Fab moves an AKG C12 around until the drum set sounds good with just one microphone.
Chapters: -Multiple mic positions -Multiple gobo positions -Multiple drum positions -Focused comparisons between positions -Microphone comparisons -Compression with UAD Fairchild 670
The attached zip file contains the audio examples of every position in every acoustically modified environment. Please download the files and use it to form your taste, experiment and help you choose where you will set your microphone and your drum set in your room.
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00:00:07 Good morning children!
Today we're going to talk about
recording the drum set
with a vintage vibe.
00:00:13 Back in the day in the jazz era,
when they recorded a trio,
they didn't use 8, 10, 12 microphones
on the drums, you know:
top/bottom snare,
top/bottom hi-hat,
top/bottom tom, top/bottom bass drum,
top/bottom overheads...
00:00:25 they had 1 mic.
1 instrument, 1 microphone.
00:00:28 1 for the drums, 1 for the horn,
1 for the bass.
00:00:31 That makes sense in the spirit of
studying the relationship
between the instrument,
the room and the microphone...
00:00:38 which is very important, even
if you're into, and if you have to,
record the drums with multiple mics
for sonic reasons.
00:00:45 On drums we have Will Smith,
who's standing in for Keenan,
our regular drummer, who was held back
on a shoot. Let's go!
The first I do is that I ask
the drummer what he's gonna play.
00:00:57 Because that will change
the focus of the set.
00:01:00 If the song is just one big tom roll
the whole time,
which happens from time to time,
maybe you want to focus on that.
00:01:05 If the song is just a pocket,
then you don't really need the ride.
00:01:08 So it's a good idea to talk
to your drummer,
because drummers are people too.
What are you gonna play?
- I'll be playing the verses on the hat,
and the chorus on the ride.
00:01:17 - Great! So now we've got
to focus on both! Life is beautiful!
The other thing you might wanna do is
actually have him play
the pocket he's gonna do, so you have
an idea of the balance of the set,
to know if the set is tuned,
and stuff like that,
and also how the set sounds
in the room.
00:01:30 Now, here's what's important!
I always tell the drummers I work with:
Listen, do not blast me.
00:01:36 It's nothing personal, but don't play
your snare backbeat
when I'm in the room with you,
unless I'm asking you to...
00:01:42 because... check this out!
If he plays the snare
really loud right now,
my ears are gonna get used to that tone
and tone down,
because it's really, really loud.
00:01:52 Then I'm gonna go back
to the Control Room,
I'm gonna listen to the same thing, and
it's gonna feel really dull and quiet,
so what am I gonna do?
Make it louder and brighter!
And then tomorrow, when I open
that session,
I'm gonna hate myself in the morning.
00:02:03 So the idea is to have a good line
of communication and trust
with your drummer that he's not gonna
blast you while you set up your mic,
so that when you go back
to the Control Room,
you're actually hearing the reality,
not some dull version of it.
00:02:14 It's really important. Some drummers
don't know they're playing,
because they're just nervous, and they
keep playing, and they're practising,
and that kind of really kill you.
00:02:22 Before we place the microphone,
I wanna hear the pocket.
00:02:24 I'm gonna step back, so I don't get
blasted.
00:02:26 Please play, you know...
00:02:28 what I'm gonna hear when you play
the song. So here we go.
00:02:56 Obviously, we're going for a James Brown
Clyde Stubblefield kind of vibe,
where every instrument in the set
is playing at the same time,
so we need a balanced tone.
00:03:04 Common sense goes a long way here.
00:03:07 If you want a balanced tone
of everything,
you might want to put the microphone
about the same distance
from everything. Right?
Here, I'm gonna use an old AKG C12,
Austrian mic.
00:03:19 And I'm gonna position it
at say about here...
00:03:25 And then maybe a little higher,
so that...
00:03:28 the sound has the time to dissipate
before it hits the capsule.
00:03:32 There you go... Like that!
So, I don't have any innate science to
know that this is the perfect position.
00:03:39 I know that that makes some sense,
so it's probably a good idea to listen
to it.
00:03:45 Let's do that and make adjustments,
based on our taste.
00:04:11 Ok, so that's cool,
I get a good balance of everything,
but I don't like the sound of the snare.
