There are so many mics on the market. In this article, you’ll find recommendations to help you sort through and narrow down your options. You’ll also find enough information to make educated decisions based on the sonic and build quality of each product, plus usage tips and upgrade paths/alternatives.

You’ll find that the mics in this guide range from budget to boutique, but I want to make one thing very clear:

You don’t need extraordinary mics to achieve an extraordinary recording.

80% of a good drum sound comes from the drum kit tuning, the drummer’s technique, and the room the drums are being played in. For a while now, even the most budget microphones, preamps and converters can offer musicians the opportunity to record themselves in high quality.

All prices in this guide are in USD.

(Beginners: If you see any words you don’t recognize, refer to the glossary at the end of this article and check out this guide to recording drums)

What type of mic should I get?

Condenser, dynamic, or ribbon?

While there are a few mics you wouldn’t use for everything on the drum kit, being able to mix and match will give you complete coverage and help you capture sounds creatively.

Here are some points to consider for each type of microphone:

Don’t worry too much about phantom power – most modern mixers, interfaces, and preamps can provide it. But always check the user manual!

If you looked at the above table and thought, “I want the highest quality possible, so I should just buy condenser mics,” keep reading. There are reasons why some microphones are more suited to some tasks than others.

Dynamic and ribbon mics can have a very specific sound coloration: they’re usually not optimal in terms of frequency response, and they don’t have the fastest transient response. But these characteristics have been present in many of our favorite songs and recordings over the past century, and listeners have come to expect that sound when listening to music.

There’s far more to know about the differences between these microphones, but if you’re somewhat new to the recording world, I’ll leave it here for now.

But there’s one more thing you should consider when choosing drum mics: Max SPL.

Maximum SPL

Drums are loud. It means we don’t have to worry about choosing high sensitivity microphones. But it does mean we have to bear in mind at what point the mic starts distorting.

Thankfully, engineers have access to SPL (Sound Pressure Level) meters, which give you a reading in dB SPL. You can buy these meters online and most music shops, but you can save some money by getting either the NIOSH app or the Decibel X app on iOS and Android. If you don’t have one, as a drummer, I recommend getting one to find out how loud your drumming really is.

If your drums are hovering around 110dB SPL, picking a microphone with a maximum SPL lower than that will lead to immediate distortion and clipping – even if you’re placing that mic far away from the drums (room mics or overheads, for example). Similarly, if you pick a microphone that has a maximum SPL of 120dB SPL and place it near your kick or snare, the microphone will likely not have enough headroom and distort immediately. This is because sound decays 6dB each time you double the distance from the sound source. 

Mics designed for drum kits have a maximum SPL above 120dB and often sit in the 140-155dB SPL zone. If your sound is distorting at the source, it’s worth checking if your microphone can accommodate high SPL levels, and replacing it with one that has a higher max SPL specification.

Drum mic bundles

Many brands offer bundles that include everything you need to mic up your drum kit in a portable case. Some brands – like Sennheiser and Shure – offer both a budget bundle and a better-quality bundle that include the mics loved and used by engineers around the globe.

Consider these two things when buying a mic pack:

• How many pieces is your drum kit? Most bundles are designed for “classic” 5 piece kits (kick/snare/two rack toms/floor tom), but some are designed for 4 piece kits. If you have more toms, snares, or kick drums in your setup you’ll need to add the extra mics yourself.
• Most of these bundles do not include overheads. This isn’t a problem as long as you budget to buy an overhead microphone pair of your choosing. Some bundles are also available in two versions (one with overheads, one without).

In addition to the bundles themselves, you’ll also need mic stands and XLR cables (I’m assuming you already have a mixing console or an interface with enough microphone inputs for the drum kit).

Budget bundles

Shure PG Studio Kit 4 – $299

Not only have I used these microphones plenty of times in rehearsal rooms and live sound situations, but these were also the ones handed out to students during their first assignments at a popular audio engineering university I worked at – and I’ve heard many incredible recordings done with these mics.

They can take a beating and come with cables, but unfortunately, they only cover a 4 piece drum kit and do not come with overheads. I highly recommend budgeting for an extra Shure SM57 microphone and a pair of overheads if you decide to purchase this pack.

If you have a 5 piece drum kit, check out the Shure PG Studio Kit 7, a $500 offering that comes with an extra tom mic and a pair of overheads.

If you own this kit and want to upgrade, or have the budget for something nicer, any of the middle of the road bundles would be a good option.

Audix FP5 – $349

This was the first drum mic kit I bought when I first opened a project studio. I’ve also taken these with me on small tours. They’re not quite as nice sound-wise as the Audix DP series, but in my opinion, they offer a small upgrade to the PG Studio set in terms of sound.

They can also stand a beating and this pack is designed for a 5 piece kit. But, just like the Shure PG Studio Kit 4, it doesn’t come with overheads – so make sure you budget for a pair!

The Audix FP7 is a $499 offering of the same bundle that includes overhead microphones. But if you can, budget for a pair of solid overheads and get the FP5 instead, as the overheads in the FP7 kit will likely be the first thing you’ll try to upgrade, followed by the snare and kick mic. The overheads included in the FP7 can be especially finicky with brighter cymbals in harsh-sounding rooms.

Mid-tier bundles

These bundles include microphones that have become drum recording classics in their own right.

Shure DMK57-52 – $399

This Shure offering is a huge step up from the PG Studio Kit. It includes the classic Beta 52, which is an absolute beast of a kick drum microphone. It also includes 3 Shure SM57s, which is the absolute workhouse dynamic microphone for the studio or live. They’re perfect for snares, will do a great job on toms, and if you ever decide to upgrade they can be used for cajons, side snares, hi-hats, timbales, and other louder percussion items (not to mention guitar amps, harmoniums, and even vocals).

You get 4 roadworthy microphones, 2 of the most popular microphones in their class for kick and snare, and a plethora of microphone clamps (which save you from needing microphone stands).

Unfortunately, you’ll have to budget for 2 overhead mics and an extra SM57 if you have a 5 piece kit. But all in all, you get a lot of value in this kit and can’t go wrong with these classics.

Audix DP5 – $699

This kit includes the fantastic Audix D6 kick drum mic, as well as the Audix i5 snare mic. It also includes a dedicated floor tom mic that has a bit more extended low-end frequency response. The kit is worth it for the D6 and i5 alone if you’re after a modern rock/metal drum sound, and includes enough microphones to cover a 5 piece kit.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t include overheads. But Audix offers the Audix DP7 ($999) that does. While the overheads offered in the DP7 pack are good, you might still look for an upgrade at some point down the line.

Fear not: the ADX51 (included in the DP7 bundle, or $249 on its own) can still be used as a spot mic (for instance, your hi-hat and ride) if you do decide to upgrade your overheads. If you like the sound of this bundle but would like something better, I’d recommend looking for the Audix Elite bundle (see next section), or sticking with the DP5 bundle and choose your own overhead microphone pair.

Sennheiser e600 Drum Mic Set – $999

Another offering that brings some of the most popular mics to your drum shells. If you look at old Drumeo videos, you’ll find the e602 used on the kick and the e604 used on the toms extensively. 

These mics are so widely used that you’ll hear more about them later in this guide. They’re rugged, can withstand a beating and the abuse of the road, and come with clips so you don’t need to purchase stands.

This pack comes with a pair of decent condensers for overhead duties, but not enough mics for a 5 piece kit. I strongly recommend budgeting for a Shure SM57 as your snare top microphone if you decide to get this bundle.

High-end bundles

Audix Elite Studio 8 – $2699

The Audix D6 and Audix i5 are stellar products and established kick and snare mics. The D2 and D4 are designed with toms in mind. But what makes this kit “elite” is the introduction of two SCX25-As for overheads, and an SCX1 (marketed as a hi-hat microphone, but also good as a ride, percussion, or general cymbal spot mic).

I like the SCX25 so much I’d recommend it for a variety of other things, including as a piano mic (as advertised by Audix).

With this bundle, you’ll be set for live micing and most commercial recording needs. Just don’t forget to add a few stands and cables to your shopping basket.

Earthworks DK7 – $2999

You won’t get a more clear and accurate “high fidelity” set of microphones around your kit that’s this free of distortion from high SPL sound sources. These mics also have an amazing rejection of sounds from other sources, minimizing spill.

They’re small, sleek, and have a beautiful finish that look great in videos. 

This is the perfect starting point to get clean, high definition drum recordings. You can always add mics that bring character and color to your collection if and when you need it.

Do you have an unusual setup, want to tailor your sound capture, want to update your budget mics or extend your current mic collection? Then let’s expand beyond bundles and look at some great individual options.

The next section will cover some of the most popular mics for each part of the drum kit, their sonic characteristics, tips for use, and how you can upgrade from there.

Kick drum mics

Given the importance of the bass drum in modern music, it’s no surprise you’ll see quite a few mics in this section. While quite a few models are capable of taking on both responsibilities of an internal kick microphone (will call it Kick In from now on) as well as a resonant head kick microphone (which I’ll name Kick Out), some are specifically designed for one or the other.

You’ll notice most of these microphones are fairly large, but nearly all of them are still dynamic microphones (specifically, large diaphragm dynamic microphones). There are many factors behind the frequency response of dynamic mics, but you should know that in general, large diaphragm models move the resonant frequency lower, which allows the manufacturer to more easily tune the microphone to have increased low end response.

Great all-around kick mics

AKG D112 – $199

I describe this mic as a very “loose” one. It has a nice, extended low end response. But it’s very different from all the other mics in this section.

For some reason, if you do a direct comparison between all these mics, this one will feel the softest, looser on the low end (favoring that decay) and will not be very fast at responding to transients – making it a better choice for genres where you want a softer feel on the kick.

Drumeo also uses this mic extensively as a Kick In microphone. As their Production Director, Taylor describes it:

“We use the D112 because it captures the “knock” or the high end of the kick drum so well. We use it inside the kick drum and point it right where the beater meets the head. And because it has a bump at 5k in its frequency response, it just naturally captures the sound we want without having to mess with an EQ too much.”

If you’re looking for an alternative kick mic that’ll give you a similar soft, low-end resonance, try the Electrovoice RE20, or for Kick Out applications: a large diaphragm condenser like the Neumann U47 FET, Neumann TLM 170 or similar – just make sure you build a little isolation tunnel around your kick drum and Kick Out microphone.

Audix D6 – $200

A good friend of mine turned me onto this microphone when I was on the road with a metal band. He told me that it was just incredible for loud, in-your-face kind of kicks, and it sounded like the kick had been EQ’d and compressed for you.

That mic was the Audix D6, and it didn’t disappoint! For more budget shows where I had limited or no access to the outboard gear (back in the analog days where renting a rack full of processors wasn’t cheap) this mic saved my life over and over. 

It works great as a Kick Out or Kick In mic. The attack is clear and punchier than the Shure Beta52A with plenty of low-end energy to drive the kick through a busy mix or a PA system. It also pairs great with the Beta52A (for Kick Out) when used as a Kick In microphone.

Like the AKG D112, if you’re looking to ‘upgrade’, you have a choice of looser/softer low-end mics like the Electrovoice RE20 and AKG D112, as well as a more well-rounded Shure Beta52A.

The Neumann U47 or TLM170 would be the ticket for Kick Out microphones, and the Shure Beta91A (a microphone designed for Kick In duties) if you feel you need a better transient response.

Shure Beta52A – $189

I first used this microphone in 2005. I was on the road with a hard rock band and we had been using the AKG D112 on the kick when we came across a rental company that had this beast in their microphone case. I was blown away. I now trust this mic for Kick Out duties for any modern band that requires a precise hit with plenty of low-end response.

It’s the microphone I have on my bass drum 24/7, and it pairs brilliantly with an Audix D6 or a Shure Beta92 as a Kick In.

I’d only upgrade from this microphone if I was after a different sound (like the Audix D6 and the AKG D112), or if I’m in a situation where I can make use of large diaphragm condensers such as the Neumann U47 FET (getting into boutique territory here). Even in these cases, I tend to leave the Shure Beta52A near the porthole if there is one.

Sennheiser e602 – $149

A standard Kick Out option, you’ll find it by the resonant head hole of many kick drums, and you can hear it in action in many of Drumeo’s older videos.

This mic is slightly softer and looser than the Beta52A, but more precise than the AKG D112. It’s also quite scooped in the mids, which might help you minimize the amount of EQ needed with a really resonant kick drum.

Mixing the D112 with the e602 (which captures the overall vibe and feel of the kick drum) just seems to work so well. Add a LoFReQ sub kick mic in the mix and you have everything you could need for almost every situation.

Kick In mics

Sometimes you just need the smack of the beater hitting the batter head. That click is going to be driving the track or preventing the attack of your kick drum from getting buried when other elements of the production kick in (or the drummer does really fast double bass passages).

These microphones are usually placed really close to the batter head (the Audix D6 is a great example) or on a mount like the Kelly SHU or the Sledgepad Mic Tray.

Shure Beta91A – $239

I love this mic. You get a very detailed transient from the batter head, but also a nice representation of the kick drum shell resonance, as well as a nice amount of low end. I recommend using a very small amount of dampening (like a small hand towel, a Sledgepad Mic Tray, or a Kelly SHU) and place this mic on top.

I honestly don’t think there are many microphones on the market as suited for the task as this one. While a Shure SM57 and an Audix D6 will do the job, this little condenser microphone can withstand 155dB SPL to get the extra little bit of detail that large diaphragm dynamic mics might not allow us to capture.

Kick Out mics

All microphones specified as great all-around mics will do great here: the AKG D112, the Shure Beta52, or the Audix D6. However, there are a few mics that can really bring something special to the table as a Kick Out:

Neumann U47 FET – $4000

Expensive. Legendary.

But it’s a gorgeous microphone for a Kick Out. Just be mindful of the low-ish Max SPL (you’ll likely need to use the pad on your preamps or add an inline attenuator) and you might have to make a kick drum tunnel in order to reduce spill from other parts of the kit.

Large diaphragm condenser mics bring up the details of the room in the signal they capture, and the nice saturation this mic imparts on louder signals makes it for a round, detailed, and rich low-end tail. It’s also slightly darker than most other condenser microphones, so it doesn’t do anything too crazy to the spill that you’ll inevitably capture.

Alternatively, the TLM170 is a brilliant mic to use for similar reasons, although a bit more ‘aggressive’. You absolutely don’t need this microphone on your recordings, but if you can afford or use one, give it a go – you won’t be disappointed.

ElectroVoice RE20 – $449

This isn’t a bad microphone to have around the studio. It’s great on vocals, bass cabinets, some guitar cabinets, floor toms, and Kick Outs – especially in genres where people play the kick softly.

It also holds its own for more aggressive genres, but I don’t find it as focused or as snappy as the Audix D6 or Beta52. If you’re on a budget and require microphones that work well with other instruments, this is one such mic.

It’s a good upgrade for the AKG D112, especially if using something like a Neumann U47 is not an option (for instance, live situations).

Kick subs

Kick sub mics are easy to put together, and the concept is pretty simple. If you wire a speaker as you would a microphone, then you just made a dynamic microphone. The downside is that the speaker cone and magnet are many times heavier than the diaphragm you’ll find in dynamic microphones.

What does that mean for the sound? For starters, expect a very slow transient response and a significantly reduced frequency response. This makes it great for capturing the kick’s low end without much spill from cymbals, snare drums, etc.

Because of the physics of the speaker cone (and the speaker enclosure itself), the speaker will vibrate easily to very low frequencies (eg. around 60Hz).

Homemade solutions

You can get any 6-8” speaker and wire it up to a male XLR plug. Mounting it can be trickier. You could use zip ties and a short mic stand with the boom horizontal, and hang the speaker cone off the boom.

If you’d like to get fancier (like increasing the low end response by increasing resonance, or tweaking the main resonant frequency), you can build a speaker cabinet to house the speaker. The size of the cabinet/box and the size of the port hole (if any) will change the resonant frequency and the amount of resonance captured by your homemade subkick.

If you want to get really fancy, try and get an original Yamaha NS10 speaker. These speaker cones have an interesting resonant frequency that make them great candidates – perhaps the reason why people started building kick subs all those decades ago. 

If you don’t want to build your own, here are two really good commercially available options:

Yamaha Subkick (used)

It’s been around for many years and it’s absolutely roadworthy. Many engineers will immediately recognize how it sounds and what it does to the drum kit.

Yamaha no longer manufactures these subkicks, but they’re very common on the second hand market.

Solomon LoFReQ Sub Mic – $199

A more recent entry to this category, I personally find that the Solomon has a more focused sound and better transient response than its counterparts, and noticeable spill rejection. 

It’s had a lot of praise, and unlike the Yamaha Subkick, it’s still in production!

Snare drum mics

Before getting into snare mics, I want to say one thing: you can’t go wrong with a Shure SM57.

After that, it’s about sound preference. Or trying to get some characteristic the engineer prefers to that of another microphone.

You can always add more than one microphone on top and blend it to your heart’s content, as well as add a snare bottom microphone, focused on capturing your snares.

I have a few Wilkinson Audio mic clips for the dual snare top setups, but even tape will do. Just put some rubber between the microphones so they don’t grind against each other.

Don’t forget to flip the phase of the snare bottom mic in relation to your snare top mic. Otherwise, you’ll lose a lot of the low-end on that snare.

Shure SM57 – $99

If you could have one mic to rule them all, the SM57 is nearly indestructible, one of the best all-around mics, and one of the most sold in the world since 1965. You can never have enough SM57s. They’re great for vocals, guitar amps, Leslie cabinets, brass instruments, snare drums, toms, cajons, hi-hats, percussion, and even acoustic guitar and similar instruments (in a pinch). 

Shure’s policy says that their dynamic mics should never distort in real world applications. So they don’t disclose the max SPL in the tech sheet, but you can be sure that this microphone can stand a very high SPL without distorting or otherwise degrading the signal, and it has a fairly accurate transient response for a dynamic microphone – all without breaking the bank.

It’s one of the most widely used – if not the most used – mics for snare drums, both top and bottom.

If you feel the need to upgrade, the Shure Beta 57A isn’t much more expensive, and I find it has a slightly better transient response, flatter frequency response, higher output, and a super-cardioid pattern which can help you achieve less hi-hat spill when capturing your snare drum.

If you want to get the “thump” you hear in metal recordings, the Audix i5 and the Shure SM7 are good choices.

If you need a more open and detailed sound with higher rejection from other sound sources, the Earthworks offerings are probably your best bet, or pairing a small diaphragm condenser with the SM57

Shure Beta 57A – $139

This cheap upgrade from the SM57 has more low-end response than the Shure SM57, but less presence and top end. It also has a hotter output and a slightly more focused polar pattern which can help isolate your snare sound.

For alternatives, see the Shure SM57 section.

Audix i5 – $99

This is a beast of a mic for modern music production. As with the Audix D6, this microphone has a sound of its own: a pre-EQ’d frequency response and an almost ‘pre-compressed’ feel that’ll help your snare drum get that snap.

Shure SM7B– $399

Because of the sheer size of this mic, it might be hard to squeeze it in if the drummer has a lot of rack toms. But if we’re talking about needing a snare drum that slams even more than the i5, this is a good way to get it before diving into processors and sample reinforcement/augmentation.

Neumann KM184 (formerly KM84) – $799

I’ve often used a small diaphragm condenser alongside a dynamic for better transient representation and a more open sound, especially if the drummer plays a lot of intricate parts on the snare or has a wider dynamic range (from very loud back beats to soft ghost notes).

However, this only works when the drummer has a very good control over their dynamics, and can keep cymbals in check – namely the hi-hat. If this isn’t the case, you might want to skip this mic.

Similar models are the DPA4011 and the AKG C451, or for those of you on a budget, the Sontronics STC1.

Neumann U47 FET – $4000

This is a fantastic microphone: warm, good saturation, and picks up a nice and full sound. It’ll get all those lovely details from the shell, or if the drummer is playing with brushes. I’ve put this microphone on snare drums more than once when recording soft jazz bands, ballads, and blues, and it did not disappoint.

The downsides to this mic aside from the high price:

• Don’t put it next to a really loud drummer, or you might overload your preamp and your mic might clip/distort. This is for delicate players – the ones who rely on touch, soft dynamics, and little details. 
• If you/the drummer hit this mic repeatedly while playing, it’s guaranteed that the studio will never let you come back. Only use it if it’s going to be safe!
• This mic will work great if the drummer plays a soft hi-hat ostinato, but you’ll definitely have trouble working with it in the mix if the drummer is delivering a punishing performance.

Earthworks SR20LS – $479

This is the exact model used in Drumeo videos. And yes, this is the Earthworks microphone that is designed and marketed for kick drums!

