Record Powerful Drums with a Single SM57

[@Rompler_Rocco]

Steve Albini had one of the most subtly funny responses when asked about the SM57- "I never found much use for it myself, as a microphone"

[@sheanroche2548]

Nazi punks who don't like selling out usually punch out themselves. Albini is losing at poker in Satan's den now. He is probably finding more uses for microphones someplace-foreign. Nevertheless, id be an over-ideological punk burnout, too, if the only album I was known for was the one I worked on for some sissy who couldn't handle his dope.

[@sheanroche2548]

oh and fight club

[@AlecBoyd]

He also said he doesn’t worry whether the speaker is sucking or pushing in regards to polarity.

[@kimseniorb]

@@AlecBoydnothing wrong with that. just not the best way to put it but we all understand that he meant absolute polarity

[@anthonydallarosa8314]

@@kimseniorbprecisely

[@schance1666]

Love it, bud and sounds good. In the past when I only had 2 mic inputs I would place a sm57 on the snare, and a large diaphragm condenser a few feet in front of the drums, pointing at the kick, and about 2.5' off the ground. Then, I'd copy that track, and put basically a high-pass filter on one and a low-pass on the other, which effectively gave me cymbals on one and kick on the other. In addition to my snare mic, I had effectively 3 tracks and was able to get very usable drum sounds. You can also then copy (any of) those tracks and add a bit of stereo processing to get 'room mics'. I know - so ghetto - but you do what you gotta do!

[@elderchildren]

would you end up with phase issues?

[@glenesis]

Classic setup 🙌🤘👊

[@boobo3763]

What type of stereo processing are we taking about here?

[@shyanmahmoodi1746]

not ghetto, that’s efficient as hell dude !

[@schance1666]

@@glenesis heh, classic for some of us i'd guess! cheers

[@zephal]

The drums on Sarah Smile by Hall and Oates is a drumkit recorded with only SM57s. Not the biggest or a really flashy sound, but still nice and warm and fits the song beautifully.

[@jackburtoncantsavelopan]

I had no idea, they sound great!

[@chrissiemilnarskii]

I’m always amazed at just how impactful mic placement is, no matter how many of these examples you’ve shown. This is a super practical approach, I may try to be brave next time; ie. not just recording a bunch of spot mics just for the sake of it, but instead try to work from the overhead first. And then fill in anything that’s “missing” with additional mics.

[@paszTube]

Like you I've been recording for 20+ years, the "mic sucking" never occurred to me. Learned something today, thanks!

[@brooklynboy1000]

I used to jam with friends in a basement. I put the mic over a the drummer hanging from a pipe. Sounded very 1960s

[@Studio22mix]

Come on a mic cannot suck, people do but membranes don’t. This could only happen when the sound is coming from behind the mic. A speaker kan push or pull when the phase is connected wrong but a mic no way 😂

[@BadChizzle]

Glad to see you here more. Please continue.

[@andriskissproducer]

This is exactly why I spend a lot of time setting up any instrument then build around that setup with only a few mics.. You can get great sounds with very small setups. Good job on this one! Love the sound. It's my type of a drum sound.

[@jer0051]

I remember when I got my first portastudio I used a single mic pointing upwards in between the snare and the hi hat and the bass drum and it turned out pretty good for what it was.. this just brought back that memory..

[@Slugcoil]

Great video, I love these kind of experiments. I think it solidifies the notion that stereo rooms are SO important. Thanks!

[@adamwasthefirstman]

I just shared this with the folks I know who are starting to progress into actual recording and mixing territory. A perfect video about using limitations to your advantage as well as upgrades. Also, I've been pondering that same polarity question. I've watched a number of videos about it, as well as futzing with it, and have to say I think it's absolutely an improvement. Physics, huh?😂

[@clicks59]

Thanks Ryan. The SM57 is truly an amazing mic.

[@NEEDSHES]

Amazing technique! Thank you!

[@TheRealHucasys]

OMG... You're so right! I just realized how phase is time related and how it's not the same as polarity! Wow I saw a video months ago about recording drums with one mic from in front of them at a distance, will look for it. Thanks, this was awesome!

