I was listening to some classic music today. I don’t mean classical music, but some stuff from the 60′s. I was admiring the sound of the drums, and it got me thinking about most of the drums I see and hear at churches. Drums seem to be the enemy of a lot of church audio volunteers. They try to tame the drums by confining them to cages, putting tape all over the heads, and telling the drummer to use small sticks and play ‘jazz’ style. Let me offer a different approach to the drums.

Drums are, and should be considered a musical instrument. (Although some people consider a drummer just a person who hangs out with musicians. Ha!) A drum kit is loud because it is supposed to be heard. Call me captain obvious.

If drums are supposed to be heard, what are they supposed to sound like? Drums should sound punchy, full and have some personality. What they should NOT sound like are ‘doinks’ that have no tone, resonance, or presence. The idea is not to gate them, tame them, isolate them and bury them in your mix.

Of course, your drummer needs to tune the drums to produce a great natural sound before you put a mic on them. Get mics as close a possible without getting in the way of the sticks. You don’t want the mic to get hit. For the kick, experiment with the mic placement. More inside the hole will you more attack, and more outside the hole will give you more low end.

A kick drum needs some attach to cut through the mix. You don’t need a ton of top end, unless you have a metal worship band. Taking out some low-mids, around 450 Hz will eliminate that cardboard sound. Attack is usually found around 1.5 – 3k.

A snare might have some resonance to it, and that’s fine. Adding some 200Hz will give it some beef and let it move some air. If you do use a bottom snare mic, be sure to flip it out of phase!

Aim the mic at the center of your tom drums. Adding a little high end (3k or up to 8k) will let them cut through when drummer is adding fills. The drums should be naturally resonant in the low end, but don’t be afraid to bump up the low end, and a little can go a long way. If you gate the drums, try a decay time of 500ms (1/2 a second) or more to let the sound die out naturally.

For the hi hat and cymbals, use your low cut button on the channel. You shouldn’t need to add hi end. The overheads will pick up some drums, and if you add some mids to the mics, you can enhance the drum sounds… try it and sweep the frequency around.

Hopefully you can create a mix where the drums punch through the guitars and keys. Let the drums be the base and foundation of the band. Good sounding drums can take your mix to the level!