New to miking drums live

ptcyclist · Tadpole Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Posts: 22

Our church is thinking of miking our acoustic drums. The problem is we have only limited space on the main board. Is the solution to mic the drums, run those through some sort of preamp (or whatever type of equipment that would be called), and then run that output into one channel on the main board (as opposed to 4 or so if we ran the individual drums to the board)? We've looked at some of the mic packages available and there's lots of variety. What would you all recommend? It looks like miking the kick, snare, possibly toms and/or a couple of overheads is a minimum.

I'm new to the whole live sound situation so excuse the basicness of the question. Is there a good reference to go to for learning about this area? Any feedback would be really helpful. Thanks.

markscar · Newbie Alert Joined: 10 Dec 2007 Posts: 4

Yes, the best way to do this would be to sub-mix the kit....get a good 8 channel board......mike the drums and run the outs (L/R) into 2 channels of the main board......

You can probably even use just one line out (L)...

The drum mike kits are pretty good......but some of them do not include the Overhead mike....or at least the ones that are on the smaller end of the price range......

I like the Audix....the F series or D series depending on your budget....

Peace..!!
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Mark Scar

Saurencaerthai · King Kong Joined: 24 Sep 2002 Posts: 2609

Speaking as someone who does sound for a living, in most rooms I've mixed in, I find that I rarely need overheads, seeing as cymbals often are loud enough to carry by themselves, or else they get picked up by the vocal mics. Unless you're dealing with a cavernous room, you probably can dispense with them. In all honesty, if you get the Shure drum pack with the Beta 52 kick mic and the 3 SM57's, you'll have everything you really need. Don't waste time with Shure's PG line, as they only cost a little less than their main line and don't sound as good, in my opinion. If you have more toms/snares, 57's are not that expensive.

As for not having enough channels, just purchase a 1202 board by Mackie and run the output of that into the main board. That should give you enough channels to sub-mix the drums.
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