When talking about recording toms, it’s probably not really necessary to yet again make mention of my “use only one mic” M.O. There was a time when miking the top and bottom heads of toms was popular, but it’s not quite as common these days. In any case, using only one mic is indeed the way to go. As is placing the mic just like the great engineers who came before us do. It works.

Tuning
Most of the work in getting a good tom sound is actually in the tuning and dampening of the drum-not necessarily the miking (as a matter of fact, this is true in recording the entire kit). No mic placement can make a badly tuned drum sound good.

I recently came across a great video on tuning toms via the Audio Geek Zine blog: Tuning Drums Part One-Basics (from Spectre sound). Don’t be thrown off by the hard rock/metal aesthetic of the video. Their tips for tuning toms can and should be applied to all styles of music.

Once you get the drum properly in tune, put some gaffer’s tape or moon gels around the rim of the tom in various places to suppress the pitch and ring a bit. I usually don’t like to have any pitch or ring present in the tone of the drums-especially the toms. If you really want to suppress the pitch (like me), try placing some gaffer’s tape in an “X” in the center of both the top and bottoms heads.

Miking
For rack toms, placing the mic a few inches from the head, at the 12 o’clock position (from the drummer’s perspective), and angled towards the center typically does the trick. Placing the mic around the 1 or 2 o’clock positions (again, from the drummer’s perspective), a few inches off the head, and angled towards the center is ordinarily where you will find the sweet spot for floor toms. Also, tucking the mic underneath the ride cymbal, and aiming the mic such that the polar pattern rejects as much of the cymbal as possible helps in taming ride cymbal bleed into the floor tom mic.

Synopsis of recording toms:

• Getting a great sound has more to do with the tuning and dampening than mic placement.
• Tuning is a must. Dampening-to a degree-is a preference.
• Once the tuning and dampening is taken care of, placing the mic is a pretty straightforward (go back to the previous paragraph for advise).

//Jon
Twitter: @stsn