It has a very high SPL rating, but also presents us with a smoother roll off on the low end frequency response that can come in handy when dealing with really big sounding snares and loud backbeats.

The double snare top microphone technique

If you use a special mount like a Wilkinson Audio mic clip, you can place two small microphones next to each other. Popular choices for this are small diaphragm condensers (which will be covered in the next section) like the Sontronics STC1, AKG C451, or Neumann KM84 (KM184).

Tom mics

Some of them are plain cheap, but they work, and are so widely used that you should have no problem finding them. Some are expensive, but they’re absolute classics that have been on nearly every recording for the last few decades.

The only ‘newcomer’ to this list would be the Earthworks DM20, and I’m going to say it: if your rack toms need to be captured with crystal clear high definition, and spill is a big issue for you, spring for the DM20 immediately and you won’t regret it.

Sennheiser e604 – $149

They’re cheap, rugged, and totally do the job.

You are probably going to buy 3 (if you have a 5 piece kit) so look for a bundle as it’ll make it even cheaper.

The e604s clip right onto your rims (but you can also mount them on regular mic stands) and are decent on both rack and floor toms, with a good transient response and a decent spill rejection. They’re common in live shows but have found their way onto smaller and budget studio rigs because you don’t need to buy microphone stands.

If you want a better frequency response or transient response than what this model provides, you can always upgrade to any of the other mics in this section. If you need something really clinical and high-fidelity, skip straight to the Earthworks DM20s.

Sennheiser MD421 – $349

This is the classic tom microphone heard on countless records since the 1960s. This is also a really good addition to any studio as it’s a diverse mic that can work for vocals, guitar cabinets, and (some) brass instruments.

I have a love-hate relationship with this microphone. While it’s one of the nicest sounding mics to put on a tom (it has a nicer frequency response than the e604 and the transients come through better), the clip is a nightmare. Most of these, if not cared for properly, can detach from their clip mid-performance and fall on your toms. They are also huge, making them hard to squeeze into larger setups, or where the cymbals are low.

The only time you’d want to ‘upgrade’ from this mic is if you’re micing a floor tom and want an extended frequency response or more detail on the initial transient.

And, once more, if you are looking for a high-definition solution for the toms, the DM20 is the way to go!

Earthworks DM20 – $349

The DM20 has one of the most defined transient responses from all tom microphones I’ve used (including the Josephson) and an incredible frequency response. The way this mic captures drum shells is the closest thing you’ll get to having your ear close to a rack tom (which I don’t recommend you do, by the way!).

The clip works exceptionally well on toms, the signal is clear, and it doesn’t overload preamps like some condenser mics.

If you know you’ll be recording clear, high definition drums all the time, look no further than this. But if you think you might be recording a lot of music that has that dirtier, big sound, you might get there faster with a dynamic microphone. 

Josephson e22 – $1515

This is a really nice microphone. It’ll deliver low-level detail, exceptional transient response, and can handle a high SPL without distorting.

What sets it apart from the DM20 is that this has some of the feel you get with microphones like the U47. It brings in a tiny bit of saturation, and a little blanket over the whole thing, which makes it a bit warmer sounding than other mics (no doubt due to the slightly larger capsule size and the built-in transformer).

Worth the price tag? I’ll let you decide – but an option to keep in mind if you ever walk into a commercial studio that has a couple in their mic locker!

Floor tom mics

No need to repeat the above microphones: you can’t go wrong with the e604, MD421, Josephson, or DM20 on the floor toms. However, sometimes you want the floor toms sounding more like secondary bass drums. In this case, you might want to check out some alternatives.

(Note: If you purchased an Audix bundle, you will have the Audix D4, which is already tailored for floor toms and extended low-frequency responses.)

Audio Technica ATM250 (formerly ATM25) – $199

This mic is like an aggressive version of the Audix D6 that does very well on tight but extra low-tuned floor toms. It has a bit of an EQ and compression feel to it, which will help you get that low thump sound right off the bat.

Shure KSM32 – $439

Compared to most other mics in this category, I find that the KSM32 provides a more accurate depiction of the resonance and decay of the floor tom.

Compared to bulky dynamic mics that offer compression at the expense of definition, a large diaphragm condenser like the KSM32 will provide clear attack while retaining detail from the room and shell.

Because this mic is more sensitive than the previous dynamic microphone options, try not to hit the cymbals too loud, especially if there’s a china or crash right above the floor tom.

This mic is also a great overhead, so its versatility is just one more reason to add this to your collection.

Electrovoice RE20 – $449

Not only is this a nice Kick Out microphone, but it performs well on floor toms. Save this one for softer players who have low tuned but wide open floor toms. Having said that, this microphone does have a good range of applications and will work well in most situations.

Overhead mics

Overheads can be finicky. They can drastically change the sound of your kit.

Some engineers think of them as cymbal mics, while others approach them as an ‘overall picture’ of the drum set.

As if that choice alone didn’t have a huge impact on sound, then there’s the technical choices such as placing overheads as an AB or XY stereo pair, an ORTF rig, or going for a 3:1 rule with the focus on picking up the cymbals.

Ask yourself these questions when choosing overhead mics:

• Do I want a very detailed, crisp picture, and a perfect stereo image of the kit? (If yes, go with a small diaphragm condenser mic)
• Or do I want a more rock and roll approach: big sound, big room, big tails on cymbals and drums? (If so, go with a large diaphragm condenser mic)

To reiterate, small diaphragm condensers are better for detail and precision, and large diaphragm condensers are better for more of a big, full-bodied sound.

In each section you’ll get a pair choice for bright and dark options for a variety of budgets.

And don’t forget: for most applications (and if you want your cymbals to have a nice stereo spread on your tracks) you’ll need at least 2 microphones. Get a matched pair if you can!

Large Diaphragm Condensers

Aston Origin – $299

This is one of the best large diaphragm condenser mics I’ve come across at this price point.

I wouldn’t take it on the road (the mesh around the capsule feels fragile), and I’d invest in a shock mount as the built in thread can make it awkward to position the microphone.

I bought a pair when my AKG C3000 and C214 started showing signs of age, and I’ve used them in my home studio as my overheads ever since, paired with the Rycotte USM shock mounts.

This is an amazing starting point for the price, and depending on your room and cymbals, this mic should set you up for quite a while.

AKG C414 (XLS/XLII) – $1099

There are two models, but I recommend sticking with the XLS.

This is probably the most widely used all-purpose large diaphragm condenser microphone out there. You’ll probably find this mic as an overhead at a lot of live shows and commercial studios, and used for everything from overheads to guitars and vocals

I find this microphone to sit in between a small diaphragm and a large diaphragm mic in terms of sound, so it feels to me like it doesn’t do either very well, in addition to being quite bright. Opt for something else if you prefer a darker sound.

In the same price range, I’d recommend the Neumann TLM103. It has a bit more bottom end and more of the big room feel, with a top-end that isn’t as pronounced (but still present).

Sontronics Aria – $1499

I really like this mic as an overhead. It has slightly more body and presence and that ‘big room sound’ than the AKG C414 (XLS/XLII), and it’s closer in performance to the vintage C12, with a bright detailed character.

Neumann U47 FET – $4000

If you’re looking for something truly special – the kind of thing people look for in high-end studio lockers – the first versions of the Neumann U47 microphones are incredible. They have a nice saturation and a top-end that’s so smooth your cymbals will sound like butter to your ears.

But like the original Neumann U67 and AKG C12, most of these will be unobtainable, and only engineers and some musicians will notice and appreciate the improvement over other models.

While we’re dreaming of some of the nicest microphones on the planet, other mics in the same category would be the Neumann U67, AKG C12 (original), and the Sony C800.

Small Diaphragm Condensers

Sontronics STC1 – $199

There are plenty of small diaphragm condenser microphones in this price range (and cheaper), but they’re versatile and beat out other commercial offerings. Even when you aren’t using these for overheads, you can still use STC1s as cymbal spot mics, on guitars, marimbas, percussion, you name it.

I bought a pair when they were released in 2005, and for the next 3 years I used to carry these in a fabric pencil case in my backpack every day, bringing them to shows in the scorching sun and freezing rain, and they work perfectly after over 15 years. The only downside is if you’re working in a bright room with bright cymbals, these overheads can be pretty bright.

You could upgrade these to the AKG C451s, but I find it pretty hard to justify the price difference.

Fostex MC10ST – $150 (pair)

Not as bright as the STC1s, this is the smoothest little pair of small diaphragm condensers I know at a price that won’t break the bank.

AKG C451 – $549

This is a classic overhead microphone. If you decide to upgrade or swap it for a large diaphragm overhead, you can always use the C451 for hi-hats, ride cymbals, snare drums, or miscellaneous percussion.

It has a bright, detailed sound that’s very focused, but also a bit harsh. You might want to consider some of the upgrades from here: Neumann KM184, Shure KSM137, and KSM141, or the incredible Earthworks SR25.

DPA 4011 – $1799

This is one of my favorite spot mics of all time, and also dubs really well as an overhead pair.
It can be put super close to sound sources with no real issue, and has incredible spill rejection.

Both the frequency response and the phase response are so good that it’s become a favorite for spot-mic duties in large orchestra recordings. And it’s fully configurable too (you can change the body size).

While it comes with a large price tag, it’s one of those classic mics that are used in environments where you can’t put a price tag on quality.

Neumann KM184 (formerly KM84) – $799

Although the KM184 reissues are very different from the KM84, these are really nice overhead mics (and spot mics!). No harshness and a ton of detail. Because it uses a transformer as part of its design, you get a nice soft saturation to it.

This model is worth every penny if you’re upgrading from the STC1 or the AKG C451.

Shure KSM 141 – $399

Another good offering when it comes to small diaphragm options is the KSM141 (and the cheaper alternative, KSM 131). The 141 is a well-balanced small diaphragm condenser that offers lots of detail without being overly bright.

Earthworks SR25 – $619

One of the most detailed and flattest microphones I’ve come across, a pair of SR25s gives you an excellent stereo image and detailed transients and tails from cymbals and shells alike.

It’s hard to see any other microphone compete in the same category unless you want a slightly different sound (eg. the slight saturation from a Neumann KM84, or the big sound offered by large condenser microphones). This mic has it all, despite being slightly more expensive than other options.

If you do decide on the SR25s as your overhead pair, make sure you buy a matched pair as it helps increase the definition when used in stereo pair configurations (XY/AB/ORTF).

Ribbon Microphones

Ribbon mics are special because they use a magnetic strip suspended between magnets to capture sound equally from the front and the back of the microphone (also known as the ‘figure-8’ directional pattern).

Because of this configuration, they can be trickier to use than other mic types. If your ceiling is too low, and made out of hard and smooth materials like concrete, glass or tile, this could actually cause problems for your recording.

But if your room allows it, ribbon mics can be magical as overhead pairs:

• They have a roomier sound because they capture sound from both the front and the back, which includes indirect sound.
• These microphones tend to be much darker than any other large diaphragm condensers, which can help tame brash cymbals or even get you closer to that lo-fi drum sound that’s so popular among many indie and alt-rock artists.

If you’ve never used a ribbon microphone before:

• Not all ribbon mics have protection against phantom power. Make a habit of turning off phantom power or using a phantom power blocker on ribbon mics unless you’ve read the user manual beforehand.
• Ribbon mics might need more gain than you are used to with other types of microphones. If you have budget preamps, you might not have enough gain to properly drive these microphones. If that’s the case, you can get in-line preamps like the FetHead, or an external preamp that has a bit more gain. Make sure that the in-line preamp blocks the phantom power, or you might ruin your beautiful ribbon mic.
• For those of you with trained ears or those who are into the technical stuff, if you have a preamp with different impedances make sure you try them. It’ll significantly change the character of the sound captured by (most) ribbon mics.

BeyerDynamic M160 – $699

While there are cheaper options, this is the first one I would feel comfortable recommending as a ‘budget’ ribbon microphone for overhead duties (see the room mic section for a cheaper ribbon mic).

The M160 has been around for many years and you’ll often encounter it in smaller studios. It’s a good choice if you want a darker drum sound without shelling out for the Coles 4038.

Having said that, the Coles are fantastic and will always be the preferred upgrade path from the M160s.

Coles 4038 – $1365

The Coles is the classic ribbon microphone used in overhead setups. These beasts are heavy, so make sure you have 2 solid, high quality microphone stands available when purchasing or renting a pair of these for your recordings.

Even though this model comes with a heavy duty casing, it’s still a ribbon mic, so handle with care.

Spot mics

Hi-hat and ride mics

Small diaphragm condensers are typically favored for this role because they’ll let you capture articulation and detail. I recommend the DPA 4011A, or the Neumann KM184 if you want something warmer. On a budget, the Sontronics STC1 or the AKG C451 will do just fine.

However, dynamic microphones can help tame bright, harsh-sounding hi-hats. For this, I’d recommend the Shure SM7B and Shure SM57.

Percussion mics

If your drum kit has a series of other percussion pieces like cowbells, chimes, or timbales, here are some tips for choosing the mics:

Is the source of the signal loud? 

If you absolutely have to mic up that cowbell or those timbales, you can probably get away with a dynamic microphone like the SM57. In fact, the SM57 might be your preference for ‘anything else’ around the drum kit.

Is the source of the signal either really quiet or bright and articulate?

You might want to consider a small diaphragm microphone like the DPA4011, KM184, Sontronics STC1, or AKG C451. Bear in mind that the more condenser mics you have around the kit, the more spill you’ll have (which will make the mixing process harder).

Room mics

Rooms are an essential part of the drums’ sound. Unless you’re in a small studio with a lot of absorption, you should absolutely invest in room mics.

For this role, you’ll need either large diaphragm condenser mics or ribbon mics (the latter because their figure-of-eight pattern), as they can capture the nuances of all the tails and the reflections of the sound being bounced around in the room much better than any dynamic microphone.

Any of the large diaphragm condensers we’ve discussed in previous sections will do, but I prefer the AKG C414 (because of the multiple patterns), the Neumann U47 or U67, and the AKG C12. You should also consider ribbons like the Coles and the Royers (see below).

Here are a few other alternatives that work really well as room microphones:

Royer R121 – $1295

These are dark but detailed room mics. They capture a lot of the room sound and almost give it a slightly compressed vibe.

I recommend getting two R121s and setting them up on top of each other. This is a popular stereo recording technique known as Blumlein, which lets the engineer get a good stereo image of the kit but also pick up a fair amount of room tone. But they also work well as a spaced pair in an AB configuration.

Scope Labs Periscope Mic – ~$450

Here’s something completely different: a microphone in a copper tube that has a built in compressor and that looks like it came from under your kitchen sink.

Room mic signals are often squashed with brutal compression settings, so this model does it for you.

Check out some photos of one in action!

This is not a lo-fi microphone, as it’s an omnidirectional condenser mic that can capture everything from the low end of your kick drums to the high end of your tambourine. But at the same time, it’s designed to change frequency response and dynamic response in non-linear ways, so it’s hard to predict how it’s going to sound until you hear it. 

Final thoughts

You don’t need to break the bank for a good drum sound. If you’re new to all this, start with a drum mic bundle and use the remainder of the guide to upgrade as you move forward.

Think about the kind of music you’ll mostly be recording, and what kind of content you’re producing. If you decide to get a bundle, don’t forget to budget for extra microphones (like an extra snare mic, or overheads), cables, and microphone stands.

If you’re trying to define your own sound, contact your local shop or distributor and see if they’d let you borrow a couple of different mics from the list so you can make the choice yourself. You might actually prefer the loose feel of the AKG D112 over the Shure Beta52, and the Shure Beta91 might be too clean for your kick sound needs!

Also, don’t get too caught up on the hype train. Sure, it’s a ton of fun to record with legendary U47 and C12 microphones and it’s great when you can hear the difference they make to your overall sound, but a lot of listeners won’t be able to hear the difference.

I hope you have a better idea on how to plan for your next microphone purchase. Have fun recording, and don’t hesitate to hit me up if you’d like more suggestions or have comments about the article.

Compare all these mics side by side

Want to look at your options in one convenient, easy-to-browse place? Click here for a table that compares models, prices, uses, and more.

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Glossary

Articulation – This parameter describes how every single note or sound should sound. There are a number of words that can be used to describe how long or short a note should be, how soft or sharp the attack should be, or even if the pitch and timbre should be modified. Common articulations are legato, staccato, marcato, and tenuto for full strokes, ghost notes, rim shots, side sticks, etc.

Compression – A term used in sound engineering to illustrate the process of controlling dynamic range in an audio track. Compressors will listen to the input signal and turn it down as it goes above a certain threshold. There are other pieces of equipment that will also compress an audio source: certain mics can clip the attack or transient of a sound source, tape machines can compress audio being recorded, and valve equipment and other distortion/saturation devices will naturally impart some degree of compression on a sound source.

dB SPL – A decibel scale based on the sound pressure level. It’s a scale that allows us to indicate how loud a sound is, comparable to a unit of reference (Pascal, which measures pressure). Acoustic drum kits usually sit between 80dB and 110dB SPL, depending on who’s playing, how well the kit is tuned, and the room it’s played in. It’s not uncommon for a well-tuned kit, in the hands of a heavy-hitting drummer, in a very small room, to reach SPL levels above 120dB.

Diaphragm – A thin material that vibrates sympathetically with the sound waves carried through the air. Condenser microphones use very thin conductive diaphragms made of gold, aluminum or copper, while dynamic microphones use mylar or other polyester films for their diaphragms. On a condenser mic, the diaphragm is also the transducer, while on a dynamic microphone, the diaphragm moves a coil, making the microphone less sensitive and less responsive to transients.

Frequency Spectrum – The range of frequencies that humans can hear, which goes from 20Hz to 20,000Hz (20kHz). The lower the number in Hertz, the more bass or low pitched the sound is. The higher the number, the more treble or high pitched the sound is.

Headroom – A technical specification that describes how loud a signal can get above standard operating levels for a specific piece of equipment. While some classic Neve preamps can have close to 30dBu headroom (dBu is a measure of signal in volts), some Behringer preamps will only give you +10dBu.

Phantom Power – A feature included in most mixing consoles, preamps, and interfaces (with preamps) that provides +48v (Volts) to the microphone alongside the signal. It’s a way to power mics without the use of an external power supply or power cables. Some older and modified mics might not be compatible with phantom power, so always check before turning it on.

Phase – When two nearly identical signals combine, any timing difference between the two signals can have deep, adverse effects on the resulting (combined) sound. The effect can drastically change the frequency response of the original signals, canceling or boosting one or more frequencies on the original signal. When talking about phase issues between two or more mics, the lower frequencies are usually the most problematic due to the distance between microphones.

Proximity Effect – With some microphones, the closer you move it toward the sound source, the more low end (bass) you’ll get. This can be either problematic or a tool for sound shaping. When recording snare drums, your snare might be too boomy and clash with the bass guitar, kick drum, or even vocals. On the other hand, if the toms are thin and high pitched but you want a bigger sound, getting the microphone closer can give you the boom that you didn’t hear at first listen.

Spot Mic – A microphone that’s placed very close to the rim of a drum shell or cymbal near the point of impact. The sole purpose of these mics is to capture the sound more accurately with minimal sound coming from the rest of the room.

Tail – A colloquial term used to describe the release portion of a sound. Every sound has 4 stages of dynamic: ADSR (Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release) and when we hit a cymbal or a drum, we have a very fast and loud attack, followed by a very small amount of decay, no sustain (we can’t keep the drum ringing), and a release that will be characteristic of the drum shell/tuning or the cymbal size, shape and weight. When we want to capture the “tails” of the drum sound, we usually mean how that release rings out throughout the room until it dies. This term is also commonly used for reverbs.

Transient – A high amplitude and short duration sound. In music, sounds typically start with a transient and then decay or sustain (like a hammer hitting a piano string). A drum’s waveform is almost exclusively a transient pulse that dies off really quickly.

Transducer – A device that turns energy from one form into another. Acoustic energy – like the sound waves traveling through the air after a drum is struck – can be converted into electric signals (voltage) by a microphone. While most people consider the microphone as a whole to be a transducer, it’s really the diaphragm. The type of transfer mechanism is what differentiates dynamic, condenser, and ribbon microphones. For dynamic mics, a layer of mylar attached to a moving coil acts as a transducer, and for condenser mics, a super thin, electrically charged plate hovering over a back plate works as a transducer. A ribbon mic uses a thin strip of aluminum suspended between two magnets.

XLR Cable – A popular type of connector that carries balanced audio signals from microphone level to line level. In microphone applications, the cable carries the signal, an inverted copy of the signal, and a reference ground often used as a shield to protect the signal from any interference.

How to make drum covers:

Maybe you’re doing it for the thrill of performing. Maybe you’re trying to document your progress. Maybe you want to create a killer portfolio. Or maybe you want to shoot for the stars and become the next big influencer.