[@FalloFSilenceOfficial]

Very useful. Thank you. I had the same thought about phase on the mic 🎤 over the drum vs the kick and noticed Albini flipped polarity on the Kick and under the snare of bottom snare mic was used

[@wildamendez]

This is great thank you. I will use this one mic technique def in my studio 👍🎸🙏

[@BenjaminGib]

This is pure genius and very inspiring.

[@markelders5459]

Sometimes less is more, interesting. Glad to see you’re back.

[@theVomitorium]

This sounds great. Always love a minimal approach. Thank You.

[@BillGrishaw]

1 start w great sounding drums and drummer

[@thomasvasilarakos1450]

I have an EV 635a, dynamic omni... I'm going to try that out! I bet it will sound scrumptious! Tom Vasilarakos here at Northern Sound in Laporte, Indiana.

[@Andrew-xf3wb]

Where can i find that tree you have at the 16:36 time mark?

[@trafalgerdavis7839]

Not sure this would work on a Simon Phillips or Peart setup, but this was cool!! always great stuff.

[@Jgbaileymusic]

Great that you emphasise process over technology.

[@BIGpony777]

when i do this i put the mic directly above the snare pointing down- i have to move the cymbals and toms in weird spots but it sounds amazing before you even compress it

[@MythicResonance]

It may have already been mentioned, but a friend of mine who used to work with Death Cab in the early years confirmed my suspicions that the drums on that first record (Something About Airplanes) were recorded with a single SM57, or in some cases where there was room for another channel strip, they'd stick a second one on the kick drum.

[@chrisvanek7877]

Yesss!!! I love this type of stuff. I did something like that a few years ago and got a massive sound

[@miked5487]

oh man you havent been on my feed for ages! Great to see your videos again

[@creativesoundlab]

Hey, thanks!

[@Rocknrolldaddy81-xy8ur]

If you are limited in inputs…Radial has a box called Mix2-1, that lets you pair 2 mics into a single pre (no phantom power. Each mic gets a phase flip and depart input trim. I use a lot of stereo techniques, but summed to mono…you have to measure and get the phase right. RecorderMan in Mono sounds great, even with mismatched mics.

[@thomasowenmazzetti7877]

in a live setting in small rooms, i find one kick mic is enough, especially if there are vocals on drums, and a couple vocals up front that kind of act as room.

[@toniozi666]

that's very interesting, thank you for this video ! it would also be cool to hear the track in the full context of a mix. but great video, thank you !

[@realraven2000]

very good for those of us who don't have a ton of Hardware. would a pair of Rode m5 also work as from mics? I always used them for stereo AG recording but wonder if they were similar to the sm57 in regards of capturing room reflection like you showed. they have a lot of high detail I think

[@AnnaSibirskaja]

Lately, I use only one SM57 on an overhead boom, which covers the entire room. This way I can change the "mood" for each track, if I want it. It was a relief to get rid of cables, mike placements, phase problems, multi-track comping etc. I love simplicity. Reminds me of the late 1970s when I was hanging around at rock sessions in my uncle's garage: that's the way they did it back then.

[@Linqua2112]

This is great because it is cutting away barriers people have to making music. Interesting point about the polarity of the mic signal but im not sure i totally agree. Think of it like this: the waveform you show shows the first undulation going down but its not the first full undulation which is the second peak. Im not sure if its as important to capture the first peak going in the positive direction, but in the original polarity recording now you have a greater compression of the air from the lower/proto peak to the tip of the first full peak. That contrast may make the first full peak hit harder since its going from negative to full positive, and not zero to positive. You have double the speaker movement on the first full waveform if you dont flip the polarity, and you then emphasize it with a compressor. Im sure both scenarios would be useful depending on the situation but this is great as i dont always consider this orientation primarily recording guitars. Keep these kinds of experiments and thoughts coming!

[@SoundsToBlowYourMind]

That sounds great! I need to give this a try sometime. What about using a ribbon mic instead of a 57, would that help to get more low end ?

[@alanpassmore2574]

Superb presentation. Simple yet very effective in an overcomplicated world.

[@EricChesek]

Those room mics sound fantastic!

[@djentlover]

That room sounds amazing. I spent thousands to realize that it's not the mic, it's the room that needs to sound good

[@Thirsty_Deer_Studio]

Im all about simple mic setups on drums. I use 5 or 6 mics depending. The denser the mix gets, Ive found things get lost with fewer mics

[@electricwhiterabbit]

Great sound on this and I was just listening via my iPhone speakers. A good sounding room sure helps.

