This is how impressive drum recordings are possible!

Let‘s go straight to the point: An absolute low budget solution for recording acoustic instruments would be to simply use the computer, smartphone or tablet and press „Record“ in a corresponding app. This saves you a lot of effort and costs, because the internally built-in microphones and converters do all the work. It’s a fact that certain parts of large productions are actually created in this way. Lo-Fi is a popular “spice” for many producers, the contrast can make the song really exciting. So can we skip the rest of this special? No, because our goal is to record high quality percussive signals and to be able to process multiple tracks separately.

Audio interface with enough preamps

If you don‘t have one yet, you first need a suitable audio interface. When selecting the device, the general question arises as to how many microphones you would like to record at the same time. For a complete set of drums, we recommend models with at least four, or better still eight, built-in microphone preamps. Caution: Caution: Manufacturers often state the maximum number of possible channels in their product descriptions. However, we are interested in the actual XLR sockets for connecting microphones. However, if you are primarily interested in recording individual drum tracks, one or two free preamps are sufficient.

Let‘s start: The choice of microphones

In order to record snare drums and toms appropriately, dynamic instrument mics that can process high sound pressure levels (SPL: sound pressure level) have proven their worth. A classic here is certainly the Shure SM57, which has been used for this task by producers of all styles for several decades. However, almost all manufacturers offer alternatives that are just as suitable.

Bass drums: While snare drum and tom mics are usually versatile instrument mics that tend to have linear frequency responses, drummers and producers like to use transducers for bass drums that have been optimized by the manufacturer for this specific purpose. Models like the Sennheiser e902 or Audix D6 have frequency responses that have been reduced in the midrange frequencies, emphasizing the attack and low end of the drum and requiring less processing in the mix. Not absolutely necessary, but an often welcome addition to the regular bass drum mic are so-called subkick mics, which - placed in front of the bass drum‘s resonance head - capture the very low frequencies of the drum. Technically, these are polarized loudspeakers whose mass inertia suits the task. But vocal microphones are also often used in this position.

Overhead microphones

In many setups, the overhead