Rich Aquilone - Miking Your Drum Set

1. Miking Your Drum Set

2. Before You Place Your
Microphones
• Listen to the whole kit & identify strengths & weaknesses
• Locate the best place in your space for the drums’ sound
• Install new drum heads & use new drumsticks
• Tune your drums-properly & with care
• Choose mics wisely, ones that are suited to parts of the kit

3. Kick & Snare: The Heart
• Place the mic 20-70 degrees against the drum head
• Avoid placing it too close to the head
• Place to reject phase/bleed as needed
• Mic bottom snares about 2 inches away
• Phase invert your bottom mic!
Snare Drum

4. Kick & Snare: The Heart
• Dampen the inside of the kick to avoid resonating overtones
• Miking Inside: Place mic 2-12 inches from batter head, off-center
a bit
• Dampen batter head as necessary
• Miking Outside: Place mic 6-36 inches from outer head, off-
center
• Use a pop filter as needed & listen for phase issues if using 2
mics
Kick Drum

5. Tom-Toms: The Notes
• Get all toms in tune with each other (typically 3rd notes)
• Dampen toms as needed, bottoms & tops; listen for bad
resonance
• Top: Place mic 1-6 inches from top head, at 10-90 degrees
• Bottom: Same as Top; or, remove bottom head, place 1-10”
away
• Reverse phase of Bottom mics
Toms

6. Overheads/Ambients: The
Detail
• Honor the 3:1 rule to maintain phase coherency
• Place mics out of drummer’s stick reach (drummers standing
height)
• Keep mics equidistant from both snare & kick if possible
• Ambient: Listen for reflections at where you place the mics
• Honor the 3:1 rule to maintain phase coherency (Seriously)
Overheads

7. Remember:
• Honor the 3:1 rule to maintain phase coherency!
• Choose microphones that are right for the job
• Make the kit sound as good as possible before you mic it
• Record in the best treated, desired acoustic environment
• Experiment & have fun!