Pictures Of Mic'ed Up Drum Kits In The Studio

[bleen]

Originally Posted by american

Donn, thanks for all the details. I have a similar room in size, shape and ceiling. How did you treat the ceiling and why?

The ceiling itself is QuietRock over sheetrock; at the "control room" end, I have three 2'x2' trapfusors above the monitors (L, C & R as I occasionally do 5.1 mixing), then a 4x4 cloud above the mix position and another two 4x4 clouds behind that. They are all at an angle that is lower at the front of the room and higher towards the rear; these clouds all do a great job of taking a bit of the room out of my monitor position but don't kill the room entirely.

Is it treated differently for the drum area than for the control room area? Did your drum sounds improve having a cloud on top?

The drum area just has a single 2'x4' trap above the kit (in addition to wall/corner treatments) to take out a bit of the bounce created by the peaked ceiling above the kit. That end of the room is intentionally left more lively for tracking and it's far enough away from where I mix (and I also don't monitor at insane volumes) that the room doesn't really bounce back to me where I sit.

[bleen]

I put up a new video this morning with the Lauten Audio Torches as overheads - I had the omni capsules on for this, too.

Mics/pre's were as follows:

kick in: Beta52s->Shiny Box Si4
kick out: Bock 195->Si4
snare top: Beta57a->Si4
snare bottom: i5->Si4
OHs: Torches->Chameleon Labs 581
hihat: SM81->Si4
toms: M179->VP26
rooms: Shiny Box 46CMX->Si4

Conversion is SSL Alpha Link SX

[666666]

Originally Posted by bleen

...I put up a new video this morning with the Lauten Audio Torches as overheads - I had the omni capsules on for this, too. Mics/pre's were as follows.....

Don, thanks for the clips / videos. Excellent work!

While you've been auditioning assorted mics and pres for us via your numerous videos, what this all truly shows is that YOU, Don, can make great sounds regardless of the gear you're using. A good lesson for us all... it's the operator, not the gear.

It does say something for the gear too of course. The gear being used here can apparently, at the very least, hold its own when used by a talented, experienced operator, where as some gear might not.

All in all, what I see here is a great operator and gear that is able to get the job done when used properly. Again, what this should mean to everybody, if you wish to put great sounds on tape, spend the greater percentage of your time / resources honing your craft, not obsessing over gear. Gear is secondary, merely tools and just needs to be able to perform above a certain line of acceptability. It's the operator that is going to make the magic happen, not the tools.

Thanks again for all the vids! I'm a fan!

[davidvaldes]

I put up a new video this morning with the Lauten Audio Torches as overheads - I had the omni capsules on for this, too

I can hear a Doppler effect on your toms: they clearly go down in pitch after they are hit (phiuuuuuuuuu).

Did you tune your drums to get that effect on purpose?

Cheers.

[DITN]

Easy to do: Tune the resonant higher than the batter head.

[bleen]

Originally Posted by DITN

Easy to do: Tune the resonant higher than the batter head.

Bingo!

[Matti]

But nothing to with the Doppler effect unless the drumset or the mics are moving

Matti

[bkbirge]

Originally Posted by Matti

But nothing to with the Doppler effect unless the drumset or the mics are moving

Matti

...relative to each other. We are all moving approx 1000 km/hr due to the earth's rotation.

[Matti]

-And the listener is not...

Matti

[adamcal]

From a recent session

[lunadown]

Here is the set up we are using for the next full length. No cymbals a la Queens of the Stone Age. We are overdubbing them later along w/ other percussion. The kit is maple ludwig 24/16, 14/12, 16/16 Pearl Alum Sensitone 14/6.5. Cowbell, triangle, shaker and cymbals were overdubed.

Kick sm7, api512c, S&M audio EQSM1, Ashly CL50E
Snare sm57, daking 52270B
Toms 421's, 512c
OH sm81's, Manley Dual Mono Blocks, Manley Elop 200 in, Ashly 2150 EQ
Close Mic sm58, 512c
Room Modded MXL 144R api 512c, DocDerr

The 2 included tracks were tracked 2 days ago and are rough w/o vocals.
Your Lies to Come by lunadown on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free
Twinks on Top by lunadown on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

[BattleAngel]

Originally Posted by adamcal

From a recent session

Adam, that set up is gorgeous! Whose kit is that? Do you know if I can find any more info about his set up anywhere else?

[PaulMac]

Katerwal's lovely Ludwig kit we recorded yesterday. Excellent drummer also, which always helps!

Phone camera quality pics for the moment. We'll have a session video and better pics shortly.

OHs - AKG C414B-XLS
Kick I - Audix D6
Kick O - Blue Baby Bottle
Snare T - Sennheiser MD441
Snare B - SM58
Rack tom - Sennheiser e606
Floor tom - Unidyne IV
Room - Telefunken M16

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[adamcal]

Originally Posted by BattleAngel

Adam, that set up is gorgeous! Whose kit is that? Do you know if I can find any more info about his set up anywhere else?

Sure the band is called Sydonia, check them out here SYDONIA.COM.AU

[davidvaldes]

Easy to do: Tune the resonant higher than the batter head.

I know, I know... I´m a percussionist myself. I was just wondering if that tunning was made on purpose (because of Bleen´s answer I now know it was, but I was in doubt, as people tend to not know much about tuning or how to get the desidered effect). I was asking because, in this case, when playing bussy patterns on toms, the "phiuuuuu" gets in the way. Just a matter of personal taste, but I prefer the sound on the previous videos, with the white (coated?) heads.

