Hi all recording sifus out there!

I wish to ask about the correct procedures of drum recording.
Sorry la abang2, saya baru lagi dalam recording2 ni..jadi nak bertanya la kan
pasal procedure, things to be considered, etc2..

Recently I've acquired a 7 piece drum Mic system, tested it out and here's the scenario:

First, through some piece of information, I've used an overhead mic to record the sound of the whole
drums (overall recording). I've adjusted the sound at the mixer (cheap jalan pasar punya je, ada phantom power n 12 jacks),
balanced the volume for the overhead mic. Monitored the sound using a pair of headphones and laptop.
Direct recording from mixer to laptop that has no sound card(i meant using integrated SC).

Naturally, I would presume that using an overhead mic will record the sound of the drums in overall,
but it will lack in definition compared to using the complete piece to piece mic. But I'm rather satisfied with it,
the cymbals and hi-hats could be heard rather clearly. The only problem being the snare. It lacks clarity/definition.
When I looked at the waves in the recording software, everything is ok as it has not reached the peak.
Only when I do a Rim shot that it becomes a peak/unbearable.

So, obviously to get clarity for the snare, I had to use a snare mic.

When i tested it again, the snare gets definition (obviously).
But, when i had a look at the waves, there is a peak every time I hit the snare.
When i listened through the headphones, it sounds alright.
The only problem being the peak that is worrying me.

The question is:

Where is my mistake?
Is it the wrong settings at the mixer (Where is the starting point?)
Or maybe i just need to ignore the peak waves as it sounds ok?

What is peak, btw? Through some information passed to me, the peak makes the sound unbearable,
so it lacks definition and even if we lower the volume, we still can't capture the natural dynamics of the sound emitted.

So all sifus out there, I wish to be enlightened by your wisdom
Thanks!

This post has been edited by ping: May 17 2009, 11:44 PM

First you need to tune the levels of your snares, toms, kick and hihat dry.. means no overhead in the mix.. Basically you use the loudest instrument at 0dB as reference point (ex. the snare). Then tune the rest refering to that.. After everything sounds balanced, onli then you gradually bring in the overheads to add some ambience.. Also you need to pan your toms and overheads Left to Right.. If not, they won't have a stereo spectrum and might even clip both L,R channels

This post has been edited by nkphnx: May 17 2009, 08:32 PM

theres no hard rules for recording drums, as there are so many variables like the sound you want, the drum set and the room.

the three most important things are capturing your bass drum, snare and hi hats (in no particular order). so try capturing those nicely. for drums, especially a rock tone or modern sounding one, compressors play a very important role. usually each mic for each drum piece goes through a compressor (and not the overall sound going into a compressor). i think this is where your problem lies.

by the way, if its just reaching the headroom area its not too bad, as long as it doesnt clip. however, using a cheap mixer, sometimes even reaching the headroom area you can tell theres abit of distortion to the sound.

it does not peak at the mixer, it just peaks at PC while recording... If the pc peaks but if the volume at PC peaks, it should be no problem if the sound is ok/no distortion right?

Is the snare too loud relative to the rest of the set? You may want to try to increase the distance of the mic from the snare.. otherwise, if it's just that it's peaking when it goes through the mic preamp (make sure you set levels) reduce the trim. In my experience, it's normally that the snare is NOT loud enough in the overhead mics.

If it peaks on the PC, you should still reduce levels - perhaps reduce the mixer output signal or decrease the PC's input level.

If you have 2 overhead mics, make sure both mics are the same distance from the snare so you don't get phase cancellation.

Or as suggested, use a limiter/compressor in the post-recording stage. But the original recorded signal should NOT be clipped.

Hello
I bought Sound card M-audio - Fast Track Pro and i have V-Drum - Roland - TD9...but i cant connect my sound card 2 computer i mean i can listen 2 music but i cant record and i cant connect My drums 2 sound card by MIDI cabel...can u please help me
plz help me

There is some small microphone thingy that you can apply to your crashes, snares, toms etc.
It records and it doesn't effect playing too!

But sadly I forgot the name...

I'm no expert, but if it peaks on the pc but not on the mixer, I'm guessing you connected the mixer to the "mic in" port on the pc? Since mic in is for low-level signal only and not for instrument level signal, maybe that's why it's clipping. I suggest connecting to a computer with a "line in" port. Or if you have no choice, reduce the mixer output level. Hope that helps.

agreed. the mic channel may have the signal coming in too high.

either put it into a line channel or cut down the output at the mixer.

at this point, it's about your playing in general.


if the overall mix is balanced, then simply lower your main output on the mixer, or input on your soundcard. sometime when the input gets a little too hot and over 0dB, you will not hear the digital clipping ("flat top" waves). it's there, you need better soundcard and studio monitors to be able to hear it. your laptop intergrated soundcard most probably not even up to the task to be able to trace any of them.

if you want to record a good quality track, get a professional soundcard first. output (monitoring) quality is as important as input quality, quality differences between consumer vs professional soundcards are as great as the differences between consumer vs professional speakers.