In this free video tutorial for Production Expert, James Ivey works with Recording Engineer and Producer Mike Exeter to record his kit for a metal track, in which Mike explains his approach to recording tom-toms using 2 microphones.

This technique works best when the top and bottom mics are of the same make and model but it is not essential. The mic on the top or batter head needs to point towards the middle third of the drum head. While the bottom mic points to the same spot on the drum from the underside. The resonant side microphone is wired out of phase head using a custom made Y-Split cable. These two mics feed into one mic preamp and in turn to a single recording channel. This technique reduces the amount of bleed from the other drums and cymbals in the kit into the tom mics and makes for a nice clean tom sound that can be easily EQ’d without having to compromise due to the sound of the spill.

Apologies that the quality of the sound on the conversation on this video is not up to our usual standard. We had an equipment failure on the day and had to resort to the camera mic but we felt the content was worth running nonetheless.

In the next video in this series James and Mike will be talking about the all important snare drum.