The Recording Drums section is hosted by none other than Victor Guidera, sound engineer for DrumLessons.com. He's the brains and ears behind the drum set sounds recorded throughout the free drum lessons on this website. With these free drum lessons, Victor guides you through the microphones and miking techniques he likes using, and teaches common technical terms and theory behind drum set miking for both live and studio settings. You'll also learn about important EQuing concepts in a step-by-step approach, and tips on how to work with a sound engineer when sound checking.
Before delving into the free drum lessons from this section, you have to realize that there are numerous factors that contribute to the overall sound of a recorded drum set. Having good quality cymbals, drumheads, great sounding drums, good tuning and drumming abilities, is way more important than owning expensive microphones and knowing the best miking techniques in the world. Focus on getting a great quality sound from your drum set before you start recording it. There are a lot of free drum lessons on this website that you can use to take your drumming to a whole new level. If you're lacking good tuning skills and knowledge on muffling techniques, check the free drum lessons "How To Tune Your Bass Drum", "How To Tune Your Snare Drum", "How To Tune Your Toms", and "How To Muffle Your Drums" from the General Drum Lessons section.
Once you've improved on your drumming and tuning skills, you can start learning more about the miking techniques Victor employs when recording sound for the videos on DrumLessons.com. With the free drum lesson "How To Mic A Bass Drum", you'll learn about microphone positioning and techniques for getting more click or tone out of a bass drum. Victor talks about good quality budget microphones and what to consider when buying microphones for recording the bass drum as well. The free drum lessons "How To Mic A Snare Drum" and "How To Mic Toms" focus on bottom and top microphone positioning and includes a bunch of tricks for avoiding microphone leakage. For tips and tricks on miking techniques for recording cymbals, check the free drum lesson "How To Mic Cymbals". This free drum lesson is great for learning about microphone positioning for capturing the sound of cymbals, including auxiliary hi-hats.
Before you start educating yourself on equalization, you have to learn about some of the most common technical terms and theory behind drum set miking technique. The video "Drum Set Mic Technique Overview" teaches what are audio spectrums and frequency responses, and how different types of microphones affect the sound you're recording.
Drum set equalization is the process followed by audio engineers for correcting microphone frequency response. This process can also be used to remove unwanted sounds, make certain instruments more prominent, or enhance particular features of an instrument's tone. To help you out with this last stage of drum set recording, we filmed free drum lessons on how to equalize (EQ) a bass drum, how to EQ a snare drum, how to EQ toms, and how to EQ overheads and cymbals.
