(I apologize for the long post. I did not have time to write a short
one.)

I've been using my home studio for vocals for a few years, and I'm about
to take the leap to drums next week; I'm re-recording a song for a
blues-rock band, and during our basics session yesterday we utterly
failed to capture the drums. The original demo is at
http://www.jay.fm/files/projects/voodoo-man-better.mp3. In other
words, my great selection of LDCs has just become useless.

The drummer has a four-piece kit with hi-hat, crash and ride. I don't
recall the sizes, but the snare is a metal shell and looked to be 8",
and was the most problematic. He plays his cymbals VERY close in -
whack the crash hard and it just might hit the rack tom. Needless to
say, this caused all sorts of leakage issues on the snare and tom mics.

I figure on a beta 57 and/or SM57 for the snare. The engineer had tried
a beta87a (a vocal mic, to me!), and it sounded awful; we ended up
trying both an MD421 and a SM57 in multiple top positions but never
quite got the right sound - no air. I think that's gotta be a position
problem, though.

For the kick, we tried a Beta 52 and a D112 on the kick, and I liked the
D112, so unless someone has a strong "like-that-but-better" suggestion
I'll pick one up. I also just picked up an RE20 that I could use for
inside-kick or floor tom.

For overheads, I'll probably put up my 414-XLII's and the engineer's
Earthworks SROs (TC20Ks) and see which one works for this room. (TC30s,
4051s, and 4011s are the go-to overheads at Berklee.)

Hi-hat's a bit tougher. We tried my SM81 but the hat just sounded
cheap. The drummer goes from tip-of-the-stick in the verse to edge-
smashing in the chorus. Suggestions there? C451B? The hat's gotta
cut.

Toms: MD421s are the obvious choice, but we used them and they just
didn't sound good. Too washed-out. That obviously could be position,
but it could also be the close-in cymbals and the wide pattern. I've
seen recommendations here for 441s, and Scott put in the word a few
months back for the EV 468... without auditioning these each on a kit
(which I don't own), I'm not really sure of the best way to choose
between. Vocal mics I can sing into and get SOME idea of how they'll
sound.

Also, at Berklee, our mic lockers are heavily biased toward Sennheiser
MD's, some EV, and the usual SM57s. I've never heard any of the Audix,
or most of the AT line (which I can't keep straight in my head anyway),
or any of the Neumann small condensors (which apparently most people
don't like the modern versions of), or Beyers, or or the rest of the
Sennheisers, or, or, etc. So we fall into habits.

Thoughts, suggestions? I need to record this weekend, so it'll probably
have to be currently-made gear unless I get lucky on an eBay buy-it-now.

--
Jay Levitt |
Wellesley, MA | I feel calm. I feel ready. I can only
Faster: jay at jay dot fm | conclude that's because I don't have a
http://www.jay.fm | full grasp of the situation. - Mark Adler