Drums: a primer
With hispanic heritage month having wrapped up recently, I find myself coming off of a number of shows that used non American or “non-traditional” drums. By which of course I mean anything that isn’t a straight up American jazz/rock drum set. It has me realizing how many engineers and stage hands don’t know the difference between a rack tom and a floor tom much less the difference between a quinto and a tumba or a djembe and a tan-tan. So without further ado, here is a primer that organizes the world of drums into some categories to help introduce people to some of the common drums in use and how to approach them from an engineering perspective.
Drum Kit
Starting with the familiar, the classic american rock or jazz drum kit. Comprised of the shells
Kick Drum (with a kick pedal)
Snare Drum
Rack Tom Drum
Floor Tom Drum
and the Cymbals
Hi-hat (with the pedal stand)
Crash Cymbal
Ride Cymbal
Splash Cymbal
Kick Drum
Always start with the kick drum, it’s the biggest and also the heartbeat of a drum kit and the place the whole kit is centered around. There’s a reason we put it first in an input list. It goes on the floor on it’s side and is hit with a dedicated beater on a kick pedal. Sometimes a hard beater and sometimes a soft beater. Each gives a different tonality. Some genres respond well to a thumpy kick, others prefer a boomy kick. You can complement this with mic position. The kick mic pointed center at the beater will be thumpier, and if pointed outwards towards the edge or shell will be boomier. Combine with a “kick in” mic and EQ to taste to achieve the right sound for the genre. If Jazz, it’s usually less thumpy and more muffled. In rock it’s more thumpy and distinct. If there’s no hole in the resonant head (the drum head that doesn’t get hit, usually on the bottom or far side from the drummer), then point it at the resonant head somewhere off the center midway to the rim.
Common Mics
Shure Beta 52
Audix D6
Telefunken M82
AKG D112
for a kick in mic,
Shure Beta 91
Sennheiser 901
Snare Drum
The snare drum is probably the most unique drum of the kit. It’s the central drum for most drumming styles next to the kick. When the snares under the drums are lowered and disengaged, the snare drum acts similar to a tom or timbale but when raised and engaged, the snares rattle the drum and give it the signature snap crackle and pop. The snare gets the widest range of attacks from accent hits, ghost notes, rim shots, rolls, brushes, etc. Generally the snare gets mic’d similar to a tom but can also benefit from a “snare bottom” mic to accent the rattle of the snares.
Common Mics
Shure SM57
Beyerynamic M 201
Sennheiser 604 or 904
Audix i5
Tom Drum
This is a rule for all drums, but most clearly in the toms. The bigger the drum the lower the drum. There’s really not much mystery when it comes to a tom. You hit it with a stick and it goes boom. The only important thing to say is that the floor tom tends to get treated differently than the rack toms. The racks have a higher and more distinct resonance so they can be annoying to squash out when not tuned properly and the floor toms tend to get used more broadly on the kit for different grooves in some genres.
Common Mics
Sennheiser 604 or 904
Sennheiser MD421
When dealing with most of the shells of a drum kit, gates are your friend in keeping down the overall volume and shaping your sound so the drums don’t eat into your whole mix. Be careful gating a snare if the drummer does a lot of ghost notes or subtle stick work. expander can be more appropriate. Sometimes a plate verb helps place your snare in the mix.
Hi-hat
The hi-hat is the second hand keeping time. it gets a range of sound depending on how the drummer uses the pedal. Mic close but not too close for when the hi-hat opens and closes. Be careful not to pick up too much snare. mic goes over the top somewhere between the bell (center) and the rim or edge.
Common Mics
Shure SM81
Shure ksm 137
Neumann 184
SE se7
Cymbals et. al
So Cymbals sometimes get a dedicated mic but are often the purview of “The overhead” mics. There are two basic schools of thought with overheads. Overhead first, typically used more for jazz styles; Or, overhead as a wash which is the rock approach. Overheads first is useful when you only have three or four channels available for drums. Instead of micing every tom, you use the overheads to capture the whole kit and then add individually where needed. Usually kick and snare. Overheads as a wash is useful when you just need them to pick up the cymbals and create a “wash” of sound. Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, you can decide if you want the mics higher up or lower down and how you want to point them or EQ them.
Common mics are the same as for hi hat with the added options of large diaphragm mics as well like the AKG 414.
Latin American Drums
This covers the common drums you find in puerto rican and cuban groups as well as some Brazilian and Andean drums. Many of these drums have their origins in afro cultures so it’s worth saying that this is referencing their current latin interpretations and uses.
Conga drums
The conga is one of three drums as part of a conga or tumbadora set. Sometimes played with just two instead of all three.
