I’ve been writing my own songs for a while and recording the guitar and vocal parts via my laptop and Garageband. So far I’ve been programming midi drum tracks for the songs because I only have the mic I use for vocals (I’ve tried recording with it, but the sound quality is awful). I was thinking of investing in a set of mics and was wondering if anyone had any buying advice.

 

  • detrital_fragments 1:05 pm on March 15, 2010

    you will need a new sound card (audio interface) for recording drums as you will need/want to record a lot more tracks simultaneously.
    it depends on how many pieces your kit is but 6-8 inputs is a minimum. get something with onboard pre-amps and phantom power too.

    as for the mic’s themselves a general rule is dynamic for drums (esp. kick and snare) and condensers for cymbals. a condenser mic will break up (distort) with the volume and attack of a kick or snare drum.
    you don’t have to close mic everything individually but it will give you the best separation and thus flexibility with mixing.

    with recording drums the room you record them in can have a huge impact on the sound. you may want to look into acoustically treating your room by installing bass traps and broadband diffusers/absorbers.
    you can spend thousands doing this with professional products, or build your own if your up for some DIY and get some really good improvements for a few hundred.

    as for brands Shure, Rode, Sennheiser make good (and great) dynamic and condensor mic’s

    this is pretty basic advice. i don’t know what will suit your setup and production methods. for far more indepth advice check out
    http://www.tweakheadz.com/
    they have very good info on recording drums, the forums there have lots of professional audio engineers that can help you even more.
    they helped me heaps with building my home studio.

  • lollypop08 1:05 pm on March 15, 2010

    make sure they work

  • LukeMyster111 1:05 pm on March 15, 2010

    If you record getting a set is really your only choice if you want the track to sound quality, and im sure you do, if you get a set of Shure microphones then you wont regret it, they are awesome CAD also makes so good sets, try to get a set that comes with the mounts though, cause they can be more pricey if you buy them seperate, so if its like 20 bucks more with all the mounts, then its a good deal