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Want to record some beats and produce music? Well, in today’s lesson I want to cover some of the finer details you need to consider when recording and producing beats! Recording beats is a tough task to accomplish at home primarily because it involves recording more than one instrument in the drum kit. A drum kit consists of so many varied instruments that it can produce a huge range of sounds covering the entire audio spectrum, from the soft sound of brushes to the loud beat of a bass drum. In terms of recording, you have to consider recording beats as recording several instruments and would be using multiple mics to capture the whole gamut of sounds. If you are using multiple mics, you would also need multiple inputs to record separate tracks. Though it is tough to record beats, it is important to get it right as a good beat is the heart and soul of groovy music. Let us now look at how you can go about recording the various instruments to get groovy beats:
Snare Drum
Good snare sounds are essential for a good beat. You should ideally place a mic a little above front edge of the drum facing downwards at a 45 to 65 degree angle. You can move the mic further away from the drum head to get a little less low end sound. Make sure that you are not getting a “bleed through” from the high hat or cymbals. If you record the snares separately, it will be easy to EQ them at the mixing stage. Before you start recording, listen through headphones to make sure that the snares are sounding right. If you hear a ringing sound, cover the top head of the drum with tape to cut down on the ring.
Bass Drum
To record the bass drum, you should use a mic made to record low end frequencies. You can try placing the mic halfway inside the drum and muffle ringing sound with a pillow inside the drum. Again, keep listening through the headphones to make adjustments. The mic should be pointed towards the beater and away from the snare drum.
Toms
Recording toms also requires a good bass mic that can record low frequencies. You can place the mic a few inches above the outer rim of the drum. You can experiment with the distance to get the sound you want, the further the mic from the source, the more roomy the sound. You can point the mic downwards at a 40 to 60 degree angle and away from the audience. To give a flowing feel to the drums, you can try panning the toms on the left to the left side of the mix and those on the right to the right side.
Cymbals
It is tough to record cymbals in a home studio. You have to record them in stereo with two mics, one over the left cymbal and one over the right cymbal. You should use mics of high quality. If you have only one mic, then you should place it in the center. You should ideally place the two mics quite far apart, roughly about three times their distance from the cymbals. It works out fine if you place the mic not too far from the cymbal.
Room mics
If you are getting good sounds in the your room, you can try capturing them with a room mic. You will have to experiment to find out the best place to set it up. You can place it in one of the room corners, in front or behind the drum kit. Just make sure that it is quite far from the drum kit, or you will end up with phasing problems. One more tip to keep in mind while recording beats is that since you are recording a range of sounds, make sure you don’t record too hot or you will end up overloading your preamp and causing digital distortion!
I will leave it here for today, but watch out for the next music production tip as I will help you out with some stuff that will take your music production to the next level. So, for today, take care, and get producing!
