Best mic and techniques for large "epic" drums sampling

[gsilbers]

Appreciate you are talking about recording percussion instruments rather than sfx, but apart from using a sledge hammer & large wooden mallet I've recently been recording some props using a set of PolyEnd PercPro robot beaters - most recently with an old metal cabinet - who knew playing triplets at 900bpm would sound like a diesel engine!!

Highly reccomend the Sennheiser MKH8020 mics (I'm using a pair inside the cabinet) as they go down to 10Hz and up to 60kHz... sound incredible when captured at high sample rate & pitched down...

Other techniques worth trying: using a high quality contact mic (reccomend Barcus Berry or Trance Audio) but instead of attaching it to the object being played, attach it to other large resonant objects (eg a tamtam or large gong) so that the gong acts as the microphone diaphragm (kudos to Aphex Twin for mentioning this technique) - so you don't touch the gong, it just resonates sympathetically...

Have also heard of an engineer who likes recording drums with a hydrophone in a bucket of water, but not sure about that - could be interesting for an unusual ambience, but I have yet to hear a hydrophone capable of capturing much bottom end....

cool!

do you get a lot ambient noise when recording like that?

 

[timprebble]

cool!

do you get a lot ambient noise when recording like that?

Of course its all relative and totally depends on the articulation
And as with all exterior field recording also the activity in the immediate area, the weather etc

Put your ear where the mic is, gain stage it for a hit with a sledge hammer & how much of the 'ambient noise' do you think you will hear? very little

Gain stage it for a gentle scrape or tap & the ambience will be more present.

In a situation like this I don't record when the general ambience is active (birds, wind, neighbours, traffic) and quiet articulations are done late at night.... Like any recording situation you make it work for you...

I will also do contact mic recordings with this prop, which is always fun as don't have to worry about 'ambient noise' at all



(sorry if I keep putting 'ambient noise' in quotes - i LOVE recording multi track ambiences, I do not consider them noise at all and are invaluable to film sound editors.... tomato/potato