drum recording

.aa – week four.

This week we had the pleasure of recording the drums, a task not as easy as it sounds. Especially if you happen to be listening to “Lateralus” by Tool, like me.

Unlike the amplifier which usually contains one (sometimes four) separate sound sources, the drum kit can have anywhere upward of eight. Usually these require at least one dedicated microphone each, which for an instrument you play sitting down means a lot of equipment (mics, drums, cymbals, stands) concentrated in a smallish area. The pitfalls are numerous.

With the help of my able comrades Dave & Luke, we attempted to cater for these perils by starting simply with playing a single drum and finding a place in the room where the sound was good. This is a task I like to call ‘finding the mojo,’ as it is way too difficult to explain what you are listening for, you really just have to go with your ears and your heart.

Once we’d found a place with suitable mojo, we:
-built the drum kit up on carpet.
-put the drum and cymbals into a nice symmetrical sort of playing/sounding position
-put microphones into an approximate position
-used a spaced pair of overhead microphones (Neumann KM-84i)
-surrounded the area with absorbing boards
-put in a room microphone (Neumann U-87)
-took turns in playing the kit / adjusting microphones position / listening to the result in the control room (dishing out orders to the drummer/engineer)
-panned the drums in the stereo image, as per the overheads
-some minor mixing (kick / snare boosted, toms reduced slightly)
-switched from spaced overheads, to an X/Y configuration (still Neumann KM-84i)

.drum recording.

pap-happy beat | swing beat (spaced overheads) | swing beat (X/Y overheads)

Tool's Danny Carey doesn't mess around: try out his kit...

.sources.

Grice, David 20.03.07. “Percussion.” Tutorial presented in the EMU space, 5th floor, Schulz Building, University of Adelaide.

Robjohns, Hugh 1999, “Rhythm Method – Recording Real Drums,” Sound on Sound, viewed 24.3.07, http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul99/articles/recordingdrums.htm