It's a little roomy, a little fuzzy.
00:04:18 So I have two options there:
I can get the microphone closer.
If I do that,
then the balance is gonna go away,
probably the ride is gonna be too loud
when he switches to it on the chorus.
00:04:28 Maybe we could try and change the sound
of the room by putting a gobo,
to see if we can tighten the snare
by having less reflections,
if that makes sense to you.
00:04:36 If we have a gobo here, the snare won't
bounce back as far,
it'll feel a little tighter.
We should try that.
00:04:41 So first, the gobo.
00:05:17 The gobo helps the snare a little bit,
but it's subtle,
and the snare is still pingy.
00:05:22 When I'm hearing it coming out of the
speakers, which is what you're hearing,
it does not really match
what I'm hearing in the room.
00:05:27 At least, it's not as good.
00:05:30 We could tune the snare,
we could move the mic,
but my gut feeling is that the position
of the whole set in the room is wrong
and the snare is exciting the room
in weird ways,
and the mic is capturing that.
00:05:42 So we should probably
try and move the whole thing,
set and mic, somewhere that would
have less of that problem.
00:05:50 And I would say my guess is closer
to the back gobos would do that,
because the reflections will be
at least different,
if not less prominent.
00:05:57 So let's do that,
let's just move everything back.
00:05:59 So here we are moving the carpet back,
it's a fun job.
00:06:03 Little advice, if you have microphone
stands on the carpet,
although you really feel that
you're not gonna break any,
you probably will break some
at one point, so don't do it.
00:06:13 And now, I'm moving the microphone
to the exact same position,
in relationship to the drums,
as it was in the previous take.
00:06:22 See the difference that it makes.
00:06:50 It's so much better, right?
The ping on the snare is gone, the overall
set is not as bright and aggressive,
it sounds even more balanced,
I really like this.
00:06:59 I still have a problem
with the amount of room
and the distance of the snare.
00:07:03 As a side note, it's always scary
to listen to a roomier drum sound
in solo.
00:07:10 At this point, you probably would
want to listen to the sound
with the rest of the instruments
if you can,
because you may find that even though
in solo, it seems far away,
within the sauce of the whole track,
it's actually kind of perfect.
00:07:21 And that if you change your miking
to be closer,
you may have to do some tricks
at mix time
to be able to put some distance
in the snare.
00:07:27 In this case,
I feel we should probably try and get
a little more snare in the balance.
00:07:32 And to do so, I'm gonna move
the microphone.
00:07:35 Common sense tells me that if I want
more snare,
it might be a good idea to move
the mic towards the snare.
00:07:41 Genius!
Also, common sense tells me that
if I have too much room,
if I get closer to the instrument,
I'll get less room.
00:07:48 I have a PhD in common sense.
00:07:49 Now, it's lower,
it's closer to the snare.
00:07:52 What do I have to watch out for?
I have to watch out for the hi-hat.
00:07:56 The hi-hats are notoriously
incredibly loud.
00:07:59 And a lot of drummers
bash on the hi-hats.
00:08:02 So you can't get too close, otherwise
you'll get...
00:08:05 60% hi-hat and 40% snare,
which is not groovy.
00:08:09 We also have to make sure we're not
losing the ride on the chorus.
00:08:13 So let's check this position out. Ok?
I think this sounds great.
I get the snare that I wanted,
I don't get bashed by the hi-hat, because
Will knows how to play the drum set,
I don't lose the ride on the chorus,
it's a good balance,
it's tight enough, not too tight...
00:08:52 I think this is pretty much what I was
looking for... for this drum sound.
00:08:57 Now, obviously,
you're not gonna be able to do
this entire set of things
on every session.
00:09:01 You have a bass player who's there,
you have the guitar player,
and the guitar player's girlfriend,
there's a lot of people putting pressure
on you to get the drum sound.
00:09:08 But overtime, you'll know where drums
sound good in your room,
and you probably will go
for that spot first.
00:09:13 And then it may not be consistent,
and you may fail,
but that's ok,
you can fix it in the mix, right?
But otherwise, you'll have your favorite
spots for the different kinds of musics,
and the different kinds of sets,
and of drummers,
and you'll be able to narrow down
the options.
