! Instrument Guide - Drums

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1 Intro to Drums Drums can seem a complex instrument at first due to the variety of different types and components. A typical drum kit is made up of three types of components: drums, cymbals, and hardware. Hardware refers to the variety of stands, pedals, and other apparatus that are used to setup the drum kit and hold things in place. Drums and Cymbals are fairly self explanatory, although, they do come in several varieties. The photo below displays the setup and configuration of a typical NP drum kit. Note the different types of drums and cymbals and their locations. Bass Drum - The bass drum is typically the largest drum in the kit and produces the lowest notes and tones. It is often referred to as the kick drum or simply kick because it is played by the drummer pressing his foot down on the kick pedal which in turn kicks the drum. Snare Drum - Often referred to simply as the snare, the snare drum is a drum with strands of snares typically made of metal wire stretched across the bottom drum head. Tom-Tom - A drum with no snare. Often referred to as simply a tom. Toms are sometimes numbered typically from the drummers left. They might also be referred to as a rack tom for toms mounted in a rack or above the kick drum. Floor tom(s) refer to toms typically free standing on the floor. Floor toms tend to be larger and lower in pitch than the rack toms. Hi-Hat Cymbal - The hi-hat cymbal (hi-hat or simply hat) is made up of two cymbals mounted on a stand. The drummer uses a pedal to open and close the hat. The hat is typically placed next to the snare drum.

2 Crash Cymbal - Crashes are typically larger cymbals that produce a crash and are used for accents. Smaller splash cymbals are also sometimes used for similar purposes. Most drummers will use at least two crashes, but some will add more along with splash cymbals. Ride Cymbal - The Ride is typically used as an alternative to the hi-hat cymbal, however, it can also be used almost as a crash cymbal. The Ride is typically a larger and heavier cymbal placed on the opposite side of the drum kit from the hi-hat between the rack toms and floor tom(s). Micʼing Drums General Notes Due to the directional nature and close proximity of the microphones we use on drums, mic position plays a critical role in the sound of the drums in a mix. While the directionality of the mics gives us the ability to target different areas of drums to achieve a certain sound, space limitations can often force us to position microphones in less than ideal locations where there can be compromises to the sound. There are a couple of general things to keep in mind when positioning drum mics to maximize any necessary compromises. Aiming the microphone more towards the center of the drum will typically increase the amount of attack while aiming more off-axis towards the outside of the drum will increase the amount of tone. A good rule of thumb is to split the difference to start and aim somewhere between the center and outside of the drum typically cheating more towards the center. The height and angle of our microphone will also influence the sound. A mic positioned higher and aimed down will typically give us more of the natural drum sound. Lowering the microphone closer to the rim can give us a thicker, beefier sound which can be desirable on some drums. More Natural / Thinner Thicker / More Ring

3 Bass or Kick Drum NP Preferred Microphones: Sennheiser e901, Sennheiser e902, Shure Beta91, EV RE320 Alternate Microphones: Audio-Technica AE2500, Shure Beta52, Audix D6, EV RE20, AKG D112 Common Generic Microphone Type: Dynamic sometimes mixed with condenser The Two Microphone Approach We typically use a combination of two different microphones in the bass drum for a couple of reasons. Each of the preferred microphones, while strong as an individual mic, have sonic characteristics they perform better at than the other microphone. When using two mics, each mic input is fine-tuned for that micʼs particular specialty which gives us finer control on using the faders to tailor our bass drum sound. Additionally, using two microphones provides us a backup in case one of the microphones fails. In the case of our kick drum microphones, we typically use a condenser (Shure Beta 91 or Sennheiser e901) to capture more of the attack and point of the kick while our dynamic mic (Sennheiser e902) provides the thump and body of the kick drum.! Preferred placement of the condenser (e901/beta 91) is on a pillow, close to the resonator head of the drum, facing the beater. If the condenser gets too close to the beater head, it can get too clicky. The 902 should be mounted on a stand, approximately 1/2 way to 2/3 in, off axis, facing the beater. Moving the mic closer to the beater head can provide a tighter sound, but it can also reduce the low end thump. Pulling the mic closer to the resonator(front) head can provide more low end, however it can also become boomy. Pillow B91/e901 e902!!! mounted on a stand, Recently, we have been using an EV RE-320 instead of the 902. The 320 should be on axis, facing the beater head. The front of the capsule should be positioned just inside the hole. In general, pushing the mic further inside will provide a tighter sound with more attack, while pulling it further out will give it a boomier and lower/deeper sound. Weʼve found that leaving roughly 4-5 vent holes outside the hole on the house kick drums provides a nice balance.

