The size of the price tag is not necessarily the way to judge how good a piece of gear will sound. Or if it will do what you actually need it to do.
I pick gear with only 1 thing in mind…..
‘Will this piece of gear do the job I need it to do’.
That’s it.
I have inexpensive gear right next to my expensive gear, and it all works. In PT1 of “Great Gear Under $400” I want to show you a few pieces of gear, that I use all the time, that are under $400. I’m starting with microphones and the drum set.
This is an excerpt from one of the live broadcasts that got a LOT of attention. I know a lot of you are on a budget. That’s why I did this broadcast, to give you some inexpensive options to add to your studio gear.
Enjoy the video and drop me a line to let me know what gear you dig that is under $400!
It’s time to talk about your bottom….bottom end that is!
The kick and snare sound you record can really define your overall drum sound and getting it right is super important. Not just recording the kick but actually getting a sound that works for the song.
To do that we need to have a good understanding of how a microphone reacts inside the drum. I’m talking about mic placement.
Does your sound need to have more click? Does it need more low end? Does it need to be tight and focused? These are questions you need to answer BEFORE you attempt to capture your perfect kick sound.
By the way when I’m talking about “click” and “low end” I’m not talking about using eq. I’m referring to mic placement and getting that as right as possible and then utilizing eq. If you take the time to get the mic placement to capture the most sound possible then using eq with make that even better.
If you rely on eq to make up for bad mic placement you will often end up with a less than optimal kick drum sound.
Bottom line is it’s best to take some time to experiment with the mics that you own to learn how they capture the kick. I promise you the more you know about your mics the better support your kick drum will be for your music.
Anyway enough of me blabbing! Let’s get to the video.
Up to this point we’ve talked a lot about recording with a mono overhead. In PT3 I want to step into the early 1930’s with a stereo pair of overheads! (here’s a cool link about Alan Blumlein. The man that invented stereo)
I’m starting out with a very popular coincident micing technique called X/Y.
X/Y consists of two, preferably matching, cardioid microphones at a 90° angle with the elements as close together as possible. This doesn’t produce a very wide stereo image but it is accurate, phase coherent, and collapses to mono well. It’s also easy to setup. In most cases you can mount the two microphones on a single stand using stereo bar.
I have a kick and snare mic on the kit as well so you can here how this setup works in context with other microphones.
In PT1 of Recording Overheads I talked about using a single, mono, mic to record a great overhead sound. In PT2 I want to demonstrate how you can use different mic types to capture just the sound your music needs.
I picked 3 mics; a large diaphragm condenser (AT4047), small diaphragm condenser (AKG451b), and a ribbon mic (AT4080). Each of these mics have unique characteristics and can be used to manipulate your drum sound to fit your music. Although there are many different mics to be purchased to record drums I highly recommend having a couple options for overhead choices.
Changing the overhead mics can have the single biggest impact on your drum sound.
Sure kick mics will make a difference, snare mics to a lesser degree, and even room mics can have a big effect. None of them come close to capturing as much pure, overall, tone as the overheads. Kick and snare are spot mics and the rooms are effected by, well, the room.
I’m not trying to say the other mics on the kit aren’t important because they are. All I’m saying is that you can completely alter your entire drum sound with different overhead mics and it’s worth having a couple options.
The point of this video is to give you an idea of what 3 common mics types sound like on overheads.
If you’ve followed my recording videos then you know I’m a HUGE proponent of using overhead mics to capture the majority (or at least a large part) of your drum sound. I talk about it all the time…..and now I’m going to talk about it more! 🙂
Over the next couple of weeks I will cover 3 or 4 different techniques for recording overheads starting with mono!
I think using a mono overhead mic gets overlooked all too often. It’s such an effective way to capture a good drum sound. Plus there are other ways to capture a stereo image…but that’s for another video.
In this video we’ll take a look at how the height and placement of the microphone effects your sound.
A couple of weeks ago I had the honor of Tim Pedersen joining me on the Recording Ninja Workshop Live Broadcast. Tim has been one of my musical mentors since I moved to LA. Recently I had the opportunity to work with him on mixing and a little re-recording on an EP for another great friend of mine Tita Hutchison.
We covered a lot of great info about how we recorded the drums AFTER we had a mix finished. This video is a 10 minute excerpt from that broadcast.
Drums are usually the first instrument to be tracked…and usually quite quickly. Then all the other instruments get to take their time building their parts and sounds on top of the drum tracks.
Every once in a while that process gets flipped around and the drums go on last.
We were already deep in the mixing process when we decided that “Frost” needed drums. The song just didn’t feel quite finished and lacked some movement in it’s current arrangement. Since our mix was pretty much done it allowed up to really take some time designing a drum sound that would help move the song along.
Tim and I spent a total of about 12 days mixing (all in a row!) and took an entire day to track just drums. It was a really fantastic time. Tim had the idea of giving the drums an old school, vintage vibe. Which is exactly what the song needed.
After spending most of the day experimenting with sounds, mic placement, eq, and compression, we landed on something that we were really proud of. It’s a sound that we really felt fit the song and helped move it along.
The good vibes and killer grooves of Dankrupt once again invaded the studio. Joined by drummer RJ Shankle and Producer Sean Gould, the band recorded drums for their upcoming EP.
Even though we were only tracking drums the whole band played together in the live room. This is such a wonderful way to make music. Giving RJ maximum vibe for his performance!
Dankrupt is a GREAT band! They is pure joy every time they play. Here is a short video from that day in the studio.
A good minimal micing setup can help you achieve fantastic results with only a few channels. It can also capture a wonderful, organic, sound no matter how many channels you have. There are quite a few minimal micing setups and, depending on your situation, all of them are useful. Today I would like to cover the very effective Recorderman setup.
The Recorderman setup uses only 2 microphones. One directly over the snare,aimed directly at the snare, and another over the should of the drummer also aimed at the center of the snare. Each mic should be roughly 2 drumstick lengths away from the snare. Of course the height can be adjusted to accommodate the drummer. I have also added a kick drum mic to help capture a good solid bottom end for our simple setup.
Personally I find the Recorderman a little uncomfortable as a player. It’s a very intrusive configuration so once we demonstrate the basic setup we move the mics a little higher to see if the sound changes at all.
Enjoy this setup. Next month we’ll look at another minimal micing configuration.
We’ve been on a room micing kick lately and I want to finish it off with one of my favorite configurations.
The Mid/Side configuration!
Mid/Side is extremely versatile. First off the “mid” mic is actually a great mono room mic. If all else fails you’ll end up with a nice sounding mono room mic.
But for those of us that want some control over the width of our rooms Mid/Side does it the best. By simply adding more or less of the center (mid) channel you can make your room sound very centered (mono) or wide.
Ok enough of me talking. The best way to show you this great technique is to do a demonstration. I promise it will make more sense.
This configuration works in rooms small and large. Give it a shot and let me know how it works for your!