[@chinmeysway]

rad!! ins thing phase is related to polarity all the way as things lining up all on a down or up wave has to do w time of sound per distances. shifting a track of flipping polarity essentially gets you to the same effect of things sounding better aye

[@sammcdouall4849]

Great simple setup for the stereo room mics. For room mics I have got 2 cheap ribbons (superlux R102) for blumlein (mounted from behind) plus (+z) another mic pointing straight up for adding some high frequencies, like an x y z setup but with figure of 8.

[@monoswinger]

Hi, thank you for the vid. I actually own a mic like that, i am pretty curious, how the end result is effected by the room

[@steveparkins6854]

This is really excellent!

[@Rocknrolldaddy81-xy8ur]

Would love to see some videos showing how to get late 60s early 70s tones, but for guys like me in a basement with 2-4 inputs and midi vs orchestras. How can basement warriors sound like classics? Maybe even videos on how to listen to vintage recordings…how to match reverb & eq settings. My mixes get better every day, and I play pretty good…but can’t get my mixes to sound great like stuff from the 68-74 period. How can I learn to make good mixes?

[@Studio22mix]

Look for the Glenn Johns technique, also the kit you use is together with the mics and placement the biggest part of the sound 😊

[@allenleclerc7878]

Really solid drummer really helps the recording.

[@AndrewJohnClive]

Wow, I’d never considered microphone pressure waves before.👍🏽Excellent man.❤️

[@perpetualgrimace]

I've been mixing in an SM7 in that over the shoulder position and it's great! Good to know I could just throw up a 57 instead 😂

[@Rocknrolldaddy81-xy8ur]

For all close mics, you should look at them in the analyzer, and align them by eye. Make sure they cross zero (and are going in some direction) at same time. Distant mics can also be improved with phase…you won’t line up the front of the wave, but you can make sure the body of the close mics is in phase with the transient of the distant mics.

[@xavkoston16]

A friend of mine is a good FOH (worked with Red Fang, Radio Moscow, Thee Oh Sees, SLIFT...) and he use this technic when he has very limited number of input on the mix board. Sounds awesome !

[@javier.ignacioo]

wow, how does he deal with feedback?? and i dont think they use in ear monitors 😂

[@xavkoston16]

@@javier.ignacioo small clubs, rock n roll baby

[@javier.ignacioo]

@@xavkoston16 if you send me a video of your friend using this mic technique in a small club with monitors I’ll give you 10 bucks.

[@xavkoston16]

@@javier.ignacioo maybe i didn't mention the 57 was pointing at the snare, not exactly like this video

[@javier.ignacioo]

@@xavkoston16 was it 4ft away from the kit?

[@meekoloco]

Love this! Really gets the image of the kit as one instrument!

[@DWHarper62]

I've been using one decent SDC, sE SE7, strategically placed for live gigs. With a kick drum mic, it works beautifully...

[@onomatopoeidia]

I always hold the mic when finding the best position while drumming. It’s the only way to find the best spot. Repeat with each mic where possible. I agree with Steve Albini though, the 57 really has no business being anywhere near a nice kit haha

[@Sons_of_Nesreka]

Thanks this Video helped me to fix my decision - this is the tool that I need.

[@focusonjunta]

Very creative! You also gave an idea - use the holy grail electric guitar duo (R121 + SM57 both held with Royer’s purpose-built holder for these two) instead of just the SM57... The need for a plugin/separate low-end treatment could go away in theory at least, with not much to worry about in terms of phase between the two thanks to the perfectly aligned mic capsules.

[@stevenbatke2475]

I feel like we’ve lost the desire for interesting recordings, and replaced them with “professional” recordings.

[@bowel_movement]

Record drums using 12-15 mics, only to replace half the recorded sounds with preprocessed samples. That's the modern way.

[@DavidMorley]

A fantastic video. Will be trying this out for sure.

[@IsmaelMulti]

This is great! Thanks for sharing!

[@billypunos1]

My favorite thing about your channel is that you don’t have a cheesy intro. 😂

[@edmundleung2098]

Can you do a live band situation where you have drums, vox, guitar, bass and the band don't have headphone monitors and they only have an eight input interface.