But nothing to with the Doppler effect unless the drumset or the mics are moving

I know, I know... Despite not being a proper Doppler effect, that´s how it´s known among drummers. It´s like the vibraphone: the instrument doesn´t produce a vibrato at all (a vibrato implies a change of pitch, which the vibraphone doesn´t provide). Despite not producing a vibrato, the instrument got to be named as "vibraphone" when , in fact, it provides changes in amplitude instead of pitch.

[RafaGomez]

Drums: Gretsch New Classic 125th Anniversay Limited Edition (Gretsch maple formula with Bubinga inserts)
22X18 Bass Drum
10X8 and 12X9 Rack Toms
14X14 Floor Tom
14X5.5 Snare

Cymbals: Zildjan
8" A Custom Splash on 10" K Splash
14" K Constantinople Hi-hats
16" A Custom Projection Crash
12" Pro Mix Crash
18" Dark Crash K Custom
22" K Light Ride
16" Avedis Low China

Drum heads: Remo
Bass Drum: Remo Power Stroke 3 on the batter side / Gretsch stock (by Evans) in the fron eith no hole
Snare: Remo Coated Emperor on the batter side / Remo Clear Ambassador Snare on the snare side
Rack and Floor Toms: Remo Coated Ambassador on the batter side / Remo Clear Ambassador on the resonant side

Hardware:
Gibraltar and DW 9000 Series cymbal stands; Gibraltar hi-hats and snare stands, kick drum pedal, throne, drum stick holder and magnitic drum keys; Samson microhone stands, and Pro-Lok music sheets holder

Drum sticks:
Pro-Mark L.A. Special 7A; Vick Firth 7AH American Heritage Maple; Vick Firth 7A

Micrófonos:
Bass Drum: Audix D6
Snare: Shure SM57
Rack Toms: Shure Beta 98 AD/C
Floor Tom: Shure SM27
Overheads: AKG Perception 170
Room mic: Shure SM58
Monster Cables

[Fieldstone]

Paul Mac - nice Dreams and nice CS dots. Interesting approach. I dig.

[DaveUK]

That immoliation kit is like my worst nightmare proximify wise ! (nice drums ,cymbals and heads though!) no slur intended

[dankin]

Some drums i tracked at my house today

Kick Out - Sub Kick - Metric Halo 2882
Kick In - Ev 868 - Api - Distressor - Rosetta 800
Snare Top - I5 - Api - Dbx160x - Rosetta 800
Snare Bottom - Ev 468 - Metric Halo 2882
Hats - At 4041 - Metric Halo 2882
Toms - m179 - Api - Rosetta 800
Ovr Hds - At4050 - Isa-428 - Rosetta 800
Rooms - Ksm-32 - Metric Halo 2882
FOK - At4047 - Metric Halo 2882

Building a loop.


Tracking the main part.

[fakiekid]

Dankin, nice tones! Wish I had the courage to throw down dynamics during tracking.

[fakiekid]

Kick:
Subkick Outside
Blue Mouse Outside
Sennheiser 421 Inside - All through Audient 8024 desk pres.

Snare:
Shure SM57 (transformer removed) Top
Shure Unidyne III Bottom - both through Neve 1073dpa

Rack:
Audix D4 - Audient 8024

Floor:
Audix D4 - Audient 8024

Hats:
Shure SM7 - Focusrite RED1

Overheads:
AKG C451e - Focusrite RED1

Room: (not in audio mix)
Neumann u87's - Drawmer 1960

No EQ or dynamics, just balanced in Logic.

[RKelly]

Ultimate Milab setup, at Topfloor Studios in Sweden tracking the always awesome Måns Block

[DaveUK]

Has mans got a hole in his kick batter head?

[RKelly]

Yeah we were using an assortment of house drums and that kick ended up sounding the best.

[DaveUK]

Thought it was some new trick i was missing :+)

Sent from my phonething

[RKelly]

Maybe it is! Sounded nice, we were using the Milab drum pack for tracking and everything turned out nicely. Probably was the secret to the kick sound, and here I thought it was me!

[zinzin]

Originally Posted by tape_attack!!!

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kick in - beta52
kick out - rode nt1
NS10 sub
snare top - audix i5
snare bottom - md 441
toms - md 421
hihat - beyerdynamic m260
OH - c414
mono room - sm7
stereo room - rb500 ribbon

haha, i got the same "circles" IKEA carpet in my room! nice.

[bee]

Originally Posted by RKelly

Ultimate Milab setup, at Topfloor Studios in Sweden tracking the always awesome Måns Block

Got any clips of this?

[VibeFactory]

From a recent session:

Mono overhead: Flea M49 - Neve 1066 - Tube-Tech CL1B
Kick: Neumann U47 fet - Neve 1066 - Tube-Tech PE 1B
Stereo Ambience: AKG 414 B-ULS - Neve 1066 - Urei 1178

Soundclip: ******//www.vibefactory.dk/M49_test.wav

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[zinzin]

here's my humble recording setup:

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a bit blurry the pic, here's the setup:

OH - t.bone sc180 -> sm pro audio tb202 (bit of compression)
SNARE TOP - rode nt2a -> la-610 (tiny bit of compression)
SNARE BOTTOM - rode nt5 -> firepod
KICK - d112 -> tl audio 5051 (gate and bit of EQ)
ROOM MIC - t.bone rb100 -> gap pre 73