How to record and mix a drumset with 2 microphones (with video sample)! PART 2/2

CLICK HERE FOR PART 1/2

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's article!

Last week we have seen how I have recorded a drumset using only two dynamic microphones, now we will take a look on the way I have processed the signal.
This time, with the exception of Jst Finality, I have fiddled only with the Presonus Studio One 3 bundled plugins, trying to achieve a mono drum sound with enough punch and separation to be understandable in a rock mix.

Starting with the KICK track,  I have opened as you can see some preset to see how they sounded, but eventually I have modified them all in order to fit them in my mix.
The first plugin of the chain was a Gate, to try to isolate the kick from the rest of the drumset.
The second plugin is a Compressor, with a quite strong setting in order to keep the sound stable and consistent.
The third plugin is a Peak Limiter, and I am using it to fatten the kick, make it sound more "round" and even more stable.
The fourth plugin is an Eq (in this case to be precise it's a channel strip in which I have deactivated the compression section), with whom I've tried to emphasize the attack of the kick while reducing the boominess.

Moving to the SNARE track, which actually can be more considered the "rest of the drumset" track, I obviously have not used a gate, because I needed all the drum parts together in this track.
The first plugin is a Compressor, set strong enough to make all the drum parts (even the farthest ones) be audible without compromising the sound of the snare, which is the closest drum part to the microphone.
The second plugin is an Eq (actually also in this case a channel strip with the compressor section deactivated) with a boost in the high area to help the cymbals and the "air" of the snare to come through.
The third plugin is a Peak Limiter, to help furthermore the less audible drum parts to be heard and to add some fatness to the general sound.
The last plugin is a Reverb, just to add a pinch of space to the whole track.

As you can see the plugins are more or less the same for both tracks, it's the way I have used them that is quite different, since they needed totally different tweakings to obtain totally different results, but I think it's an interesting example of how just basic tools like Eq and Compression can help us in solving the tone problems of raw tracks and turn them into a more coherent mix.

Here you can here the result of this rehearsal (it's 2 guitar tracks, the drumset and some keyboard track), let us know in the comments section what you think about our method of recording and mixing a drumset with just 2 dynamic microphones!

CLICK HERE FOR PART 1/2


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