Engineering Drums Live: Part One

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Kit Parade
Published in SOS January 2014
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Technique : Live Sound

We asked some of the world's leading engineers how

they approach one of the most common yet complex
instruments on stage: the drum kit.

Jon Burton

A lthough the techniques for amplifying drums over a sound system are similar
to those that an engineer would use in the studio, there is one key difference: in
the studio, the engineer is trying to capture the sound of the kit (and often also the
environment it is being recorded in), whereas in a live situation, the drums are
being miked in order to reinforce their sound in the venue for the audience. The
key word here is 'reinforce'. The audience is in the same room as the drum kit,
and even in the largest venue they will be able to hear the drums acoustically to
some extent or another. The trick is to add enough amplified drums to the mix to
enhance the sound that is heard from the stage. Unlike in the studio, pulling the
microphone fader levels down won't make the drums disappear, and in some
cases it can make virtually no difference!
In a small venue, you only need to add a small amount of drums, if any, to the
system, as the kit can be clearly heard already often, it would help to be able to
do the opposite and reduce the level! As the venue gets larger, or the band get
louder, adding just a bit of kick drum can help underpin, and add a bit of weight to,
the overall sound. At what point you move from acoustic to amplified drums
depends on many factors: the nature of the music, the size of the venue and, in
some ways the most important factor, the type and size of PA system you have.
Most small modern systems, if they have a separate sub cabinet, can handle
a certain amount of drums, but the key is to not overdo things and thrash your
system, as that will always be detrimental to the overall sound.
For bigger shows, miking up all the drums will become more of a reality. How
many microphones you use is often constrained by the available channels on the
mixing desk, but for club shows it is not unreasonable to set aside five or six
channels for drums. A typical drum kit will have a kick drum, snare drum, a pair of
mounted tom-toms and a floor tom. Cymbals on a kit of this size would normally
include a pair of hi-hats, a ride cymbal and a pair of crash cymbals. A simple bit of
maths will tell you that we already have more elements in the kit than available
channels on the desk, and this is where the live engineer begins to compromise.
"But In the studio, I hear you say, "I can just put a couple of overheads over the
kit, a mic in the bass drum, and get a pretty good sound! This is where live
engineering begins to differ...
Spill & Bellyaches
A pair of overheads placed high enough to capture the entire kit will usually be
about four feet from the snare drum. However, on a small stage they will also be
only about six feet from the guitar amp, five feet from the bass and 10 feet from
the sound system. Due to the inability of microphones to know their intended
purpose, the drum overheads have now become stage overheads, and will be
happily picking up almost every other instrument alongside the drums. In some
situations this is fine if you have a reasonably quiet stage it can work well
but add a couple of Marshalls and you are on a slippery slope to audio hell.
Therefore, on most stages, live engineers will rely on close miking for almost
everything. Reducing spill helps tighten up the sound and preserve clarity. Placing
a microphone inside the bass drum, for example, will cut down spill from the other
drums, as well as give the beefy punch that will help underpin the sound. A mic on
the snare, another between the mounted toms and one on the floor tom will leave
you with a couple of spare channels for whatever other elements need it. And this
is where listening to the drummer play is important. I will quite often not bother
with a hi-hat mic if the drummer plays the hats hard, but will put a mic over the
ride cymbal to help reinforce that.

It is also important to point out that any other microphones you have on stage are
also going to be adding to your drum sound. Due to the pickup characteristics of
all microphones, some spill is inevitable. The vocal microphones at the front of the
stage, for example, will be picking up some of the sound from behind the vocalist,
which is usually where you will find the drummer. Microphone spill is also not
usually flat, and will instead be a toppy affair. The proximity effect that makes the
vocal sound so fat and warm will be missing in the same microphone when it is
picking up the drum kit from eight feet behind. Instead the mic will be producing
a thin, cymbal-heavy sound that is virtually inescapable. Even on the largest
stages this spill is always there to some extent. It was 'Big Mick' Hughes,
Metallica's engineer, who first taught me to start the drum soundcheck with the
vocal microphones on, as the sound from these will always add some treble to the
overall drum sound. Joe Harling, who has been touring with Lana Del Rey,
attests. "I had wanted to have a nice pair of high-up overheads, but the drummer
was right in front of a video screen, so visually this was not possible. To be honest
though, Lana's Neumann KMS105 vocal mic ended up also being the main
'overhead' mic!

So you can often get away without overheads, even on some large stages; it's
only where the on-stage volume is quite quiet that they begin to come into their
own. We'll discuss overheads in more detail later, but we'll start with the basics:
kick drums.

Can I Kick It?