Whatever the reason, you’ve come to the right place – here’s a guide on how to film and record your own drum covers!

Clean your room

One thing that most people often forget is to clean the space that’s going to be visible in your shots. I’ve been guilty of that. I’ve sent a video out where you can see a mop and a bucket on the foot cam. Whoops!

Jokes aside, the presentation goes a great length to the overall feel and vibe of the video. Tidying up the room will give you an air of professionalism, that you’re serious about your craft and attention to detail. Of course, you might be aiming for a different vibe – where showing off a messy drum space is what you want.

Get some lights

Let’s be honest – most of us aren’t going to move our entire drum kit outside just to get great natural lighting for our videos.

One essential factor for video quality is adequate lighting. The more light you have, the better your video will look. But one ring light in front of your kit won’t likely be enough. Drumeo uses five or six big light panels, all aimed at the artist.

You can get a semi-pro setup quite cheap these days. We could go on and discuss white balancing issues, whether a cooler light (color profile of 5600k) might be better for your shot, or whether you should go with something warmer (lights with a color profile below 3200k), but start by investing in a couple of lights to make sure you can cover any undesirable shadows.

You’ll at least want a key light (a focused light that lets you control exactly where shadows appear or disappear) and a fill light (that can provide general light around you). In a three-point lighting setup, you have a key light, a fill light, and a backlight (something you should definitely have if you’re playing in front of a dark background).

If you’re just starting out – or you’re new to using lights – Neewer makes a range of cheap but reliable products ranging from $40 to $400 that will cover most if not all of your lighting needs for any size room. You can get them on Amazon!

If you can’t afford a brand new specialized lighting setup, you can make do with what you have at home – it just won’t be as epic looking. Using the same principles of fill and key light, grab a few floor lamps (diffusing them with a sheet of paper if they’re too bright and harsh) and place them around the kit. Even flashlights and phone lights can help!

What should you be looking for when setting up for a shot?

Firstly, make sure there’s enough light so your face doesn’t have noticeable shadow zones. Place the key light – your primary light – in front of the drum kit at a 45-degree angle from the camera.

Secondly, make sure people can clearly see your hands, sticks, and any surfaces you’re playing on. If you want to get more artistic and dive a bit deeper, have a look at broad versus flat light, loop light, back light, butterfly light, and a few other interesting lighting techniques.

Are you thinking about adding a shot of your feet? Be aware that keeping a foot cam well lit is a common issue. Those shots are often riddled with shadows from the drum kit and the drummer. Sometimes adding light to this shot can create even more problems with shadows, so experiment with light placement for your foot camera before you hit record. 

Find (or make) drumless tracks

Ah, that famous question. How do I remove the drums on this commercially recorded song?

If you’re going to be doing a cover where you play the drum parts exactly the same, note for note, the need to remove the original drums will be less of an issue for you as you can mask the original drums. But if you’re going to be taking creative liberties, your drum sound clashing and flamming against the original drum sounds is not going to provide a very good listening experience

Depending on the music genre, you might be able to get rid of the drums completely, but most of the time it will come at a cost to the rest of the track. In many situations, it will be nearly impossible to do any drum removal without severely impacting the sound of the song.

This is because drums as an instrument are fairly broad in the frequency spectrum, and usually panned to take the entirety of the stereo field. But with some engineering knowledge and experience, you can use a combination of M/S, EQ, Compression and Phase techniques to attenuate or remove drums from a track.

If that sounds daunting to you, here are a few other alternatives:

• Get MIDI tracks or audio tracks triggered by MIDI and Virtual Instruments. These might sometimes sound a bit cheesy or cheap depending on your virtual instruments selection or programming skills, but will give you the most flexibility (removing the drums, remixing parts of the arrangements, etc.).
• Use an online library service where people re-recorded the track and now provide the stems separately.
• Contact the artist, or look around to see if the artist has provided stems for open use. Sometimes artists release the stems so they can be used for education purposes. Sometimes they do it so people can remix their songs for competitions. Whatever the reason, the stems might be already available for you. Just mute the stem that includes the drums.
• Use an online library service where there are songs that resemble the song you want to cover. For example, Drumeo has a few downloadable tracks like “Show me How To Drum” or “Matthews Street”.
• Using Cloud-Based AI services that extract stems, like Spleeter or Moises.ai, and plugins like AudioSourceRe, XTrax Stem 2, Unmix Drums and Drum Extract.

Check out this article with more resources on finding and using drumless play-along tracks.

Record your audio and video

Using a portable recording device

You might have seen quite a few people using those little Zoom devices. I love these recorders. They are reasonably cheap and can record audio in mono, stereo and other configurations, as well as video. They are reliable, well built, and sound good. 

The Zoom Q4N is one of the best cameras for making drum videos on a budget. It has a 4K wide-angle lens camera – making it perfect for small spaces and large drum kits – and a stereo microphone capable of handling 120dB SPL (that means really loud drumming). It’s the perfect recorder device to place above the kit, next to the drummer, or in front of the kit.

If this is not enough, it also offers a line/external microphone input. You could have all your microphones or your electronic drum kit output going to a mixer alongside the playback of the song, and have the entire cover done in one step without the need for post-production.

Alternatively, you can always sync the audio to the song in post-production.

The other Zoom device I’d like to mention is the H2N. It comes with several capture modes (XY, Mid/Side, and even some interesting surround modes) and microphones capable of handling 120dB SPL. If you have a camera available, or you have a smartphone with a decent camera but need to upgrade the sound, this is definitely one of the best contenders on the market to do the job.

Using your smartphone

There’s a good chance you’re reading this on the same device you can use to record yourself. The latest generations of iPhones have excellent built-in microphones and processing that can capture audio quite well, including loud sources such as your drum kit. Smartphone cameras are stellar and have been used in countless drum covers, documentaries, and even award-winning feature movies. 

There are two major downsides to making videos with your phone, in my opinion:

• There’s no easy way to record, edit, and publish in one go. You’ll need to do some post-production with your video editor, either on your phone (using apps like iMovie, Splice, etc.) or on your computer (using an editor like Final Cut Pro, iMovie, DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Premiere).
• How you frame your shot will dictate your audio quality. Because you’re using the same device to capture both audio and video (and video almost always takes priority – you’ll want to get a clear angle on your performance), the audio might suffer.

Most people like adding multiple shots to their videos to make it more exciting for the viewer. Because the above setup requires some post-production tasks, moving from one camera (your iPhone) to multiple cameras is simpler than it seems.

A benefit of shooting with your phone is how easy and flexible it is to expand your setup:

• You can easily add more phones or cameras for multi-camera shoots. Just remember: if you use different cameras or phones, you should look into color-correction for consistency!
• You can combine it with an external audio capture mechanism, such as a multi-microphone setup going through an interface into a DAW for mixing in post-production. You can also run the microphones and playback into a mixer, and grab the stereo output through an interface designed for your phone to record video and audio at the same time.
• Lastly, pair your iPhone with the Yamaha EAD10. This is, in my opinion, so revolutionary I’m going to dedicate a section entirely to the EAD10.

If you’re using multiple phones and/or cameras, I strongly recommend you still record with the audio on every camera as it will make syncing the devices much easier in post-production (even though you’ll likely discard the audio). 

You should also get in the habit of slating, which will help you line up the audio and save you a lot of time later. Say the production name and take number out loud, then clap.

Takeaways for a multiple camera setup: Always record audio from each device as it will make it easier to sync in the future. Whenever possible, slate the take number and add a short sound before you start each take. Lastly, create a template for color correction in your editor for each camera used, as it will save you time during post-production.

Recording with mics and an interface

If you’ve never gone the traditional recording route before, the idea of setting up separate mics, routing them through an interface, and connecting it all to your DAW software might sound overwhelming. While you could go down the rabbit hole when it comes to mics, recording, editing and mixing, it isn’t as scary as it sounds.

To get started, you’ll need some drum mics and XLR cables, an interface (like a Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 or 18i20 or a PreSonus Studio 192), and a DAW (like ProTools, Cubase, or Reaper). You’ll also need to know how to place your mics, how to set up a session on your computer, how to test your mic outputs and levels, and how to edit, mix, and export.

There’s a lot to know. For a complete beginner’s tutorial on recording drums the way studios do it, check out a helpful guide here. 

Using the Yamaha EAD10

Yamaha truly changed the game when it comes to recording an acoustic drum kit quickly and cheaply. This unit and an iPhone might be all you need to record your covers!

It might seem a bit on the pricey side (about $500 at the time of writing) but it removes the steep learning curve needed to achieve the same results.

With this module, you don’t need to learn audio mixing techniques, multiple microphone techniques, signal flow, or how to trigger samples. You don’t need to learn how to sync audio and video, or create tempo maps for your click tracks. It will also save you money on microphones, preamps, converters, microphone stands, cables, DAW software licenses…you get the picture.

At its heart, the EAD10 uses a microphone (although you can expand the system by adding triggers) and a brain similar to the ones found in electronic drum kits. It will capture your entire drum kit and use samples to reinforce and process the sound. You can then swap between hundreds of mixes and styles at the push of a button – no extra tuning or changing parts required.

Here comes the best part: you can load in songs and play alongside them – and record – all in one go. The EAD10 brain even comes with handy tools like a smart metronome that will add a pulse to the track. 

Here’s one last killer feature for your drum cover needs: if you have an iPhone, you can connect it to the EAD10. Set up the phone on a tripod and start recording.

Now you have a drum cover recorded with a high-quality iPhone camera and a decent audio mix of your drums, ready to be uploaded to YouTube or social media.

If you want to up your production value with more cameras, you can have the extra cameras rolling, import all the footage to a video editor like Final Cut Pro X, and edit away scene transitions to your heart’s content.

Using an electronic drum kit

If you have an electronic drum kit, you should be able to connect it to a computer and record directly into your software. There are a few ways to set up a DAW to receive internal samples or MIDI notes (which you can then sample replace), and there are a ton of resources on YouTube.

The nice thing about recording with MIDI is that it’s easy to manually move a note if you make a mistake. But don’t rely on it – drum videos should still show your real ability and your human side! Practice playing accurately rather than quantizing (perfectly aligning each note to the grid post-recording).

Using action cameras

Decent cameras can be very expensive – especially if you need more than one. They also typically have telescopic lenses and most of us have fairly small practice/performance spaces.

That’s why you should try a GoPro Hero, a Sony FDR X1000, or a Sony FDR X3000 action camera if you want a multi-cam setup.

Action cameras are usually cheaper than their counterparts but have been able to handle fast motions, low lighting and 4K footage for a while now. They can also be found rather easily on second-hand websites. 

The other reason I recommend action cameras is that they generally have wide-angle lenses, which give you more flexibility with your shots if you have a large kit in a small room. It comes at the expense of some distortion in the image, but Drumeo used to use the Sony FDR X1000 extensively (they now use the Sony RX0 II) and you can see the GoPro Hero in Aaron Edgar’s remote lesson videos.

Using traditional cameras

It goes without saying, but modern DSLRs take fantastic video – including high res 4K! If you already have one of these cameras, or you’re prepared to invest a few thousand dollars into one, they’ll take your drum covers to the next level.

There are a ton of online resources that outline ISO (your camera’s sensitivity to light), aperture (which controls the amount of light allowed to enter the camera), and shutter speed. But here’s a basic overview:

• Frame rate – Shoot at either 24 or 30fps (frames per second). The higher your frame rate, the more light you’ll need.
• Shutter speed – Controls the amount of motion blur. This number will be twice the value of your frame rate and should never change.
  • Example 1: 24fps – 1/50
  • Example 2: 30fps – 1/60
• Aperture – Controls your depth of field (DOF). The smaller the number, the more light is let in and the smaller your DOF is.
  • Example 1: F/4 – Brighter image, small DOF
  • Example 2: F/22 – Darker image, large DOF
• ISO – Sensor gain – The lower you can get this number, the better. The higher this number is, the more ‘noise’ (visual grain) that will be in your image.

To control each of these variables independently, you should use your camera in manual mode. It’ll give you the best results, which is probably what you want considering how much you’ve invested into this type of camera. If you don’t know how to use yours manually, hit up YouTube!

The best camera settings for drum videos

As a drummer, keep the following in mind:

• A higher ISO will digitally brighten your videos, but it will result in grainier/lower quality.
• A higher shutter speed will better capture quick movement, but it will also let in less light, so make sure you have adequate lighting.
• A lower aperture will give you a wider depth of field so you and your kit will both be in focus. But it also means a darker shot.

Get the best shots 

You can have the best gear in the world, but without good angles, your video won’t be as enjoyable to watch.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Make sure you don’t have cymbals or stands blocking your face.
• Film from slightly overhead, even during forward-facing shots, so at least a part of your heads are visible.
• Change up your angles to keep things interesting, like one forward shot, one side shot, and/or one overhead shot. Add in that foot cam if the footwork is interesting. You can edit these together later.

If you don’t have someone around to film you, you’ll need to do it all yourself. Plan extra time to get set up, since you may have to do more test shots as you adjust and optimize your lights and your camera settings.

If you’re using different cameras (or a combination of cameras and phones), make sure the frame rates match in every device, or make sure you convert the video before importing to your video editor of choice. Otherwise, the different angles will slowly drift out of sync with each other (and with the audio!).

Before you sit down, you can also set up a placeholder (a random item, maybe) on your throne while you focus your camera and adjust the height of your tripod. Then hit record, film yourself playing something, and review the test footage to make sure you’re happy with it.

Audio editing and mixing

You could export the final video from the EAD10 or use your phone to do some quick edits. But in most situations, you’ll want to export the media to a computer and use editing software to mix the recorded audio against the cover track.

If you captured audio using multiple microphones and an interface, or you recorded using an electronic kit, you use a DAW to edit, mix, process, and get a nice solid drum sound that fits the style of music you’re covering.

Rather than go into the entire process here, there are a few articles on The Drumeo Beat that cover editing and mixing, including the beginner’s guide to recording drums and this guide to drum samples (which teaches you how to use samples to improve your drum recording). Check them out if you’re new to recording or are interested in learning new techniques.

Once you’ve mixed the audio, you can import everything into a video editor and finalize the post-production steps.

Video editing software

If you want to shorten clips, edit between cameras, or add some filler footage to your videos, you’ll need some kind of video editing software.

If you’re a Mac user, iMovie is probably all you need. It handles multiple video lanes and multiple audio lanes, and even offers some color correction tools. Final Cut Pro is a good upgrade from iMovie, offering more intelligent tools for color correction, audio synchronization, and multi-camera editing.

Alternatives include Adobe Premiere Pro, Hit Film, and DaVinci Resolve.

Use one lane per video and your final audio mix (or the file you pulled from your EAD10 or Zoom Recorder). If you’re capturing audio from your phone or camera, make sure all cameras are muted except for the one you want the sound to originate from.

With this setup, you can now edit transitions between different shots, do PIP (Picture-In-Picture) composite shots, add text or logos, make color corrections, and more.

Exporting for social media

Some social media platforms are optimized to display specific ratios, resolutions, or lengths of videos. Bear that in mind when exporting the video.

Most mainstream video editors will have presets to export in the correct resolution and file format for most platforms. While – with some work – you can make a one-size-fits-all file, you may need to make some tweaks to prevent your shots from being cropped or your upload failing due to length/resolution constraints by the platform.

Here are some common specs to keep in mind for all social media platforms:

• Bitrate – VBR 1 Pass, Target and Max both 7Mbps
• Audio – 44100Hz and 128kb (this is important to get right or your video will desync on Instagram)
• 1728×2160 (4:5) and 1215×2160 (vertical)

These are the aspect ratios for the most popular platforms (the resolution will change depending on your file):

• 4:5 (Facebook, Instagram main feed)
• 9:16 (Stories, TikTok)
• 16:9 (YouTube)

I hope this article has enough information to get you started with your covers and playthroughs. Happy drumming!

Glossary

Color Correction: A video post-production process that looks at the color profile of two different video feeds and applies correction curves so that both look and feel like they belong together. This is especially necessary if you shoot with different cameras, or if you shoot at different times of the day (when using natural light).

DAW: Digital Audio Workstation. It’s a piece of software that allows you to record one or more audio sources into separate tracks on your hard drive, and then edit them, mix it and bounce the final product into a stereo file. Popular choices are ProTools, Cubase, Logic Pro X, and Reaper, among many others.

DOF: Depth of Field. A term used in photography to describe how much a subject stands out against the background. This is achieved by blurring the background, and using the bokeh effect.

dB SPL: A decibel scale based on the sound pressure level. It’s a scale that allows us to indicate how loud a sound is, comparable to a unit of reference (Pascal). Acoustic drum kits usually sit between 80dB and 110dB SPL, depending on who’s playing, how well the kit is tuned, and the room it’s been played in. It’s not uncommon for a well-tuned kit, in the hands of a heavy hitting drummer, in a very small room, to reach SPL levels above 120dB.

Frequency Spectrum: The range of frequencies that humans can hear, which goes from 20Hz to 20,000Hz (20kHz). The lower the number in Hertz, the more bass or low pitched the sound is. The higher the number, the more treble or high pitched the sound is.

Mid/Side: An encoding technique where a stereo signal is separated into sides and middle, rather than left and right. This allows an engineer to process the sides of the center portion of a stereo signal individually. You’ll often need an “encoder matrix” to turn a stereo signal into M/S or vice versa.

PIP or Picture-In-Picture shots: When you have a smaller video superimposed on top of your main video. You might see this in drumming videos where you have a wide-angle shot of a drummer playing, with a small close up shot of the drummer’s feet in the corner of the video.

Slating: A term used in the film industry. By slating every shot, the film editor knows what take and scene that piece of film belongs to, and makes it easier to sync multiple cameras and audio to the audible clap signal. Traditionally, this was performed with a clapboard made out of slate – one of the assistants would write all the information with chalk, repeat the same information out loud for the audio recorders, and let the clapboard sticks fall for an audible click that could be easily synced to a frame. 

Stem: A stem is a stereo audio file that includes a sub-mix of the whole track. The term became popular in the post-production circuits, where mixers and sound designers would mix chunks of the audio into a discrete stereo or multi-channel file for easier mixing workflows in large projects. In the audio world, stems are used to quickly remix or change songs and videos: for instance, a song may require a “no vocal” version, or a trailer may require the music or dialogue to be replaced.

Wide-Angle Lens: A lens that allows very wide shots to be captured, at the expense of some “barrel distortion”. Common lenses used for portraits (eg. 50mm) and landscapes (eg. 20mm) need to be a few feet away from the subject, and even then only a narrow-angle of view will make it into the shot. Wide-angle lenses allow you to fit much more into the shot. However, there will be some distortion (like some straight lines appearing slightly curved).

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The interactions between the drums, the drummer, the drumheads, the sticks, the room and all the microphones are complex. Sometimes tracking down something that sounds weird or odd can be a real head-scratching, time-consuming experience.

Today we’re covering a series of things drummers do (or don’t do) that can seriously hinder productivity or the end result of their recordings. Grab some popcorn, and let’s dig into these nine common myths!

MYTH: “New drumheads aren’t necessary”

AKA, you haven’t changed your heads since you bought the kit.

As an engineer, I see a lot of drumheads in the following condition: they’re pitted, scratched, covered in gaffer tape, I think I see some beer stains on the head and…wait, is that blood?

It’s easy to see why drummers love gaffer tape as a tuning aid. In a live situation, it helps get a controlled decay, kills the overtones, and even makes the drum quieter. So quite a few drummers arrive with the tape already on the heads, while others put it on as soon as they strike their drums in the live room. This is because a recording studio with a good live room will make the overtones quite a bit more obvious than in the deadened practice bunker.

I understand. I don’t like to hear all those devilish rings come out of the drums. But instead of ruining your heads and your drum sound with gaffer tape, reach out to the engineer to figure out the best strategy together. We promise that all we want to do is get the most detailed, full and exciting sound out of your drum kit. Something that extreme muffling will prevent.

The engineer will know the room well, and hopefully understand the sound you are aiming for. On top of that, the microphones change the perceived sound of your drum shells and cymbals. Hence the phrase “this drum/cymbal records so well!”

A great example is the Sabian Max Stax. It doesn’t always sound great in person, but it records beautifully.

Lastly, most kits – except for medium and high-level kits – usually ship with poorer quality stock heads. Heads are, in my opinion, the largest variable when it comes to defining a shell sound. If you’re unsure of what sound you want to go for, upgrade your top and bottom stock heads to a Remo Emperor/Ambassador or Evans G2/G1 top/bottom combination.

TL;DR: Please replace your drumheads a few days before a recording session, and refrain from muffling the drums without the input of the engineer/producer.

