Hey, the other day I attempted to record some stuff on the drum kit using just a crappy mic and kristal. I moved my brothers drum kit into the study placed the mic on a table and just started playing and recording. Obviously it turned out absolutely crap......the bass drum sounds like someone farting and just hitting the crash or splash sounds like a window breaking....or a few. I have made it sound a bit better by turning it down a bit but it still sounds completely dodgy. I was wondering if there is any trick to recording the drums with a crap mic in one room or if it just can't be done, and if so is there a way to edit it to make it sound better 'cos I have no idea about like editing the sound and stuff. Any advise would be great 'cos I really don't wanna have to use those computerised drum things......

ok well, how far away is the mic from the drumkit? when we record drums, we have 3 microphones... one for the kick and two hanging evenly spaced left and right of the drum kit... we use 3 "crappy" mics... the best one worth 20 bucks i don't think this is the issue here.

Think about how loud the drum kit is, have you tried yelling into the microphone and recording it... start from a distance say 2m and get closer and closer until it starts distorting... if it's distorting from 2m away... then your recording output is way too high, this means that you got too much dB boost probably just from your standard windows volume control... or maybe from your sound card... or maybe from your program that your recording with... try starting by putting everything at zero boost (a.k.a 0dB or sometimes just "line-in" instead of "microphone")  then put the mic about one metre from the drumkit and start playing, if you can't hear anything or very faint sounds.. slowly raise the dB for the next recording and then get it to the point where it's the loudest output you can make it without the sound distorting.

I know very little about digital/software audio and how to use it (i record analogue only) but i am pretty sure that it's not a good idea to "boost" the dB or volume after you have recorded it and the whole point is to get it as loud as you can before it starts distorting before you record it, so when you record it you get a nice clean high output.

So i don't think it should be the mic's fault here... i mean we stick mics that cost under 10 dollars new about 30cm from an XL drum kit (XL = Xtra Loud) and as long as we get the levels right when recording, it's a pretty clean sound and no sign of distortion.

So I don't see why it wouldn't be the same for you...

If my advice doesn't work, seek professional help (or other bandampers who know more than me cause i learnt all this off them anyway)

Heres a link that might help

http://www.kimcheerecords.com/articles/drums/
splash

thanks for that chill and swordfish 

I managed to get a near-decent sound using only one microphone (albeit a good one), well placed to cover the kit well, in a room with good acoustics. The mic was only plugged into the mic socket of my PC... in my opinion finding the right space to record acoustic stuff in is really inportant... Smooth and unparallel walls work really well, in a reasonably empty room that isn't too big.

Drums are a b*tch to record without mics properly placed and put through a mixer.  In trying to record the band I'm with now, I attempted to do what you said above - trying to place a single mic somewhere that appeared to be covering the drums well;  rest of the band play straight into the mixer, so I took the feed for them from that.  Vocals, bass and guitars recorded loud and clear; cymbals were audible!
What I plan to do now is forget recording through the mixer.  I'm going for a wide spread stereo sound to a separated mixer from within the room.  The mics (four of them) will be positioned to pick up all instruments and vocals from a distance.  This may work - but it could be a disaster.  Never mind - it's worth while experimenting.

don't know if this will be any help but....

when my band was recording the drums..we had a mic for the kick...one boomed over the toms...one boomed over the highhat and snare...one boomed over the ride...and one boomed over the crash....and...each was recorded on separate channels through the board..so that they could be mixed separately later.

...I stood in the next room playing guitar and singing...with my vox and guitar fed through the board and back into mine and the drummers headphones ...having all those mics on the drums can make it really easy for any of them to pick up other sounds in the room - which is something you don't want....bleed through can ruin a great drum track!  Good luck!

maybe the height and direction of the mic could be of influence, so you could experience with that too(wanna here more snare, aim for that, etc.)

i recorded a lot of early band stuff with 3 mic's and a bass-line on a fourtracker

i put the drumkit in between my guitar amps and the placed PA speakers on top of the amps,
routed the base drum mic to the PA with the vocals(to get more body:rockmusic) ,
pointed 2 mics on it for left right panning, bass in the middle, one track left to improvise

so , the 2 mics needed to be pointed out right in between the PA, the amps and the drumkit, they stood about 70 cm high from the ground for best result

songs as dreamworld, blanket man and the drain were recorded like that

if you recorded an acceptable part, you can use some eq and compression in your software to make it sound better, not to speak off extra effects as noise-killer ore stereo simulator
if you played with a clicktrack, you could even get software base/snare synchronized for different sounds
well, thats all i know about it