21 mics on the drum kit.

Kick In- AKG D112
Kick Out- AKG D12E
Kick Sub- Yamaha NS10 woofer homebrew mic
Snare Top- a plain-Jane Shure SM57. Some shit just works.
Snare Bottom- Sennheiser MD441
Toms- Sennheiser MD421 x2
Overhead L&R- Telefunken M16 MKII
Overhead C (above & behind the drummer)- Neumann M149
Overhead C 2 (front of kit)- Neumann KM184
Hats- AKG 451
Ride- Neumann KM184
Tambourine- Shure SM7B
Close Room L&R- Coles 4038 x2, down low near the floor, with baffles behind them (the figure 8 pattern deal; isolate the back of the mic)
Mid Room- Shure Green Bullet with some nasty compressor, I think it was the Collins broadcast limiter.
Far Room- Neumann KM184 x2
Ceiling- Sennheiser MKH 40 x2

Mostly API (512 and 3124) and Neve 34128 preamps. A fair bit of EQ from the SSL desk and compression from various sources printed whilst tracking. Distressors, old Collins broadcast limiter, Gates Level Devil, Retro 176s, Alan Smart C2 off the top of my head.

Bass was variously Fender Jazz, Carvin 5-string fretless, Zon and the Prophet synth. Bass amp was a Divided By 13 head and cab with an EV RE20 on it (stashed in the mic locker and cranked up) and a SansAmp Bass Driver. RCA BA-6A compressor on input.

Guitars were all my AC30 6/TBX with a Greenback and Blue. Two 57s and an additional 421 on the Blue, stashed in a storage closet. Channels jumpered, into the high gain input of Brilliant. Up between noon and cranked all the way, variously. Usual assortment of pedals- OCD, Eventide, EHX Pulsar and Cathedral. Used my Strat and a Les Paul Standard. Chris's guitar on Confabulated Edison will be retracked; he DIed his PRS through a Sansamp plugin as a placeholder. Didn't touch the Dual Rec or Bogners. (Yet.)

Tracks will follow when I get them. We didn't get out 'til 4 AM. We're going back on the 11th for vocals; in the meantime I should be picking up the tracks in the next couple days to comp them down, program, overdub and the like.

Ooh.

From here on out I'm responsible for the heavy lifting though. We're doing the vocal tracking in the B room downstairs; we don't need the huge live room for vocals and we can still use whatever mic/pre/comp we want. We're getting Ken The and Rändy in on the vocal action for backups and some gang vocals on the harder industrial tunes as well. Ken really only sings on cover stuff so far, which is disappointing as he has a really cool sounding voice; kinda Andrew Eldritch meets Iggy Pop. Chris and I have taken to doing lots of harmonies, which is funtimes. The contrasting timbres of our voices work in that Layne & Jerry sort of way.

Jim Whose Metalband I Bass In swung by for a couple hours and commented he wouldn't be able to play this stuff in the studio without vocals or punching in; something to the effect of you guys could bust out a Dream Theater tune but instead you just groove on these dance beats and I'd lose my place sorta deal. We wound up in the control room with Chris and I singing (and doing the harmonies ) for cues anyhow. By the last take of Confabulated Edison, I'm dancing whilst wearing a Les Paul, doing total Pete Townshend shit on the big chord hits and yelling the song's whopping four lines of lyrics (a chorus, sung four times total at various points) as if I were on stage.

All is transitory
your world and mine;
all that you believe you know
will change with time.

I wound up using the Les Paul on that one versus the Strat. I'mma re-do the cleans, but the Lester for the heavy bits suits the song well. And the pinch harmonics on the bends on that keyboard-doubling riff at the beginning positively scream out of a dimed AC30. Some of the overdubs are probably going to be Chris's LP Custom or maybe one of Jim's Explorers if I do some overdubs at his place. Sometimes a big dumb riff needs a big dumb tone, and that's all there is to it.

That is tirelessly awesome. You are lot like a dancing John Petrucci in a geisha outfit.

That's a hell of a lot of mics on a drum kit.

-throb throb-

Was it difficult to hide your erection? Or was it like a nude beach, where everyone just knows it is impolite to stare so no one really takes note?

Damn that's a nice studio setup.

Given half a dozen gearhead musicians in such a place, nerd beach. Everyone knows what's going down, so no one's looking.

Mostly. The Mothership and Geiger Counter attracted the attention of both staff engineers and legitimate staring actually occurred. Once set up, I was more than happy to demonstrate what they were and what they do. The reaction was " I want one".

The crushed Green Bullet about 10-12 feet from the kit was an idea I got from SD2 'cause they had a few of them on the shelf. Jay, the guy we work with there, was all "I have no idea why we have four of these, but we do" and I'm like "let's put one on the kit", and a minute later we're ghetto-rigging this thing with some masking tape onto a random mic stand. Everyone there thought it sounded cool.

I want a bullet mic to use as room mic, thanks to SD2 as well.


Insta-crunch.

Is that you on the right?

That would be me tuning my Strat, yes. tor isn't the only lead tunist on here.

Fellowship of Lead Tunist Society we is.


That is rightly a properly done micing of drumset.

Hail and well met, good sir!

...and the best part is that he plays a four-piece. 21 gol' durn mics on a four-piece. Granted a good chunk of that is room and two additional overheads. Steve Albini would be proud.

Sick, who are the other guys?

The rest of me band save for the drummer. Ken The with the classical, Mr. Chris leaning against the gear racks. Ken is bass, Chris is guitar, we all trade off on synths and vocals.

Stoked for this thang to be finished.

You guys are studs.

I'd hit each 4 times.