Recorderman Overhead Drum Mic Technique

October 18, 2007 by Colin Fairbairn

Here is a simple way to capture an entire drum kit with just two microphones as pioneered by the infamous “Recorderman.” By using a string to align both the bass drum and snare in the very center of the stereo image, you will get a very solid center channel and reasonably balanced sound from the kit. You can also complement this setup with close mikes for a more traditional sound.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 at 7:58 am and is filed under Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Recorderman Overhead Drum Mic Technique”

  1. Tom Gray Says:
    October 26th, 2007 at 8:17 am

    Thank you for a brilliant tutorial.

    Very much appreciated.

    Kind regards

    Tom.

  2. boo Says:
    March 9th, 2008 at 8:45 am

    thanx for this easy to under stand video.we are currently recording and had heard of this method but reading about it ,some peoples explanation seemed to make it sound complicated,so again ,thanx for the video…..looks easy now. boo (optimist) bedford,england

  3. Hiroshi Says:
    June 8th, 2008 at 6:53 am

    This is the best video tutorial about drum recording.
    Sounds good even on youtube.

    Well, what do you think about those cheap microphones MXL 603s?
    They’re good to make 2 mikes recording like this?

    I want to buy those to my homestudio, i want your opinion about this.

    Thanks.

  4. Colin Fairbairn Says:
    June 8th, 2008 at 8:21 am

    Hiroshi,
    If you can find a pair of the old Electrovoice BK-1 hand held stage mics, they make great overheads for this technique. They are really inexpensive and look like a stage vocal mic.

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