Many microphones are popular for use on kick drums, and all have their fans. The
first microphones to win general favour in this position started as vocal mics. The
large-diaphragm AKG D12, introduced way back in 1953, was the first dynamic
microphone to have a cardioid pickup pattern. It also boasted a special 'bass
chamber' that boosted the low end between 60 and 120 Hz, adding fullness to
vocals and, happily for engineers, low end to kick drums. Another popular choice
is the Sennheiser MD421, which has found favour on kick drums for being robust
and able to handle high SPLs. That mic began to appear around the drum kit in
the late '60s and is still a favoured choice for drums despite being quite large and
difficult to position, and having a clip that seems designed to deposit the mic onto
the drum itself halfway through the drum solo.

The Americans were not to be out done by the Europeans, however, and the
Electro-Voice RE20 still commands many fans to this day. Developed primarily for
voice, it became the sound of US radio: smooth and deep with a closeness and
intimacy that makes vocals sound reassuring. It features an internal shockmount,
making it virtually free from vibration noise, and has a very smooth, predictable
low end. Apart from the price, its only drawback is its weight, giving it a tendency
to fall over if not mounted on a heavy enough stand.

All these mics have their fans, but these days we have a whole range of
microphones that have been designed especially for kick drums. The most
notable of the earlier designs was the AKG D112. This was an effort by AKG to
cash in on the popularity of the D12, and it was restyled into an egg shape, and
designed to have a more modern, percussive sound. This was popular for a while,
although it was never a favourite of mine.

The choice of kick mic can be a very personal thing, but even for the same
engineer the mic is liable to change from artist to artist. Alan 'Big Nobby'
Hopkinson, who has mixed FOH for Tool and Joan Armatrading, explains. "I've
been using the Heil PR48 recently, which is a big fat dynamic, for Tool's kick
drum. Danny Carey is a well-respected drummer, and has a pretty wild set of
tunings on his kit, but the PR48 has piles of low end and a bunch of crack if that's
what you're after! For System Of A Down [the kick mics are] an Audix D6 and
a Shure SM91, as it needs to fit in with their more straightforward punk style.

In recent years, many manufacturers have developed microphones capable of

withstanding the high-SPL and low-end requirements of the kick drum, and the
market is now awash with models. You can get a run down of some of the most
popular models in the September 2013 issue of SOS
(/sos/aug13/articles/spotlight-0813.htm).

One recent choice for bass drums has come from the studio world. Somebody
had the bright idea of using a bass driver from a Yamaha NS10 speaker, wired as
a microphone and placed in front of the bass drum. This captured the low end of
the drum extremely well and when mixed with a conventional microphone added
new depth to the sound. Yamaha now market this idea as the SubKick, and it is
appearing increasingly on many tours, looking strangely like somebody has
accidentally left a snare drum on stage beside the kick. Joe Harling has been
using one of these for Lana Del Ray's tour: "The kick drum was a combination of
a Sennheiser MD421 mounted inside the drum on a Kelly Shu [an internal drum-
mounting system] and the Yamaha SubKick outside, which works great as long as
the resonant skin is tuned really low. I was also using a trigger to key the gate on
the SubKick to keep it really in control. I have to say that this was my favourite
kick sound that I have ever achieved.
Kick Mic Positioning
As far as microphone positioning goes, the sound you are hoping to achieve is
going to dictate your choice. For a tight, punchy sound a microphone inside the
bass drum will give you more attack. For a warmer sound a mic just outside the
drum will give a better result. If you do come across a drum without a hole in the
front head then you can also try putting the microphone on the pedal side. I am
always wary of this position, however, for two reasons. Firstly, drummers move
their feet around and, like most of us, don't always look down when they do, so
will occasionally kick the microphone out of the way. Anyone who has had the
misfortune of trying to reposition a drum microphone mid-gig will know that it is
a risky and not entirely pleasant experience. Secondly, kick-drum pedals are
prone to noise, with a tendency to squeak or rattle, and this can easily be picked
up by the mic.

Mics For Snare

For snare drums there has been one microphone that has pretty much dominated
for almost 50 years. The Shure SM57 dynamic has held on as most people's go-
to snare mic, as it adds just the right amount of weight, while its slight presence
peak adds some crack to the drum. Its only drawback is its slightly fragile
windshield, which can easily be knocked off by a wayward drumstick. Shure came
up with a more durable design in the Beta 57, but the sound was never quite as
popular. The new Beta 57A seems to tick most people's boxes, though, and
retains much of the sound of the original 57.

