Tracking a Drum Kit with 13 Microphones

The title says it all.. This week I was apart of a 13 microphone drum recording session and really got to see how to professionally run a studio session with an artist. It was crazy seeing how many microphones were used for the recording.

A quick list of the mic set up:

Kick In - B52

Kick Out - Rode NT1

Snare Top I - SM7B

Snare Top II - Rode M3

Snare Under - AKG 451

Snare - Shotgun

Hats - AKG 451

Toms I - MD 21

Toms II - MD 421

Overhead I - Royer 121

Overhead II - Royer 121

Moscow I - Pulsar

Moscow II - Pulsar

Did you peep that? four microphones for the snare!! Not 2, or 3.... 4!! who would have thought there was even a use for that many microphones on one instrument....

The Magic doesn't even stop there! All the microphones for the kit were plugged into a Neve Custom Series 75 mixing desk on channels A2-A15 and with the EQ's on channel 2 (Kick In), 9 (Toms I) and 10 (Toms II) there was a high pass filter applied at 330Hz. By doing this it automatically eliminates the muddy feel that may comes with from over crowding a frequency range. This type of EQ cut is a common technique used to make a recording have that signature Rock feel (Audio Issues, 2014).

So we're tracking the drums and by the 2nd take, we had already gotten a great recording out of the artist. BUT, for mixing purposes and optimal sound quality, Adrian (the producer running the session) decided that he wanted to get a few more takes. We noticed that there were some minor timing issues during certain sections of the song, so after the 5th take we plugged a talk-back microphone into channel B31 which fed directly into the drummers headphones. This was to assist him with the timing issue by counting him in before sections. after the next take (take 6), we took a small break to allow the drummer to do a slight re-tune on the snare. Fast forward to take 35, Adrian is happy with the recordings he's done; it's not time to let the drummer record a solo! This is where it gets fun, the drummer has a real groove for the song and he's ready to go wild. 40 takes were recorded in total, which was so crazy to me because I have never recorded more than maybe 5 takes at a time. The last thing that was done before closing the session out was to record individual hits of each instrument (Snare, Tom, Kick & Hat), this makes mixing the track much easier, for example: If the drummer hits the rim of the snare instead of the pad, who ever it is that is mixing the track can simply use the single snare hit that was recorded and place it on the rim shot.

I learnt a lot from this lesson, one thing I learnt from most was Adrians communication skills between him and the drummer. It's a soft skill like that which can make or break a studio session. If you are friendly and positive yet still able to get your demands across to the artist without malice, then you have passed the communication skills test, in my books! And for all the people who were in the studio during the session, there were different opinions on how something should sound or if the drummer should do it this way instead and Adrian took everything on board. That's something else I took note of, even though I may have an idea in my head as to what I want a recording to sound like, it can't hurt to try other things or record one extra take of something completely different. You may find out when you get to the mixing stage that you actually really like one of those extra takes.

I'm looking forward to incorporating techniques like this in my future projects.

Jordan.

References:

Benediktsson, B. (2014). 8 Frequency Viruses You Need To EQ From Your Mix's Immune System. Audio Issues. Retrieved 19 April 2019, from https://www.audio-issues.com/music-mixing/eq-viruses/