Miking drums?

[kr236rk]

Hi,

Have a lovely djembe drum, deep bass boomer (hard - not software).

What is the best way to mic her up please?

Thanks!

[jwarv]

This might help. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz6iMS42brc

[kr236rk]

That's really helpful, thanks

[aquataur]

I have investigated this subject quite deeply - from a technical side.

The signals produced by (hand) drums are very brief but extremely powerful. Although they may appear not very loud at average, the brief impulses are... Many microphones are instantly overloaded right at either the diaphragm side or on the head amp that sits right inside the mike.
Listen carefully for any signs of overload. You don´t want distortion there.

It also depends on your scenario. You would not use a large diaphragm studio microphone on stage. It would pick up too much background noise.
I have successfully used condensers on hand drums, with the above caveats applied.

Dynamic mics like the ubiquitous SM-57 are not used haphazardly in such situations. Those diaphragms are much more insensitive to peaks.

What the guy shows in the Video, namely using a second mic on the bottom, is quite common too.
I have used a pressure zone microphone (aka boundary mic) on a hard floor, which sounds quite good.

But "good" is relative. #1 you possibly introduce comb filtering effects, #2 my bougarabou drums are so powerful, that I rather need to tame them down by choking them than adding extra oomph, which you have to filter out lateron anyway.
Added mics also means potentially added noise besides meaning added complexion and effort.

Hope this helps.

[kr236rk]

Thanks.

I recorded the djembe when it first arrived, but due to over-enthusiasm, forgot to make any notes as to how I had recorded it. I notice that the bass sound should be better.

Intend to place a dynamic mic in the base. Above the head, I will position a MXL R144 ribbon microphone.

Cool because I will be able to utilise the Left & Right XLR channel-ins, on my interface, for recording both mics simultaneously.

The room mics used in the video gave me the impression of a very light reverb / echo effect.

[aquataur]

I forgot my endeavours to use piezo-foil elements to record hand drums. I liked the thought of having some built-in pickup that just needed to be connected via an XLR cable.

Surely there is a company that makes them (I forgot the name), and they surely have some guys who promote them and claim superiority.
I tried some from the local electronics part supplier, but whereever I stuck them (you mount them to a surface with something sticky, like putty), like near the throat or near the skin or on the skin) they sounded boxy, mid-rangey and peaky.

Well actually this is the sound you hear when you place your ear close to the throat, and this is not what you or your audience hears normally. Most of that tone is coming from the surface of the skin, embellished with some bass from the bottom.

Maybe such a recording would sit in the mix OK (with some heavy EQ), but I did not like it.

The advise the guy in the video gives for placing the top mic captures quite a bit of the whole drum. Experiment with distance and angle.
If you look at live videos, they use dynamic mics for the reasons explained earlier. In the studio,they use Neumann mics that can handle the transits ($$$).

[kr236rk]

Experimentation is the key, I think