Record Drums - A Beginner's Guide

Getting a good snare drum sound is very easy if the snare itself sounds good; fortunately, most drummers take care of their snare drums even if the rest of their kit isn't perfectly in tune. Let's start out by listening to our kit again.

If the snare sounds good, you can move right on to placing your microphone. If the snare rings too much, try having your drummer tune the head a little bit more; if all else fails, a product like the Evans Min-EMAD ($8) or even a small piece of tape on the drum head will help dampen the ring.

For this recording, I chose to use the Shure Beta 57A ($150). I placed the microphone halfway between the high-hat cymbal and the rack tom, facing at about a 30 degree angle. I placed the microphone about an inch and a half above the rim, pointed towards the center. One thing to watch out for: you may possibly get a lot of bleed from the high-hat; if so, move your microphone so that it's pointing away from the high-hat as best you can.

Let's take a listen to the recorded track. Here's the snare as it sounds naturally.

If you find that the sound is too strong, consider moving the microphone back a little bit, or turning your preamp's gain down. If you don't get the sound you want from one microphone, you can also add another microphone to the bottom of the snare to help pick up the crunch of the metal snares; any microphone you like for snare will work on the bottom, too.