How many of you guys mic your kits at home?

konaboy

konaboy

Pioneer Member
So just out of curiosity, how many of you guys mic your kits at home? If so why and what are you using?
 
I see no point in it. Drums are loud enough in a home setting. If I want to record myself, I can do so with a few well placed room mics.
 
I've just started practicing with my Audix D6 in the bass drum porthole so I can hear the bass drum better, it's made a big difference to my practice since I don't need to play so hard in order to 'feel' when I'm playing good strokes so it's helpful for developing speed and accuracy.
 
MrInsanePolack said:
I see no point in it. Drums are loud enough in a home setting. If I want to record myself, I can do so with a few well placed room mics.
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Yeah I'm not talking to run through speakers to amplify them

I've been contemplating putting up like 2 overheads and a kick mic to use for practicing and rehearsing or playing to a track and running those into my in ears to hear a clearer/true tone of the drums instead of a muffled one. Also maybe to possibly get into dabbling with recording myself but that's not anytime in the near future.

Just something I've been thinking about in my spare time.
 
I used to have my kit set up with a full set of mics all the time, in case inspiration hit and I wanted to record. Now, I'm a lot more picky with exactly HOW I want to mic up my kit each time (for different sounds), so I don't pull the mics out until I want to record. Positioning the mics for *just* the right sound is key...
 
I play at home with two Sterling Audio large diaphragm condenser microphones as overheads and a bass drum mic (either D6 or D112, depending on my mood.) I run those three mics into a mixer, then listen through the Vic Firth isolation headphones.

Man, I absolutely love playing at home that way. I play in bands and stuff too, but for practicing or messing around at home, there's nothing better IMO. I also make a ton of YouTube videos using this same setup and the sounds are really, really good IMO.

I'm also controlling the volume, so it's not loud blasts to my ears every time I sit down to play. I love it.
 
I do it for recording purposes. I record my practice sessions especially when I play along a song to listen back and critique.

I use a Shure Beta 52A for the bass drum and an SM57 on the snare. For overheads, I use another SM57 and a no name SM58 knock-off. I run them into a small 4 ch. Peavey mixer with the USB output going into my Macbook Pro (using Audacity). I am very happy with this inexpensive setup. I thought it was going to be a difficult task to make good sounding drum recordings, but I found it to be fairly easy. I don't use any EQ or processing and am satisfied with the true sound I get.
 
I keep my Masters MCX kit miked up at home always since I have a home studio. 4 tom mics, 2 overheads, a hihat mic, 2 snare mics (top and bottom) and a kick mic.
 
konaboy said:
Yeah I'm not talking to run through speakers to amplify them

I've been contemplating putting up like 2 overheads and a kick mic to use for practicing and rehearsing or playing to a track and running those into my in ears to hear a clearer/true tone of the drums instead of a muffled one. Also maybe to possibly get into dabbling with recording myself but that's not anytime in the near future.

Just something I've been thinking about in my spare time.
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If you play live, the acoustic sound of your kit will be somewhat alien, could be a distraction. I guess you could bring your mics and a mixer to feed yourself the miked sound. If you want to hear the drums better, it will be cheaper and easier to buy high quality earplugs. The audiologist-fitted ones would run maybe $250, but the Etymotics/Hearos aren't terrible, at under $15 with a little shopping.
 
I like to set up a single mic just above and behind my head....and shield my ears from anything but the processed sound.

This gives me practice in using the mic/processing equipment and not expecting what I hear acoustically to translate %100 to a recording.
 
i keep my kit mic's always, why you ask?

1.Because i like to hear my drums through the mix and the sound is equal to what im playing too weather it be a song or a click track.

2.Also becuse it gets me use to playing with the mic's in place, this way when im playing live or in a studio it always the same.

3. If i want to record the drums for what ever reason its already set up, plus i can play with the setting to get the sound i like rather then waiting to get to the studio to fiddle with stuff
 
For recording, I just use my E kit. It's extremely simple.

For rehearsing, drums are freaking loud and usually need some anti microphones.
 
With the new kit, right now I'm mic'ed up. I have a Shure SM58 about six inches in front of the bass drum, an SM57 floating somewhere around the snare, and a CAD GXL2400 large diaphragm condenser as my one overhead.

For some reaso I'm having a hard time getting my snare to sound right - I must be dealing with some phasing issues with the overhead and the SM58 - I usually can do this in my sleep - there must be something wrong with me.
 
I do not mic my kit at home. When i record my drum tracks i set up a couple of Shure 57's and room mic it. Less hassle and the tracks sound more accurate to how i play it balance wise. When you have separate levels for each drum the balance is almost always thrown off a bit. True i cant manipulate my tracks as much as recording each drum to a separate channel but that doesnt really matter for what i'm doing.
 
I keep mine mic'd up...........................in case I want to record something and to get used to them........................for space claim reasons.
 
PQleyR said:
I've just started practicing with my Audix D6 in the bass drum porthole so I can hear the bass drum better, it's made a big difference to my practice since I don't need to play so hard in order to 'feel' when I'm playing good strokes so it's helpful for developing speed and accuracy.
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Have you noticed this changing your kit's balance? Is the kick drum still audible in a band situation?
 
Wavelength said:
Have you noticed this changing your kit's balance? Is the kick drum still audible in a band situation?
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Well, on the tour I did recently I realised I was trying to play harder than was necessary to get a good sound out FOH, and it was making playing more effort than it needed to be, so there was room for me to back off a bit. I've always had a tendency to play extremely hard/loud so it's unlikely I'd ever have major issues in that area. It's more of an issue of articulacy/efficiency.

Also, the kick would be mic'd in any band situation I can imagine at the moment, so if I'm getting a good sound/signal through an unprocessed mic it should translate to a good sound out front.
 
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