stereo setup in front of hat and ride
Kick mic beside the pedal aimed at beater head, kick mic inside kick drum
Snare top and bottom
Tom’s 1-5 individually mic’ed
I’ve gotten amazing records of an entire band with just one mic, a 60s shure dynamic mic. I was pretty blown away. I put the mic on a bar stool, aiming it at the kick drum, but it was nearly 20 feet away. It helped immensely that the band I recorded had really good balance between the many band members (a post-rock style jazz rock band sort of like tortoise).
and for drums a lot of times i just use one mic on the kick drum and one mic on the rest of the kit. one issue i run into sometimes is too much cymbals, but this can be cured by mic placement and walling off the kit a bit with soundproofing and whatever you have that might work like a fold out room divider, etc.
Yes I agree with you!
The best way doing this i.m.o is to record a band live by using only one mic per Instrument.
The leakage will add a lot to a big sound and when panned correctly, your mono drums will sound very lively and will be spreaded across the stereo field because of the leakage of the other instruments / tracks. Here is a recording I did with 4 mics. It’s a five piece band (drums, hammond organ, guitar, sax, trumpet)
https://soundcloud.com/heaxs/sets/the-max-boogaloos-the-tape
I used 1 mic on drums, 1 mic on organ leslie, 1 mic on guitar, and 1 mic on trumpet an sax together
It’s nice to find someone who shares the same thoughts on recording! kudos!
Definitely a compelling argument– might as well ride it out and let the drums have their natural effect on the recording.
The ‘Drum Dilemma’:
I must say here lately, many of the drums in my own (and clients) productions have been programmed with virtual instruments. It’s quite difficult to record loud drums in the place where I live/work. BUT, I do have plenty of expirence recording drums. If I were to do so, my prefered method would be XY overheads and close mic’ed kick and snare. When doing so, I approach placement utilizing what I loosely call the Triangle Method. Near perfect phase alignment every time!
Ive been a full time, 6-7 days a week recording engineer/assistant engineer in a commercial facility in Los Angeles for the last 6 years. I know pretty much all of the stuff graham covers already but visit from time to time because its great advice and i find it refreshing from most of the non essential “noise” coming from alot of other people that are trying to show others how to engineer or mix records.
One thing i continue to notice in this industry is that younger engineers seem to want/need concrete answers to questions that are largely artistic in nature or to questions that many times need to be answered through experience and filtered through their taste.
People that need to know what eq/compressor they need to use for what instrument or that drums need to be stereo or any other nonsense “rules” that people want to spout, should be doing someones taxes, not working on their music. Thats just my opinion
Well…why not record a whole band with just one mike then, how about that? THAT would be a challenge, wouldn’t it? (By the way, not my idea, it’s Keith Richards’ idea of recording a rock’n’roll band: let the band play their music live, put one mic in the room, and that’s it, press “Rec”. If the musicians play good, if your mic is in the right place, piece of cake…you’ve got an album in the can…But of course, Keith Richards doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about).
I think these debates over recording techniques are pretty boring and useless, don’t you think? I don’t even know why I took the time to comment, but well…
Have a nice day. It doen’t matter anyway…
Graham,
Love the videos and blog. Keep it up! I was watching one of your videos the other day about recording great vocals and you had mentioned setting your preamps so the vocals sit right around 50% a majority of the time. Is this something you recommend for all tracks/instruments or just for vocals?
Thanks
Yep!
Another thing I sometimes do with 1 mic drum recordings…duplicate the track, filter out everything else except snare then add different reverb/ different eq or whatever. You can isolate other stuff too, then just combine what you need more of. As always, use your ears though, because eq’d version next to non eq’d can cause phase issues again. Great use of parametric eq. 1 mic on drums is fun.
^ this.
I’ve done this a handful of times: duplicate the track, set one to “skins” and the other to “metal” and EQ the one so the kick/snare/toms are present and the other so that the hats/cymbals are more present, then balance and tweak till satisfied.
I recorded my drums with two mics – dynamic mic for kick drum and condenser for rest of kit. I’m having trouble getting a good balance between the toms and the rest of the kit, the toms are much too quiet but if I turn the bass up on the EQ the snare and cymbals don’t sound right. Is there some mixing trick I’m missing or is it just a case of moving the mic closer to the toms?
Interesting stuff, I’ve had some great results from single mics – I also experimented with these guys stereo pair miking a piano with the Oktava MK-012
Can anyone suggest a good microphone to use for recording drums the one-mic way? I am keen to record my band’s rehearsals to four track each week – drums with one mic, bass DI, vox DI and guitar recorded with an SM57.
cheers!
Steve
Those in spirit choose not to rob people of these vital minutes; as a result, they might not address a specific question so as to honor the nature of our quest.
May I simply say what a relief to uncover someone that genuinely knows what they are discussing on the internet.
You certainly realize how to bring a problem to light and make it important.
More and more people really need to look
at this and understand this side of the story. I can’t believe you aren’t
more popular since you surely possess the gift.
However, if the voice was already damaged, to do just that might not be
enough. Some techniques involving watching yourself take several breathes in front of a mirror, watching
to see if your shoulders raise up as you breathe.
More singers than ever,are turning to self-coaching software these days.
The most popular notion of attempting all devices is not well unknown.
And one socialist head continues to be identified severely to guard the Constituent Assembly present a tiny section with its occupants to him, to use his
experiments upon.
What about using one stereo jecklin disc/OSS disc (kinda human head analog) to get the drums in stereo in an easy way? Anyone?
Witch kind or brand of single microphon is good for recording drums?
Hello. Could anyone recommend a good budget mic to use this recording technique on a laptop? I am not shooting for supreme quality, just enough for a rough first draft demo recording will work. Thanks
Placement of the mic and the type of mic is everything. I have recorded 100’s of times with one mic on the drum kit, which is my normal way to record. Different rooms means different placements and even the kit (wood) itself could be a reason for different placements. Excellent recordings have been made with just one mic on drums. As far as stereo goes just run dual mono. I have recorded one mic and bounced it to another track for 2 tracks, “stereo” and effected it by panning one side or sometimes both off center just slightly. I have always disliked the stereo image of toms with some left and some right. Its like the drums are running back and forth from left to right instead of staying in the center.
Hi Graham,
Could you recommend at least 3 brand/models to choose from for one mic recording for drums? at least from average and decent.
Any large diaphragm condenser will do: Rode NT1a is a great choice.