Recording Drums From Home for Under $1000!

I tasked myself with the challenge of recording and mixing my drums with a setup that costs under $1000. You'll watch me in all of my "umms" and "uhhs" as I navigate this event in it's drawn out glory. Feel free to drop a question or comment. Please be gentle....thanks.
To hire me to play on your records, visit www.kylewmay.com. Or if you want to purchase my samples, visit www.kylewmay.com. it's all there. cool.
If you like what you see and want to donate to support the channel, click the link below!
paypal.me/KyleWMay
00:00 Intro
00:21 Overview
01:11 Gear
02:22 Starting The Session
03:02 Gain Staging
04:19 Phasing
05:19 House Keeping
06:31 Disclaimer
6:55 Hearing Drums For The First Time
7:34 Kick EQ
9:11 Snare Top EQ
9:56 Snare Btm EQ
11:02 Hi Hat EQ
12:01 Rack Tom EQ
12:47 Floor Tom EQ
13:30 Overheads EQ
14:37 Listen down of EQ treatment
15:00 Revisit Kick EQ
15:37 Kick Compression
16:23 Snare Bus Compression
17:13 Tom Compression
18:53 Overhead Compression
20:19 Drum Bus Compression
21:46 Parallel Bus Compression
23:32 Weird Harmonic
26:09 Add in Music
27:13 Reverb
29:13 Still Hate The Kick
31:12 Context
32:04 Mix Bus Compression
33:01 Compare to Pro Gear Session
36:31 Combination Mix
My favorite monitors
www.zzounds.com/a--3986402/it...
My favorite channel strip
www.zzounds.com/a--3986402/it...
My favorite budget drum kit
www.zzounds.com/a--3986402/it...
My favorite budget small diaphragm condenser microphone
www.zzounds.com/a--3986402/it...
My favorite preamps
www.zzounds.com/a--3986402/it...
My favorite snare drum compressor
www.zzounds.com/a--3986402/it...
My favorite XLR cable
www.zzounds.com/a--3986402/it...
My favorite budget interface
www.zzounds.com/a--3986402/it...
My favorite DAW
www.zzounds.com/a--3986402/it...
My favorite soft synths
www.zzounds.com/a--3986402/it...
My favorite drumheads
www.zzounds.com/a--3986402/ca...
My favorite drumsticks
www.zzounds.com/a--3986402/ca...
My favorite cymbals
www.meinlcymbals.com

[@montearnstam6827]

If you press shift+control and click the Q it will solo the frequencies 💁‍♀

[@kylewmay]

MY HERO!!! Wow. Thank you.

[@montearnstam6827]

@@kylewmay sick right?

[@BenjaminGib]

Thank you for going through this process!

[@joev180]

Great video, really appreciate seeing your approach. Thank you.

[@samellis9626]

Would love some more content like this... especially with your actual gear you use, diving in to the mix section you did for this.

[@Stas091]

Hey man, thank you for your time and knowledge that you share with us! Really appreciate it!

[@chrisstanleydrums]

Really enjoyed watching this man!

[@kylekrysadrums]

Love you vids, Kyle. I keep coming back to them to reference my drum sounds against to see if i'm on the right track!

[@DRUMAWAYEMAN]

Love this man!!!❤

[@gooderdrums]

Informative and awesome!

[@GearAddict]

so ive watched this video 5 times already and keep picking up little tid bits here and there. Thanks so much for making this video! stealing that track setup as well :D

[@iengineer_247]

This was dope and clean!!!

[@danepaulstewart8464]

Nicely done!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[@andrewwarrendrums8969]

What a great video! Thanks for sharing Kyle!

[@kylewmay]

Thank you for watching!!

[@OffShiftProductions]

Great video. Picked up a lot of good tips watching this. I know they are a lot of work, but long form deep dives like this are awesome. Thanks!

[@MichaelOloyede]

Thank you Kyle for making this video. It really helps clear some doubts I have on my drum mixing skill. I love your playing, drum tuning, and mixing techniques 🙏🏾🙌🏾

[@88omarz]

learnt a bunch thanks, this was good, really good

[@chepad1]

My first drum recording was a single sm57 into a 4 track Tascam tape. We were pretty stoked. Then of course we eventually added a few more 57’s. Still have all those tapes in bag somewhere ….and the tascam! 😄

[@danepaulstewart8464]

Nice work tuning the snare ring to the song! 👍⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[@lucasvigo4815]

amazing! thanks dude

[@lapiezaestudio]

There is so much knowledge in this video!

[@ChrisPhillipsDrumLessons]

Love the work dude!

[@kylewmay]

Thanks so much!

