Engineer Neil Dorfsman On Miking A Drum Kit

This is one of the best drum miking walk-throughs I’ve ever seen. In the video below, Neil Dorfsman (Dire Straits, Sting, Paul McCartney, Def Leopard, Bruce Springsteen to name just a few credits) covers how he mikes a drum kit, and he has several unique approaches that I’ve rarely heard before. Actually I’ve heard of most of these techniques being used, but I don’t think all at one time, but the proof is in the pudding as Neil is one of the best engineers going and you’ve heard his work on many hits.

What’s unique? Neil puts a contact mic directly on the snare just for triggering a gate, the way he finds the absolute phase of the entire kit (and what he does with the kick drum mics), the fact that he places some room mics behind gobos and others facing away from the drums, the 57 room mic, the Green Bullet on the floor facing the rear of the kick, and more. And Neil doesn’t worry about adding compression or EQ during tracking because he’s always mixing, even from the beginning.

This is well worth the watch!