MYTH: “My favorite tuning will sound great in this room”

In the studio, your kit will be under the microscope. Not only will it be heavily miked from all directions, but the improved acoustics will also bring the best (and worst) qualities out of your shells or cymbals. With larger rooms, it’s not uncommon to change the tuning to get ‘that’ big drum sound.

The room’s dimensions will directly affect how sound waves behave. What sounded like a thunderous floor tom in your garage might sound weak in the studio because the room will have wildly different dimensions.

I could go on forever about standing waves, nodes, and antinodes, but we need to move on. Just bear in mind the size of the room has an effect on the drum sound and adjusting the tuning up or down can help change the sound of your kit.

MYTH: “I should shred while the engineer is around”

The engineer really doesn’t want to hear your chops while in the live room.

In fact, we want to spend the least amount of time possible in front of an acoustic instrument. We want our ears to be nice and fresh to make the best possible decisions in front of the studio monitors, not in front of the drum kit.

If the engineer is coming to the live room to adjust something, stop playing. If they ask you to keep playing, avoid playing close to their ears. So please, don’t hit that china if I’m adjusting your overhead, or do loud backbeats on the snare if I’m placing your snare bottom microphone.

MYTH: “We want to record our album live”

Chances are, you don’t. You really don’t.

It’s easy to look back at some of the most epic albums in history and their sound and vibe and assume the trick is in recording live. The difference is that recording like that used to be a limitation on budget, equipment, time or any combination of the three.

Making a live record requires an extensive amount of preparation. Having pre-production down and the parts practiced are a must. You and your band need to not only be able to repeatedly play your parts without any mistakes, but also get the interplay between dynamics, timing, and feel right in every take.

As an engineer and mixer who receives a fair amount of ‘live’ recordings to mix, the amount of editing you can perform is limited. The bleed between different microphones (eg. the overheads might have some of the guitar sound or vice versa) severely limits creative processing and mix choices. You need to get it right during recording.

MYTH: “We can fix it in the mix”

While there are dozens upon dozens of techniques an engineer can apply during tracking or mixing to fix or change how your drum kit sounds, there are some things that will never work as well as doing them at the source.

Curious about some of these techniques? Check out my article on drum samples here on The Drumeo Beat.

• Get good cymbals, in good condition. If you are coming to a $1000 a day recording studio with your Sabian B8s you might be better off spending $70 and renting a set of Sabian AAXs (if you want bright cutting cymbals) or Sabian HHXs (if you want something darker and more complex) for the day.
  
  The same goes if your cymbals have cracks. They’ll have a grinding/edgy sound that the mics will capture.

• Bring different types of sticks, especially with different sizes and tip shapes. A lighter stick with a round tip will increase the cymbal clarity tenfold when compared to a 2B with a teardrop tip. You might also consider keeping a variety of specialty sticks like hot rods, brushes, and mallets in your stick bag.
  
  If you struggle with dynamics, and the song requires a softer touch, swapping to a sugar maple 7A stick might just do the trick.

• Avoid squeaky pedals and rattling hardware parts. You can apply some lubricant oil to the moving parts of your pedals (bass drum and hi-hat pedals) to help prevent squeaking noises. You might also want to use oil on your throne’s hardware. WD40 will do the job, but it’s greasy and smelly. Pearl has Ninja Oil for their ball bearing pedals and it works well as a lubricant.

MYTH: “I don’t need a drum tech”

Yes, you do. If there’s a budget, you should 100% get one.

A good drum tech will be able to work closely with the engineer to reach the best tuning for the drums, room and the song. They can usually get there a lot faster, too!

Let’s break this down: for an eight hour day, commercial studios can charge you anywhere from $400 to $1000 a day for the room alone. If you spend three hours tuning the kit, that’s $150 to $400 worth of session lost. It’s enough to cover the cost of a drum tech for half-day to a whole day and still have money to spare.

You’ll be able to keep the drums more in tune during the session, you’ll spend less time tuning, and you’ll be able to experiment with tunings faster, all while not draining the engineer’s ears or tiring yourself out.

MYTH: “I should take a break while they listen to my last take”

It can be tempting to just jump on Instagram in the time between takes, but the truth is, those playback moments are crucial for both the song and your own improvement as a drummer.

The more ears pay attention to the playback, the more the performance can be tuned. And as a drummer, listening back to what you just played is essential to your own development as a drummer.

“Is the tone of the toms good enough? Was I playing the crashes too loud? Maybe on the next take, I shouldn’t play that chorus so loud that the snare is cracking – it’s killing the vibe of the song! Oh, I guess I never land on the 1 after that fill…”

MYTH: “If you want that massive drum tone, play as hard as you can”

Not true. At all.

Playing too loud can choke both drums and cymbals. Drummers that play way too loud often get a sound out of the drums I define as “cracking”. While it’s sometimes desirable – especially on snare drums – this sound is often all attack and no sustain. For the listener, it’s a momentary hint at a drum that immediately gets buried in the mix and lacks punch.

On the other hand, a drum with a wide-open sustain will bring weight and depth. It’s the combination of attack, sustain and depth that tricks our ears and brain to think there are some thunderous drums being played in a song. I also found that using heavier sticks with barrel-shaped tips helps to get a good, deep tone out of toms and snare drums without any extra effort from the drummer.

Cymbals that are too loud will spill into every microphone, making the mix helplessly cymbal heavy and harsh. Cymbals can also start to behave in weird ways and no longer ‘open’ as nicely as when you are playing with medium dynamics, which results in a choked sound. If you need louder cymbals, get heavier cymbals instead of hitting harder.

Todd Sucherman talks about this myth in this quick video:

MYTH: “Drummers don’t have to worry about mixing”

Finally, something all drummers should strive to be: mixing engineers.

Just kidding…kind of.

Don’t worry. You don’t have to learn how to use a mixing console or ProTools. I’m referring to ‘mixing your drums’ in real-time by using dynamics while tracking.

When we play, we have the best opportunity to fine-tune the balance of our kit. A well-balanced drum kit records much better and gives room for the mixing engineer to dial in a perfect mix that will fit your band’s vision better.

Are you playing jazz? Get that ride soaring, and feather the kick. Make sure the snare is providing the right texture to the song. 

Are you playing hard rock? That kick should be hitting hard, the snare should be providing a backbeat, and the cymbals should be present but not too loud – think of them as the cherry on top.

There you have it. Hopefully these maintenance/practice tips and behavior changes will help you prepare for your next studio session and will make the recording experience much more pleasant for everyone, guaranteeing better sonic results no matter if you are recording in semi-pro recording studios, big-budget commercial rooms, or with your home studio setup.

As usual, feel free to reach out with questions and comments – I’d love to hear from you and connect with readers and lovers of drums and recording.

*This article contains affiliate links, which means we might earn a small commission from the product seller if you make a purchase. For more info, check out our privacy page.

(If you’re new to recording drums in general, you should start with the beginner’s guide here.)

If you don’t want to record your own, click here for a zip folder full of drum samples you can download and use!

Table of Contents

• What are drum samples?
• Pros and cons of drum samples
• Before you start
• Microphone techniques
• How to record drum samples
• How to edit drum samples
• How to trigger drum samples
• Free drum sample downloads

Introduction

I was going to start this article with a small anecdote about whether or not using samples is ‘cheating’, but Aaron Edgar beat me to it: Are Triggers Cheating?

While that article focuses on the many ways a trigger can be used to expand your drumming and creativity, I felt remiss not to mention it here. After all, it mentions three important uses of samples that we will focus on in this article:

1. Sound replacement (replacing the notes)
2. Sound reinforcement (adding similar sounds to help notes sound cleaner)
3. Sound augmentation (adding different sounds)

In this guide, you’ll learn what samples are, what they’re used for, their pros and cons, and how to record and edit your own. My goal is to give you, as a drummer, enough tips and tricks so that you can deliver a fantastic performance in the studio the next time the engineer asks you to take samples of your kit.

And if you are one of those people who dabbles in mixing your own productions and recordings, we’ll look at a few techniques on how to apply samples to your mixes, and eventually how to get creative with samples and special effects.

If you’re new to samples and relatively new to recording, there’s a handy glossary at the end of this guide in case you aren’t familiar with some of the terms.

This is going to be a long article with tons of information, so strap in! I will also be using a few bits of software during this article and video demos such as Pro Tools, Slate Trigger 2, NI Battery, NI Kontakt, and some third-party plugins that will help me illustrate what’s going on in the mix.

If you want to follow along, you’ll need:

• An audio interface, with one or more microphone inputs.
• At least one microphone, with a microphone stand.
• A DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Pretty much any DAW will do. I’ll be using ProTools but you can use Cubase, Logic, Reaper, Ableton, GarageBand, Cakewalk (free built-in drum trigger plugin), or one of many others. With ProTools 2020.11, both ProTools and Cubase now offer the ability to turn audio into MIDI, making the triggering process somewhat easier.
• A plugin that can trigger audio files from audio. My favorite is Slate Trigger 2, but there are other solutions like Drumagog, SPL DrumXChanger, etc. There are other plugins that offer triggering capabilities such as Superior Drummer 3 and Melda MDrumEnhancer (which is a powerful and unique tool in its own right). However, these are far more expensive and complex, so I won’t be covering them here.

I’ll try and approach everything in a simple, generic way, so you can apply the same principles to your DAW and sampler plugin of choice.

All set up? Let’s get started!

What are drum samples?

A sample is a short piece of audio – in our case, a drum hit – that is cropped to start at the zero-crossing point behind the transient (check out the glossary at the end of this article if these terms are new to you). Usually, that sample is taken from the close mic that belongs to that drum, or a combination of microphones around the drum kit for a more realistic sound.

Let’s get a few things out of the way: 

• Yes, samples can be used as a crutch to get a decent sound out of a bad kit/bad room.  
• Yes, samples can save a bad performance if the drummer is not a consistent player. 
• No, samples aren’t cheating. Even the best drummers and engineers rely on them.
• No, using drum samples isn’t a fad, unless it’s been a fad since 1979.
• Yes, you can completely kill a recording if you abuse samples.  

It would be wrong to say there isn’t a place for drum samples in any well-engineered recording performed by amazing drummers. 

Want a classic example? Jeff Porcaro and Bernard Purdie played on Steely Dan’s “Gaucho”, engineered by the legendary Roger Nichols. During the recording sessions, Nichols started the development of the Wendel, the first drum sample replacement machine.

That album won Nichols – well, the Wendel – a platinum Grammy.

Since then, countless hit records by top artists all over the world have used sample replacement, augmentation, or reinforcement in some way or another. Andy Wallace is notorious for using sound samples; Nirvana’s Nevermind trick of sending drum samples to reverbs has become legendary. Andy Sneap has been on record saying that using drum samples is the only way to go in heavier rock and metal genres. Chris Lord-Alge has, in multiple interviews, shared some of his favorite samples (some samples were even provided by his friend Steven Slate). Even in the country scene, prolific mixing engineer Billy Decker is using extensive sample replacement and augmentation on his mixes. 

With such a roster of engineers with extensive discographies, I’m sure you’ve enjoyed more than a few tracks that have drum replacement/augmentation or enhancement.

A brief history of drum sampling

Before the Wendel, there are stories of engineers completely surrounded in tape for days making loops that cover the whole song. If you needed longer tape loops, you’d have to take the tape out of the reel and use microphone stands or use the pulleys between one or more tape machines to achieve the desired loop length.

I’ve also heard stories of engineers punching in snare drums or kick drums one by one on tape. Can you imagine how tedious and long of a process that is? Remember, you couldn’t just jump to the next snare hit like you can now. You’d have to press a combination of keys to make the tape safe for scrubbing and manually rotate the flanges so you could find the exact point the snare or the kick hits. Mark the tape with your chalk, and then prepare to punch in – which could easily take a few goes to get right.

This is not to say there wasn’t sampling before the Wendel. By the ’40s, there was the Musique Concrete movement that was doing a lot in terms of sampling, synthesizing, and even digital signal processing. But what Roger Nichols did for Steely Dan’s “Sweet 19” track was groundbreaking.

The Wendel was indeed revolutionary, but it was not a fast process. You’d have to feed it the click track (the only means of synchronization back then) and then feed it the instruments you wanted to trigger – one at a time! Once that was done, you’d have to use a very non-friendly user interface to tweak some of the parameters that the Wendel would allow you to trigger.

Other options for sampling (the Fairlight comes to mind) were becoming popular and easier to program. There were also several incarnations of the Wendel that were more accessible to users.

It didn’t take long until effects processors such as the AMS DMX (famous delay processor) or the Roland SDE (famous delay unit) and later on the Lexicon 480L (probably the most recognizable reverb processor in a studio environment) allowed you to load a sample into the memory and trigger it via an audio input. All you had to do was make a copy of the snare or kick and feed it to the unit. You would then record that back to tape, so you could free up the AMS DMX or Lexicon 480L for other reverb duties.

The issue with doing the above was the delay. The sample could come in as much as 20ms late, creating phasing issues or even flamming.

This was fixed by extending the setup process to trigger drums by:

1. Setting up your tape machine to play the tape backward.
2. Using a gate to ensure your kick and snare was nothing more than an audible “click”. You might have had to push the level into the tape so it squared off to give you a nice loud “click” trigger-like sound.
3. Feeding that into a delay and setting to 10ms, 20ms, 25ms, etc. This would depend on what unit you’d be using to trigger your sample, as the delay needed to match.
4. Recording back that delayed click into a free track on the tape. Now, here’s the kicker. You couldn’t record this next to the original track. Why? It would often bleed into the click track so you’d have this faint flamming sound against the kick. We don’t want that!
5. And finally, reversing the tape direction once again. The “click” trigger sound you just made would play about 20ms (or whatever you chose) behind the kick drum. You’d use that to feed into your AMS DMX, Roland SDE, or whatever your sampler was.

Not long after that, drum machine brains were also used. They had TRS (jack) inputs (for the trigger pads) and engineers found out they could aggressively process the drums and feed them into those brains to trigger the drum machines for enhancement or augmentation (and even replacement sometimes).

Today, samples are as much of a technical tool as a creative tool. They allow you to get creative with the mixing process, fix problems with the recording, and get around budget constraints when planning recording sessions. But as with everything, if abused or used incorrectly, samples can lead to issues in your mix or make your song sound just like many other songs out there. 

As this is a pretty long article, here are some points of interest:

• If you are dying to get to the point where you learn more about recording samples, click here to jump to that section.
• If you want to jump to the section on how to use samples in a mix, click here.

Chrissy Lopez laying down a drum track.

Drum sample pros and cons

In some cases, samples give some genres of music their sound. Try to approach this next section with an open mind about what genres are traditionally heavy adopters of samples, and what genres might not be the best application for them – replacement or otherwise.

Pros

Here are some situations where using samples can literally make or break a record:

• You don’t have a drum kit.

But you performed for the entire album using your hands on your desk, and your feet on the floor. You had a microphone for each hand and your feet and you are using those short transient sounds to trigger drum samples. You literally skipped having to get a drum kit and a room that sounds good and skipped having to rig up a complex setup to get your performance recorded.

• Your drum kit is not in the best shape.  

Oh, and drum heads are really expensive. Maybe you are using a box room to play in, or a concrete/brick wall garage with horrible acoustics. There’s no budget to rent a studio for two or three days, let alone rent an extra drum kit and hire a drum tech. The use of samples might allow you to get a track recorded and sounding commercially viable.

• You are in a decent studio, with a decent drum kit. 

You know how to get a great sound out of the drums, but this one song on your record would make more sense to have a down-tuned Black Beauty snare, or a 26″ kick drum instead of your 18″ bop kick. There’s nothing wrong with your playing, but the right “vibe” is not coming out. You have the wrong tools for the job. It’s okay! Being able to replace portions of the kit with samples of drums that fit the song better can change the vibe of a track completely. At this point, we want whatever serves the song best.

• The performances are good, but the drummer is not very consistent with the dynamics. 

This is made worse by the fact that the song is so busy or the arrangement is so dense that a few snare hits get buried and the energy is lost. Just augmenting or reinforcing the snare means we have a consistent backbeat throughout the song – making it more danceable and helping it carry more energy to the listener.

• The drummer plays the cymbals too loud, or the cymbals are too close to the shells. 

This means the microphones on the toms and snare are picking up too much from the hi-hat or crashes. The engineer did the due diligence and asked the drummer to raise the cymbals – but they weren’t able to perform some of the parts very well. This is common, and it’s fine. If I were the engineer, I’d have a decision to make at this point:

1. Do I go ahead with a setup that makes the drummer uncomfortable and potentially sacrifice time and groove, or result in needing to spend more time editing out mistakes?
2. Or do I go ahead and have the drummer be more comfortable, but already knowing I’ll probably be using some degree of sample reinforcement or replacement?

If you picked the second option, the drummer played more in time and cleaner because the kit was how they liked it. If the mixing engineer isn’t able to compress or brighten the snare as much as they’d like without making cymbals too loud or harsh, they can slide in a snare or tom sample that complements the sound they’re after – and EQ and compress that sample instead! 

Using samples in any capacity has become the staple sound of nearly all modern, commercial (eg. “radio-ready”) songs in pop, rock, and metal. There are even indie tracks, ballads, and folk songs that reap the benefits of drum samples. Even stuff coming out of Nashville – one of the country and folk capitals of the world – has drum samples front and center.

Cons

As with everything, there are some downsides to using samples as well:

• Your music might sound like everyone else in your genre. In the late ‘00s and early ‘10s, most people were using the Slate Kick10 and Snare12a everywhere in the metal and punk scene. It was a bit of a long-running theme of discussion in online forums at the time. I believe this came from a Joey Sturgis post in his forum after his work with Asking Alexandria.

• In music where the drummer applies a lot of technique and has a very articulated sound, you might lose those subtleties with sample replacement, reinforcement, and augmentation – even if you program the performance in MIDI. You wouldn’t want to apply these kinds of techniques to one of Terry Bozzio’s compositions, Brian Blade’s grooves, or Steve Smith’s exotic patterns full of beautiful dynamics and tone goodness.

• Drum samples can get repetitive to the ear. One-shot samples, in particular, can become repetitive and annoying to the listener fast, especially if not mixed properly and modulated in some way.

• For more complex passages, such as fills and rolls, this repetitiveness can become easily apparent. For example, a series of 16th notes can sound like a machine (many engineers and musicians refer to that as a “machine gun-like sound”).

• In some situations, especially in small rooms or when there are really loud cymbals, the original captured sounds for spot mics can be unusable for triggering. There are a few processing tricks that can be used to minimize false triggers, but you often need to replicate the performance in MIDI or edit out the original performance to ensure the samples are triggered properly.

• For more complex playing, replacing drums with samples can take many hours of work for the mixing engineer or editor. I’ve worked on a few metal tracks that took four to five hours just to get the multi-tracks cleaned, edited, and MIDI notes generated so that the samples used were natural and fit the song and the original performance.

• Genres like jazz – where drummers employ a lot of articulation and dynamics in their playing – or blues, country, or Latin where artists might go for a more old school sound are probably not good platforms for sample use.

• And I want to point out that it is, in fact, possible to record a great-sounding album without sample replacement. Yes, even in a genre like metal that, by default, sees drum samples as a certainty.

With all of this in mind, I’ve started asking my mixing clients if they want their songs “radio-ready” or if they have an artistic vision for their track. Why? Because that can definitely influence the path I go down when mixing. Artists who have a really clear vision and are not bothered about commercial success tend to prefer natural performances – warts and all. These artists love to overthink every detail and make sure things are as loose or as tight as they want. They are not trying to compete with other releases, but rather match the vision they have in their heads.   

On the other hand, people who are trying to make commercially viable tracks usually want a loud and upfront mix that’s polished and precise. It’s hard to get a mix that can compete with other releases (who use samples in some capacities) if you don’t use samples yourself. 

When everything is so loud and massive, something has to give. The backbeat can become weak, or some of the weaker strokes will be drowned out. The listener might experience that temporary loss of snare or kick (or tom) as a loss of energy and hype. These sorts of mistakes will become more apparent the more polished the mix is.

Why should audio engineers use drum samples?

If you aren’t an engineer, you can skip this section.

Samples may feel like cheating to you. It may feel like you are raising your hand to admit defeat – that you somehow messed up the tracking session. “You need to get good sounds at the source,” they say.

Yes, it’s true. There isn’t a “fix it in the mix“.  

We should get the best sound we can at the source.  

But sometimes it just isn’t possible. Maybe because of budget restrictions. Maybe because the room wasn’t right or the tuning was off. Or the aircon in the car broke down and it was 100 degrees outside and the heads warped and no matter how much you tune them they aren’t settling. 

