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| Drum Sounds |
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Technical Notes Listeners continue to ask me how I get such great sounds on my recordings - especially the drums - the cymbals to be precise. I take great pride in my cymbal sounds: obtaining enough attack, yet recording enough of the room for a pleasant taste of the ambient domain. My methods of mic placement, gain staging, and use of my comprehensive knowledge of phasing and filtering produce the sweetest of aural pleasures. My system works for every drummer in the world. The technique and skill of the drummer doesn't matter anymore - BELIEVE ME! I have a lock on this. Simply follow the instructions below and you could put your kid brother behind the kit (well, just the cymbals) and produce FANTASTIC RESULTS within minutes! For, I have already done all the work for you! Recording is so simple and easy - everybody can be great! Hooray! Please see the photos and explanations below.
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Take note of the type,angle and placement of each microphone. Be sure to use only the stands and mic clips shown. Many people don't know this, but the type of stand used plays a vital roll in how the finished product will sound. Be sure to use only the best cables, too! You may click on each image in this section to enlarge (the picture). |
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Now, this is the one that really put my drum sounds over the edge! Sometimes I forego the drumsticks altogether and have the drummer use my SM-81s as drum sticks! Durable little buggers, they are. I have since developed a technique by which I would swing the mic around by the cable (a la Mr. Daltrey) and smash the cymbal on each go-around. Riding a china with this technique will blow you away. Woah, My Golly! |
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The main trick is to use stuff like phase shift and comb filtering to get that truly bitchin' sound! Be careful though, one time I had all the mics positioned such that there was so much phase cancellation that all the sine waves cancelled each other out and THERE WAS NO SOUND AT ALL! Although I was puzzled at first, I knew I was onto something great. That was pretty cool. |
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Note the position of the SM-81 as the tip of the drum stick taps the tiny-little splash cymbal! For the sake of space, I have only pictured one cymbal. This configuration is to be used for every cymbal on the kit. Give each microphone its own dedicated mic-pre/channel. No sub-grouping either! Only ONE Microphone per track! Remember: you need to keep complete control of every variable of every microphone! |
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Although uncertain, it is my guess that this is the technique employed by many contemporary sound engineers and producers to get the vocal sounds we hear today! Once I tried this mic position, I found that my vocal tracks were very close to what I've been hearing on radio and television - in structure, dimension, form and content. Amazing! |
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