Recording drums on a budget

One mic recording / Three mic recording (SM57/SM58)
Recording Drums With Only One Mic (Condenser cardioid)
How To Record Drums - With 1 Mic (Condenser cardioid) Tchad Blake method

And my favourite:
With two mics (Recorderman Drum Mic Technique)

room EQ

i'm thingking about room EQ... just not sure if i should just slap some EQ on the "logic bus" or if i should get a hardware rack EQ.

now i know a lot of people are against it but i haven't got money for some fancy room EQ plugin. the bass traps work great but there's still a spike at 125hz. (i've tested it with this bass tone sweeping from 40Hz to 300Hz).

other ways to do it:

http://drc-fir.sourceforge.net

http://pcazeles.perso.cegetel.net/acxo.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkj_VMB9m4E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKjskxpNL5c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqMMTyXTLDA

http://www.realtraps.com/art_audyssey.htm

audio interface - to usB or not usB

if i could choose again i would definitely go for USB over FireWire (IEEE 1394 interface). sure FireWire has a faster sustained throughput but it's very finicky as well. it will give you way more problems if you haven't got a Texas Instruments FireWire chipset. which means that if i upgrade to a new Macbook Pro, i'll be stuffed because Mac doesn't use Texas Instruments FireWire chipsets anymore. and that means that i'll struggle with pops and clicks again. now if i had a USB audio interface i wouldn't even have noticed the transition to a new machine. if i knew this when i first bought my gear i would have picked USB. sure FireWire will provide the fastest performance - if you've got a compatible chipset and if it's 800 and not 400 - but for convenience and compatibility between multiple computers and audio interfaces USB 2.0 would probably be the better choice because FireWire's extra speed is just not worth the hassle.

mic protection from humidity

saw these "Glad - Snap Lock" bags the other day when i went to the shops and thought it would work great for protecting my microphones from the humidity here in Auckland. i also threw in a silicone bag for some extra dryness :) i guess if you're going to record vocals every other day it's going to be a royal pain to bag and un-bag all the time, but it's perfect for my needs.

joemeek threeQ

i think that technology has advanced so much that it doesn't really matter that much anymore if you buy $200 or $1000 dollar piece of recording equipment. i'm sure there's going to be a difference but it i doubt if you'll hear it in the final mix/master... if you do hear it, it might be 1%, max 2% improvement. the only drawback with the cheaper stuff is durability and that's the only reason i'd go for something a little more expensive. i don't want to buy it today and then replace it six months down the line! i also look into how flexible it is going to be in my studio setup. i would definitely want to use it on more that one instrument...

so when i was looking for a mic pre i decided to go with the joemeek threeQ. the joemeek threeQ is a half-rack metal case and powered from an adaptor. but the cool thing is that it's not just a preamp it's got some other goodies too:

• preamplifier - with phantom power and a front switch to toggle between XLR connector for Mics, and a Line connector for everything else.
  
• Joemeek optical compressor
• equalizer
• and makeup gain

so in a nutshell - it takes a signal, amplifies it, compresses and equalizes it ready to be recorded.

preamplifier:
it takes a microphone, instrument or other source of audio signal. i love recording guitar and bass with it because you can plug the guitar directly into the 3q and then split the signal - one goes to the amp and the other goes directly to your DAW as a clean signal so that you can re-amp it later if you feel the need to. it's a clean robust sounding preamp and i personally think that it's a bit of a step up from similar products in the same price range.

compressor:
this is not just any compressor it's a PhotoOptical compressor! this thing can slam the life out of your audio signal so apply sparingly - the louder you get the harder it slams - so to avoid squashing the life out of your audio apply a slow attack and fast release... to be honest I just use the compressor on the threeQ to take off the spikes, i'll do more compression once it's in the DAW. the "compression ratio" is fixed at 5:1 so you can see why i love using it on guitar and bass and especially rock vocals - for vocals 2msec attack should sound natural if your signal is not too hot - anyway 5:1 is a good compromise between gentle and slamming.

"meequalizer":
the "meequalizer" is a very musical three-band equaliser. its LF (bass) is fixed at around 80hz - nice for pushing bass or kick. mids can be tuned anywhere between 300Hz and 5kHz and the highs are fixed at about 12kHz, nice to give vocals some sparckle. personaly i prefer to record "flat" but i do however switch the equaliser on, this gives the audio a little bit of that nice meek colouring.

and lastly there's the makeup gain knob which, well, makes up the gain you reduced/lost with the compressor. so if you want a clean pre, tight compressor and musical equalizer you can't go wrong with the joemeek theerQ.

using the joemeek threeQ on vocals:
start with the preamp at 25 (0db) and sing into the mic. now turn the preamp gain until the peak light starts to flash when you sing at your loudest - it should only flash now and then. move on to the compressor... switch the compressor on :) and compress at about 3 or 4, the attack at around 5, and the release somewhere between 0.3 and 1. if you're not hearing the compressor work, increases the amount of compression by turning the compress knob clockwise. you should start to hear the softer passages come up in level, and if you scream, you'll hear it start to squeeze the audio. set it so that it doesn't sound unnatural. next i turn the EQ on, and set the Low, Mid, and High frequencies at 0. now you can turn up the output gain. also experiment with mic placement and proximity of the singer. a setting that works for one singer may be completely wrong for the next.

headphones

i bought some really cool headphones! (well they're cool according to all the reviews i've read) it's the AKG k601 series... i can barely feel them on my head - and it sounds really good too, but they definitely need a headphone amp... without the amp i actually prefer to listen through my Sennheiser HD 202s. i just hope the AKGs will sound way better than the Sennheisers when i've got the headphone amp because the Sennheisrs where a fraction of the price. i'm looking at the Rega Ear headphone amplifier for the AKG K601s. it's not to expensive and it's got enough power to push the AKGs.