What I’m trying to say is: not everything is within our control. We need to be kind to ourselves and accept that that’s the best sound we’ll get – and for the sake of your session, move on. Why not use samples to improve it later? 

One thing I’ve learned the hard way was that being a studio engineer is one of the most misleading job descriptions in the world. It’s so much more than that. You are often the keeper of the session – where managing time and the mood/morale is as essential as getting good sounds.

Don’t chase the perfect sound at the expense of time and morale!

Spending hours or days trying to get a perfect sound will be a downer for your clients who are seeing their expensive studio time being wasted on details they can’t really pick up on or understand. Worse – if at the end of the session they can’t track all the guitars or vocals because you spent three days dialing in a drum sound – they will rightfully blame you!

On the morale front, a drummer who spent three hours giving you single strokes on the snare for a sound check will probably not give you the best performance either. 

I spent years refusing to use samples.

As a recording engineer, I’d mumbled curses at the drummer for not knowing how to keep their drums in good shape, well-tuned, and for not knowing how to hit them right. 

As a mixing engineer, I’d spend three, four, five, even six hours just mixing the drums, obsessing about every imperfection, and trying to squeeze everything I could out of them. But I would refuse to reach out for a sample.

And you know what? It wasn’t worth it.

Not in my opinion, anyway.

I could have slapped a good sample in, automated or programmed it to better suit the song, and moved on to the rest of the tune in a fraction of the time. Cheating? No! Making the song sound its possible best? Yes!

I have two more points to make as to why samples are worth embracing:  

Have you ever received a set of multi-tracks, recorded in small rooms with a lot of reflections (eg. every concrete garage out there)? There’s so much spill between microphones, and there’s only so much processing you can do, realistically, before every microphone becomes a glorified hi-hat mic.  

Yet, the producer writes to you in the brief:

“Make it sound like any of the happy, upbeat, feel-good, Michael Bublé pop tracks.”

Here are your options:

1. You can spend a few hours EQing, gating, getting into weird phase issues, fighting spill, and not get close to where you want to get, or…
2. You can augment the drums you do have with samples that will push the production close enough to the reference so that the client is happy. The artist is happy. You are happy because you kept the mixing time within budget.

Lastly, have you ever got to a point where you feel your mix is spot on, but the song just fails to move? As in, it sounds static, there are no changes that make that chorus lift up or hit harder, or there’s nothing that makes the verse feel cozier.

Maybe you even tried to automate reverb, reverb tails, and delays. And the client asked you to turn the reverb down. And now you’ve run out of ideas.

Listen to this amazing track from Regina Spektor’s ‘What We Saw From The Cheap Seats’ album (engineered by Adam Hawkins), and look at what happens to the drums in the pre-chorus at the 40-second mark.

Did you see how changing the snare sample between the song sections gave the song more momentum? Listen to how it goes from a small, tight-sounding snare and opens up into a big, loose, dropped-down, and fat snare tone.

My point is: get creative with samples! 

Slide in sound effects, save time layering that tambourine or get that metal breakdown sounding as heavy as you can. Or change snares between verse and chorus.

For some microphone techniques, tips, or tricks, click here.

For mixing techniques using samples, go here.

When should drummers use samples?

Look, I know. We’ve spent too much money on those amazing beautiful snare drums, and more money and time trying out the perfect combination of heads and snare wires. These recording folks just don’t understand. We spend hundreds of hours with this snare sound – curating it, cultivating it. It’s part of who we are, right?

Don’t take it personally when an engineer or a producer decides to use samples. They are often looking for an aesthetic – a unified artistic direction. Maybe they are trying to make sure your band and your song will please the target audience and are doing their damndest to make sure that your song and recording can compete with or beat other artists in the same market as you.

It’s not that they don’t like the snare sound you have. They probably do. They probably love how amazingly consistent you are, but perhaps the gear you brought is not the right tool for the job. You came in with a nice bright snare full of overtones when the song really needs a low down, throaty and rumbly sound to give the song the gravitas and force it needs.

Looking quickly at the music industry today, everyone is fighting for a radio slot or a place in *that* Spotify or YouTube playlist that will propel your song to fame. You need to fit in a certain aesthetic, mix style, and level of perfection to make your way into those playlists. Even if you and your bandmates don’t care about status and are making music under an artistic lens – away from the pressures of performing and delivering a perfect “radio-ready” track – usually acoustic recordings alone won’t bring you close to the sound that you have in your head. 

With the liberalization of music production and recording, more artists have been using samplers and virtual instruments to write music. Certain samples, drum machines, and synthesizer pieces are so common that their sonics have influenced the vision for artists and entire genres. This is not a new trend. We are still reaching out to 808 drum sounds, 303 Bass Acid lines, or Juno Pads since they were introduced in the ’80s. Some music is still defined by the gear used.

What does this mean for us drummers? It means the only way to attain our goal sound that serves the expectation for the music is to accept our snare or kick might be replaced, augmented, or reinforced to achieve the desired sound.

We’ve been debating for decades whether to let the engineer quantize to the grid or not, and this is just another layer of artistic decision that transcends our performance on the kit.

So fear not: you shall not be replaced by the dreaded drum sample, triggering-replacer machine thingy. Even if they are powered by neural networks and machine learning, and dilithium crystals. People don’t hate your beloved snare sound. They are usually thinking about the song from a production perspective, listening at a high-level view, and not under a drum-focused, microscopic view.

Drum samples don’t have just one unique purpose. They’re used in a variety of situations, from rescuing a bad performance or recording, to polishing a track and bringing it to a commercial release level where it will sound just as loud, solid, and “perfect” as other radio-ready tracks.

But there’s also the creative freedom that samples give you. I had a client layering old Casio keyboard drum sounds on top of the acoustic drum sounds and it gave the song a completely different feel and mood. It complements the lyrics really well and I don’t think the song would have had such an emotional impact in any other way.

For years, I didn’t have a drum kit. Having access to samplers and sample replacements gave me the opportunity to create and keep my brain going in the drumming world – even though I didn’t even have a drumstick near me.

These days, as a remote session drummer, I have samples of my own drums. That way, if the client requests samples of my kit, I only have to add it to the zip file alongside the rest of the multi-tracks. That can save you time and headaches. 

If you’re a remote session drummer, having samples of your own drums is a huge benefit for your clients.

I also have a few spreadsheets with different TuneBot settings and a few kits saved in my iDrumTunePro app so I can quickly recall my drum kit as close as possible to those samples. This allows me to do quick revisions on the recordings, or match a sound that the producer wants from my drums.

You could have your own samples available online to showcase the drums you have! That way, the client can request a specific snare or tom. 

If you are not really interested in the technical part of capturing drums and drum samples, you might want to skip the next section and see how to perform when recording drum samples.

Before you start

You should familiarize yourself with some of the basic concepts of how samples can be stored/used/supplied before you do this for the first time:

One-shot drum samples

A one-shot drum sample is a single audio file that contains a single hit of the drum.  

These are usually carefully processed hits (snare, kick, or tom hits, and sometimes even cymbal hits) that sound as if they were hand-picked or selected from a final mix – because in many cases they are!

A common way to create these is when the producer or mix engineer picks their favorite sounding hit of a drum from a track. Let’s use a snare drum as an example. The producer will then choose from a selection of the microphones available in a recording (usually one or more snare top microphones, a snare bottom microphone, overheads, and room microphones) and processes them just like in the final mix of the song: each microphone is balanced against each other, with equalization and compression applied to them, perhaps even saturation and reverb. Alternatively, when the mix is ready, a number of microphones and reverb processing are soloed and that drum hit is bounced down to a stereo or mono file.

It’s also not uncommon for a producer to layer the sample with other snare samples, EDM elements, or even special effects.

There are some famous one-shot samples out there. Steven Slate made a career out of his famous one-shot sample CDs that are still widely used to this date. Even though one-shot drum samples fell out of fashion for a while (because they only have one velocity), they’ve made a huge comeback in recent years.

These days, you can find dozens of free and paid online libraries containing one-shots created or used by renowned producers and engineers, as well as creative-sounding one-shot libraries.

The downside of one-shot drum samples is that they become repetitive to the ear very quickly, so they are usually employed as a reinforcement and augmentation technique instead of replacement. There are some tricks to combat one-shot repetitiveness that I’ll cover briefly later in this article.

Audio file library of samples

These libraries – collections of audio files organized by instrument and velocity – include a few different files for each instrument, each corresponding to different velocity layers. That means that for each drum you’ll have a collection of files (or samples) for:

• Loud hits (with a velocity of 115 to 127)
• Medium hits (a range of velocities typically between 75-114)
• Soft hits (0 to 74, for example)

Naming and folder structure is crucial to navigating these libraries. Often the samples can be divided into folders by instrument source and velocity range, or just a well-organized set of folders and files usually labeled like “SnTp_D1_120-127.wav“. I’ll be covering a bit more about naming conventions in a later chapter.    

In the above example, the folks at JST decided to add the signal source info to each of the audio files. There isn’t one absolute naming convention, but these are a few things the user will need to know: where is the sample taken from, what is the velocity of the sample, and what note should the sample be assigned to (for multi-instrument libraries, like an entire drum kit). 

In the same example, the “Truth Custom Black and Gold [info].txt” README file contains the rest of the necessary technical info, such as the velocity ranges for each of the “crk“, “hrd“, “med“, “sft” labels, and what MIDI notes the sample should be mapped to.

These libraries then need to be loaded into a sampler of choice – such as Trigger, Battery, or Kontakt – and manually “mapped” to MIDI Keys and MIDI Velocities. Some libraries come with pre-made presets for a few famous samplers. The Truth Custom Drum Sample Library above comes with Kontakt and Trigger instrument presets.

Self-contained instrument files

These are files that contain the instrument information, such as trigger loading, round-robin, or processing (ie. how the files will be played as well as the necessary samples).

Self-contained patches and sample containers can come in a variety of formats: Native Instrument Kontakt files (*.nkc, *.nkm, *.nki), Native Instrument Battery kits (*.nbkt), and Trigger Instrument (*.tci), among others. 

Sometimes, the preset files and the actual samples come separate from each other. The audio files can be a number of wave files (*.wav) like the JST example above, or proprietary files that encapsulate the required audio files, like the Native Instruments Compressed Wave (*.ncw), (*.nkx). Slate Drums uses *.ssd files to accompany their *.ssd5kit instruments. Drumforge uses *.df1 files, and so on.

These sample files or container files are meant to be used by the presets shipped with the samplers or expansion libraries. 

Moving them to other folders is a bad idea! A *.nki file expects the *.nkc samples to be in a particular folder to be able to operate.

How samples are recorded

To put it simply, you find a source you want to sample (your snare, kick or toms, for example) and set up the best microphone(s) for the sound you have in mind. Then, you play a note or a set of notes you want to sample. 

There’s more than one way to play an instrument. As an example, to cover all the different “articulations” on a snare, you’d have to record samples of yourself playing a rimshot, a ghost note, and a clean full stroke.

The reason I’m oversimplifying here is that there’s a bit of marketing hype these days. Brands talk a lot about extensive sampling, multiple articulations, and monikers like “deep-sampled” and even “hyper-sampled”. Truth is, it doesn’t take much to start recording your own collection of well-recorded samples. There is a lot you can do before you enter into the realm of recording sessions that are true logistical nightmares, or libraries so complex they require heavy scripting to get all those samples to play nice with each other.

It’s up to you how to approach sample recording, and it will largely depend on your use case for those samples. You can keep it as simple or as “complete” as you want.

For instance, if you’re going to just be reinforcing your snare sound, you probably only need to perform a couple of clean full strokes or rim shots (depending on your playing style) and let the mixing engineer, the producer, or yourself pick the best one out of those.

But if you want to comprehensively sample the snare (let’s call it “deep-sampling” for now, just for fun) you’d probably be looking at:

• Several levels of velocity – aka intensity or volume – for each articulation.
• Several articulations, or techniques or materials you play the drum with.
• Several hits captured for each of the articulations and velocity. Samplers can randomize which of the sound is playing to minimize “machine-gun” effects – this is called Round-Robin Allocation.

In other words, you and/or the engineer would have to:

• Capture multiple hits at a loud full stroke (these can be used for your backbeats).
• Capture multiple hits at a medium level (these can be used when your snare is quietly keeping time in the back of the song, or for drum rolls).
• Capture multiple, quieter, drum hits (these will be used for ghost note passages).

And then potentially repeating the process, playing with Hot Rods, brushes, a heavily dampened snare, a wide-open snare, and literally any combination of techniques for the drum you are playing.

It may be a bit boring and labor-intensive to record all those audio files, but once you get in the swing of it,  sometimes you just let the tape roll at the end of a take early in the session, and record the samples right there and then while the heads are fresh and the kit is in tune.

If you have a TuneBot or an iPhone with iDrumTunePro app or even a drum dial, this is a great place for these tools. I use them extensively to make sure the kit has the same tuning from take to take – especially on recordings across multiple days.

In the next section, I’m going to cover two ways to record samples:

1. “In-Place” – Great for capturing samples that are more ‘natural’ and will fit easily in a mix for augmentation purposes. No additional setup is required.
2. “Focused Samples” – Better suited for libraries or archiving, but also beneficial for some music genres that want a really good ‘hi-fi’ sample that can be put loud and proud, front and center.

Before we move onto microphones in this section, there are a few considerations that will heavily affect the sound of your samples:

• The room you are in, as it will play a part in shaping the sound characteristic and the decay of your drums, and…
• Which drumstick you are using. The same tom or snare or cymbal will change drastically if you are using a 7B maple stick or a Virgil Donati Assault (a 2B hickory stick).
• Try and keep the room as quiet as possible. Remove computers with noisy fans, turn off any A/C or dehumidifier units, and if there’s a door to the outside, make sure it’s shut. Likewise, be careful not to hit the sticks, make creaking noises on your drum throne, or rub your clothes as the microphones might pick up all of these extraneous noises.

Recording samples “in place”

When I record drum samples, this is usually the way it happens.  

You already have a tuned-up kit in a room, and the microphones are in place. The engineer has done the line checks and set levels (possibly even some processing on the way “To-Tape”) and everyone is happy with the drum sound.

The drummer’s job is to simply hit each drum (and possibly the cymbals) one at a time while the engineer lets the computer or tape-record through every microphone on the kit.

If I’m drumming, I usually default to three hits of the same intensity, at three intensities, per drum. That means I’d hit the kick three times full blast heel up, hit the kick three times at a normal playing level heel up, and hit the kick three times softly, heel down. Rinse and repeat on snares and toms. 

I’ll expand on this further in an upcoming section.

After the recording is done, there’s usually a bit of editing/cleaning up of the audio files to do, and a bit of mixing. The engineer will decide which microphones to use: for instance, it’s not uncommon to use snare top(s), snare bottom, overheads, and room mics when creating a snare sample. For a kick, it is not uncommon to use a combination of microphones around the bass drum, plus room mics.

On a few occasions, I’ve also used the floor tom microphones in a kick sample. If the floor toms are resonating sympathetically, they can add to the decay of the kick drum, making it longer and richer in terms of overtones.

If someone decides later to reprogram some drums on the album, having files from all of the microphones available to us means we can create a full-fledged library. The engineer can even dial in the “spill” between all the microphones – just like what would happen with a real drum kit – making it more realistic.

The reason why most of the sample sessions I am part of are done “in-place” is that this is usually enough for augmenting, reinforcement, and even some light replacement duties. By using the same setup that you use during the tracking sessions, it saves time and generates samples that are identical to the ones being recorded – making it more natural to add them to the mix later on.

Recording focused samples

Sometimes, I just need a sample. Something very particular. 

I have a sound in my head and I simply can’t find what I want on my hard drives. Or I’ve come across a snare that just sounds amazing in a particular room and I happen to have the time to sample it properly.

In a mixing session I had not long ago, the drummer was playing on top of an 808 programmed beat. He had a mid/high tuned snare, with a nice lively tail and overtones. 

Unfortunately, this snare was completely buried when placed in the mix against the 808 drums, layers of instrumental loop samples, and overdubs upon overdubs of backing vocals.

So I did what any good mixing engineer and drummer would do: I got up from the chair, went to my drum cupboard, and picked up my Mapex Black Panther Sledgehammer. I tuned it so it was deep and beefy, short in sustain, and just cracking like that thing can, and brought it to the studio.

Now, I just wanted a really nice snare sound. There’s no need for me to go set up a whole drum kit and mic it all up, is there?

I grabbed one of my large diaphragm microphones: a C12 style microphone with a CK12 style capsule – nice, bright, and snappy. I wasn’t recording anything else so I could actually place the microphone farther away from the snare to let the low end develop and capture the snare more as a whole (not just the top head, but how the head and shell resonate). I also left a dynamic mic by the rim to capture that “stick hitting the head” sound for extra smack, and placed an extra microphone underneath.

Voila! Big, fat snare drum. Pun intended as I may have actually used the Big Fat Snare Drum donut, so here’s a shout out to them – love your products, folks!

I’ve done quite a few snare samples like this. There’s no spill to worry about (eg. that pesky hi-hat bleeding into every microphone), and you can literally explore the space around the drum. You’d be surprised what a microphone a foot and a half away from a kick drum does to your low end: usually impractical to do with a full drum kit, but totally possible when focusing on a shell to sample.

After you capture your drum, mix down those microphones into one mono file (or stereo, if you wish) and do some editing – these things are required to prepare the file to be triggered by a sampler.

Microphone techniques

If you’re new to recording in general, pause this article and go read the beginner’s guide to recording drums for basic microphone placement. Otherwise, read on.

If you are doing an “in-place” sample recording, then you don’t have to change your original microphone placement. The samples should fit the drum kit sound you’re capturing. Therefore, it is a good idea to record everything as you are recording for the album, and mix it as you would the album. Then print a few samples you like down to mono (or stereo, depending on your use case) files.

It’s not as crucial to mic up a drum kit for samples as it is when you are recording tracks. For one, there’s no spill to take into consideration. You can even use condenser microphones (where you would probably avoid using them when tracking a whole kit).

But if your goal is to take samples out of a drum that you absolutely love and just need to add to your library, then it becomes a balance between getting creative and getting the best possible sound out of the drum that you can.

Before I move on to kick and snare examples, I’d like to give some general considerations and tips on the use of microphones:

• Condenser microphones are great at keeping the transient alive and clear.
• Condenser microphones might not handle high SPL (sound pressure levels). Check the manual before proceeding. Kick drums and snares can easily go past 120dB SPL.
• Most dynamic microphones will not be fast enough to accurately react to the attack of the drum, effectively acting like a compressor. This is often the reason why engineers and producers might prefer certain microphones over others for snare, kick, and toms. An SM7b might help you add some crack and thump when compared to an SM57.

For example, I love Earthworks microphones – you’ve seen and heard them as they are used in Drumeo’s videos. But in many cases, I’ll use a dynamic microphone for toms, such as a Sennheiser e604, MD421, Audix i5, or Audix D6. Sometimes, even large-diaphragm condensers like a Josephsons e22 or a Shure KSM32 might work best for the sound I have in mind. They will almost work like a compressor or a saturation unit and can dull down the sound of some drum kits – which can be a good thing if your room is too bright, or you are using very thin heads.

• You don’t need to only use directional microphones. If the room you are in complements the drum, using Figure-of-Eight patterns or Omni could be a good choice.

• If you are using directional microphones, keep in mind the proximity effect. This might be something to avoid if you want to capture a more natural sound of a snare or tom.

• You can use more than one microphone per drum shell. And there’s no spill to worry about. Say you’re capturing a snare. Why not have a dynamic up close, capturing the smack of the stick hitting the head, and a condenser microphone further back capturing the combination of the shell and head? Let the low end develop in the air (it takes space for that to happen).

• If you only have one microphone, don’t get discouraged! The following sub-chapters refer to techniques you’d probably use in commercial studios or good project studios with a good live room and plenty of equipment. However, if you are starting out – or you just don’t have that much equipment – you can also get really good samples with a limited number of inputs. Even one or two well-placed microphones can give you a great snare or kick drum (and definitely rack or floor tom) sound!

Click here (or scroll down) to learn how to make single-mic samples sound great.

Snare microphone techniques

Here are some of the combinations of microphones I like to use when taking a pure snare sample:

• Neumann FET or Valve microphones placed a few inches away from the snare and slightly above rim height.
• Shure Beta57 or Audix i5 above the snare rim, close enough to get the sound of the stick hitting the head, and a bit more low end from those rimshots.
• Sennheiser e609 or BeyerDynamic M201 on the underside of the snare (don’t forget to reverse the polarity of your snare bottom mic).
• The room mic selection might vary. I might have a stereo array far away from the snare if the room allows and I like the room sound. If I need that huge, modern metal sound, I’d try to place one or more microphones down the nearby hallway with the studio door half-open.
• For overheads, I’d use a spaced pair with either a Neumann-y kind of large diaphragm condenser if I want a more “roomy”, saturated sound. Alternatively, a small diaphragm condenser will help achieve a more detailed and pin-pointed sound (something like Neumann KM84, AKG C451, or cardioid Earthworks mics).

