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Forums - Mixing & FX
Subject: drum kit recording tips
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Original Message 1/6 19-Dec-05 @ 11:50 AM - drum kit recording tips
Dominic
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Cenzo Townsend’s tips to recording drums
16 December 2005
At Olympic Studios, Cenzo’s guitar/drum booth is becoming a bit of a major attraction for the bands that go in there.
“We recorded the drums [for Employment] in a very small, dry room which is also our guitar booth – a room with a wooden floor – but it suited the sound. It was through necessity to be honest but it turned out very well and we were very pleased with it. We’ve recorded drums in there for people like Graham Coxon so we knew what the room was like and recorded it via a lot of vintage gear and ribbon mics, and the room went through a ribbon mic that was fed through the Liquid Channel which was a big part of the sound in the end.”
So the room’s limited space and acoustic has made it an ideal place to give a unique character to Cenzo’s drum sound although, as he is quick to point out, there are some basic principles you can apply anywhere to get great, interesting sounds when recording a kit. Here are Cenzo’s top drum recording tips…
• “I like to use ribbon mics on overheads because they are not dull and quite natural sounding. You can push them quite drastically without them sounding horrible.”
• “Position them as you can in terms of the sound you want and then record them flat without any compression.”
• “I try and get an overall sound with those two mics and then fill in with a bass drum and snare drum. The snare drum might use a [Shure SM] 57 for top and bottom.”
• “Take a 57 and point it at the shell of a snare directly above the bass drum and then compress the nuts out of that depending on how loud the hi hats are as effectively you are pointing them at the height of the top of the snare. That can work very well.”
• “The room has to lend itself to the kind of sound that you want to achieve. If you want a big sound or a tight sound the room obviously plays a big part in that as drums are so loud and therefore the reflections are very loud so you need a lot of screening.”
• “However big the room is I like to use a lot of screens around the drums so you get the best of both worlds; you can have a big sound from your overhead room mics if you have a big room and within the screen everything is actually quit tight.”
Message 2/6 19-Dec-05 @ 04:54 PM - RE: drum kit recording tips
- wonder what mic's he used for the rest (kik etc)
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I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!
Message 3/6 19-Dec-05 @ 11:23 PM - RE: drum kit recording tips
Message 4/6 20-Dec-05 @ 12:47 AM - RE: drum kit recording tips
• “I try and get an overall sound with those two mics and then fill in with a bass drum and snare drum. The snare drum might use a [Shure SM] 57 for top and bottom.”
• “Take a 57 and point it at the shell of a snare directly above the bass drum and then compress the nuts out of that depending on how loud the hi hats are as effectively you are pointing them at the height of the top of the snare. That can work very well.”
that is quite lo-fi tho, cos in essense he's going for something organic 'live' & unified, with re-enforcement from close mic-ing rather than the other way round by the sound of it. Like that second tip
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I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!
Message 5/6 20-Dec-05 @ 03:02 AM - RE: drum kit recording tips
First of all, the Liquid Channel on the room... well obviously Focusrite paid them to use it (or gave it free) because of all reports I've read that is a very one-dimensional pre. Yes, it is supposed to imitate EVERY classic pre, but the word is that it does it in a very digital, fake sort of way. Not many "big boys" are using the thing as far as I know.
And ribbons as overheads... natural perhaps, but "not dull"? Well, compared to condensers, yeah they kinda are. I will agree that they take EQ better. But you also need a good sounding room, given their figure-8 pickup pattern.
If your drummer is good, try the
"Glyn Johns method"... this relies almost entirely on the overhead sound, but it ensures phase integrity, and with a drummer who controls his dynamics, you will get.... well... THAT sound. Read the dude's credits.
A lot of people use a "modified glyn johns," adding tom or room mics as desired.
For me, the most "innovative" technique I use is M/S on the room mics (and not as far away as you would think)... very flexible and sounds great (in our room at least). And an Audix D6 is a great relatively cheap mic for kick. Oh and cheapo Senn. E609 silvers on toms work quite well too! And I prefer a Beyer 201 on snare instead of 57... meatier, bigger, and better-sounding off-axis rejection for the hihat.
Message 6/6 20-Dec-05 @ 06:34 PM - RE: drum kit recording tips
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