Tip 1
Spend the majority of your time on the kick and snare. These are the heart and pulse of the song. They are the most changed by microphone position and EQ. Get as close as possible to the sound you want on the original recording.
Tip 2
Try adding a chorus to your snare drum to add some of the flare, accent or body to the snare. Start at 0 milliseconds delay and slowly increment up until you get what you’re hoping for.
This is going to be different if you are working with a live drum set track. You have to worry about the other instruments bleeding in through your mic. Maybe with the homemade chorus effect you could add a gate to prevent other instruments coming in too much. Soften it with some reverb???
- Other Quick Tips
- How do the kick and snare sound in the overhead microphones?
- -5 dB for some headroom for all drums.
- With an SM57 plan on having to add some high end on your EQ.