Putting it on Tape | AKG Acoustics Micing manual

Figure 4

directions on the hi-hat and big tom), the sound will “open up” and will seem wider on the repro- duced stereo stage. Details here are shown in Figure 4.

By the way, good drummers often know more about drum micing than many engineers think they do -- at least they know what has worked well for them in the past. Listen to them; they may be able to save you a lot of time.

Putting it on Tape:

So far we’ve only used four microphones (count-

ing 2 on the kick drum), and if you are in a tracking session, each one should go to its own track dry and unprocessed for later mix-down. Alternatively, if you are doing a direct-to-stereo recording, keep in mind that any processing you do cannot be undone easily.

In the monitor mix, take advantage of stereo by spreading the OH mics from, say, just a little left of center to far right. This will give a clear picture of the drum set occupying the right half of the reproduced stereo stage, and this effect will be more pleasing if you have placed your OH mics to position 3 in Figure 4. With the OH mics arrayed like this you will have the entire left half of the stereo stage to place other instruments, such as the piano, which are miced in stereo. By all means place the kick drum in the center of the stereo stage. This is where it historically has been -- and where most listeners expect it to be. An overall view of the drum set with the four microphones is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5