There is a really cool and easy way to get good overhead drum sounds in phase at home called the Recorderman technique. It's not the same as the 3:1 rule, but it works well and is super easy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiFOD1EeKhQ
Another great technique for adding ambience to drums recorded in small spaces is to use a very short delay on the room/ambient mics. We're talking <20 milliseconds - just enough to get the ambient mics out of the range where they're affecting the sound quality or localization of the close mics (the Haas effect). You want the listener to perceive these ambient mics as ambience, not direct sound. You can also try putting your ambient mics on the floor (or ceiling). By doing this, you're taking advantage of the fact that placing a microphone directly on a large planar boundary reduces the phase cancellation coming from reflections off that boundary to nearly zero. A good friend of mine also introduced me to the "point an SM58 at a soft wall surface and away from the sound source" method. And it works a lot better than I ever would have imagined. It's not high fidelity but gives you a signal that blends well with direct mics. Good luck, folks.
Ah, home drum recording. A biatch to pull off and make them sound good. Phasing does seem to have a mind of its own.
I think it's all so much trial and error / trial vs. error.
Good words here.
Posted by
Tech Man Tim on October 30, 2008 at 8:25 PM
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