When you sit in front of the DAW, don’t forget to check the polarity between every microphone (mainly that “snare bottom” microphone pointing at the snares), and check each mic for phase by hand. This can be done by dragging the recorded files so they match, or by using plugins such as Little Labs IBP, Waves inPhase, or SoundRadix AutoAlign.

Otherwise, the snare might sound thinner when you add more microphones to it.

Don’t worry about making sure that all waveforms align. Use your ears. The relationship between all of those microphones is more complex than just aligning the waves – it’s a compromise. Sometimes the best result will be when you dial in “some” delay compensation, rather than making it exactly the same. Remember – you’re placing some of these microphones further away for a reason. If you were to just move back the room mics you’d defeat some of the purposes of getting dimension out of the drum.

Kick microphone techniques

Go crazy. That’s it.  

No, really, go crazy!

A few years ago, an engineer friend of mine was running a recording where he had three kick drums, removed the hoops, and used them as an extension. The office and the other studios were complaining about the noise and the extended low end.

People usually limit themselves to kick in and kick out. Maybe a sub kick and a batter side microphone. If the genre allows (or there are enough inputs), people might consider putting a condenser or ribbon about three feet or so away from the kick drum in front of it.

Whether or not you decide to create a “tunnel” between the kick drum and the condenser (that is further away from the resonant head) is up to you. In a recording session, that’s a necessity. Unless you’re taking kick samples in isolation, you need to use gobos (freestanding acoustic panels), heavy blankets, and other acoustic absorption material between the kick drum and that “kick far” mic to minimize spill from cymbals and other musicians in the room.

Keep these points in mind, even if you’re recording your kick drum samples in isolation:

• By using the tunnel, you’ll reduce the amount of mids and highs.
• By using the tunnel, you’ll reduce the amount of “room tone”.
• By not using the tunnel, you can tweak the height of the “kick far” microphone to really give you a balance between the low end and the top end you want out of the kick drum. 

The closer your mics are to the floor, the more low end you’ll get. The higher you go in the room, the more attack and “air” you get out of the captured sound. 

When I’m doing a kick sample capture, I usually do all of the above, plus a combination of room mics like the ones covered in the snare microphone techniques section.

Oh, and if you’re in a pro studio, make use of those cool compressors they might have stashed around. Or distortion boxes. This is the time to experiment. Remember, you have plenty of free tracks to record into as you are only recording one drum – you can always discard that later.

How to record drum samples

If you don’t know how to set up a session in a DAW to record your drums, stop right now and go read the beginner’s guide to recording drums.

So, you just sat down at your freshly tuned kit after hours of soundcheck.

You feel ready to nail that track in one take and the engineer asks you through the headphones, “Hey, mind if we record some hits for samples?”

You say, “Sure!” But in your head, you’re like “I don’t know what I’m doing; I guess I just hit the things,” and you proceed to bang everything once.

Or maybe you have that sinking here we go again feeling. “More boring stuff? I just want to play already!”

Trust me, this is easy and quick. It doesn’t have to take too long. 

Unless the engineer is specifically asking you for specific hits, here’s what you do.

1. Give a solid, full stroke hit on the snare, and wait. No rimshots, no weird effects. Just hit the drum, dead center, with a nice technique – let that stick bounce. Maybe do it as loud or a tiny bit louder than you usually do when you’re playing.
2. Once you hit it, in your head, count to five Hippopotamus, slowly.
3. Then hit it again, and count to five again.
4. Move on to the next drum and repeat the process. Do that for all the toms, kick and snare drum(s) in your kit. It’s rare to take samples of cymbals, but ask your engineer/producer once you’re done with all the shells.

That’s it! Space those hits, and always count to five.

It gets a bit more involved if you’re in a session where you’re meant to “deep-sample” a whole kit. Usually, you’ll have a session producer guiding you through all the steps, as there will be many variations to go through. Someone is probably maintaining a spreadsheet of naming conventions, the number of each take, and what articulation and drum kit piece each take belongs to.

You can easily end up with over 100 takes, and once you add in all the articulation, the number could be closer to 1000 takes. These takes will then need to be split into individual files.

In such sessions, you can expect the producer to guide you on what they’d like you to do next, hit by hit. But the recording process is the same:

1. Hit the drum with the requested stick or technique, with the requested dynamics.
2. Make sure you hit it so the drum can really sing, wide open.
3. Once you hit it, count to five and then repeat the process.
4. Give the producer at least four hits in the same fashion, unless told otherwise.
5. Move on to the next articulation, velocity, or piece of kit.
6. You may also be asked to achieve alternative tunings on the drum shell or to muffle it with different materials.

Note: You might have to count for longer than 5 seconds if the room is really lively (with long reverb tails). The reason I suggest you do 4 hits per drum shell, per velocity, per articulation, is that if you’re making a sampling library in Kontakt, keeping it to 4 samples works really well organizationally. 

Remember to wait at least 5 seconds between each hit. The actual time you should wait depends on the tuning of your drums and the room you’re in. The more reverberant (“echo-y”) the room, the longer you should wait between hits).

The army of microphones around you is going to be surgically capturing the kit and the room. Don’t just move on to the next hit because “you stopped hearing it”, as some microphones will be picking up decay and tails for longer than you will – especially if you’ve been using headphones or IEMs, as you are likely to be experiencing TTS (Temporary Threshold Shift of hearing). Some of these samples may be processed or compressed.

How to edit drum samples

Now that we have all the hits recorded, we need to edit these so we can create samples. Having organized files will make life much easier. We’re going to potentially end up with many files, and if they aren’t labeled correctly, you’re going to spend a lot of time trying to figure out which files do what.

The first thing to understand is the use of zero-crossing points, and transients, to avoid distortion, flammed hits, or phase issues.

The sampler will start playing the audio file as soon as it hears a transient come through. To prevent our sample from flamming with the original sound, we need to make sure the sample file starts as close as possible to the transient of our sample. The more space we leave in the file before the transient, the worse the flam will be (or the sample will just be playing late in the song).

Make sure that your audio file starts at the last zero-crossing point right before the transient starts. Otherwise, you’ll get nasty distortion, clicks, and pops. 

Sometimes there isn’t a clean zero-crossing point, and this is where the use of fades can help. A fade-in can be used to avoid distortion/clicks pops at the beginning of the file. With a longer fade-in or softer curve, you can make the attack of the drum softer – which may or may not be desirable, but I encourage you to experiment with it.

Similarly, after the transient plays out, we need to naturally shorten the decay and ensure it completely dies out before the file ends. Otherwise, we might have clicks/pops or a very unnatural decay to the drum. Remember, we recorded almost five seconds of decay/room tone. For faster songs, this is simply too long.

Consider the following for your fades:

• A negative logarithmic curve will ensure a faster decay to zero, but still a smooth and natural sound.
• An “S-curve” fadeout can also be used to achieve a fast and natural-sounding decay and may work better than negative logarithmic curves if you’re using several room mics.

Now we’re ready to bounce these files!

Select only the microphones/tracks that you feel contribute to the sound of the drum you are sampling, and use your DAW markers to ensure they’re exactly the same length as the file.

Select Bounce to Disk or Audio Mixdown or Audio Export (depending on your DAW). This will “Bounce” or “Print” the mix of the selected tracks into a file of the exact same length as your selection.

Having a naming convention is important here. In my opinion, the most important things to include in all of your file names are:

1. The identifier of the sample. This is the name of your source.
2. The voice. For simple samples, the source will be enough, but if you are sampling a whole kit you need to specify what part of the kit. I like using the MIDI note for this.
3. Which dynamic layer the sample belongs to, or velocity range.
4. If you are sampling each microphone separately, add this to the name. Keep those names in 4 letters for Kontakt compatibility.

Examples:

• Make sure the name of the file represents the drum; something like this:

‘SonorBennyGreb_HiTuning.wav’

• Make sure you add to the drum the velocity range that the file belongs to. If you were printing the loudest hit you have, probably something like this:

‘SonorBennyGreb_HiTuning_100-127.wav’

• If you are doing samples for an entire kit, you might have to describe the sample in another way. So the source, in this case, is the drum name. You can use the General MIDI specification to help you name the voices for each of these files:

‘RogersKit_C1_100-127.wav’

‘RogersKit_D1_100-127.wav’

‘RogersKit_F1_100-127.wav’

• And if you were recording multiple microphones for a snare sample, you’d have something like these:

‘RogersKit_SnTp_D1_100-127.wav’

‘RogersKit_SnBt_D1_100-127.wav’

‘RogersKit_OhAB_D1_100-127.wav’

‘RogersKit_Room_D1_100-127.wav’

You can see that RogersKit denotes the drum kit the sample is taken from. The SnTp, OhAB, and Room monikers refer to the microphone that is playing in that file, while the D1 refers to the instrument. In these examples, the file ‘RogersKit_SnTp_D1_100-127.wav’ contains a snare sample (D1 in General MIDI standard) that has been captured by the snare top microphone. The file ‘RogersKit_OhAB_D1_100-127.wav’ contains a snare sample (again, the D1 tells you this) but this time captured by the overhead microphone pair in an AB configuration.

If you followed the above guidelines, your sample will be easily and effortlessly mapped within Kontakt!

You can see an example of this process in the ‘creating a one-shot sample’ description here.

How to trigger drum samples

Alright, so we have our samples recorded and edited. 

We are now mixing a track and we want to start reaping the benefits of the drum sample collection we’ve been curating for replacement, enforcement, or augmentation duties.

By now, maybe you’ve been recording samples of every nice kick, snare, and tom you come across. And not just collecting these samples, but spending some time organizing and documenting your library. 

If you haven’t, then the process of choosing a sample can take as long as the rest of the mix itself (there are some very large libraries out there).

Options for triggering

If you’re working with a DAW (which you should), sample replacement is easy. There are a few ways to approach it:

1. Use a sample replacement plugin (what I’ve mostly been doing for the last 10 years), or
2. Tab-to-transient and paste (I’ll resort to this technique if the song is too complex to effectively trigger it), or
3. Convert to MIDI and use a sampler or VST. ProTools 2020.11 has introduced the ability to turn an audio file into MIDI. To do this, simply drag the audio region into an empty Instrument Track. A pop-up dialogue will show on your screen asking which algorithm you want to use for the conversion and select “Percussion”. This is not intended to convert drums into MIDI playing in a track – you’ll have best results by using it on discrete audio tracks like an isolated snare track or kick track.

If you are working on a hard drive recorder (such as Zoom R16, or Alesis HD24 or RADAR), and you want to do sample replacement, you would need to follow some of the techniques used back in the tape machine days: copy the track you want to replace, gate it, compress it, and then shift the track back a few milliseconds to account for the delay in retriggering it, before feeding it to your sound replacement machine of choice. It’s still simpler than using tape, but the principle is the same. 

Here’s a detailed explanation of each of these three sample replacement techniques in your DAW.

1. Use a sample replacement plugin

These plugins make life so easy. You place the plugins as an insert in the channel you want to replace, and the plugin listens to incoming audio to trigger a selected sample.

Regardless of the plugin you choose, you’ll find:

• A sample browser, which allows you to load in a ‘*.wav’ file or a proprietary file with the sample you wish to trigger.
• A threshold, which says how loud the original signal needs to be before the plugin triggers your selected audio sample.
• A “retrigger” parameter, that helps you prevent bad triggers by setting an interval where no other sample should be triggered. This is because sometimes the hit can be too long that it actually triggers the sample twice in fast succession, or the spill from other drum kit parts can trigger it. 

This is especially true during rolls. Drummers can get excited when starting a roll and the dynamics will shoot up drastically, making the spill go above the threshold temporarily.

Nice-to-haves on a trigger plugin include:

• Processing on the input signal such as Low-Pass and High-Pass Filters. This allows the mixer to better isolate the instrument they want to replace. For instance, for snare drums, you might use the LP and HP filters to only let the midrange through, but for kick drums, you might only let the low end through, or find the point where you can hear the “click” of the beater hitting the head. Slate’s Trigger and SPL DrumXChanger have this feature.
• Processing on the input signal, such as a gate. This allows for the mixing engineer to isolate the instrument by lowering (or completely muting) the track when the original signal is not playing, making it clearer which transients the plugin should replace. Slate’s Trigger features a gate on the input signal, however, SPL DrumXChanger features a transient designer that can be fed to the trigger.
• Real-time sample pitch shifting. This is a useful feature of drum replacement plugins that allows you to better match your sample to the original drum sound. Sometimes, if there are definite overtones or fundamentals on a drum shell, the interaction between the two samples might clash. By “tuning” the sample being triggered, you can minimize those sonic interferences, or better match the overtones.
• Real-time, velocity-sensitive volume changes. Slate’s Trigger allows you to define a velocity curve, where depending on how loud the original signal is, the sample’s output level will be slightly tweaked to follow. This is a really powerful feature in making the sample replacement or augmentation blend in.
• Modulation of the samples being triggered by velocity-sensitive volume changes and Round-Robin of different samples. Using either or both of these features will ensure that the sample sounds slightly different depending on how hard the original drum is being hit, and if there’s more than one *.wav file, the plugin will randomize which file is being played for added realism.

2. Tab-to-transient and paste

If you don’t have any of the plugins mentioned above (they aren’t free), there’s a technique you can use to achieve the same result, but it comes with some limitations. It’s a bit time-consuming, but you’ll get faster the more you do it.

This is also really useful if the original track has way too much noise for the trigger plugin to accurately detect when to trigger the sample.

Note: I’m going to be using Pro Tools shortcuts/hotkeys for this example.

1. Start by creating an empty audio track next to the track you wish to replace, enhance or augment, and drag your sample to the beginning of said track.
2. Copy the sample.
3. Make sure “Tab-To-Transient” is turned on (‘Command + TAB’ to turn it on/off).
4. Make sure the keyboard hotkeys are targeting the EDL (the A/Z button is on).
5. Place your cursor before the first hit on the track you wish to replace and tap the ‘TAB’ key.
6. The cursor should have moved right to the zero-crossing before the first transient – or hit – of the drum. Sweet!
7. Now press ‘;’ to move to the track below, and paste the sample with the key ‘V’.
8. Press ‘P’ to move back to the original track and press ‘TAB’ to move to the next hit.
9. Repeat the previous steps for the entire song.

Now, after doing a couple of hits, you might think no one has time for that! The good news is you can get lightning fast at this.

Place your left hand over the ‘TAB’ and the ‘V’ button, place your right hand over the ‘P’ and the ‘;’ button, and let those fingers do the work. 

TAB ; V P TAB ; V P TAB ; V P TAB ; V …

I can probably do about 3-4 hits a second. You’ll be able to do this just as fast with some practice.

3. Convert to MIDI and use a sampler or VST

This basically stems from the above method (tab-to-transient and paste) to create a phase-accurate track with replacement samples, and uses the same technique. But instead of pasting an audio sample, we’re going to be pasting a MIDI note into a MIDI track.

MIDI can be used to trigger a variety of digital and hardware samples. Once you’re done, you can use this track to trigger Kontakt, Superior Drummer, Battery, or even hardware drum machines like an 808 or 909, synthesizers, and samplers.

Note: I’m going to be using Pro Tools shortcuts/hotkeys for this example.

1. Start by creating an empty MIDI or Instrument track next to the track you want to replace, enhance or augment.
2. Create a MIDI note and set velocity to 127.
3. Copy that note. 
4. From here on out, the process is the same as the tab-to-transient method:
5. Make sure “Tab-To-Transient” is turned on (‘Command + Tab’ to turn it on/off).
6. Make sure the keyboard hotkeys are targeting the EDL (the A/Z button is on).
7. Place your cursor before the first hit on the track you wish to replace, and tap the ‘TAB’ key.
8. The cursor should have moved right to the zero-crossing before the first transient – or hit – of the drum. Sweet!
9. Now press ‘;’ to move to the track below, and paste the sample with the key ‘V’.
10. Press ‘P’ to move back to the original track and press ‘TAB’ to move to the next hit.
11. Repeat the previous steps for the entire song.

General MIDI Mapping

How do you know which MIDI note to use?

You need to know what the destination MIDI note is for this to work correctly. 

Unfortunately, some manufacturers decided to ignore standard industry conventions, so there isn’t one answer to what note is correct, but as a rule of thumb you’ll find:

Bass Drum – C1 (Note 36)

Snare Drum – D1

Low Tom A – F1

Mid Tom A – A1

High Tom A – D2

For more information, consult the General MIDI Drum List.

Oh, and to make things even more interesting, different manufacturers decided to have a different idea as to what the note C4 really is. That means that on some keyboards, the Bass Drum might actually be C2 (note 36).

Now that you have your own samples, if you want those sounds live, you can also upload the samples into a module and combine it with a trigger!

If you only have one microphone

Not everyone has access to a pro studio, or the budget to set up a bunch of mics to capture all the sounds you want out of a drum. The good news is you can still create samples that are larger than life and full of energy! You just need to get creative with the processing chains you use. In this video, you’ll learn how to do this with equalizers, compression, non-linear reverb, and saturation. You’ll also learn how to add more low end to a snare sample and how to create ‘fake snare wires’.

Conclusion

I hope this article helped you embrace drum replacement, augmentation, and enforcement as both a tool to get your recordings to the best possible place, or to explore your creative side and bring fresh sonic possibilities to your tracks without having to spend time and money buying different kits or modifying them.

Looking back, drum samples have been a fundamental part of western music going as far back as 50 years, across a variety of genres. It’s true that the more commercially successful a mix has to be, and the more ‘busy’ the drums are expected to be in that genre, the higher the likelihood that samples are added to (or completely replacing) the original acoustic drum sounds.

Seeing how easy it is to use plugins to immediately get a huge collection of samples under your fingertips, maybe I’ve also inspired you to start your own sample library. Start simple by sampling your favorite tuning on snares and drum kits you already own, then explore more in-depth sampling techniques where you modify your kit or experiment with muffling and different heads, even throwing in percussion accessories.

At the end of the day, what matters is that you have the song sounding as good as you can, or as good as you’ve imagined it in your head – whatever your budget and situation may be. 

As an engineer, I consider it essential that we curate a library of samples that we can use for the productions we work in. Not just collect them blindly, but learn them! Every time you add a sample or buy a library, spend some time trying them all out in context. It’s the only way you’ll get to know what sounds you have at your disposal and in what context they fit nicely.

I’d also like to thank Jake Murray at Strongroom Studios London for making the session possible, Jessi Camileri for her incredible ears behind the console and being such a huge help setting up three drum kits in a single day, and Chrissy for her incredible drumming chops and performance on all the drum sample recordings.

Free drum sample downloads

Free samples? Of course! If you want to hear the samples I recorded for this article – or grab them and use them for your own projects – here’s a zip folder full of snare and kick files. We used a Sonor AQ2 bass drum and a 1960 Rogers Powertone bass drum, and Ludwig Supraphonic 400, Noble and Cooley Tulip, and Sonor AQ2 snare drums. Enjoy!

[Click here to download the folder]

Glossary

Articulation – A term that comes from more classically trained musicians. It is a parameter that describes how every single note or sound should sound. There are a number of words that can be used to describe how long or short a note should be, how soft or sharp the attack should be, or even if the pitch and timbre should be modified. It’s common with other instruments and probably less common in drums, but still applies to us. Common articulations are legato, staccato, marcato, tenuto, for strings we have others such as pizzicato, brass, and woodwinds have syllables to be used for “tonguing” and we as drummers have full strokes, ghost notes, rim shots, side sticks, etc.

DAW – Digital Audio Workstation. Computer software that is designed to handle multiple audio streams. It usually supports recording and playback of multiple sources at the same time, as well as offering extensive tools for editing and mixing.

Gobo – A term used to describe a movable acoustic panel. These panels are typically designed to absorb sound – minimizing reflections from the room’s walls or ceiling – but can also be used by engineers to maximize the isolation between two musicians. More complex models of gobos even include small windows so everyone can see each other, and some include a diffusive side instead of absorption.

In-The-Box (ITB) – A term used to describe a mix where the entire processing has been done inside a DAW without the use of a mixer or external outboard. This was hard to do – but not impossible – in the early ’00s but has become very common during the last decade. The alternatives to ITB mixing are OTB – or “Out-of-the-box” where the DAW plays the role of the tape machine, and the album is mixed on a mixing console and outboard – and Hybrid, where some of the mix happens in the box, but other parts are delegated to external outboard, summing mixers, etc.

