Recording drums can be a big challenge, especially for us working in a home studio.
Drums are a loud, big, acoustic instrument that for some of us might seem a bit scary or intimidating to record.
If you have the opportunity to record live drums, but you're not doing it, it's time for you to tame the beast and record some drum tracks!
Let's break it down and talk about 7 tips that will always help you record drums in your home studio.
Watch Out For Phase Issues
Phase issues can totally destroy your drum sound, and a lot of the times you won't even notice it.
You have to make sure that all of your microphones are phase aligned.
It's very easy to check and fix, but also easy to forget.
The best way to reveal phase issues:
Listen to your drum tracks in mono
Listen to all of your drum tracks together (not in solo)
Listen to your overheads and your close microphones together, and play around with the phase flip button on your DAW for each of the close microphones.
Listen to the difference and decide for each track if the phase should be flipped or not.
If one of your tracks sounds good on it's own, but sounds weird when played with another track, then those two tracks probably have a phasing issue between them.
If the phase flip button doesn't help the problem, you'll have to go and move your mic to a different position, to solve the phase cancellation.
The same goes when recording one drum with more than one microphone.
If you're recording your snare from both top and bottom, or recording your kick from both in and out, make sure that the different microphones sound good together, not just on their own.
Get A Balanced Overheads Sound
In most genres, the overheads are the most important of the drum microphones.
Don't use them just to get the cymbals recorded.
Put in some effort and tune the mics to catch a well balanced overall sound of the entire kit.
If you're recording stereo overheads, make sure that the kick and snare are centered in the stereo field.
Or else your entire drum kit sound will shift to the side, which sounds weird.
More Microphones Doesn't Equal Better Sound
Some of you might think that more microphones equals better sound.
The truth is more mics equals more problems.
More mics, more cables, more preamps, more volume levels, more possible phase issues, more tracks to mix.
Basically more things that can go wrong.
So don't throw a lot mics at your drum kit just because you can.
You have to really know what you're doing when working with a lot of mics at the same time.
I'm not at all against multiple mics, but I do want to make sure that you understands that good sound comes from your skill and experience, and not the amount of mics you have.
Do you really need 2 mics on this kick drum?
Maybe one mic sounds better than two on this snare?
Does the room mic actually sound good?
Does the hi hat mic add anything to the sound?
These are a few examples for questions you can ask yourself before you record a 20-track drum kit.
In fact, you can record drums with the mics you already have.
You don't need to have a ton of microphones to record a drum kit.
Believe it or not, you can even do it with just 1 condenser mic.
All you need is experience and proper technique.
So whatever amount of mics you have, know that you can still record a drum kit.
Minimize Mic Bleed
Mic bleed can be a very annoying problem when recording drums in the home studio.
You have to be very careful with you mic choice and mic placement, not only to get good sounds, but also to minimize mic bleed.
Use directional (cardioid) dynamic mics for the snare and toms if you can.
Cardioid microphones will pick mostly what's in front of them, and less from their sides or back.
The reason I say dynamic microphones as well, is because their polar pattern is narrower, and they also don't pick up much sound from a distance, they only pick up things that are very close to them, compared to condenser microphones.
One simple trick is to place the back of the mic aimed at the drum you don't want to hear.
The back of a cardioid mic reject sound quite heavily, so use it strategically.
Another trick is to move the hi hat away from the snare drum.
It might feel a bit weird for your drummer at first, but he'll get used to it, and the snare track will sound much cleaner, with less hi hat bleed.
The same goes for the hi hat track, which will result in less snare drum bleed.
Replace And Tune Your Drum Heads
Before you even place a single microphone and start recording, you have to make sure your drum set actually sounds good.
Put on some new drum heads, it makes a huge difference to the sound.
Tune your drums properly, put in the effort and tune both top and bottom heads.
Experiment with different tunings and methods, and find the ones that you like best.
Use Acoustic Treatment
If you're recording drums at your home studio, you probably don't have a huge room with a great ambience sound.
More often than not, your home studio room will sound pretty bad.
It can even be your biggest problem for recording drums.
If you have some bass traps or acoustic foam already on the walls, you're one step in.
If you don't, try hanging some thick blankets and sheets to absorb some reflections.
A thick carpet will also help to reduce a lot of reflections, so make sure you have one on your floor, especially under the drums.
Final Tips Listen back to the recordings and tweak the mics as needed.
Put in the time, don't rush the recording, get the mic placements right.
Experiment and try different things.
There are so many methods and techniques about recording drums.
Using different mics types, mic placements, and even different drum tuning methods.
Try out new stuff and find what works for you.
Did you ever try to record drums in your home studio?
Share your experience with us in the comments!