How To Mic Drums
By Justin LaPointe
When it comes to miking a drum kit, in most cases, less is more.
You could put an individual mic on each drum and then combine all those sounds in your mix. But we’ve found that the simplest — and best sounding — approach starts with a pair of overhead mics.
By using two overheads as the foundation for your drum sound, you begin with a balanced and natural representation of the entire kit. Once you’re happy with your overhead sound (or as happy as you can be with only two microphones), you can then add additional mics to reinforce what your mix is missing. In almost every case, you will want to add a mic to your kick drum or snare drum next.
This may seem like a really basic way to mic your drum kit, but it’s warranted given the issue of phase. The more mics you use, the more likely you are to run into phase problems.
The Issue of Phase When Recording Drums
In the context of recording instruments like drums, “phase” refers to the timing relationship between sound waves captured by multiple microphones. When multiple microphones capture a sound wave at different times in its cycle, we say the sound is “out-of-phase.” This can lead to a thin, hollow sound or even cause an instrument to be “cancelled out” and disappear from the recording.
Phase is an especially important consideration when it comes to drums because of all the different sound sources and microphones at play. As you add more mics to the kit, the time variance between when each sound leaves its drum and gets to each mic will be different, and you’ll have to align those mics accordingly.
To keep things easy (and save precious time on your project), be sure to balance those two overheads first. This is particularly important for smaller spaces and home studio environments.
There are many drum mic recording kits available to buy, such as the Shure PGADRUMKIT7, which includes all the mics you’ll need to get started (for your kick drum, toms, snare, and overheads).
But if you want to learn more about the nuances of recording each drum, the mics we use here at Barnhouse, or some of the differences between miking drums live vs. in-studio, keep reading.
Drum Miking Techniques: Live vs Recording Studio
How to Mic a Drum Set for Live Performances
For live performances, you’ll usually have multiple microphones for your drum kit: one for the snare, one for the kick drum, one for each tom drum, and two overheads. When setting up, you should start by placing the close mics — also known as spot mics, the ones that will directly capture the snare, toms, and kick drum — about 3-5 inches away from each drum.
Place the overhead mics above the left and right of the kit, over top of the ride symbol and hi-hat. With the spot mics in place and in a live setting, the overheads become more about cymbal and hi-hat capture, which is why this placement works best (though you can put a spot mic on the hi-hat, too).
This is the preferable way to mic a drum kit for live performances because it allows more immediate control over the sound of each drum and of the symbols in relation to the mix. At this same time, issues with phase or other placement imperfections are not as noticeable in a live setting.
How to Mic Drums In a Recording Studio
When recording drums in a studio, the environment is completely different from a live performance. The recording is usually performed multiple times until you get the right take, and the recorded sound has to hold up upon repeated, close listens.
This is why phase is so important in studio, and why we recommend starting with two overheads before selectively adding each additional mic. As a starting point, both overheads should be the same distance from the snare drum; otherwise they can cancel some of that snare sound out. From the control room, the engineer may listen to repeated snare drum strikes captured by both overheads while an assistant slowly moves one overhead around to find the sharpest sound.
It’s critically important not to rush your microphone placement when recording in the studio. The drums are the foundation of most recordings, and your project will inevitably suffer if you need to try to fix phase issues in post.
Next, I’ll share some of the nuances of miking each drum.
Best Mic For A Kick Drum
Two different types of mics are best to use when recording kick drums. One should be a condenser mic, preferably a FET (“field-effect transistor”) — not a tube mic — as FET mics won’t have as much proximity effect when placed close to the drum.
The second mic should be a close mic specifically built for a kick drum, such as an AKGD12. These kick drum mics are usually large-diaphragm dynamic mics that can withstand the sound pressure level (SPL) of a kick drum from up close.
The combination of these two types will provide a full sound that includes the snappy highs of the beater and the deep lows of the kit’s largest drum.
How To Mic A Kick Drum
If you’re using the two-microphone setup we’ve just described, the condenser mic should be placed around 1-3 feet back from the front of the head. Place the close, “kick-drum specific” mic directly inside the drum and point it toward the beater (where the beater hits the drum) if you want more “snap,” or turned away slightly if you want less.
Or, you can try lining up both mics beside each other, directly in front of the kick drum. This should be done in front of the sound hole or with the front head removed entirely.
We have found the best results come from having both microphones lined up with the front head of the drum removed, as this ensures both of the mics are in phase.
How To Mic A Snare Drum
The best way to mic a snare drum is to place it around 1-3 inches above the rim and angle it down slightly toward the center of the drum. This is usually done on the hi-hat side of the snare drum so it can be angled away from the hi-hat, reducing the amount of hi-hat bleed into the snare mic.
As with any spot mic, it’s important to try and limit bleed from surrounding sources. If phase is the most important consideration for placing overhead mics, isolation is what’s most important when placing spot mics.
Snare Mic Placement
Snare Top and Bottom Mic
Sometimes, only using one microphone on the snare doesn’t provide the desired sound or a complete image of the snare drum. In this case, you can add a second mic below the bottom of the drum to capture that rattle — the ‘snareyness’ of the snare — and less of the whack and attack sound.
