I have roughly a quarter of my basement sectioned off for our rehearsal space. i know that ideally you want a big room so i was curious if anyone has tips to get the best tones out of the skins. should my choice for mics change? is there any sort of diy room treatment that will help? room or other mic placement? is there any type of kit that would sound better for my situation? im not talking about brands as much as i am wood choice and shell size and things of that nature. im not completely clueless on this matter but any tips or knowledge people can offer would be sweet...

cheers
justin








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"And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell." www.soisthetongue.com

eh, small rooms can reflect in weird ways. you'll probably want things a little deader than you would in a bigger room. odd overtones can get reinforced by acoustically strange small spaces. you may have to negate some weird sound reflection by attaching foam or something like that to parts of the wall, but that's not a hard and fast rule. I generally like a small room to be a bit deader tho.








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www.myspace.com/alanselectronicmuse

I track in a small room with "live" sound. I've found that mic' placement makes all the difference.








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Dr. Rodney McKay wrote:

Well, I only know one thing and that is that flying darkness that eats energy can only be very, very bad.

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you dont want to set up parallel to any walls, set your kit up at an angle in the room and the sound waves wont bounce off the walls at right angles directly back to the mics








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dw collector series maple
zildjian and saluda cymbals
dw and yamaha snares
dw hardware

are there any specific mics that excel small rooms? (besides ones that were better to begin with)








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"And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell." www.soisthetongue.com

Allen the Groove Masters got it right. I found the biggest issue was the over heads. (9 ft ceiling in my case). Just broke up the ceiling with some foam of different shapes and had to move them up and back with the gain on pre amps all the way down. OH's Rhodes NT5's, Tom's Audix D2's & D4's(floor's) Kick AKG D112 inside 6" from beater at 45% and Audix D-6 just inside hole at 45%, Snare Audix i5 top D1 on bottom and a SM 57 on HH. If ya wanted to know.
Self promo time, Check out my Drum Stick Grips at http://www.youtube.com/drummerjimi
http://drumstickgrips.com/
Drum On JimiT

My (Whatever and Genesis) recordings were done in a bedroom. That's where my equipment is set up.
It's pretty small but it will do. The Genesis was done before I got my own DAW, so it was my friend's stand-alone KORG. All drum mics fed into one track live. They were Audix Fusion mics with a Shure Unisphere for an Overhead.
The Whatever stuff was done with Audix Fusion mics on toms, an sm57(snare), and a Beta 52(kick).


I think a lot of the things that audio heads nit-pick about are things that the average person will never notice.
In my room, the floor has carpet, there are maybe 2 or 3 pieces of foam, and a blanket on one wall.
I think it's more important to achieve the sound you really want through tuning first , then proper mic placement, then ears and engineering ability...oh and playing ability and technique.

Other than those things, you should be able to get a pretty good sound, even in a small room.
For a sample, check out the "Whatever" and the "firth of fifth" My Space.
All done in a small bedroom.

Good Luck Feel free to ask me anything via PM.








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"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step" Lao Tsu
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