We pride ourselves on our ability to record drums at ALT Recording Studios, the foundation of contemporary music.

The difference between a good recording and a bad recording is apparent nowhere more than in the sound of drums. Here at ALT Recording Studios Brighton we would like to pass on some of the techniques we use to really get your drum recordings pumping whether recorded at home or in a professional studio.

First off is creating the right sound to record. There are dozens of different miking techniques and positions to choose from. Which one is best will ultimately depend upon what you want your recording to sound like.

We always start with the drums themselves tuning and damping makes a massive difference to the sound you capture. Essentially you need to adjust the kit to suit the particular song your recording. At our Brighton recording studio often we can end up changing the kick drum heads or tune the snare differently, basically all that kind of stuff can happen before we’ve even began. Our in house Tama drum kit is often tuned so the sound it produces marries with the key of the song.

Snare Drum Recording Techniques
We usually end up miking the snare drum's face with a Shure SM57 sometimes together with a Beyer M201 or a Neumann KM84. There’s often a debate over whether mics should also be placed underneath the snare. Occasionally we have used this to get more of the snare spring sound. However it will almost invariably need gating and can also introduce phase issues. If we do place mics underneath we will usually go for another SM57 or possibly a C451EB.

Overhead Microphone Recording Techniques
Overheads are also very important and at ALT Recording Studios the approach we take with overheads is that they bring the drum sound together giving a more natural less disparate feel than just close miking alone can. We always meticulously check the phase relationships between each drum and the overheads as this can ruin the bottom end of the recording.

We always move the mics around loads. When were recording a drum kit in our bank vault live room we often spend much more time in the live room trying out mic positions than we do in our control room.

Kick Drum Recording Techniques
For recording Kick drums we always go for the classic AKG's D12 large-diaphragm dynamic mic as it always seems to deliver the results we’re looking for. It’s basically a microphone that emphasises the sound you want form a kick drum.

Our secret weapon for creating an extra big Kick sound is an Electrovoice RE10. This vintage mic has a frequency response that’s pretty flat for a dynamic mic and it also doesn’t produce too much proximity effect. Another trick we use at ALT Recording Studios is Brighton is miking closer to the beater head. We find were able to get greater beater presence. When doing this changes to the mic positions greatly effect the  level and quality of the beater sound. We often end up essentially with 2 different recording 1 of the beater and 1 capturing the tonality of the kick.