00:09:27 The scary thing
is the number of options.
00:09:29 The key is to narrow down your options
overtime
so you know you can expect,
anticipate what things are gonna do,
so you don't have to go through
this mess every single time.
00:09:38 Side note: since there's the vintage
sound
and there is the modern perception
of what the vintage sound is,
and they're never the same,
in this particular case, for this
particular groove,
I would probably add
a bass drum microphone
to be able to have the Boom Boom
that everybody expects.
00:09:52 Otherwise, I like this.
00:09:54 But I'm interested to see
what it would sound like
if it wasn't
a 15,000 dollar microphone.
00:10:01 Wouldn't that be interesting?
Let's put some Shure SM81
venerable overhead microphone,
roughly in the same spot as the C12
was a second ago.
00:10:12 Pay attention to what it does
to the presence of the snare,
to the tone of the overall set,
and to the presence of the bass drum.
00:10:20 Ok? You've been listening to the C12
for a while,
now this is a completely different mic,
in the same position,
with the same drummer
and the same set, in the same room.
00:10:28 Check it out!
That's so much brighter, and not
as balanced, we lost the bass drum,
we kind of lost the tom too.
00:10:58 It sounds fine, but it's not as...
one-instrument-y as the C12 was.
00:11:04 I do like the focus on the snare,
that's a cool sound,
I could use that for another purpose,
but if I were to do this with this mic,
I probably would keep moving the mic
until I'm happy again.
00:11:15 Let's go to the Control Room
and listen to everything,
and draw conclusions.
Thank you Will!
Let's go back and listen
to the first position in the room,
which was forward,
and then the second position in the room
which was back 2 feet,
and compare the difference again,
and focus on that.
00:11:32 I'd like you to focus on the snare,
so make a mental picture of the snare
sound in the first pass,
and try and apply that
to the second pass.
00:11:39 I'll play it twice.
00:11:41 Here's the first pass.
00:11:51 Second...
00:12:01 Ok, big difference, right?
The snare is not as pingy,
and it's fatter on the second pass.
00:12:07 Now, I'll play it again.
Focus on the bass drum.
00:12:10 Listen to how round the bass drum is
on the first one,
and how round it is on the second one,
or the difference in the roundess.
Check it out. First pass...
00:12:27 Second...
00:12:37 Isn't that crazy?
So on the first pass...
00:12:40 it's boomier, it goes Boom! Boom!
On the second pass, it's "Pock-ier",
it's got more density.
00:12:45 So... which one do you like best?
I don't know...
00:12:48 For my personal taste, and what
I'm doing right now,
I like the second pass better,
further back,
because it's more contained,
I've got less reflection,
I've got less buoyancy, and it's more
controlled. I like that.
00:13:00 Now, don't forget that between
the first position,
and the first position with the gobo,
there's a huge difference too.
00:13:07 Check it out.
00:13:16 With the gobo...
00:13:24 I'll play the first one again.
00:13:34 Second one...
00:13:42 So that's a huge difference. The kick
and the snare are very affected,
just by putting that one gobo there
in a wide open room.
00:13:51 So next time you've been tuning
your snare for 30 minutes,
and it still doesn't sound good, you
might wanna try moving the whole set
2 feet that way, or that way,
and that may solve your problem.
00:14:00 Room acoustics are really important.
00:14:03 When there's a problem like this,
most people tend to switch the mic,
or switch the preamp,
or switch the converter.
00:14:09 I tend to switch the drummer...
00:14:10 Your mileage may vary.
But overall...
00:14:12 switching the place of the instrument
inside the room is crucial.
00:14:17 Now let's go to the last example,
the one in the back of the room,
with the microphone over the snare,
and listen to it once.
00:14:32 I like the balance of this.
00:14:34 I like how it's capturing
the instrument as one,
as opposed to capturing a bass drum
and a snare and a hi-hat.
00:14:39 It's one thing.
00:14:41 That's not a sound we're gonna hear
on a record very often,
even old records, because there would
have been some processing,
maybe a limiter behind the console,
maybe some tape,
maybe, you know, a lathe limiter,
I don't know.
00:14:51 So let's put some processing on this,
to get the vibe of what this 1-mic
technique would sound like on a record.