The Beyerdynamic M201 has also always been a popular choice, and still retains
die-hard fans, of whom Joe Harling is one. "I always use 201s for snare, he
explains. "I think their spill is much more forgiving than it is on a 57, and their
midrange is incredible. The M201, along with the slightly more bulky Sennheiser
MD441, has a reputation for having many of the high-fidelity qualities of
a condenser but in a dynamic mic. Both have been around a long time and are
still manufactured to this day. They both have hypercardioid pickup patterns, and
so are great for rejecting spill from hi-hats and other nearby drums. Other
microphones have come in to challenge these, though, and all the major
manufacturers have come up with new varieties of dynamic and condenser
microphones for the purpose. Shure released various short-bodied variants of
their dynamic mics, and the current catalogue offers you the Beta 56A, which has
its XLR socket placed at 90 degrees to the body, making it possible to get the mic
into as close a position as possible.

The preference for a dynamic mic on the snare has always been dictated by
a combination of durability (they are usually very rugged and can handle high
SPLs) and price (they tend to be quite cheap). However, various condensers have
found a home on the snare. The Neumann KM84 and KM184 are often favoured
snare mics. Being compact, pencil-type mics, they are often used as snare bottom
mics, where their detailed top end helps to capture the snap of the snare wires.

In recent years the influx of cheaper pencil condensers has led to them being
much more commonplace live a 100 mic is more likely to find it's way on
stage than a 500 Neumann. AKG may well have led the way with the C451,
which still finds it's way onto many channel lists, but these days companies like
SE Electronics are making very robust mics that are filling many of the roles of
their more expensive forebears.

As far as positioning goes, I have always approached the snare from

a combination of aural and practical points. I tend to mic about four inches away
from the snare, which gives the sound from both sides of the drum to chance to
be heard, and also places the microphone a reasonable distance away from the
stick danger area. As well as keeping the mic safe from stick hits, giving the mic
a bit of distance will help you avoid getting a dull, choked-off sound. Dave
Swallow, who has mixed artists including Amy Winehouse and La Roux, agrees:
"It is surprising to see how many people still think the sound of the drum comes
from the skin. The skin is only part of the drum, so it only makes part of the sound.
Placing your mic a mere few millimetres from it will just create a flat, uninteresting
sound with no depth or life. Moving the mic a little further away will capture more
of the drum and lend itself to a far deeper, richer sound.

I will, on occasion, mic up the drum from the side of the shell, near the air hole. All
drums have a small hole that lets pressure escape from inside the drum, and this
can occasionally work to your advantage.

Overheads
Provided overheads are needed, a stereo pair of mics over the left and right sides
of the kit, and equidistant from the snare drum, is the most popular technique.
This has the advantage of giving good coverage and a degree of stereo imaging,
as well as being easy to set up with two tall boom stands either side of the kit.
A coincident pair above the kit can give better stereo imaging, but is harder to
practically achieve in a gigging situation, as it normally requires a boom stand that
is able to take the weight of two microphones, and which is also tall enough to get
to the centre of the drum kit. Most regular stands are not up to the job, and there
is nothing worse than seeing a stand topple into the drum kit mid-show.

The choice of overheads is very much dependant on the way they will be used. If
you are able to get them in an optimum position above the kit and capturing the
drum kit as a whole then a matched pair will reward you with a very coherent
picture of the kit. Large-diaphragm mics such as AKG C414s and Shure's KSM44
are very popular, as are smaller 'pencil' condensers such as Neumann KM184s
and SE Electronics' SE4s. The choice is huge, but having the best pair of
microphones you have in this position can really pay off. I was once talking to
a mic manufacturer who seemed surprised that live engineers would use top-end
microphones on stage, but there is no substitute for a great microphone when you
are trying to reinforce the sound of a drum kit. This is not to say that you cannot
achieve good results with even the most budget microphones, though as long
as you take care with placement and EQ.

Keep It Cymbal, Stupid!

Hi-hats and ride cymbals can often get lost in the mix, and these can often need
miking up. Sometimes I will dedicate channels to these before I make room for
overheads, and if overheads aren't necessary I will use the mics I would have
used over the kit to spot-mic these two important cymbals instead. They make up
part of the standard trinity of rhythm (bass drum, snare and hi-hat/ride), and are
part of the driving force of most beats. The snare mic can often pick up enough of
the hi-hat, but the ride can often be lost. A microphone placed near the ride and
any crash cymbals on that side of the kit can help the rhythm sound gel. They can
be placed six to 12 inches away for close miking, but be careful to check the
movement of the cymbal: heavy hitting drummers can quite often knock the
cymbal into the mic as it swings up after a beat, producing an unattractive
'thwack'!