Quinto
Conga
Tumba
Congas can get mic’d similar to a tom when on a noisy stage with an sm57 or similar dynamic mic but they also handle condensers nicely when in a more controlled environment. Each drum has its own voice and should get its own mic unless you’re doing them with a stereo pair to grab the whole players area if for example they’re also doing other hand percussion. Congas have a very resonant low mid area. Unlike the toms on a drum kit, they also have different attack patterns and slaps that hit the lower or higher register differently. They’re a very active part of creating the latin percussion rhythms in which they’re featured.
Bongos
With the bongo drums, you can often get away with one mic between both of the heads; However, if you have a second mic available and depending on how the player is set up, seated between their legs or mounted on a stand, you can also place a second mic underneath for a more complex sound. Make sure to polarity invert the bottom mic. Bongos also have some different slap patterns and if you’re using one mic for two heads you mic consider mic placement further back or tilted to one side to get better balance between them.
Timbales
Timbales can be thought of as the cuban equivalent to a drum kit. Timbale refers to the two steel drums (macho & hembra) but they’re often mounted with a splash cymbal, cowbell, woodblock and other auxiliary percussion elements with them making them a layered collection of percussion instruments. There’s a wide variety of opinions on timbale micing. Like toms, close mic’d with a dynamic or two. under mic’d, sometimes one sometimes two. An overhead condenser for the rest of the set. I’ve even heard of putting a lav mic on the player and letting that pick up all of the drums. As with most of these drums and any instrument you don’t know well, often enough the players have had to deal with adjusting or advising on the mic strategy over the years so it can be best to talk to the players and see how they intend to play and what they think they need.
Cajon
I’m sure anyone who’s been to the cafe singer songwriter show or heard an acoustic arrangement of a rock or pop song has seen this being played. Two main elements include a snare type snap near the top edge and a boomier bass sound in the center. usually a single mic will grab both. Consider an EV RE20, MD 421, or a classic sm57 or 58 even.
Brazilian drums
In the world of samba, bossa nova, and pagode there are a series of drums not found elsewhere that can broadly be grouped together as brazilian drums.
Surdo
Repenique
Cuica
Timbau
Rebolo
Tan Tan
All of these can get treated similar to other drums covered here, grab a dynamic and point it at the striking head. The exception being the cuica that benefits from being mic’d at the open end. However there’s a philosophy when mixing genres with these drums that means treating the percussion section as a big instrument section and let them balance themselves as an ensemble. A choir of drums if you will. When the option presents itself to grab the room or percussion area, like you would with overheads on a jazz drum kit, it can add a lot of groove and vibe to the sound.
African Drums
Africa was the birth place of many of the drums covered in this post and we’ve seen the western evolution of them. But there are still a number of drums that are uniquely African still. Many of these drums are and were used in more ceremonial or ritualistic uses rather than performative situations like how we do in the west.
Djembe
the djembe is possibly the most famous of them. a curved drum played by hand similar to the congas. This drum has different strike patterns for lower and higher notes and can inhabit different areas of the rhythm section depending on how it’s being utilitized.
Talking Drum
Similar to a djembe but the tuning strings cross the entire drums length rather than halfway like a djembe and has a longer strap to wear.
Udu drums
possibly the most different drum family on this list. More ceramic pottery than a conventional drum but it has holes in it and a resonant chamber that creates its unique tone. played as part of a larger set. there’s no striking head to put a dynamic mic on, grab a condenser. These are often played seated in the lap.
Bata drums
the bata drum looks like a series of double sided congas. Usually grouped in three on a mounting stand sideways. Both sides of this drum should get mic’d, dynamic or condenser. In some arrangements, each drum is played by a different player seated rather than mounted.
Asian Drums
Again another large group of cultures lumped into a category based on how we see them used in the west.
Tabla
a pair of drums that have a very dynamic set of pitches it can play. Often performed seated on the floor. A single well placed condenser ala Zakir Hussain is all thats needed for the tabla.
Dholak
A double sided drum similar to the bata. This one a singular drum with a large and small side for playing a higher and lower note.
Taiko
really more of a whole class of drums and performance than a singular drum. Originating in Japan, these drums are typically larger and played ceremoniously as part of a large ensemble of performers.
Bodhran
An irish hand drum played with one hand inside to adjust pitch and the other hand holding a stick.
Conclusion…
There are more drums than one post or person could ever hope to deep dive into. While I tried to cover a range of classes of drums and styles of micing them, this brief overview can’t replace working with professional and experienced players and with the real instrument and mics in front of you. Hopefully this helps give context to and a jumping off point for a wider world of drums than just the simple drum kit most are experienced with.