Mixing – One of the latest stages in music production where the multiple sources of sound are mixed into a single stereo file. This is done by applying different processing to individual sounds and to the mix as a whole while balancing the relative loudness between all these different sources. People usually associate mixing with the picture represented by a large board full of knobs and faders, but mixes can also be done 100% inside digital systems/DAWs. Modern mixes can have as many as 200 sound sources, with drums taking up a huge chunk. A modern complex metal recording can use over 20 different microphones (and sound sources) that later on have to be mixed down to stereo.

Phase – When two nearly identical signals combine, any timing difference between the two signals can have deep, adverse effects on the resulting (combined) sound. The effect can drastically change the frequency response of the original signals, canceling or boosting one or more frequencies on the original signal. When talking about phase issues between two or more microphones, the lower frequencies are usually the most problematic due to the distance between microphones usually corresponding to the wavelength of lower frequencies.

Proximity Effect – With some microphones, the closer you move the microphone toward the sound source, the more low end (bass) you will get. This can be problematic, or a tool for sound shaping. When recording snare drums, your snare might be too boomy and it will clash with the bass guitar, kick drum, or even vocals. On the other hand, if the toms are thin and high pitched, but you want a bit of a thunderous tom sound, getting the microphone in close can give you a little bit of that boom that you may lack at first listen.

Spot Mics/Spot Microphones – Microphones that are placed very close to the rim of a drum shell, near the point of impact. The sole purpose of these microphones is to capture the drum shell (or cymbal) more accurately with minimal sound coming from the rest of the room.

“To-Tape” – A term that comes from the tape machine era of studio recording. When someone says they’re “processing the snare drum to-tape” it means the engineer is applying some audio processing like EQ or compression before the signal is recorded. Professional studios often have complex signal routing capabilities that let engineers process signals as if they were already mixed to showcase what they can sound like when mixed, but the engineer will record the signal clean (un-processed) for more flexibility in the mixing stage. This is often called applying processing “Off-Tape”. 

Transient – A high amplitude and short duration sound. In music, typically sounds start with a transient and then decay or sustain (like a hammer hitting a piano string). A drum’s waveform is almost exclusively comprised of a transient pulse that dies off really quickly.

Velocity – Velocity is a MIDI term. It’s one of the most vital things transmitted in a MIDI package as it represents how loud you are playing a given note. How much force did you apply to that key? How fast was that mallet or drumstick hit? Due to mathematical constraints, velocity is represented by a number from 00 to 127. 127 being the loudest rimshot you can play, 00 being complete silence, and a medium loud snare sitting around a velocity of 80-90.

Zero-Crossing Point – In a DAW, you’ll see your audio represented by a squiggly line going above and below a horizontal line. This line is “analog” to the movement the speaker will have to perform to turn audio (voltage) into acoustic sound. To make an edit at the “zero crossing point” means we’d cut the audio at the point where the speaker would be in total rest – not moving inwards or outwards. This ensures our sample can be played cleanly and without added distortion. In a DAW, this looks like the point where the audio line intersects the horizontal reference line.

*This article contains affiliate links, which means we might earn a small commission from the product seller if you make a purchase. For more info, check out our privacy page.

*Note: ‘Drum fills’ in this article refer to drum monitors. Check out the glossary at the end for more definitions.

I’ve been seeing a lot of questions about this on Drumeo and other online forums, so I decided to compile everything I know about in-ears from my experience.

Why should you trust a stranger giving his opinion on the internet? Fair question! For what it’s worth, here’s a bit about me: I started playing live shows in the late ’90s at a time when you would mainly use wedges for monitoring on stage, along with drum fills and side fills for larger stages.

In the early ‘00s, I started experimenting with personal in-ear monitoring systems (IEMs, or in-ears for short) both live and in the studio, as they were becoming increasingly popular even in the AA professional circuit.

By 2004 I was gigging with in-ears pretty much all the time. I spent my summer holidays between 2004 and 2007 touring full time either as a FOH mixer, monitor mixer (for bands with in-ears only) or as a drummer for pop-rock bands and a progressive rock tribute band.

After getting my degree in Recording Arts, I worked as head technical supervisor for SAE London and was a regular guest lecturer for the undergrad programs. I used to teach topics such as Live Sound (until the digital revolution happened), large format analog consoles, analog gear maintenance, advanced mixing techniques, and advanced post-production mixing workflows.

As far as in-ears go, I’ve made quite a few mistakes which have cost me some degree of ear damage, and a lot of money. Eventually, I learned enough to start making better decisions when it came to IEMs and I have managed to not only keep my ears healthy but also save a lot of money over a number of years.

Alright, there’s a lot of ground to cover, so let’s jump into it. I recommend that you get a coffee, a tea, or another beverage of your choice and let’s get started.

What are in-ear monitors?

In-ear monitors are devices that go inside your ears like earplugs, and allow you to hear a personal audio mix. They provide performers and crew a nice amount of ear protection while solving a variety of technical issues and providing a really clear monitoring solution. 

I love how, with a good cue mix, you can feel like you are playing along with a brilliantly mixed album and hear everything and everyone. The level of freedom you get comping/improvising with your colleagues on stage when the sound is clear and balanced is unparalleled to me.

Even if your gig does not allow for creative freedom, a clear mix will allow you to make the best possible decisions you can for dynamics, sound choices, and so on. All because you can clearly hear what everyone is doing.

This is one of the reasons I save my more expensive in-ears (nothing fancy, Shure SE535s) for session work when I want to make sure I can hear absolutely everything I’m doing to ensure I’m totally immersed in the recording session and making good choices for the song.

That being said, IEMs aren’t for everyone!

I’m aware that there are a few situations where it’s best to go with traditional monitoring options (like wedges):

• If one or more musicians are not experienced with IEMs.
• If there is no easy way to create independent cue mixes (you wouldn’t believe what some artists like their mix to sound like).
• If it is a low volume gig situation.
• If the gig requires you to take IEMs on/off constantly. 

In rare cases, some people get itches or even rashes when using them for prolonged periods of time (eg. a gig or a rehearsal). This has become increasingly less common with modern sleeves/earmold materials, but it is still something you should keep in mind before you go and spend $500-$1000 for your ticket into the IEM world. I’m one of those people. But eventually, I found the best sleeves and products to get me going, and I have not experienced any symptoms even when wearing them for several hours every day.

In other cases, some people (two artists I worked with, for example) would become dizzy/seasick, or get headaches, feelings of loss of balance, etc. This can be caused by a pressure differential that can occur between your inner/outer ear, or simply because the sound isolation can be too intense and everything sounds muffled and distant. 

Humans developed their ears as a fight or flight system. The outer part of the ear – the pinna – works as an incredibly sophisticated radar system. Humans can tell with astonishing accuracy where a sound comes from. It is the same mechanism that would give you an early warning if you were about to get eaten by a saber-toothed tiger. Although, for the last 100 years or so, it was probably only used to avoid being run over by a horse, or in the last 10 years by a car (while we cross the street looking at Instagram). Our ever alert brain can hear the car honking at you (or a saber-toothed tiger’s stomach growling) and will shift hormones in your body or inject adrenaline to make us run faster, see better, etc.

Let’s back up for a bit and talk live sound reinforcement history. Why is there a big demand for IEMs in modern shows and performances?

Looking back at ‘90s AA and even AAA stages all around the world, you would expect to see a monitor engineer hanging out on the side of the stage or under the stage, in the dark, crafting 4-16 different mixes at the same time. 

A typical example of the mixes they’d be crafting would be:

• A side fill mix – Usually fed to full-range PA systems placed on each side of the stage, very much like the one used for the audience.
• A drum fill mix – Fed into a massive, full-range speaker, placed behind the drummer.
• A mix for the singer’s wedges – Typically two wedges placed at a roughly 120º angle to avoid feedback with the singer’s microphone.
• A number of different mixes fed to wedges located near each band member.

Now, here’s the problem. Imagine you are standing in the middle of the stage. Every sound around you is getting picked up by virtually each of the microphones on stage. The singer’s microphone is capturing the cymbals, the guitar amps, the big band brass section. Your drum overheads are picking the guitarist’s amps, the keyboards that are coming out too loud on every wedge, and even the bassist’s amp!

And if that wasn’t enough, now every microphone on stage will also be picking up everything being blasted by the side fills, the drum fill, the singer’s wedges, the keyboardist’s wedge, and so on.

See the problem? Not good!

During a typical gig, as the musician’s ears become fatigued and TTS (Temporary Threshold Shift) creeps in, every single musician is going to ask for the vocals to be louder. As a result, someone will then ask for the guitar to be louder, then the kick, then the snare, then the keyboards, then the vocals again…ooof!

Now, I’m not going to cover techniques to properly manage monitor mixes as a monitor mixing engineer, as that’s totally off-topic. But I’ll let you know that some of the most interesting techniques involve a level of placebo effect tricks that can be used.

Hey I just met you and this is crazy, but here’s another solution for the problem: use IEMs maybe?

Let us give each member of the band a set of in-ears. Now everyone can have their custom mix and we can:

• Get rid of everyone’s wedges
• Reduce the size of the side fills
• Reduce the size of the drum fill, perhaps even changing it to sub/low end only.

The end result: your stage is now much much quieter. 

We can even move the guitar and bass amps off the stage and put a microphone on them. It’s not uncommon to place them under or behind the stage as this will reduce the amount of noise and spill.

Your ears will thank you, your FOH and monitor engineer will have an easier time mixing the show, and the audience will have a better sound experience.

Some of you might be saying, “So what – I don’t play for 5000-person crowds. Who cares?” Others might be saying that the venue you play at doesn’t pay much and you are on a budget. And then there’s the quiet guy in the back – yeah, you, the one in the red shirt – who says “I just play for fun in my basement.” Well, keep reading.  

Why should you use in-ear monitors?

Here are a few other reasons why an IEM setup is such a great little resource. 

Feedback reduction

For the same reasons mentioned in the previous point, because there are fewer speakers on stage amplifying the same sounds the microphones are picking up, there is less chance of feedback occurring.

Audio feedback – also known as the Larsen Effect – is when microphones and speakers get stuck in an amplification loop. The microphone captures a sound, any sound, and is amplified by your massive speaker wedges. If the microphone happens to capture the recently amplified sound again, a chain reaction of endless amplification occurs: the microphone is now capturing the same sound (but much louder), and sending an even louder version of that to the speaker to be amplified further, which will cause the microphone to pick up the same sound amplified even more, again and again. The result is a very quick build up of a shrill, piercing sound.

But when the entire band is using in-ears, the gain before feedback is so much higher than normal that the engineers can consider using condenser microphones on stage or even preamps with a lot more gain. This can make your nice drum kit sound better, and allow your vocalist to sing without straining – saving his or her voice for longer.

I have experienced feedback through in-ears. Once. In the studio. The words that came out of my mouth would probably make this an R-rated post, but suffice it to say it was not pleasant. In fact, it was painful. 

How did that even happen, you ask?

The vocalist, bless him, in his sound booth, decided that the really expensive and super sensitive microphone was a perfect place to hang his headphones. The microphone picked up the thud of the door closing, went through the console and headphone amplifiers back to the headphones that were resting right on top of this super-sensitive microphone. This amplified that thud again…and again…and again…until the rest of us musicians were ripping the IEMs out of our ears and howling at the moon.

Backing tracks 

Yeah, backing tracks! 

In the ‘00s, pretty much every band was beginning to play with backing tracks. Even smaller gigs would have synchronized sound effects, synchronized lights, or even synchronized effects changes for the guitars. 

I cannot tell you how much of an amazing thing it is to have the guitar effects being changed via MIDI from a DAW. It’s a blessing! No more cables and wires all over, and huge pedalboards taking up valuable space on a small club’s stage. And you don’t even have to ‘tap dance’ or remember to stand by your pedalboard all night. It’s truly an amazing thing!

This means playing with a click and sometimes even guide vocals (like “Drum solo in 3, 4!” or “Dave, don’t forget to stop playing in 2 bars”).

Wouldn’t it be funny if you went to see Radiohead’s show, and you could hear faintly, in the background, the familiar sound of a metronome blasting through side fills and wedges into the microphones and straight toward the audience? 

“I’m a creep…*BIP* *BOOP* *BOOP* *BOOP*”

Yeah, no!

Instead, you and your band should use IEMs.

The monitor engineer will feed the metronome to the band members who need/want it. The stage is quieter, the mix in your ears is cleaner, and the fact that you can hear yourself and your colleagues better should reduce your cognitive overhead and allow you to have fun playing your show.

Oh, and the audience is none the wiser that you are playing to a click or listening to the MD’s directions.

I hear you, Rachel, third row at the back! “I don’t care! We play punk rock at our local club and honestly, we and our fans just want to rock out. We don’t need no metronome.”

I completely understand.

That’s why I saved the best for last:

Ear protection and long term comfort

Remember the next day after those gigs, where the ringing in your ears and hangover are unbearable? IEMs can help you avoid at least one of those symptoms (the ringing, at least).

IEMs can reduce the outside noise level by anywhere from 20-30dB, which is considerable. This level of reduction alone helps you hear things more clearly. They can also improve comfort over conventional rubber earplugs, with the added bonus of being able to get “more me” in your ears to make your performance as comfortable as you want!

To reiterate, even if you don’t have anything being fed through in-ears, reducing the noise level by 20-30dB can make it much easier to hear everything that is going on, saving your ears and making it easier to play with your bandmates.

Lastly, they look cool.  Or they can, anyway! 

You can customize drawings or colors in them. Just have a look at Adam Tuminaro’s IEMs made by CTM:

If you still are not interested or curious after reading this far, maybe an IEM setup is indeed not the best tool for you. And that’s okay! We are all in this for the music, regardless of how we choose to play.

As much sound engineering is a discipline backed by physics and complex mathematics, its real-life application is based on compromises.

Choosing IEMs over traditional wedges for your band is usually a compromise between:

• Everyone’s comfort and preferences
• The style of music you play
• The venues you’re playing in
• The noise requirements of your gig
• The need for backing tracks (and how that need compares to the room dynamics)

And the list goes on.

Before you invest in IEMs

“I’m sold! I want a pair! Where do I start?”

Before you go ahead and spend your hard-earned money, there are a few things I’d like you to consider when browsing for your shiny new pair of IEMs.  

My hope is that this section will help you save money in the long run, minimize headaches, and avoid getting swayed into buying something due to misleading advertisements.

João’s Rule #1: If you’ve never used IEMs before, do not buy a high-end model.

The reason for this wild claim of mine is that most high-end models and boutique brands only offer a custom in-ear system where the earmold is part of the package. Custom earmolds are expensive and the mold-making procedure is not a very comfortable one. 

So unless you are certain that:

• You and IEMs work together nicely
• You are comfortable with custom earmold sleeves (some people say they gave up on them because they didn’t like the feeling of plastic or neoprene inside their ears)
• You understand how you like your earmold impressions to be taken, and
• You know how to maintain your IEMs

…then do not spend the money.  

You’d be making a number of presumptuous choices where you don’t yet know your personal preferences. For example, how many drivers do you want? Sizes? Weight? Sound quality? How much sound isolation do you need? Do you know if you’re allergic to a particular in-ear material? Which material should you use? Should you make the earmold with your mouth open or closed? Do you have another problem that prevents you from using IEMs?

If none of the above deterred you from jumping straight into a pair of Ultimate Ears, I’ll just mention that you could buy a whole set of mid-range cymbals for the price of one high-end IEM pair. Or a couple of those really nice Sabian Artisans you’ve been looking at. Or that amazing VK snare that you know you just have to own.

What you should look for in an IEM

TL;DR: I suggest you get the Shure SE215 (in Europe, shop here).

If you know you like earbuds and earplugs, and sound quality is important to you, and you are able to afford something more expensive, consider the SE425 (buy in Europe).

There. You can skip the rest of this section if you don’t have an interest in the technical details.

If you do want to understand what you are buying and why maybe it’s time you get a refill on the tea/coffee/other beverage I suggested you sit down with earlier.

There are a few reasons why I strongly recommend Shure IEMs:

• Every model they offer checks off every point of my “what to look for” list, so you don’t have to worry about which model you choose. In Europe, you can check out SE215, SE425, SE535, and SE846.)
• All models (215, 425, 535, and I would be surprised if the 846 are the exception) share the same components. For instance, you can share your favorite earpiece sleeve or the cables between models. This is great if you are a gigging artist who carries a spare set of cables and plugs.
• Should you choose to make a custom in-ear sleeve for your SE215, that sleeve will work perfectly should you wish to upgrade to 425 or even 535. It’ll save you a ton of money.
• You want to go cheap for your first pair, but not so cheap you can’t tweak or upgrade to figure out where you can go from there, or buy something that doesn’t provide you a ton of isolation or options for customization. The Shure IEMs come with a selection of pretty much every type of earpiece sleeve material available (short of making a custom earmold sleeve).
• The SE215s are not super cheap, but not super expensive. You could reliably tour with them or use them in recording sessions at pretty much every level. I have, and many legendary drummers do!

Regardless of what brand you choose, you should consider the following:

• IEMs that have detachable cables. The cables are under quite a bit of stress as they bend around the ear lobe, and your sweat can start eating away at the cable plastic. 
  
  
• The cable should be reinforced for a few centimeters. All Shure IEMs now have this including the entry-level SE215, and it helps mitigate the issue I covered in the previous point.
  
  
• Check that there are companies in your area making custom earmolds/sleeves for the model you are considering. I recommend Paul at the Custom IEM Co. if you are based in London, UK, and he can do sleeves for most high-end IEM companies and models.
  
  
• Check that you can easily buy replacement parts (earpieces, cables, entire drivers, etc.). Another reason why I recommend Shure is that they have a vast stock of spare parts including spare drivers available on Amazon, Thomann, Sweetwater, etc. I’d be wary to buy replacement earpiece/drivers on eBay, due to counterfeits.
  
  
• Although there are pretty good arguments that you don’t need more than one driver, I recommend 2 drivers for increased headroom and clarity, as well as increased bass response (see the drivers section for more information).

Also, ensure the model you pick allows you to try a variety of different earbud sleeves, especially:

•   Soft/flex sleeve (usually some silicone type of material)
•   Neoprene sleeves
•   Foam sleeves
•   Triple flanged silicone  

The earbuds in the photo above are all available for the Shure models at $10-15 a bag. This is considerably cheaper than doing a silicone custom earmold and will allow you to figure out what kind of material you like best. 

Popular IEM brands

If you, like me, are a brave soul who loves getting lost in all the gear that exists out there, here are a few brands for you to consider and get you started on your research.

These brands offer everything from consumer, prosumer, and also viable touring grade options:

• Shure
• Sennheiser
• AKG
• Mackie
• Westone

The following brands are touring grade/high-end brands, or boutique brands:

• 64 Audio
• Jerry Harvey
• Ultimate Ears
• Cleartone Monitors

How many drivers do you need?

If you are a touring drummer, the number of drivers is probably less important to you. This is because you probably won’t need to rely on your IEMs for the low end. If you’re playing bigger venues, you’re more likely to have a drum fill speaker, or you might have invested in a Porter & Davies style throne or a Throne Thumper/Butt Kicker (a heavy piece of metal that you attach to the underside of your throne that rumbles when the bass plays or the kick drum is hit so you can feel it in your upper body).

For the rest of us, drum fills are usually marked as a “nice to have” on tech riders, Porter & Davies thrones are incredibly expensive, and butt kickers are ridiculously heavy. Therefore, if your IEM has a bit more headroom to be able to handle low-end frequencies such as bass, kick drum or synths, you’ll be better off as it won’t steal the clarity from the other instruments. IEMs with more drivers are also less prone to distortion as a separate driver will be handling the low-end frequencies, allowing the driver for the mid/highs to not be overwhelmed and able to perform regardless of how much low end is happening at that moment.

Finally, the increase in the number of drivers has an effect on detail and depth of sound (if you are more of an audiophile) which will translate in a higher-quality listening experience and more immersion when playing.

Understanding the spec sheets

I need to include a disclaimer before moving forward. This section can be as technical as you want it to be and I need to make it clear that I’m not going to dive into too much detail. There are many ways to present this data and manufacturers use it to try and paint their products as more competitive on paper.

Let’s start by looking at the usual units of measure you’ll find on the spec sheets:

• Sensitivity: Usually specified in dB SPL/mW, it means how much sound pressure it can produce for each milliwatt of power fed into the earbud. The higher the value, the louder the IEM will be for the same source signal (sound) at the same volume setting.
  