As with overheads, condensers are again generally the best choice for capturing
the frequency range of cymbals. Small-diaphragm mics are often the easiest to
sneak in unobtrusively, but any microphone with a good top-end response will do.
It is worth mentioning ribbon microphones at this point. In the studio they have
remained a very popular type of microphone for overheads and cymbals as the
precise, open top end can really help capture a detailed sound. Live, however,
they are much less common. This comes down to issues of practicality. Ribbons
are notoriously fragile, while gigs and tours are brutal environments in which to
work. The cost and fragility have until recently meant that ribbon mics have rarely
been seen on stage. However, with a wide range of cheaper microphones coming
from the East in recent years, they are beginning to make an appearance and, if
looked after, can produce very pleasing results.

The Toms
Tom-toms present another problem. I think for most people the best tom sound
can be achieved with a dynamic microphone like a Sennheiser MD421. This great
microphone has a roll-off switch, which when clicked one step from Musik (music)
to Sprechen (speech), gives just the right amount of bass roll-off. However, as
mentioned before, their bulkiness means they have fallen out of favour. When
people started using the diminutive Shure SM98 condenser on toms, Shure made
the sensible move of releasing a drum clamp and gooseneck adaptor for it. At last
you could position a tom mic where you needed it, however crowded the drum kit
was. The SM98 mics also had the advantage of an extended high end, and toms
began to have a greater attack to them than before. This was not liked by all
engineers, but treble can always be rolled off, and the mic has gained huge
popularity.

Sennheiser in Europe and Audix in the States countered this, with stubby, short-
bodied dynamics. The D range from Audix and the MD504 from Sennheiser, with
its handy drum mount, have both found favour. All these mics are still around, with
Shure upgrading the SM98 to a Beta version and Sennheiser now offering the
E604 and E904. A mention must be made at this point of another thing that has
improved drum miking, but which isn't a microphone. Musical instrument makers
Latin Percussion make a handy mic holder called the Claw. This has a Z-shaped
bar that can be secured to almost any drum or stand using its mini clamp or claw,
allowing mics to be attached to drums in a secure and convenient way, without
the use of boom stands. Also, they are rugged enough to take almost any
microphone.

The debate between condensers and dynamics on toms is ongoing, and both
have their fans. Condensers can provide a very open, clear sound, having a more
pronounced top end and attack that can be very useful. Detractors will, however,
accuse them of being toppy, harsh and thin-sounding, and with a tendency to pick
up cymbal spill. Of course these are also characteristics that can be seen as
positives! Dynamics, having a more weighty but less responsive sound, can help
add depth to a tom without picking up too much spill. Larger drums can benefit
from a larger dynamic capsule capable of capturing the high SPL and extended
low end produced. However, some drummers aren't looking for thunderous low
end on the toms, and the more detailed sound condensers can be much more
suitable. Once again, it comes down to listening to the drum kit and finding out
from the drummer what style and sound he is looking for.

Style Guide
The mics you choose should depend not only on the sound you're after, but also
on the drums themselves. A bright metal snare, for example, may lend itself to
a slightly duller dynamic with a bit of proximity effect to add some weight, whereas
a deep, wooden snare can cry out for a detailed condenser on the bottom head.

The drumming style should also play a part. Brushes require a sensitive
microphone capable of picking up the delicate touches, so a capacitor might be
best on the snare. A drummer who plays in a very open jazz style may not even
need a snare microphone, with the sound being better picked up with a pair of
overheads, or a central spot mic placed mid-kit that can pick up the snare, hi-hats
and some of the toms. "Last year I was working for an artist called Michael
Kiwanuka, says Harling. "His drummer was a wonderful jazz player, and his kit
sounded really interesting. His kick and toms were tuned high and ringy, and his
cymbals were really dry and dark. This made the whole kit sound like one
cohesive instrument, rather than a collection of disparate parts. It was
inappropriate to rely on individual close mics for this kit, so I toured with a pair of
Audio-Technica AT4040 large-diaphragm condensers, which we used as the main
drum mics.

Loud thrashy drummers, on the other hand, tend to need the durable approach
mics that will help the drums cut through the mix, but which are also physically up
to the task. Contrast Harling's minimal approach with the technique Martin 'Arnie'
Annables uses for Motrhead: "For toms I tend to use Sennheiser mics usually
E604s for the high toms and E901s for floor toms. I have built an internal tom-mic
mounting system to help with faster setup time, and to cope with the stupid
volume of the drum fill. The snare, again, has Sennheiser mics (an E902 on top
and E604 underneath), and we have also been using an internally mounted E604,
just for the monitor sound. At the moment I am using Shure SM91s for hi-hats and
ride, positioned close for minimal spill. The kick mic is an internally mounted
E901, again on my own mounting system and, unusual as it may sound, it is
mounted at the top of the shell facing down. Overheads are modified Beta 98s,
and these are again positioned very close to the cymbals.

