Why are drums miked?

[4Mal]

I typically run three mic's on a kit. Usually a D6 in the kick. Snare mic varies with the sound of the drum. My overhead is a vintage Sennheiser 441. If it is placed well, I can often turn off the snare mic and just use the ohd. For jazz and Americana it works fabulously. For rock and funk I probably keep the snare mic on. I might mic toms if there is time and I have channels. It's all about options. ...and just because there are mics - said mics don't have to be present in the FOH.

I also send all the mic's to the recorder so I have options at mix down. I record most of the shows I do PA for ... Hoping to turn that into another revenue stream...

And yeah, regardless of the number of mic's on the kit, the drums are in a sub group and on my board the vocals are in a sub group. Mostly so I can send the group back through the Presonus Fat Channeling the case of vocals. I am evolving to loading a vocal bus up and sending the vocal buss through the compressor, using a limiter on the individual vox mics. It seems to get a smoother and more polished vocal sound. The sub group for drums is really a volume control for the kit - except for the kick which is also in my aux fed subs.

<rant> Edrums... Suck. Almost as bad as the Sears /ToysR Us drum set at a early teens taken show on festival Saturday morning... /rant

What I really don't get is not why the mics but rather what has become the state of drum tuning... Or lack thereof. I've spent several rolls of painters tape deadening horrible sounding drums.

 

[Badass MOFO]

I mic everything for most outdoor shows, ...

That's because for sound outdoors, you need some meat and potatoes!

 

[seamonkey]

If it's an outdoor show with an open back stage area, you can also put the shield behind the drummer/band to direct the sound forward.

 

[modulusman]

If it's an outdoor show with an open back stage area, you can also put the shield behind the drummer/band to direct the sound forward.

Or you could actually play with a real PA.

 

[David Jayne]

Drummers are liking em

That may be your experience but it certainly hasn't been mine.

 

[seamonkey]

Or you could actually play with a real PA.

Yes and with IEMs so the drummer can hear the total mix

 

[LiquidMidnight]

I generally find that micing the kick is almost always beneficial, subs or not, since it has a tendency to get lost in a mix unless you're in a room and on a stage that was constructed with quality sound reproduction in mind. Also, as others have alluded to, it's a timbre thing. You're not going to get that clicky attack from the beater unless you mic the kick (not that every mix needs or benefits from that specific color either). Adding effects is also another good point. There are rooms where the snare is acoustically loud enough, but it just sounds too harsh without a little bit of reverb.

With quieter overall mixes, you can get away with not micing the snare, toms, and cymbals, though sometimes a single overhead can give a little pizzaz if you so desire it. And as has been stated, micing a full kit is not always about volume. Sometime it's a way to make the kit sound like a single instrument rather than a number of discreet parts being played by the same person.