Miking Up a Drum Kit

When miking up a drum kit, there are plenty of different methods adopted by different artists/producers that work well for different genres. In this post I’ll go through the basics for microphone positioning and type for each individual part of the kit.

Kick

Brand of Microphone– AKG D112, Shure Beta52A, Audix D6

Positioning of Microphone– The microphone can be placed inside the sound hole of the kick drum, this will pick up the isolation, weight and definition.

If the kit has no sound hole, you can mic the drum from outside the sound hole, either using a dynamic mic or two out of phase mic’s, which will pick up the ambience of the kick; but lacking the attack of the kick.

Snare

Brand of Microphone– Shure SM57

Positioning of Microphone– With the snare, it’s usually best to use two microphones, one on top and one below the snare. Position the top mic over the edge of the rim and point the head down at the snare, and point the bottom mic up at the snare in the same fashion.

The mic should be placed fairly close to the snare, in order to pick up the attack and release sensibly.

Toms

Brand of Microphone– SM57, Sennheiser MD421, Electrovoice RE20

Positioning of Microphone- Although most engineers will choose not to mic up their toms, as the overheads pick them up well enough; there a few options. Using a clip on dynamic mic is usually suitable enough, as well as the options listed above.

Point it directly at the tom coming in from the side, and the lower you place it, the fuller and beefier the sound you’ll receive; this also eliminates the chance of spill from other pieces of the kit, which tends to happen with tom miking.

Hi-Hats

Brand of Microphone- Neumann KM184

Positioning of Microphone- A cardioid small diaphragm condenser best suits the hit hat, as it catches the top end extremely well, and eliminates the chance of spill for other pieces of the kit.

In terms of positioning its fairly simple, just place it above the hi-hat pointing diagonally down/across, roughly two to three inches away. Just be wary of not placing it too close to the hat, as when the drummer goes from a closed to an open hat, the crash can cause peaking.

Overheads

Brand of Microphone- Neumann KM184 pair, AKG C414 pair, Neumann U87 pair

Positioning of Microphone- With the OH’s, there is a variety of ways to mic them up, and not all of them include two paired microphones; for example room microphones or ambients. There are two standard options when miking up however, and that’s spaced miking and X/Y miking.

Always use two paired small or large diaphragm microphones with OH’s, and always keep them above the kit the same distance away to avoid phasing.

Spaced miking is the process of placing two mic’s on the left and right of the kit, capturing the stereo image of the sound; giving the drums a fuller perspective. However phasing issues can occur if the microphones are unevenly placed, or if levels aren’t right on the mixing desk.

X/Y miking eliminates this issue, by having both microphones in the centre of the kit, crossing each other to form an X or a Y. This eliminates phasing as you can be sure that the microphones are evenly places the same distance away from the kit; however you lose the tones of the cymbals and don’t get a fuller sound; such as the stereo sound that spaced miking gives off.