00:14:57 I'm gonna use this Fairchild plug-in
made by UA, which is pretty wonderful.
I'm gonna lower the output a little bit,
so that the processed and unprocessed
signals are at the same level,
so we don't get fooled by volume.
00:15:10 I'm gonna play two bars with, and two
bars without. Here we go!
Now that's a sound we recognize.
00:15:36 I like the fact that the snare
is tucked in,
and I like the fact that it's even
more together,
even more one instrument.
00:15:42 I like the fact that it feels more
like a sauce dish
than individual ingredients in one pot.
00:15:47 As a side note, if you remember, we
switched to the Shure SM81 at the end.
00:15:51 I'm gonna play the C12 one last time
with the processing on,
and then I'll play the SM81
right next to it,
so you can get the vibe
for the difference.
00:16:07 SM81.
00:16:17 A gentle reminder that there are things
we cannot fix in the mix.
00:16:20 Now, is this the right tone for you?
If you're doing the new Usher record,
probably not,
unless Usher found
a brand new retro vibe.
00:16:27 But it is really important to know
that this is the way that people
have been recording drums
for many, many years on classic records,
and that the new techniques really
evolved out of this technique.
00:16:38 So room acoustics, instrument placement
inside the room,
microphone choice for tone,
microphone placement for balance,
interacting with the room acoustics and
the instrument placement in the room,
are the things that you probably
need to master
to be able to go from 1 microphone
recording drums
to 26 microphone recording drums.
00:16:56 Et voilà!
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Fab Dupont is a award-winning NYC based record producer, mixing/mastering engineer and co-founder of pureMix.net.
Fab has been playing, writing, producing and mixing music both live and in studios all over the world. He's worked in cities like Paris, Boston, Brussels, Stockholm, London and New York just to name a few.
He has his own studio called FLUX Studios in the East Village of New York City.
Fab has received many accolades around the world, including wins at the Victoires de la Musique, South African Music awards, Pan African Music Awards, US independent music awards. He also has received Latin Grammy nominations and has worked on many Latin Grammy and Grammy-nominated albums.
Parts of this site and some files are only accessible to pureMix Pro Members or available to purchase. Please see below our membership plans or add this video to your shopping cart.
It's easy for me to shake my finger at fledgling engineers, knowing what I know now, and this video just gives me more ammunition, despite the fact I made the exact same mistakes at the exact same point in my development as an engineer. Truly though, if only everyone coming up through the ranks had to learn to make one mic work for drums, and to build a mix with it, using techniques like shown here, there'd be so much less mistakes made when we come to the 4,8,16,24 mic drum setups. As with every video I've watched here so far, I can't say I didn't learn anything. Fabs common sense helps loads
juancopro-flow
2012 Oct 04
how do you skip from one marker to the other without touching the mouse, what shortcut keys are you using, would help a lot. Thanks
jimmykiddo
2012 Sep 14
Thanks brother, can i borrow your drummer?
juancopro-flow
2012 Aug 26
Great video, nothing but useful information on puremix! How long did it take you to learn all these concepts and philosophies. Where did you find all this information that you share with us, i wish i would've had the chance to shadow you since the first day you made a record, maybe that way i could be half the engineer that you're now. Thanks for everything, bless.
Emil321
2012 Mar 08
Thank you very much for this video, I was amazed of the clarity difference when use gobo walls!
keep them coming :)
Dave Zerio
2011 Nov 03
Thanks for some great knowledge! I really appreciate the fact that the same demonstration is done with both a mic that we all want, and then a mic that we all have! There are so many online videos / tutorials that show great gear that only pro studios have.
G.Chad
2011 Oct 15
@BobRogers: This is true. Don't worry though, these 2 techniques you are referring to are the subject of other videos that are currently in the pipe line. Glad you enjoyed it.
BobRogers
2011 Oct 15
Very good job. One thing you didn't mention is that this is the first step in two or three mic techniques like Recorderman and Glyn Johns. Both of those methods depend on the first mic being well positioned.
islandcode
2011 Jun 25
This is an excellent tutorial and video! Learned so much about using 1 mic.
ajpmalloy
2011 Apr 29
Not too many people consider the positioning of the drums in the room. Very nice!