  
• Impedance: This is a complex subject, and I’ll try to summarize it here to the best of my ability. The lower the value, the higher the level it will produce but it will also be more susceptible to overload. Usually higher impedance headphones have a better bass response but will need a more powerful headphone amplifier to drive them. Most IEMs have low enough impedance to not matter much.
  
  
• Frequency Range: This is usually specified in a range of Hz (eg. 20Hz – 20kHz) followed by a tolerance specified in dB (eg. -+3dB). Here’s where manufacturers will take you for a ride: as a rule you want the first value as close to 20Hz as possible, and the second as close to 20kHz (or higher) as possible. But is a headphone marketed as having a 30Hz – 40kHz frequency response really better than a headphone marketed with a 60Hz – 18kHz frequency response? Not necessarily. If the first headphone is 30Hz – 40kHz @ -+ 6dB, and the second is 60Hz – 18kHz @ -+ 3dB, in theory, the second one will be far superior in both sound fidelity and frequency response range as the variance/tolerance is much smaller.
  
  You want the flattest line for the entirety of the human hearing range (20Hz to 20000Hz). And you can always achieve it if you simply lower your tolerance (e.g. even a really bad set of headphones will look great if displayed with a -+18dB tolerance).
  
  However, it’s worth noting an IEM will never drive low-frequency content very low.
  
  For example, the Shure SE845s are described as having a frequency range of 15Hz to 20kHz, but don’t specify the tolerance. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was -+6 or even -+12dB, which could mean that the bass response is meaningless under 50Hz in most circumstances.

• Sound Isolation: This is the mechanic sound isolation of the device itself and will depend on a variety of factors including the earpiece size and shape, the earbud size and material you use (or earmold) and the shape of your pinna and middle ear canal. Usually, manufacturers will say something like 29dB SPL (Sound Pressure Levels). The higher the number, the more sound the IEM will block. Some of you may be playing only in moderately loud situations – say a type of music that doesn’t require much energy on large stages or function rooms. For these situations, you might want to consider less sound isolation so you can hear your colleagues better and your music’s dynamics. In this case, 20-25dB of reduction might be more than enough for you. The sound isolation might also be displayed with negative values; it doesn’t matter, as dB are units of scale. 29dB of reduction or -29dB of noise mean exactly the same thing.

How to take care of your IEMs

Here are a few best practices that can not only help increase the lifespan of your IEMs, but also ensure your safety, comfort, and best results:

Earbuds are not IEMs

Do not use commercial grade ‘in-ears’ and ‘earbuds’ (like Apple EarPods) for drum practice and stage. They do not offer any sound isolation protection, which means you will actually be exposing yourself to louder SPL (Sound Pressure Levels).

Do not put only one ear in

I know Bono looks cool when he does it, but this carries some dangers. Taking one IEM out means that ear will take on the full sound level of the stage. Unfortunately, our brains are weird. Our brains don’t know that you only have one IEM in on purpose. They just get confused and think that both ears got louder and they simply stop being able to listen to anything with the ear that is still covered by the IEM.

The result? You can’t hear your cue mix anymore. This means you can’t hear your metronome and so on, nevermind the fact that your exposed ear is probably incurring permanent ear damage as we speak (poor little hairs on your inner ear snapping in half and dying a horrible death). Your brain will – faster than Usain Bolt – tell your body to signal your monitor engineer to turn the IEMs up. All the way to 11. Now, your protected ear is no longer protected as you are blasting a signal just as loud as the stage straight into your little eardrum.

For larger stages, ask to have microphones pointed at the crowd

…two of them if possible, with one on each side of the stage, panned accordingly left and right in your IEMs.

This is because you won’t be able to hear the crowd at all. And it’s a shame to not hear your devout fans and you will miss that chance to interact.

Why stereo? Say you have one microphone set up – you’ll only cover a small percentage of the audience, and then you won’t be able to tell from where the comment came. So you’ll be looking at the audience, looking a bit lost trying to reply to your fan’s comment when they were just to the right of you.

Also, for me, having these microphones helps give some sense of depth and room to the show. If experienced enough, your monitor engineer will know to bring them up/down or duck them during songs so you don’t pick up the venue’s echo (which can throw you off the beat).

Clean your in-ear monitors regularly

Regularly, as in weekly if you are using them constantly. These things are inside your ears, man – why haven’t you cleaned them in years?

Most brands sell wet wipes for IEMs, but a lightly damp microfiber cloth will do. Don’t forget to let them dry outside the boxes, otherwise, mold and bacteria will begin to form if you put them still wet inside their dark boxes. And that also goes for not putting them straight into your ears while they are wet.

There are also these little tools that are designed to scoop up wax that builds up inside the IEMs’ shaft. Keep one at least one of them with your IEMs.

Replace neoprene sleeves regularly

This is as much of a cleanliness thing as it is for isolation. Sleeves (especially the neoprene style ones) will lose elasticity over time and not expand as much as they once used to. This means that over time the IEM will be isolating less and less, potentially exposing you to unsafe sound pressure levels.

As a rule of thumb, I change my neoprene earbuds about 3 times a year, and I use them pretty much daily for one hour or longer.

Use a solution to reduce irritation and make them easier to insert

This will be a preference thing: I can use neoprene plugs for hours, every day, with no itching or rashes, but if I’m about to have my custom medical-grade silicone sleeves in my ears for 2-6 hours, I need to apply something like Audinell (a mix of lubricant and dermo protector (skincare) cream).

Some people claim that this cream is for the care of the earmold. As far as I know, that is not true. The main active ingredient for this cream is Soothex (Indian Frankincense) which is a resin known for its anti-irritant effects.

There are other brands that make similar products. This one works for me. I recommend you try a few until you find one that suits you, especially if you develop irritation/rashes using neoprene, silicone, or foam-based earmold/IEM sleeves.

Consider custom in-ear molds if you find yourself cranking up the level too much

If you feel like the environments you play in are not super loud and you don’t need to crank up your IEMs, you should consider going for less isolation. Soft silicone sleeves are probably better for you, or – if you prefer a custom IEM mold – make sure you tell the technician doing the imprint that you need low isolation and you prefer to take the imprint with your mouth closed (check out the ‘custom IEM’ section for an explanation).

You may have to replace your custom earmold sleeves regularly

This will depend on your age, physiology, and earmold brand. You will still be growing and changing well into your adult years. If you did your mold in your early 20s (or younger) you will have to get them redone every few years.

Just keep this in mind and ensure you pay attention to the noise levels when putting them in. If you feel they are letting in too much sound, or you are asking for more level than you usually do (your phone level is a good control for this) then you might consider redoing the mold.

Earmolds also tend to get yellow and stiff with age. When this happens, it’s time to replace them.

Mono vs. stereo monitoring

There are situations where mono monitoring might be advisable. In some cases, it’s simply a logistic case of not enough AUX sends on the console, and in others it’s to allow artists to use inline “more me” devices that often work in mono. 

Another good case for a mono IEM mix is where you know the stage isn’t very loud, and you’ll need an IEM out. You are listening to your playing and your colleagues live, unprotected, or through a low isolation earplug in one ear, and the other ear has the Musical Director (MD), click track, or guide references.

You’re supposed to be hearing things quieter, not louder

In fact, what you’re hearing in your in-ears shouldn’t even be as loud as your regular stage with just backline or backline and wedges. The idea is that the entire level is brought down to the place your ears hear best (which is around 70-80dB SPL – for more information, look up Equal Loudness Contours and Fletcher-Munson curves). Then the IEMs complement what’s happening with a mix designed to help you hear everything in detail.

Other hygiene accessories

• Wax removal tools: They look like very small metal hooks. These allow you to pull the ear wax from your IEMs or earpieces. Brushes and other types of cleaners push the wax further into the IEMs so they are not recommended.
• IEM cleaning wet wipes: They usually contain an alcohol-based solution. The best ones also contain antiseptic properties.
• Dehumidifier kits for cables and earmolds: Maybe if you have a roadie or an assistant, getting one of these for your whole band is a good thing.
• Ultrasonic baths: Worthwhile if you have a shop that cleans them or you are obsessed with your gear.
• Jodi vacs: These very small vacuum cleaners look like small needles that are really good at cleaning ear wax that’s lodged deep in the IEMs.

How to get custom IEM molds made

Here’s how it’s done:

• The technician will most likely run through a questionnaire to access what kind of imprint you are after, and how you’ll be using your IEMs.
• The technician will inspect your ear for any problems (such as wax buildup).
• The technician will then place some cotton deep into your ear to protect your eardrum.
• The technician will use a massive syringe to pump a ton of a rubber-like substance into your ear canal, and then all over your inner ear lobe.
• It feels really cold and like a massive pressure building up inside your middle ear. You will be unable to hear a thing during the 5-10 minutes it takes for that rubber-like substance to harden before the technician removes it.

Get a trained technician (or an audiologist) to do the procedure. It’s perfectly safe in the hands of an expert. Not so much in the hands of your friend who has done it a couple of times.

Some brands of sleeves I recommend are ACS and Sensaphonics. I’ve been using ACS medical grade silicone for years. Both my IEM sleeves and my advanced ear protection are from ACS.

It is worth noting that even medical-grade silicone and the newer hypo-allergenic silicones may still cause discomfort for different people. Your mileage will vary.

Dos and don’ts

• I highly recommend you stay away from “make at home” kits. You might lack the correct tools to check if your ears are properly clean, you will likely not be able to do a great impression of your ear canal and ear lobe, and it will certainly not be a “deep impression” which gives you the best result for isolation and sound quality. Sure, the price difference is probably a few hundred bucks, but the results are not similar.
• Choose a good brand to make the earmold. In the UK, ACS is a very popular brand of earmolds/sleeves.
• A week before your appointment, find an ear cleaning solution and water syringe (in the UK, Otex is a popular one) and add drops to your ears twice a day for 3 days. After the 3 days, syringe your ears with warm water. Then, start all over again with the drops for a further 3 days, followed by another warm water syringe session the day before your appointment. This is so your ears are dry. Don’t go pushing water into them 20 minutes before your appointment!

• When at the appointment, your specialist will have a quick look at your ears. Tell them in what kind of conditions you’ll be using the in-ears. For instance, really loud, small band practice spaces tend to have super loud SPL levels. It may be worth considering doing a mold with your mouth open to achieve better sound isolation. If you play mainly open-air stages with soul or jazz bands, maybe your in-ears shouldn’t have a lot of isolation and you’ll be better off with a deep imprint made with your mouth closed.

Mouth open or mouth closed?

Here are a few differences between mouth open/mouth close deep impressions, and how they affect sound isolation:

• An impression made with the mouth open deeply increases isolation. 
• For some people, when they laugh or cough or even smile, this changes their ears significantly. This causes the seal to break and compromises the isolation. Taking a mold with your mouth open helps mitigate these issues. 
• A deep impression made with the mouth open can often be too much isolation, making you feel weird, dizzy, unbalanced, or just not able to hear the stage and other musicians. There’s no point in going for extra isolation if you just have to crank your IEMs all the way up.
• For instance, in a soft jazz setting (you know, that fancy Michelin star restaurant you play at), an open mouth deep impression would be way too much. Even in larger stages with many acoustic musicians, you want to make sure you can still hear everyone on stage. Doing molds with your mouth closed might be your best bet.
• If, on the other hand, you are rehearsing with the heaviest, nastiest, Meshuggah-style project in a 5×5 room with low ceilings, you probably want every bit of isolation you can get.

Alternatives to IEMs

Isolation headphones vs. noise-canceling headphones

Isolation headphones use mechanical methods to isolate your sound, usually with dense materials, leather cups, and a fair amount of pressure against the head. These ensure consistent and predictable isolation.

Noise-canceling headphones rely on inverted microphones built into the headphones that are added to your music or cue mix. They rely on the headphone driver’s ability to generate a powerful enough sound wave to cancel out the original noise. They use prediction algorithms to try and adapt to the noise, which explains why you get so many conflicting reviews on their effectiveness. 

Active (noise-canceling) ear defenders 

I advise against using these. The fact that noise-canceling headphones rely on their microphone arrays and the predictive behavior of their algorithms makes them an extremely unreliable ear protection mechanism for musicians, especially drummers. 

They excel at blocking continuous, wall-like noises – like sparse office sounds, airplane hums, or constant highway traffic – but they aren’t so good when people start chattering around you, or when you are going for a drum roll.

Also, they offer really poor specs of isolation. A well-known BOSE model does between 20dB of isolation at 50Hz and as low as 15dB of isolation at 500Hz. This amount of reduction is far from being enough for drum practice and stage situations where sound pressure levels of 110dB or more are common. 20dB of noise reduction will still expose you to unsafe levels that can cause long term damage to your ears.

For the long term health of your ears, avoid noise-canceling headphones for music work.

Also, avoid Bluetooth headphones as they have a latency (including Bluetooth 5.0).

Ear defenders

If you don’t need dedicated monitoring, you could use just plain ear defenders (like isolation headphones) to bring all the noise down, or achieve monitoring without having something in your ear. For me, the main downside of this is that wearing ear defenders usually means I cannot wear my glasses.

Here are a few options to consider:

• Vic Firth models can do a modest job at a reasonable price. You’ll have the option of getting just the ear defender, or the ear defender with built-in drivers. If you choose to get the option with drivers, I recommend you get the newer (v2) generation of the SIH2. 
• The Direct Sounds EX29 is a fantastic upgrade to the Vic Firth active.
• The 3M Peltors – including the models with a unique design where the headband goes across your neck – are superb mechanical isolation ear defenders and built like tanks.

Hybrid approaches

If you want some ear protection and the ability to have a quality sound, a hybrid approach of an ear defender on top of your favorite earbud (provided they don’t protrude too much) will probably be more than enough for your needs. The ear defenders can easily do +20dB of isolation, often 29dB and as far as 35dB, and your favorite earbuds will provide you with the awesome backing track for you to play along.

For really high SPL situations, like a very loud band in a small room, you can also use your Shure SE215/425/535/845 under a Vic Firth/Peltor ear defender. This will give you a really high degree of isolation (probably close to 50dB) without the need to go for really expensive, deep imprint, custom earmolds.

For those of you who want to go all-in but don’t like having something in your ears, the GK Music UltraSound is pretty much the Rolls-Royce of ear defender-plus-monitoring that’ll give you high-quality sound for those critical sessions/gigs. They combine 3M Peltor sound isolation and build quality with Sony’s high-end, studio-grade drivers. One of Sony’s legendary models, the 7506, has been an industry standard for longer than I’ve been working on audio. Whether you like them or not, many broadcast corporations around the world, as well as a significant number of respectable audio engineers, rely on the 7506 for their work.

Final thoughts

I am not sponsored by Shure or any other brand for in-ears. In fact, I need to reiterate that the IEM way is not always the best way and has as many downsides as it does upsides.

Consider these before putting money and time into an IEM setup:

• Some people find them uncomfortable
• Some people are allergic to some of the materials used
• Some people are deaf in one ear which can lead to issues (see mono vs. stereo IEM monitoring)
• Putting them on/off takes time, especially with custom molds, making it not the best choice in some situations
• Your ear hygiene is essential, cleaning ears so they’re wax-free, etc.
• Higher-end in-ears are really hard to distort or clip. This may sound like an upside, but it is much easier for someone to inadvertently turn up the volume on IEMs that don’t distort easily and, therefore, can incur permanent and irreversible ear damage 

IEMs, when used correctly, can increase the comfort and increase your playing time without headaches or fatigue, and allow you to listen to your colleagues better. They can also safely protect your ears and help you overcome challenging technical situations such as playing complex music with click tracks or backing vocals.

A lot of the more technical information was presented in an over-simplified and generalistic way, to better suit the intended audience of this post. Also, I need to mention that technology moves fast and new products come to the market almost every day and it’s very possible I’ve missed some amazing key innovation that has revolutionized ear defenders or IEMs. If that’s the case, drop me a line!

Glossary

decibel (dB) – The relative unit of measurement, logarithmic in nature. On its own, a decibel is meaningless, which is why it’s usually coupled with a reference unit. For the purpose of this article, we mainly use dB as a reference of Sound Pressure Levels (often notated as dB SPL). Common uses of decibels in audio include dBv (volts), dBu, dB FS, dB LUFS, among others.

dB SPL – measures sound pressure relative to the pascal. 0dB SPL equates to 20µPA (20 micro Pascals) which is the auditory threshold for 1kHz. An increase of 10dB SPLequates to roughly double the apparent perceived volume level.

Drum Fill – Similar to a side fill, but intended to be used exclusively by the drummer. A drum fill is typically a regular PA system, in a 2 or even 3-way configuration so that the drum fill has enough power to be heard above a very loud drum kit, and with extensive low-end frequency response. This allows the drummer to easily hear what they’re doing with the bass drum and allow them to lock in with the bass player more easily.

Earmold – Anatomically-shaped devices inserted into the ears for optimum sound conduction and ear protection. They can be produced in most sizes with custom casts and can be made out of a variety of materials, softness or hardness. They often turn yellow and stiff with age and need replacement on a regular basis.

FOH – Front of House. Its use is often overloaded to mean both the sound system and other apparatus that is set up in front of the stage, as well as engineers dedicated to operating such equipment. When someone mentions that they are a Front of House mixer, they are mixing engineers that stay in “front of the stage” during the show, mixing it for the audience. Similarly, the FOH system usually means the sound system array (larger events can have multiple such arrays) that are pointed at the audience.

Frequency – We react to the vibration of air and liquids by turning it into sound. The frequency (or how fast the air-water particles vibrate) defines the content or quality of the sound we hear. The faster the air vibrates, the higher in pitch the sound will be perceived. Conversely, the slower the air vibrates, the lower in pitch the sound will be perceived. We measure these vibrations in Hz.

Hz – Hertz, or units of measurement of frequency. This tells you the number of cycles per second that something happens. In sound, it means how often air varies in pressure. If it’s 1Hz, that means air has changed in pressure once in a second before returning to its resting state. Human ears can detect vibrations in air pressure from 20Hz (the lowest frequency a human can hear) all the way to 20000Hz (highest average frequency a healthy young adult can hear).

IEMs – In-ear monitors are devices that musicians, audio engineers, audiophiles, TV presenters, field journalists, and logistical personnel (security guards, armed forces, police, etc.) use to allow them to hear a personal audio mix for better clarity or to hear directions from Musical Directors, Producers, etc.

Impedance – This is the combination of resistance and reactance to a circuit or component handling alternating current. All analog audio signals are, in fact, alternating current signals, and impedance is an essential unit of measure as it takes into effect frequency content.

MD – The Musical Director is the person in charge of all aspects of a musical performance or production. Traditionally, he or she would be the chief conductor of an orchestra or concert band, but they are also responsible for supervising arrangements and personnel during recordings and performances. It’s not uncommon if something goes wrong on high profile shows, the MD can give direction to the stage performances on how to react and change to any given event.

Neoprene – Also known as PC rubber, this material is extremely flexible and retains elasticity for a long time and at a variety of humidity and temperature ranges. Some people are allergic to it and can develop dermatitis from it or any of the chemicals used in its production.

SAE – School of Audio Engineering is a private college with campuses and facilities all over the globe. As of 2013 it’s known as SAE Institute and accredited by Middlesex University for BA and BSc programs. It has also been accredited by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA). 

Side Fill – Side Fills are usually made up of a regular PA system designed for small crowds. These are full-range, incredibly powerful Public Address systems that are installed on either side of the stage to provide even coverage with a mix similar to the one an audience would have.

SPL – Sound Pressure Level, or acoustic pressure, is the deviation in atmospheric pressure caused by sound waves. In short, it’s measured in dB SPL with reference to Pascals, meaning that 0dB SPL is the same as 20µPA – the quietest sound our ears can hear. Notable points on the dB SPL scale are:

• 60dB = Normal conversation level
• 85dB = Daily prolonged exposure to sounds louder than this will create permanent ear damage over time
• 100dB = Regular exposure to sound levels of 100dB for more than 15 minutes in a day can cause permanent hearing loss
• 108dB = Chainsaw
• 110dB = Average loudness of a music club. Regular exposure to sound levels of 110dB for more than 1.5 minutes a day will cause permanent hearing loss
• 130dB = Jet taking off at 200 feet
  
  (Sources: NIOSH and OSHA)

TTS – Temporary Threshold Shifts are temporary shifts in the auditory threshold that can occur suddenly after being exposed to loud noises. Our ears will change their configuration and will perceive sounds as being quieter, “shifting” our perception of loudness down. This shift can become permanent if sufficient recovery time is not allowed. People doing strenuous work or exposed to heat are more susceptible to experience short or long term TTS.

Wedges – Common road term used to specify floor monitors (speakers) used by musicians who play standing or sitting down. They are designed to be placed on the floor of the stage, and their wedge-like shape allows sound to be directed roughly at ear height for a musician standing on stage.

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