In article , "Ron(UK)" wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 03 Jan 2008 09:51:23 -0800, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

Meat Plow hath wroth:

Not miking the bass drum wouldn't have cut it in any band I've been in.
Minimally we used 3, one overhead, one more near the snare and hi-hats,
and one on the bass.
Yep, and for a good reason. The drum set covers a wide frequency
range. Bass drum is mostly at the low end of the audio spectrum,
while all the brass is near the high end. The problem is that the
lower frequency stuff is almost isotropic (radiates equally in all
directions), while the high frequency stuff is fairly directional. For
example, the snake and hat tend to radiate more up and downward than
toward the audience. The result is that the drums sound different
depending on where you stand or sit. I've been told the drums sound
totally different to the drummer and audience.

My experience is with mixing post production mixing back in the late
1960's. If any group dragged in a tape with only one track for the
drums, they would be asked to re-record with 3 mics. I can clean up
the usual mess (pedal clank, stick click, etc) with noise gates and
such, but it's so much easier if the individual instruments were
recorded with a close mic (so as not to pickup sounds from other
instruments). It's a real art doing that correctly with a drum set
and really messy with an orchestra. You've only to compare a raw,
single mic/stereo recording in a concert hall, with the same concert
properly mixed in a studio.

I've had similar experience but in a modern digital studio. One trick I've
used is to soft gate the bass guitar track attack on the bass drum to
tighten up the rhythm. Being both a drummer and bass player I understand
just how closely knit the two need to be. I love to here a band where
those two really click.


I've just got one of those Klark Technik SQ1 Dynamic 8 channel
gate/compressors, I haven't had much time to play with it, but that`s
one of the clever tricks that it`s ideal for.

My brother found two compressors he junked picked, asked if I could look at them.
He said I could do what I wanted. After finding out they were vintage in high
demand, I tuned them up and go tabout $1200 for them on Ebay. Just mono compressors
that seemed to be liked for doing drums. That was fun. I split with my brother.

greg