OT: Recording Drums - gear selection

[Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com>]

George Ludwig wrote:
"-I've owned a pair of AKG C1000s for many years, and long ago stopped 
using them as overheads. I'd prefer a mono overhead with a better mic to 
stereo with the C1000s. The C1000s is a very "brash" sounding 
mic...sounds to me very brittle. I hate it on cymbals. OTOH, I love it 
on snare if you're going for a more snappy sound. Also, some engineers 
love it on guitar amps."


I soooooo agree with you, George.

I only recommended them because Rainer said that he owned a pair of them 
and I made the assumption that he wanted his recording
to use only microphones that he had.

Again,  because of their brashness, which they truly are for cymbals 
there's always a fall back approach:
namely,  it's brash because the frequencies exist.................this 
means you can use selective equalization to take out the
'brash' qualities of the overheards.

Quite frankly,  a simple and inexpensive method that I've used in the 
past is to use 2
Shure SM91 condensers (I pick them because I own them and , if I owned 
B&K matched condensers I'd used them instead, but I don't)
as overs and a D112 as a kick mic with, MAYBE ,  an SM57 on Snare drum.

In my live looping shows when I'm using only two mics on my tiny drum 
kit, I use a single SM91 and a D112 and get a really decent
mono kick sound.

I'm totally with you, George,  that the whole 70's close micing thing 
really is a waste of time,  unless you have a budget for two weeks
of studio time devoted to getting a single snare drum sound and  a shit 
load of cocaine to do to monofixate on the sound as Fleetwood Mac
had during the recording of Rumors

Additionally,   no matter where you record it,  you can't match the 
great recording rooms of the earth, be they 'Studio A' of Ocean Way
Studios  or row 8 of Foellinger Hall in Champagne, Illinoise during your 
recording.

sooooo,  if you want a really world class drum sound on a complete and 
utter beer budget,  use a great Convolution Reverb ala
Sony's Acoustic Mirror (native to the wonderful digital editor, Sony 
Sound Forge) or even the freeware SIR Convolution Reverb
(http://www.knufinke.de/sir/sir2.html)  and use  a prerecorded Impulse 
File to recreate a world class reverb.

In fact, as long as I"m not too busy,  write me and I"ll send you some 
world class Impulse files for 'state of the art' convolution reverbs.

The only advantage to close micing is that you can use a close miced 
drum kit with a world class Impulse file in a Convolution Reverb
and approximate a pretty decent recording experience from a famous 
recording environment on earth.

*******************
One of the great beauties of recording drums in the early part of this 
century is that so many different kinds of drum sounds have been used
in pop music (and especially in Hip Hop and Electronica)  that many 
styles of drums have come to be accepted even if they are quirky and
even if they have are very unconventional when compared to state of the 
art recordings made in pristine and expensive drum studios utilizing
microphones that cost the budget of a small third world country to 
purchase.

In fact,  really hip conventions in Hip Hop and Pop occured precisely 
because people took mediocre microphones and low bit rate samplers
and just got creative with their recording.   Listen to the Latin 
Playboys first album if you don't believe me...........it's a genius 
recording using
crap for technology, but with a defined intelligent aesthetic and a good 
sense of timbral masking when the mixes were made.

My philosophy is that we all have the ability to be very creative in our 
use of ANY EQUIPMENT to record drum sounds for most kinds of music.

Think about it:    If you use a decent DAW, utilizing ubiquitous 
microphones and recording at 24bits/96K sample rates then you have 
VASTLY better
equipment than was use to make all the classic recordings in pop and 
jazz during the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Essentially,  then, it takes creativity ,  a set of intelligent ears and 
a defined aesthetic to create a really intriguing drum sound.

Okay,  you may not be able to recreate Teo Macero's recordings of Tony 
Williams for the Miles Davis Quintet, but you can still create
a very intriguing drum sound.

My advice in the long run is this:   don't trip on what you don't 
own!    Use what you have and get creative and then listen to the mix 
carefully
and decide how to mix your drum tracks into your mixes.    This is how 
innovation happens in the recording industry,  Always!!