[@AlexSzokolyai]

I love this video and thanks for sharing this technique with me and the internet. However, I’m not sure human hearing is sensitive to phase polarity. Polarity will obviously matter if it is shifted from identical source material, but if there’s only one recording of something, the polarity shouldn’t affect how we hear it. Whether pressure is starting as positive or negative doesn’t matter since it’s the time distance between the compression and rarefaction that give us frequency. Again, maybe this does matter though, when you put it in the context of a mix! So still a useful consideration and definitely applicable to multiple-source and multi-mic material!

[@JoeyDoyscher]

This ^

[@sheanroche2548]

shure sm57 and large diaphram condesor. No matter if its one, or two-placement always matters more, great video btw, boss.

[@Zack-Hates-Youtube]

What an interesting video. Based on the logic of the overheads wouldn't it follow that every single mic on a drum kit should be reverse polarity except the snare side mic?

[@Studio22mix]

Usually only the bottom snare mic, if you zoom in on the waveform of your recording you can see which mic is out of phase. Of course you can hear it when flipping the phase, it just sounds thinner or fuller.

[@Zack-Hates-Youtube]

@@Studio22mix yes I know.. did ya watch the whole video? He reversed the phase of the overheads because the sound is bouncing backwards off the heads to reach them. In theory all the mics on top of the drums should be reverse polarity then. I've never had any issues doing it the "normal way" but I may try this just to see what happens.

[@Studio22mix]

@@Zack-Hates-KZbin Think about it in a logical sense… the mic picks up a sound wave, the membrane will move a coil that generates a current that’s all. The membrane cannot ‘suck’ in the opposite direction and even if it did it wouldn’t matter. If you flip all the phases of all mics then you reverse the polarity of your sound wave. Check the waveform in your Daw, they should first go up and then go down not the other way around.

[@Zack-Hates-Youtube]

@@Studio22mix I completely agree I'm just talking about the results he got in the video when reversing the polarity.

[@Salantsoundstudios]

Great sounds ryan!

[@cliffprowse3341]

I think one of the most important parts of this video that isn’t talked about is the source. The drums are nicely tuned as well as being played well.

[@DennisAlvey]

Where you been????

[@fridaykr]

This is great and I will try it. The only issue I see is that I am not hearing much high hat, and because I play funk, that is a bit of an issue. But really helpful stuff.

[@astralaudio101]

Thank you and a very useful approach. 🙏

[@Tyl-Fiedler]

Great i will try it ❤ i always love the glued Sound then Having Just a couple mics 🥁😊

[@MrIantodd]

This is a great idea. Would it work if you made the single ‘57, two in an XY?

[@sdanis]

Awesome! Thank you for sharing.

[@CharLessMajor7Music]

What mic pres are you using? Do you use any cloud lifters on these mics?

[@creativesoundlab]

Direct into the Focusrite preamps. ISA

[@andresvelazquez2360]

Very interesting technique! Will definitely try it out :) What's your opinion of the Lewitt dynamic mic? Been eyeing it out for a while

[@creativesoundlab]

The dynamic mic is decent. But I love the 440 Pure condenser a lot.

[@Pavelkozhin]

Fucking insane! I must try this unbelievable room stereopair at recordings!

[@jozefkovac5507]

remote 'Wurst' microphone technique ? :D

[@thisismyaccounthandle]

Cool sound for a single SM57! However, the polarity thing doesn't matter at all - it's the same signal, you can't hear the polarity. What we hear are changes in pressure, so the direction of the signal is unimportant. Polarity can only become interesting if we have multi-mic setups, especially the classic snare top vs. snare bottom - here we then have two signals with opposite polarity, which will lead to some level of cancellation unless we flip the polarity of one of the two.

[@holdenm9361]

Hey this very helpful, but I have a question. I’ve heard that copying and pasting a track you’ve already recorded, onto a new empty track can cause phase issues or is just problematic in general. Is that true? If so, how were you able to avoid issues when copying the track you recorded with just the 57 onto the second track where you were using k10 plugin? Thank you!

[@holdenm9361]

Also how did you avoid phase issues between your over the shoulder 57 and the stereo room pair? Thanks

[@creativesoundlab]

Only if you shift the track in time. Otherwise two tracks together with sound 6dB louder. Phase issues with the room mic can happen, but usually if it’s 3x the instrument distance from the mic then it’s not a problem.

