In order to successfully record a drum kit, there are a number of factors which need to be taken into consideration such

as, mic choice, mic placement, signal level, and overall mix. Starting with choosing the most suitable microphone with the correct frequency range for that piece of percussion. For example, in the studio, we used two Neumann KM184s for overheads to record the overall sound as they have a frequency range of 20 Hz - 20,000 Hz which is the approximate frequency range the human ear can hear. This is perfect for overheads as this is the desired affect, to record the overall sound that an audience would hear when listening to a kit played. The next part is mic position. There are numerous ways of places overheads but we placed them in XY position, meaning they 90 angle picking up the entirety of the sound produced as they do not point towards the floor. Next to check was the signal level making sure that it was not peaking and that, in this case with the overheads, they were at the same level so the right one was not exceeding the left in signal level. With other pieces of drum kit, this wouldnt usually be the case as each other piece is commonly single miced. Once all of the kit is miced up, the next step is to have the musician play the kit in order to get a good mix with nothing overpowering and each part sitting nicely with each other. This is the desk mix. Some other processes which are possible is to EQ the drum kit. This can be done before recording, or after recording but once recorded in cannot be taken away. Also, using Logic or the outboard equipment, we can add reverb, delay and other effects onto each drum. Depending on if these effects are needed for the other musicians to play their part, it wouldnt be completely necessary to add these before recording as they can always be added during the complete mix down and master process of the drums. Noise gates are also a common thing to add when recording drums for pieces such as toms which have high resonance. The gate will cut off any ringing out which can be an unpleasant sound in the background. Once our drums were recorded and at a high quality, we bounced it from the desk to the patch bay in order for us to use the Joe Meek Compressor and recorded it back into Logic as a compressed piece of audio. The final process of recording the drum kit is adding any effects, EQing each piece of kit to your own preferred sound and making sure it is all in time. We spent a lot of time EQing each drum which transformed the sound completely. In another recording, we used Audio to Score which converts the audio to a MIDI project. We then set a constant velocity across the

Drum Kit Recor!ng Process

recording of each drum. This isnt always necessary as sometimes ghost notes are played within drumming and could lose its feel by eliminating these. Once each drum is EQd and has all the desired effects on, we did one last final check to make sure it is all mixed well and each part can be heard but is not overpowering over the rest of the parts.