Record Powerful Drums with a Single SM57

Steve Albini had one of the most subtly funny responses when asked about the SM57– "I never found much use for it myself, as a microphone"

The drums on Sarah Smile by Hall and Oates is a drumkit recorded with only SM57s. Not the biggest or a really flashy sound, but still nice and warm and fits the song beautifully.

I feel like we’ve lost the desire for interesting recordings, and replaced them with “professional” recordings.

Like you I've been recording for 20+ years, the "mic sucking" never occurred to me. Learned something today, thanks!

Love it, bud and sounds good. In the past when I only had 2 mic inputs I would place a sm57 on the snare, and a large diaphragm condenser a few feet in front of the drums, pointing at the kick, and about 2.5' off the ground. Then, I'd copy that track, and put basically a high-pass filter on one and a low-pass on the other, which effectively gave me cymbals on one and kick on the other. In addition to my snare mic, I had effectively 3 tracks and was able to get very usable drum sounds. You can also then copy (any of) those tracks and add a bit of stereo processing to get 'room mics'. I know - so ghetto - but you do what you gotta do!

Glad to see you here more. Please continue.

This sounds great. Always love a minimal approach. Thank You.

Great video, I love these kind of experiments. I think it solidifies the notion that stereo rooms are SO important. Thanks!

I just shared this with the folks I know who are starting to progress into actual recording and mixing territory. A perfect video about using limitations to your advantage as well as upgrades. Also, I've been pondering that same polarity question. I've watched a number of videos about it, as well as futzing with it, and have to say I think it's absolutely an improvement. Physics, huh?😂

Thanks Ryan. The SM57 is truly an amazing mic.

I remember when I got my first portastudio I used a single mic pointing upwards in between the snare and the hi hat and the bass drum and it turned out pretty good for what it was.. this just brought back that memory..

This is exactly why I spend a lot of time setting up any instrument then build around that setup with only a few mics.. You can get great sounds with very small setups. Good job on this one! Love the sound. It's my type of a drum sound.

Love this! Really gets the image of the kit as one instrument!

I’m always amazed at just how impactful mic placement is, no matter how many of these examples you’ve shown. This is a super practical approach, I may try to be brave next time; ie. not just recording a bunch of spot mics just for the sake of it, but instead try to work from the overhead first. And then fill in anything that’s “missing” with additional mics.

Amazing technique! Thank you!

A fantastic video. Will be trying this out for sure.

OMG... You're so right! I just realized how phase is time related and how it's not the same as polarity! Wow I saw a video months ago about recording drums with one mic from in front of them at a distance, will look for it. Thanks, this was awesome!

Yesss!!! I love this type of stuff. I did something like that a few years ago and got a massive sound

Superb presentation. Simple yet very effective in an overcomplicated world.

This is great! Thanks for sharing!