As with all these things, though, there are no hard and fast rules it is just
something that you have to experiment with. Explaining to the drummer what you
are doing and hoping to achieve always helps, though: most drummers want their
kits to sound as good as possible and are happy to be patient and experiment.
Other musicians may not share your enthusiasm, however, so I do recommend
being as fast and decisive as possible!
One Mic Or Two?
As we have seen, some engineers choose to use more than one mic per drum,
and as you begin to get larger desks and more available channels, this becomes
an option. Beyond the single-mic-per-drum approach, a bottom snare microphone
is most people's first choice. The sound of a snare drum is a combination of two
things: the sound of the stick hitting the batter head, which produces the drum
sound, and the crack of the snare drum made by the wires stretched across its
bottom head. These move away as the drum is hit and then slap back against the
head to produce the distinctive snap of a snare drum.

Capturing the overall sound of the drum can be difficult with just one microphone,
and while a single mic placed at the top but to the side of the drum is a good start,
a second microphone placed underneath can be useful in capturing the sound of
the snare wires themselves. But because one mic is looking down on the drum
and one looking up they are both receiving the same waveform but from different
angles. The microphone underneath will be getting a waveform that is
approximately 180 degrees out of phase from the other microphone. If the two
sounds are mixed together as they are, the signals from the two mics will cancel
each other out at some frequencies. Typically, this is most noticeable in the lows
and mids, resulting in a thin and hollow sound. By reversing the phase on one of
the microphones they will be more in phase and the cancellation will be a lot less
noticeable. Ways around this will be covered in next month's article.

The two-mic debate for snares can be influenced by the type of snare and how it
is played. A deep snare such as an eight-incher can be difficult to capture with
just one microphone, whereas a thin piccolo can have a very present snare
sound, where one microphone is all that is needed.

Another popular drum to double mic is the bass drum. The phrase 'in and out' is
becoming particularly prevalent, with the use of a boundary mic, such as a Shure
Beta 91, inside the drum, and a large-diaphragm dynamic, like a Shure Beta 52,
on the outside, usually pointing into the air hole in the front head. This
combination helps to overcome the relative shortcomings of each mic type and
position. A boundary mic inside the drum is great for picking up the sharp attack
of the beater on the drum head but can lack body and warmth. The advantage of
this mic is that you can get a very tight sound that is easy to control, and since it is
inside the drum it is relatively free of spill and not prone to low-end feedback.
However, I know many engineers who hate the sound. A microphone just outside
the drum, or at the air hole, will give a much fuller sound, albeit with less attack.

One microphone position that is favoured by some engineers is the 'trash mic'.
I first came across this many years ago when working with Jim Warren on
Radiohead. He would have a dynamic mic like a Shure SM58 and place it in the
centre of the drum kit. From here it would capture something of the sound of the
whole kit. This technique has its fans, including Joe Harling, who used one on
Michael Kiwanuka's tour: "I'd have a 'trash mic' in the middle of the kit, which was
generally a Sennheiser MD421 or 441. This was used just for special effects,
such as crazy, heavy pumping compression, or even flanger in the very proggy
bits.
Conclusions
As we've seen, techniques differ but the objectives remain constant. The idea is to
reinforce the sound coming from the stage so that all the instruments sit nicely in
the mix. How the drums sit in the mix is very dependant on the style of music:
they can be the backbone and power, as in rock or dance music, or they can be
an accompaniment, such as in jazz. It is easy though to let the drums or aspects
of the kit overpower the mix, and I have often heard bands where the most
dominant instrument was the bass drum, usually to the detriment of everything
else. I believe that the whole kit should be given equal standing in the mix so that
the bass drum, snare and toms are balanced with the cymbals, but all taking
place in a way that is balanced with the other instruments on stage. Remember
these words of caution: I have never heard anyone walk out of a gig commenting
that, "We couldn't hear the singing, although it was more than made up for by the
fantastic bass drum sound!

As Craig 'Bozz' Porter, FOH engineer for Papa Roach, Machinehead and
Megadeth, has learned, it's important to try these techniques out for yourself.
"Experiment and read! Don't be afraid to try new things, that is what soundchecks
are for. Read articles by solid and respected touring engineers so you can get
different opinions and perspectives but keep in mind that everyone has
opinions. Take it all in, play with the techniques, and make them your own.

Next month, we will be looking at tightening up your live drum sound, using
outboard compressors, gates and effects, as well as EQ and phase
manipulation. .
Glorious Stereo?