Recording Drums ��� ��
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TUTORIAL �� ���� ��� PRODUCTION � � FUNDAMENTALS RECORDING DRUMS ��� �� One of the trickiest Ever since Geoff Emerick boldly placed his KIT & KABOODLE microphones within sniffing distance of Ringo’s So what makes a drum sound good? Now, while ���� ���� engineering tasks in the Ludwig drumkit for The Beatles’ ‘White’ one person’s floor is another’s ceiling and good studio would have to be the album, it’d be fair to say that the recording of sound is a question of taste and context, there are ���� drums hasn’t changed very much. With notable a few indisputables that contribute. For instance, recording of drums. One of exceptions, such as the brilliant Tchad Blake the drum should be as round as manufacturable Australia’s finest recording and his dummy head binaural techniques and and the bearing edge (where the wood meets the various lo-fi adventures with just two well-placed skin) should be dead flat. All good in theory, but engineers, Paul McKercher, microphones, the practice of close miking each the mechanics of mounting a drum can conspire offers some salient advice element of the kit for impact and adding a few to distort its shape. Bass drum-mounted toms room mics for ambience remains a staple. are the worst offenders as the entire weight of to help us capture the the tom is transferred onto the mounting post While being able to pull a great drum sound is and into the bass drum. With wood being more power and majesty of this the mark of a recording engineer, I’d challenge flexible than metal, the drum and, in particular, the notion that it’s all about engineering crucial instrument. the bearing edges take on a less than ideal shape. technique. Other factors have a greater bearing You can check this by supporting some of the Text: Paul McKercher on the outcome, these being: the quality of the load with your fingers under the rim while you kit itself (which is obvious enough), the way in hit the tom. Be prepared to be unpleasantly which it is hit (a subject beyond the scope of this surprised at the loss of tone and sustain. Hence article) and the sonic character of the room the rim mounting systems are a popular panacea and drums are recorded in. In fact, any time your work effectively to spread the load more evenly mics are more than 10cm away from an acoustic around multiple points on the rim, allowing the sound source the sound of the room becomes shell to vibrate freely and happily and, as a bonus, an important consideration – more on that later. they take the weight of the tom off the bass What you’re after is a good recording of a good drum, improving its resonance. drum kit and it’s hubris to expect that a great engineer with all manner of top-notch equipment More important, though, is good tuning and, can turn a crummy kit into something that turns again, while being a matter of taste, it’s worth heads. noting that a well-tuned drum is much, much AT 60 louder than a poorly tuned one – invaluable if Bass drum inside proverbial, get into the recording area and start you want to hear the drums above the cymbals Sennheiser MD421, Beyer M88, AKG D112 moving those mics around; explore and discover. in your room mics and imperative in being sure Bass drum outside Become a recording engineer not just a knob there’s a lot more snare in your snare mic than Neumann U47fet, AKG D112 twiddler (such a disagreeable term). Here are a hi-hat spill. A common question is ‘how do Snare top few pointers. When pointing a mic at a drum, Shure SM57, AKG C451+10dB pad you keep hi-hat spill out of snare mics?’. Good the more parallel the mic is to the skin, the more tuning helps considerably, but pointing the back Snare bottom fundamental frequency it will pick up. Move it AKG C451+10dBpad, Shure SM57 of the snare mic at the hi-hat (if there’s enough to a higher angle of incidence and you will hear Hi-hats room) will also give you a few more dB of AKG C451+10dBpad, Neumann KM84 more overtones. If you want more bottom end, hi-hat reduction. Better that than using a noise Toms instead of diving for the nearest EQ, move the mic gate or even Sound Replacer software – these Sennheiser MD421, Neumann U87 closer. That way you won’t be EQing the spill as approaches can be very effective, although they Overheads well, instead you’re only adding low frequency to can throw up questionable results, particularly Coles 4038 ribbon, Neumann U67/87, AKG C414 the instrument (e.g. a snare drum) closest to the on rolls. I’m a great believer in tuning drums to Room mic, the spill of other more distant elements won’t the song, which is not to say the drums should AEA, Coles or Royer ribbons, Neumann U87 sound any different. The reason low frequencies necessarily be tuned to a triad based on the increase with decreased distance is explained song’s key – sometimes dissonance works – but For preamps I favour old Neves, or if I need in the side bar and is called proximity effect, as I’ll try to get the drums to sit musically within something a bit faster for more snappiness, I’ll use powerful a tool as EQ. the harmonic framework of the song given that APIs. I’m sure there are plenty of other usable drums are more than simple, atonal percussion. alternatives out there, but like all tradesmen, I’ll THE SNARE Personally, I don’t have the necessary expertise to go for the tool that’s close to hand and the gear A lot of sound comes off the rim of a snare drum, tune drums so I rely on the drummer or hire in a listed above is commonly found in good studios, especially if the drummer is hitting rimshots, drum doctor. I do, however, know that gaffa tape with the exception, perhaps, of the ribbon mics. so place your mic in a bit from the rim if you all over a drum skin is a bad sign. If the drum A quick note about ribbons… they are very want to attenuate that sound, or nearer to it if is round, the bearing edge flat and the skin in sensitive and don’t like wind blast, so for this you want to hear more ‘clang’ in a metal snare good condition, those unwanted rings should be reason and the fact that they have very strong and ‘knock’ from a wooden one. A mic on the able to be tuned out. A little bit of dampening is magnets in them and attract iron dust from the bottom of the snare is often an afterthought but okay but if the skin requires more than one piece air, you should put a cover on them when they with careful placement it can sound quite good. then there’s something wrong with the skin or aren’t in use or are being moved about. This will The trick is not to mic the wires directly but to the drum. If a shorter, deader sound is required, prolong the life of the ribbon by some years. point the mic at a spot on the skin about 10cm try using a thicker skin or the old tea towel trick, away from the wires. By doing this you’ll still get where the said kitchen item is placed over part or YOU PUT THE MIC WHERE? plenty of brightness from the wires but without all of the skin. Drum gel is a great accessory too, Now to mic placement and the lost art thereof. the brittleness. As far as sympathy rattles from and works better than tape as its edges don’t lift Before EQ circuits were found in recording snare wires go, I don’t bother to gate them out. and flap around, which a sharp pair of ears will consoles, engineers chose the tone they wanted by To my ear it’s part of the natural sound of a kit so hear. Failing all this, hiring a good kit might be using the appropriate mic and placing it correctly, long as the wires are correctly tensioned and the a good idea and if it saves some stuffing around good engineers still do... closer for more low bottom skin is well tuned. Neither do I use gates while in an expensive studio – at $100 a day, it’s frequency, further away for less, just for starters. on toms; if they are well tuned any sympathy rings paid for itself in an hour. Even a cursory examination of mic angles and can sound quite natural. However, if they do need distances will tell that there is a world of tonal attenuation when they’re not being played, a fader For those who are interested, here is my standard variations available – as much as EQ will provide ride is the better option since most noise gates are drum mic setup. Mics are listed in order of and without the distortion and phase problems unpredictable, inaccurate and have dubious sonic preference. associated with EQ circuits. So get off your integrity. 1. A good kick drum sound is 1. 3. often achieved with two mics. The outside mic generally provides more tone and weight, while the inner mic captures the articulation. 2. Tuning the drums for the recording session is vitally important.