4 Snare Drum NP Preferred Microphones: Shure Beta 57, Shure SM57 Alternate Microphones: Sennheiser e905, Heil PR 20/22, Audix i5, Audix ADX51, Shure SM 81 Common Generic Microphone Type: Dynamic The Two Microphone Approach Much like the kick drum, we typically use two microphones on the snare drum, however, in the case of the snare drum the microphones might be the same type and are used to capture different aspects of the drums. Our top snare microphone is our main snare microphone and provides the bulk of our snare sound. The bottom snare microphone can give us more of an additional texture and provides more detailed rattling of the snares, additional crack, and a backup should the top snare mic fail. The snare drum, like all drums, is very sensitive to microphone placement. Typical starting position for micʼing the snare is to place the top microphone just over the edge of the snare aimed towards the center of the snare drum. The mic capsule should be approximately two fingers above the rim of the snare at a minimum. If the snare has too much crack, the mic may be angled more off-axis to increase the amount of body. The bottom mic should be placed below the snare aimed up at the snares. If the bottom mic is kept at a 90 angle from the top mic, phasing issues between the two microphones may be minimized. Input polarity, however, should always be checked on the bottom mic when mixing it with the top snare mic.

5 Tom-Tomʼs NP Preferred Microphones: Sennheiser e904, Sennheiser MD-421 II, Heil PR 30/31 Alternate Microphones: Shure Beta 98, Sennheiser e604, Beyerdynamic Opus 88 Common Generic Microphone Type: Dynamic Tom mics are typically placed above the tom and aimed slightly off-axis from the center of the drum in order to capture more of the drumʼs tone. If more attack is needed, the mic may be aimed more towards the center of the drum where the drummer strikes the drum. A good trick to getting the placement of the tom mic right is to use the Hairs on the Back of Your Hand Trick. Cup the mic element in your hand with the back of your hand facing the drum. Have the drummer play or strike the drum yourself with a stick while moving the microphone to the place where you feel the hairs on the back of your hand vibrating the most. This is typically the position where there is maximum harmonic content of the drum. Then eyeball the aim a bit to get the desired amount of attack. 90% of the time this will be the best place to position the microphone. Hi-Hat Cymbal NP Preferred Microphones: Shure SM 81, Audix ADX51, Sennheiser e914 Alternate Microphones: Shure KSM137, Neumann KM84, AKG 451, Heil PR 31 Common Generic Microphone Type: Pencil Condenser The mic should be placed 6-8 above the top cymbal aimed towards where the drummer strikes the cymbal. This way we can get enough isolation while still allowing room for the hats to slosh. If the mic sounds like it is being blown into when the drummer works the hi-hat pedal, the mic is too close. Note about cymbals. Changing the angle of cymbal mics will also affect the tone of the cymbals. Cymbals tend to radiate even harmonics vertically and odd harmonics along the plane of the cymbal. A lower mic position that is closer to the plane of the cymbals will be brighter, but thinner sounding. Moving the mic higher and rotating the mic more perpendicular to the cymbals can result in fuller/rounder, less bright and brittle cymbals.

6 Crash Cymbals NP Preferred Microphones: Heil PR 30, Shure KSM44/32, Rode NT4 Alternate Microphones: AKG 451, AKG C414, Shure SM81 Common Generic Microphone Type: Large or Small(Pencil) diaphragm Condenser Crash cymbals are typically captured using overhead mics. There are a couple of different approaches to overhead micʼing. The traditional live sound approach is to use overhead mics essentially as close mics for cymbals. This is the most common approach. Each microphone should be placed above each cymbal. Lower mics will provide more isolated cymbals while higher positions will let in more of the overall kit sound. The second approach is more common for recording and positions the microphones to capture the entire kit sound. The microphones should be placed above the kit either spread evenly across the kit or in an XY position centered over the kit. This approach can sometimes work well with more eclectic musical styles where a more open and natural drum sound is desired in lieu of punchy, in-your-face rock drums, although, it can also be successful there depending on the drummerʼs style of playing. Ride Cymbal NP Preferred Microphones: Shure SM81, Audix ADX51 Alternate Microphones: Shure KSM137, Sennheiser e914, AKG 451 Common Generic Microphone: Small(pencil) diaphragm Condenser The mic should be placed above the cymbal typically from the front(audience) side of the drum kit. The mic should then be aimed towards where the drummer will strike the cymbal. Alternately the mic may be placed underneath the cymbal aimed up towards the bell. Drummers may use a variety of techniques when playing the ride cymbal from crashing it to pinging it. The mic position should be tweaked to maximize what is not already being picked up by the overhead microphones.

7 A Note About Drum Triggers Each tom at North Point has a drum trigger attached. The purpose of the triggers is to use them as a key for the sidechain in noise gates or expanders employed on the console inputs for the toms. Sidechaining, or keying, equipment can be a powerful concept to understand. While most dynamic processing gearʼs operation is based on the signal it is processing, using a sidechain is a way of using an alternate signal to make the processor work. That alternate signal is often referred to as the key and is sometimes depicted on equipment as an actual key. Utilizing a trigger in lieu of the microphone makes the gates more responsive to tom hits and less responsive to ambient noise (cymbals, other drums, etc.). This allows the mix engineer to use lower thresholds on his gate/ expander which can help clean up the mic inputs and capture a greater dynamic range on the toms.