[@jimbotski]

Nice work man

[@fremistudios]

You're the best Kyle, Cheers from Venezuela.! 🤓👏🏻

[@JeffyG]

Very good. Proof you can get reasonable results on a budget!

[@kiddynamite3931]

Really cool video, as a newb to recording drums to watch. I should have done my due diligence before purchasing my gear.

[@johnnyresistance]

really interesting, thank you! the room mics really beefed up that kick nicely.

[@BenjaminGib]

Dear Lord, yeah the kick and snare and rooms at the end are night and day 😱🙌🏼🙌🏼 And love the backing tracks, is that one of yours / some good nashville buddies?

[@bigkickleo]

Thanks for this video!!! GREATLY emphasizes how important CHOICES are with respect to processing, etc. Also: I wish you had swapped the V7 and V7x as the latter reproduces more low end (the instrument version, w/o the 'x' is the vocal version), by design - but cool stuff all around - just subscribed here and via email - cheers!! ****Have you interviewed w Blair Sinta or toured with Adam Masters yet?! Wanna see you there man!! 🤘🏻❤️

[@compucorder64]

Sounds great, nice tone, like off a nice old 70s vinyl record, which I always like. Similar setup here. Main interface is a Motu ultralite mk.V. But I use that Behringer for extra pres. For overheads, hats. Similar mics too, Beta52A on kick, SM57 snare top (no snare bottom). SM7b on hi-hat, though a 57 could do that. Audix D's on toms. Line Audio CM4 stereo pair on overheads. I use a couple of other things, but those would put it over budget: JZ Vintage 67 as room mic. GAP Pre73 for kick, Camden Cranborne EC1 pre for snare. Motu pres on tom pair. Want to get API pre pair for toms. And would like to upgrade to Audient ASP800, or better yet SSL Quad Pure Drive for better pres and ADC than the Behringer. Another affordable way of recording, if the room sounds good, and a more open sound works, is something like the 4-mic Recorderman technique. So, maybe a pair of Austrian Audio OC16 above and to the side, a Beta 52 on kick, SM57 on snare.

[@iiisaaciiiriv8981]

Great video. I totally understand where the youtubers are coming from but I don’t hear anyone talking about this. Because let’s be honest, you can’t get professional and studio quality drums under $1000 because you have to first include a great or even decent sounding drum kit (2000+ including good cymbals and hardware) then a great room, then a great/decent drummer. then good A-D conversion then comes mics and preamps and comps. You just cannot get that under $1000

[@kylewmay]

I agree! I'm operating under the assumption that the musician already owns a kit and a decent pair of headphones. In my experience, I didn't dive into recording until I had already owned a drum set for many years.

[@iiisaaciiiriv8981]

@@kylewmay i know but even then most people get like a pdp kit and some hardware and zildjian S series. all of the sudden they want to record and it doesn’t even sound close to your sound, although props to you by the way. But it would be nice to do a video of “Realistic pro recording on a budget” video if you partnered with sweetwater or one of their competitors it would be an amazing video

[@magicmark3309]

@@iiisaaciiiriv8981I’d say a good drummer, or more importantly, a really consistent “meat & potatoes, in the pocket, solid hitter” is huge! As far as the kit goes, the snare is by far the most important. Getting a nice black beauty type or something along those lines is key. With tons and kick you can probably get away with a lot, as long as the sizes are decent, and you put on good heads and know how to tune. I’d say I could find shells for $500 + $500 for the snare. Cymbals…you need good hats, so atleast $300-$400 starting, but maybe could find some good ones used around $200. Crash you could skimp a little as long as it’s not too harsh. $200-300 Ride you would want something nice. I found a super nice Dark K Custom 22” for $300 barely used…and those are like $500+ new. So probably $2,500 for cymbals + hardware is probably about right. For preamps and AD/DA. I’d totally go for an Apollo 8XP if I wanted to get the most for my money. $3,500 for 8 great preamps, AD/DA, routing, and you get some really great plugins plus Luna which is definitely a workable DAW. This is why it’s honestly best to just build up your gear over the years, and until then, just focus on a good interface, monitors, and a great vocal mic to record guitars, Bass, vocals, etc…then go to a nice studio to track drums. It totally just makes way more sense for people.

[@tomwaller2303]

Dang there is definitely a big difference but the drums themselves still sound amazing due the great source. Would love to see your approach to drum tuning as your drums always sound mint, with great sustain yet controlled.

[@NoeAnton]

I agree the drums sound fantastic by themselves

[@PeterFerguson9]

I mean your gear sounds so much better to me. It is really apparent! The cheaper stuff is workable, but geez. It is like the sun came out when you switch.

