Magazine Feature - Research

[theslingerland]

Hi all

My name's James Hester - I'm a professional drummer based in the Bristol area and from time to time I do some remote recording sessions for people at my studio. I've been commissioned to write a four part feature for Drummer Magazine in the UK about doing just such projects. As ever with these things, I'm not relying on my own experience and knowledge as it's not varied enough - I'm hoping you guys might be able to help me out and give me some of your thoughts, tips, experiences?

I was wondering if you could (and keep the headings in as it will be easier for me to work through) give me your thoughts and ideas on. One of the key ideas is to request test gear from companies to shoot out gear on video and print - any ideas for who to contact will save me a load of time and research:

Mics:
What would be your mic selection for kick, snare, toms, hi hat/ride Key thing, suggest mics for:
Budget
Mid Range
High end
If they are genre specific, please explain the sonic characters of them.

Pre's:
What would be your best selection of pre's for these drum mics? Assuming the minimum of 8 channels (kick, snare, 2 toms, OH and HH/ride spots) - what would be you one unit (or combination of units) again, for:
Budget
Mid Range
High End
Any specific info on mods or what the pre's bring to the sound would be ace.

Mic techniques:
Genre specific stuff here - from Glyn Johns to top and bottom spots on all the drums - what are your experiances? How would you go about micing up and checking for phase? what other issues have you found?

Misc ideas:
Any tips and tricks?

Mix:
Bearing in mind most of these drummers are providing a stereo drum mix to be included in a full mix (or stems/individual channel bounces) - what advice would you give in terms of producing a good all round drum mix, including compression/eq for individual tracks, parallel compression, reverb etc. How about any particular tip and tricks for special ideas? Gating is a critical issue here along with triggering/sound replacement - anything you think I should refer to?

Workflow:
What would be the best way for you, if you were to work in this manner - would the drummer record a rough idea, send a stereo wav to then receive one lot of 'part tweaks' then record, send a stereo wav/stems/individual channels and then offer one lot of 'production tweaks' - does that sound like a cost effective way of working?

I will reference Gearslutz (I've been posting and lurking on this forum for ages) - plus if there's any super great advice, I'll reference any names and websites as a massive 'TA'!

Remember - these are drummers I'm writing for! I'm keen to point out that having a drum kit, a cracked copy of Logic and 4 Argos Karaoke mics will not turn you into the next Butch Vig - you have to be a great drummer, musician, engineer AND producer to do this, especially if they have little or no profile. Any USP's you can think of would be cool too - whether there maybe a market in providing quirky drum approaches, all vintage sound/gear, genre specific drumming and production..?

Thanks in advance - I've no idea if this is the right forum to post this in so I'll see how it goes and possibly post it elsewhere too.

if you would prefer to contact me directly - james (at) jameshester dot co dot uk

Cheers, ta!!