Found this on facebook and thought you people with real drums would like a look:



Headphone amp and Hihat (no mics)

Do I see a single mono overhead and a big stereo mic on front-of-kit duties, sitting on a bass cab set up as a sub mic? I like where this is going. Is this a recent picture?

Totally my idea of an interesting setup. All about this minimalist sort of thing. I should really try some M-S stuff/out in front of kit type stuff.

Very recent, they seem to be recording a new album! I wonder if this combination of dedicated mics and space mics is what give them their sound. The concept I'm imagining is getting the most sound possible out of multi-instrument mics and using the dedicated mics as accents and reinforcement. Big, space filling sound but with the added power of dedicated close mics. Anyone know if he has always used acrylic drum shells?

Speaking of the kit, what an oddly shallow kick drum. Would rock the fuck out of that kit though, has some Bonham-like swag.

If those are old Vistalites, IIRC the kicks tended to be shallow. As a general thing with really large diameter kick drums (24"+) that's been A Thing. The bigger the diameter, the shallower the shell. I don't know enough to know if there's a practical reason behind it, or whether it applies to large concert or marching bass drums, which have a totally different application.

Personal experience says you can do whatever the eff you want with the room and the close mics are for impact, just the punch of the thing. Their importance varies dependent on style and one's taste in mixes. I find them least relevant on the snare, most on the kick, followed by the toms to reinforce the low end in the context of a distorted guitar rock mix. Spot mics on cymbals are their own animal. And I am really liking the hell out of the side mic on the snare lately, but that might just be because I record an unusual snare on a regular basis and it takes well to that mic and placement.

That is prolly a 24" kick at least yeah?

The trick with bigger kicks has always been, for them to sound right and not like muddy indistinct shit, they have to be shallow. That is one of the big things that drummers mess up looking for a "bigger" kick sound("uh, make it sound like when the levee breaks"), going for large diameters AND large depths. Has to be one or the other. Bonham's kick was actually kind of super shallow. But it was 24". The rest is tuning. And felt strips(the presence of which, which the astute viewer will also note here).

Mic setup looks about right. Could get some GJ sorts of angles out of that or some other things. Useful looking.

Is that a headphone distro amp on the stand behind him? Or some funky cube-shaped mic?

I think a headphone amp.

I've really only just noted the positioning of the cymbals, particularly the ride. I really hate that sort of setup, I can't deal with the ride way up like that, weirds me out.

Also: would like to know what is going on with the snare.

I pretty much solely rock the shell mic myself, it is definitely good shit. Between that, OHs and a trust ol' anal mic I feel I get a pretty accurate depiction of Landon's snare in this room.

Just to make it clear, I heard in an interview that the ride is the one in the middle. Yes there is a headphone amp behind him, I added another picture to the OP.

That looks like a pretty Steve Albini recording set up. I think he likes to do a stereo ribbon MS setup for overheads. It probably gets a whole lot of ambience. Plus those Josephson tom mics. Is he recording them?

I love those shiny clear kits. Hnggg.


This is a good description of what I wish drum recording was for me, but I do mine in a bad sounding basement. So no, no not that.



I had to eject the anal mic from the mix I'm doing right now. It was contributing a good thing to my kick but it was also interfering with my edits. Because I am lame and edit the kick drum even when I'm trying to sound 'natural'.

A thing I've wondered about MS. Do the capsules reallyreally have to be smushed together? I mean looking there, no, they are elsewhere. And while I was messing around with my mics I did notice that some further located mono middle with the stereo mic had roughly the same effect.

Albini in the live room:


Might be. That seems like the kinda shit he'd do. And an appropriate choice, I'd feel, for that sort of band. Plus, the two tape machines visible in the first picture.

To Geoff: you are editing your drums as a group, right...? What, exactly, is the ol' bunghole mic doing wrong? I'm curious what the process here is that it's getting in the way of.

Re: Mid/side, I've always done it smushed together, so I can't say. There might be phase issues otherwise?

Re: the shell mic, I think I actually like the plain ol' 57 for that. Nothing special at all. Center of the snare, about 6" back, under the hats.

That room strikes me as having similar dimensions and surfaces as my own basement. I have never seen that angle of the EA live room.

If that's not Electrical, looking at the photos, I'll eat my proverbial hat. 'Cause it damn sure looks like it.

Oh, I am positive it is. My room is sort of almost like a miniaturized version minus the brick. I should film the entirety of that space soon.

Hehe... generally, yes. However when you have gated close mics and a mix that is predominantly going to be close mics, which is anticipating gigantic guitars and bass, you can also just move individual mics and no one will notice the original placement of the hit bleeding in from the overheads/room. So there are a few spots where a retarded kick drum or snare was solo-nudged into place. The anal mic would reveal this since it is basically there to gather a certain blend of bleeds.

Hrmm... Copypasta of other hits in the snog is not possible? And it's audible in the mix, enough that you would notice or care? I assume the close kick is in yer face; even I do that. Something about the kick lends itself to that treatment in rawkmusic. But, I assume you're doing a ton of fast doubles, so that might be impractical.

I've found you can get away with some pretty narsty shit if you don't hear it with everything going. Audible fuckups, bad gates, etc. where you'll only ever hear it on the soloed track. Like, on pro mixes, dissecting them. Shit that I would never allow to pass. I know for a fact there's a bad edit on a Garda track that's covered up by a drum machine, but I only had one take of the song to work with and the percussion had to line up or otherwise it would just be a mess. You would only hear it on the soloed live drum track.

Yeah copy pasta of other hits is possible but it's just not necessary. My method is basically designed around facilitating maximum editableness. Snare is expanded hard before the compressor, kick and toms are gated... overheads are hi passed and are much quieter than the close mics. The only one that will really show it is the room mic, but it isn't that loud either, since my basement sounds kinda shitty (it's just there to add some dimension to the mix).

You can hear a bit of a whisper of the original hit with the drums soloed, and it's completely inaudible in the full mix. I guess I could post a clipz0r in another thrad so you can sees.