[@kylewmay]

Hahaha, thanks Peter!

[@DynamicRockers]

This sounds really good! Yeah, those small condenser microphones like the KM84 or CMC5 chinese copies are cheap and you can use them everywhere. They shine on snares and toms, you can have a pair for 100$ like your SE7. I don't know why but transient designers are always forgotten, If you're not looking for any particular tone given by compressors, just go for transient-shapers for every dynamic processing. 100% sure you'll get better results on attack and sustains control and it's not level dependent which is awesome. I always have them ON for kick, snare and toms. Nice video mate, just subscribed ;)

[@thorbjrnreppe7343]

Hey man! This might be the most useful video on drums I’ve seen on youtube! I use alot of the same gear, but I do add one mono room plus a stereo pair with som distance. That Beta52 is horrible. I think you’d have a better time with an e602 or Audix D6. Have you tried the akg p170’s? Currently using them for overheads, but might be looking to upgrade. Don’t have a high budget unfortunately.

[@JorgeCidMusic]

You have a killerrrr but super dirty studio my man haha

[@sham8723]

Enjoyed the video. How about a follow up with: An evaluation of the biggest (according to your ear) differences between the pro mics and the sub-$1K mics... ....and maybe a few mid-tier upgrades in price vs. performance increase order? Sometimes an extra 500 will take you a long way, and sometimes it's not worth messing with until you can afford [ price X ]. When evaluating gear, I like to try to think what is holding me back the most, i.e. my biggest "bottleneck" (acoustics, my playing, tuning, drum choice, my mixing, mics, pres, yada yada) and prioritize that. Right now, my drum room acoustics suck.... but when I get that handled, i'll be looking at a few mic upgrades.

[@Mr_Tummy]

Great video, huge thank you! I'd like to keep my mic count to 3 (e.g. Glyn Johns), could you recommend mics for this scenario?

[@travisraab]

entertaining

[@AdrianoBarbosaPezao]

Amazing video man! How can I contact you for editing, mix and mastering projects?

[@mehmetkarakose5363]

Great inspirational video.Can you do the same video with Logic stock plug ins?

[@hingeslevers]

The principles derived from this video transfer easily to every other daw

[@dandelay8377]

Hello fellow Lynx user!! Cheers!

[@mrshiney2]

Well.... i would argue that the converters were a huge difference. Kick did sound better on the 2nd mix. But I think the hats were too hot on both , I could not stop getting distracted by them

[@travisraab]

On laptop the biggest difference I hear is brightness and compression. its not enormous

[@trevorrhoades7006]

When You called the kick “poop city”

[@JulianFernandez]

Pro gear session take was quantized? Feels different besides the audio quality...

[@Nscalescenic]

I have a model 12 will external pres sound good with it

[@JulianFernandez]

Cool! What about cheap mics with expensive preamps?! :D

[@tarkett8529]

Waste of money, clean preamps and better mics any day of the week.

[@mostyles328]

SMH, Behringer suprises us again!

[@magneticpitch]

how much was the drum kit?!

[@simonaustin1136]

Great video but minus a thousand points for EQ’ing in solo

[@hingeslevers]

If it works for him and the end product sounds good, to each their own I guess

[@davidocamporodriguez5897]

conclusion... necesito invertir mas jajaj

[@sammcdouall4849]

Good video but it would have been better if you used Reaper.

[@kylewmay]

thanks! let me know when you make a video using Reaper and we can compare!

[@MrAdrianloera]

Out of phase but In polarity*

[@DjentyDjamie]

damn id have said the interface would be classed as something you'd already have. coz id personally buy a lewitt beatkit, a couple AKG c518s for toms, and a couple more mtp440s which are included in the lewitt beatkit. and this is all new to buy for around £870, a behringer UMC 1820 for £230, and ive seen a fair few c518s go for around £80 second hand, could also just go with some 2nd hand 57s, and be under with some money to spare. from a bit of looking around, i found a beatkit new for £429, some C518M's for £90 each, a couple lewitt MTP440's for £81 each, and a umc 1820 for £229, for a total of exactly £1000. this is the way id go, if i had a little more id go for the beatkit pro and an extra mtp440, which would put me over that £1000 mark before getting an interface. for £1500 budget, id do this, and swap the mtp440 on a hi hat for an sm7b, would be £13 over a £1500 budget. which tbh aint too bad, £229 for the behringer umc 1820, £945 for the beatkit pro, which has 3 of their "tom" mics, an mtp440, lct 140 pair and their dtp 640 rex, a dual capsule kick drum mic, id probably even drop out the hi hat mic in favour of both of the dtp640 capsules, whichd drop the budget down to under £1200