How Record Drums In 5 Easy Steps

Recording drums can be a daunting task. The microphone choice, placement, or even the room you record in can all make drastic changes to the sound of your recording. However, even with a limited budget, we know that anyone can achieve a great sound simply by following these steps.  

Step 1 – Choose the right room

Choosing the best room, or even the best spot in any room you have is one of the most important factors when recording any acoustic instrument, but it’s even more important when recording drums. 

When looking for the right space you should always make sure that the room is oddly shaped and full of differently facing surfaces. 

If that’s not possible, then setting up in the corner of the room is the best option as it will reduce the chances for unwanted sounds like flutter in your recordings.  

Step 2 – Choose the right microphone

Generally when recording a drum set, there are certain types of microphones you should use as they will help achieve a better quality recording. 

However, these rules aren’t set in stone and many artists have achieved a great sound with all kinds of different microphone choices so try to find what works best for you. 

Generally, the microphone of choice for drum overheads or individual cymbals would be any Cardioid Pattern Condenser microphone. 

Condensers are extremely clean and accurate mics which makes them the ideal choice to use on cymbals and as the main stereo image of your drums. 

Furthermore, the cardioid pattern ensures that the microphones don’t pick up sound coming from other directions-keeping the recordings free of unwanted noise. 

Additionally, the microphones of choice for bass drums, snare drums, tom drums, and any other drums would be a cardioid or supercardioid dynamic microphone. 

Dynamic microphones usually aren’t as crisp as condensers and they usually have a more aggressive sound.This makes them ideal for recording hard-hitting warmer sounds, such as that of a snare, tom, or bass drum. 

Step 3 – Get the overhead microphones “in phase” 

Phase is one of the more tricky elements of recording and it plagues even the most experienced engineers once in a while. 

Without getting into the science behind phase, just remember, you always want to have your stereo image “in phase” with itself. 

To put it plainly, the left and right microphones need to receive the audio signal at the same time which will lead to the stereo (left & right) image being “in phase”. 

There are many microphone setup techniques on how to do this when recording a drum set. The X/Y, the Near Coincident, and the Spaced Pair techniques are probably the most famous, and most effective.  

X/Y Cross Technique

The X/Y (or cross) technique is quite simple: both microphone capsules need to meet each other and their juncture should form a 90 degree or right angle. 

This will ensure that both microphones receive sound at the same time, since they are in the same location, and will allow each microphone to receive an accurate picture of the side it is facing. This is a common technique for situations where physical space is limited as it has the smallest footprint. 

Near-Coincident – ORTF

The Near Coincident or ORTF technique is the most interesting technique. It is meant to replicate how the human ears would receive sound as it is not the same as an X/Y formation. 

Our head separates our two ears from meeting at the same place and the ORTF technique takes that into consideration. 

To achieve this technique, space two microphones on your stereo mic bar so that the capsules are about 17cm apart from each other, then angle the microphones at a 110 degree angle. 

This will allow each microphone to capture a wider field of view than the X/Y technique while maintaining perfect phase between both microphones. ORTF is a great technique and it can give a very accurate sound representation in the final mix. 

Spaced Pairs

Lastly, we have the Spaced Pair technique. Exactly as the name suggests, it is achieved by separating the microphones at least a foot and a half apart while aiming directly at the source of the sound. 

Since the source of sound for a drum set is made up of multiple pieces, it can be tricky to decide where to focus the aim of the microphones. Some people say you should aim them at the bass, some say to aim at the snare, and some say to aim somewhere in between the two. 

However, as long as the distance to the source is measured out evenly for each mic, you should not experience any phase issues regardless of where your source is.  

Step 4 – Apply the close-miking technique

Close-miking is a technique used to get the most “body” out of your drums when recording and is highly effective in a mix. Without close mics on the bass drum and snare drum, the overall drum sound can tend to sound thin and flat. 

It may not be essential for a recording, but definitely helps excel your drum sounds to a professional level. 

This technique is rather simple: sit the microphone about 3 inches above the drum and aim the capsule at the center of the drumhead.

If you place the capsule too close to the drum, you won’t get the entire sound of the drum as the sound will quickly escape upwards. 

If the capsule is aiming anywhere other than the center of the drumhead, then the ringing of the overtones can overpower that sweet fat drum sound we all want. If you follow those two rules, your drums should sound great! (P.S. make sure you don’t hit the microphone with your drum sticks!)

Step 5 – Tune your drums

Lastly, the final and most important step to any drum recording is… tuning! It’s simple everyone-tune your drums! No matter how well you record them, how good the room is, or how expensive the microphones are, if you don’t tune your drums they will sound terrible. 

It may feel like such a basic step, however, it can often be the most neglected element of a drum recording. Even with cheap drums and old nasty drum heads, any drum can be tuned to sound great on any recording. Think of it this way, you wouldn’t record your guitar while it’s out of tune would you? 

So please do yourselves a favor and tune those drums before you record them! 

We hope that you found these tips to be useful and that they can help you make more professional sounding drum recordings in the future!