[@holdenm9361]

@@creativesoundlab thanks so much

[@GLDNSCTN]

Sweet! Thanks Man!

[@TheIllynow]

So, before processing, this is just a mono signal?

[@creativesoundlab]

Yep mono signal

[@stereointellect]

Love your channel dude

[@creativesoundlab]

I appreciate that!

[@BrockBarr]

Love this idea. You could have taken them EQ further though. Maybe add a parallel processed track.

[@gooshie3]

Amazing what can be done.

[@llRoBoBinHoll]

I think you can’t really judge a drum mix without the context of the other instrumentation. I think it sounds decent in isolation, but I’ve found using many mics will give you a way more firm base to lay other tracks over. Also I find the high end of the 57 not good enough for capturing cymbals.

[@mirkomarkovic3438]

That's 'cause the 57 is not a microphone

[@boobo3763]

As s mixer, it drives me nuts now to hear toms that should be moving left to right (or right to left) in the stereo field just playing on top of eachother in the middle.

[@BipTunia_Microtonal_Cats]

15:24 tl/dr: actual title should be "Record Powerful Drums with a Single SM57 and 3 Other Mics.

[@JanusJanavas]

I'll try it when I get a 1073 preamp. I saw another drummer do this, and it sounded good. Not as good as yours, but really, an SM 57 and a cool preamp are all that's needed. Thanks for the video.

[@7171jay]

@user. A cool preamp is the least important ingredient actually. The quality of the drummer, the kit, the room, and the tuning of the kit are most of the equation. The 57 is nice with a transformer micpre and a low impedance input like a Neve or API or clones of them but the difference between these and a basic interface micpreamp is really pretty subtle compared to all the other stuff.

[@JanusJanavas]

​@@7171jay I'm not convinced that a preamp makes little difference compared to "all the other stuff." I've heard records made on a big Neve console at a local studio, and they sound amazing. There's definitely some magic to the sound that's hard to describe.

[@jasonlee8497]

Great drum sounds depend so much on the drummer self mixing. Great drummers can keep time playing loud or quiet.

[@morbidmanmusic]

that is pretty obvious.

[@steveg219]

This is cool- thanks

[@arlandajim]

GREAT VIDEO

[@rayrecordings]

Sm57 is a monster. Acoustic guitar, vocals, drums… everything sounds rock n roll with it

[@anthonydallarosa8314]

Everything sounds like an sm57 with it and that’s okay 👍

[@Emily_M81]

why are we all stuck typing italics lol. When I was a kid, I mic'd a drum kit by hanging a dynamic mic from the upper toms rack lol. It actually sounded pretty good for a demo tape sort of thing as I recall. This was before all the processing plugins we have today.

[@enginkaplan2317]

That’s a good sounding room

[@anthonydallarosa8314]

That’s the key to success

[@gaz312]

Agree with record like you can’t mix. Have done some rough demos for song ideas that sounded great before EQ. Captured the performance and mainly did level balancing. Needs more than that for sure if I was something unplanned on releasing but it would need tweaking more than anything. But the good capture of a good sounding source was the foundation and best starting point.

[@ERMAV]

Every mic you add on a drum kit is more potential phase misalignment. Measuring is critical and always go with as few mics as possible. That’s my approach:)

[@rockboy360]

Steve Albini used to mic the beater side of the kick!

[@nissekram]

He's hardly the only one doing that 😉

[@creativesoundlab]

Thought of him actually

[@napkinshoplifta5163]

Sweet video

[@glenesis]

My drummer calls that position the "shoulder mic".

[@awienc]

I wish I was living in the States so I could record my albums with you 😩

[@JuanMotta]

Thanks!!!

[@marcobiccadrummer]

Look it up Blair Sinta and 21 drum sounds only using an SM57 ... incredible :) ...

[@scottregan]

That polarity switch idea for mics sucking air first seems so logical, but now I’m questioning everything lol.

[@jpeterso1977]

Electrons are negative. Tada. The “source” is the ground. Welcome to Oz.

[@Waiishe]

Sick

[@mikeroadblock]

Hell yeah!

[@BcBaxley]

Most Dope 😎🍻🤘

[@BcBaxley]

So, record like you cant mix, mix like you cant master Master Yoda type $hit 🤔