The bottom mic will also give a lot of high-end snap and sizzle, which makes the process of cutting mixes easier. We recommend including a bottom mic for faster songs with more snare hits. For songs with a slower tempo and a drum beat with fewer snare hits, it’s not as important to have a bottom mic because each strike can stand out more easily on its own.
How To Mic A Hi Hat
There are two ways to mic a hi-hat. First, you need to decide whether you are looking for a high-end, clicky, up-front hi-hat sound, or if you’re aiming for a darker, more organic, balanced sound that sits back with the rest of the drum kit.
Modern music, like hip-hop and pop, has a bright and snappy hi-hat sound. To achieve this, we recommend using a small diaphragm condenser mic, such as an AKG C451. This should sit directly above the hi-hat, about 1-3 inches away from its open position, to ensure it doesn’t get hit by the drummer.
The AKG C451 can be heavily processed and used with an omnidirectional capsule. This makes cutting out the low end and adding more high-end much easier. And since omnidirectional microphones don’t produce a proximity effect, you won’t boost unwanted low frequencies if you place the mic close to the hi-hat with that Omni capsule installed.
The second way to mic a hi-hat is with a darker microphone, such as a Shure SM7B, a Shure SM57, or an Electro-Voice RE20, which is a radio-style microphone that works great on a hi-hat. These provide a more old-school sound that isn’t as bright or snappy. This type of hi-hat will fit into a band mix more easily than one with a brighter, snappy tone.
How To Mic Toms
The best way to mic toms is to use two microphones, one on the top and one on the bottom. The key is to flip the phase of the bottom mic. This is done because the microphone faces the opposite direction as the one on top, so you have to artificially flip the phase on one to keep everything in phase.
This is a common mistake many people make when using two tom mics. When they don’t flip the phase of the bottom microphone, they don’t get the low end they are looking for.
Keep in mind that tom mics are not always required, depending on your desired sound and what you’re hearing from the overheads. One mic, two mics, or no tom mics at all might be the right move, depending on your project.
How To Set Up Overhead Mics For Drums
We’ve covered our preferred method for miking drums in studio above, but there are three approaches to setting up overheads that you should be familiar with.
The Recorder Man method uses two condenser mics and creates a balanced, natural sound without much room sound. The key is to carefully measure the distance between microphones. The overhead mics should be positioned equidistant from the snare drum, ensuring they are the same distance from the snare on the left and right. And while spot mics can also be used, ensuring the overheads are positioned properly is fundamental to capturing a good sound.
The Glyn John’s method is similar to the Recorder Man, but the room plays a larger part. The aim of this method is to achieve a big overall sound. Place one overhead 3-4 feet above the snare and the other 6 inches above the floor tom, pointing towards the hi-hat. These mics must be equidistant from the center of the snare, which will result in a well-balanced sound while keeping things in phase.
The third method seeks to capture the entire drum kit with two overheads. Instead of aiming them at the symbols, you want each mic to capture one side of the kit — the left and the right — as if you were looking down at the kit from above and capturing each half with an ear. Again, it’s important these mics are equidistant from the snare drum, even if that means moving the snare-side mic further away to achieve this.
Drum Room Mics
Drum room microphones are most effective in larger rooms. Using these in rooms smaller than 10’x10’ or 10’x12’ will cause standing reflections, meaning the drum sounds will bounce around the room, resulting in a lot of frequencies cancelling each other out.
If you do want to use room mics in a smaller room, you can point them away from the drum kit and put up an artificial wall or baffle to manage the reflections. Or, you can try putting the microphones in a different room adjacent to the room the drums are in while keeping the doors open.
Now, sometimes you may want to use room reflections to your advantage to create a particular sound. By moving the room mics close to a wall and turning them away from the kit, you can intentionally capture those early reflections as sounds bounce off the wall. This gives a very garage rock or punk rock sound, and with heavy compression, those mics might be considered crush mics.
Though, the standard approach is to go for that typical big room sound. To achieve this, move the room microphones as far away from the drums as possible but keep them aimed at the kit. In the mix, these will blend with the other microphones to give a larger sense of space. The bigger the room, the better this works.
Best Drum Room Mics
For drum room microphones, we recommend the Coles 4038 ribbon mic for a darker sound with more grit or the AKG C451 pencil condenser with omni capsules for a hyper-realistic recording that will sound much like standing in the room itself.
Any other pair of stereo condenser mics could be good alternatives. Ideally, you want something bright with balanced highs and lows. And while you can alter the sound later with effects or EQ, as a general rule, you should start with something natural and clear to open up more options.
TL;DR
When miking your drum kit, the best approach is to start simple. We recommend starting with two overhead mics and then adding more as required, depending on the sound you’re trying to achieve. This will help avoid unwanted frequencies and phase issues from the onset.
Each component of the drum kit — the snare, kick drum, toms, cymbals, and hi-hat —all have different miking considerations to get the best overall sound. The required microphone set-up can change based on the room size, the genre of music being played, whether it’s a live or studio setting, and the overall sound you’re looking for. It’s important to understand a couple of different techniques for capturing each type of drum so you can make adjustments and capture that great drum sound that will set the rest of your track up for success.
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