AWS drums? (Q for Frank)

[Matej]

Hello Frank,

first let me thank you for doing this, a big fan here!!

I was wondering if you could give us some details on how you recorded drums for AWS EP. Any tips you could give us regarding mic techniques? Thank you, I hope my records will sound this great someday.

My buddy Alesh is sending his best!!

Thanks!
Matej

[Frank Gryner]

Matej...thanks for your question. I recorded AWS drums at Scott's place (The Chop Shop in Hollywood). Roman is one of the best rock drummers I've ever worked with...in fact I've called upon him on several occasions for session work.
We did 4 songs in just a few hours. Adrian runs a tight ship with the musicians he rolls with, and the band was prepared and totally professional. The drum kit we used was a hybrid of Romans drums and Scott's vintage Ludwig kit set up on the circular, elevated riser in the live room. I'm pretty sure we keeped the surrounding theater curtains mostly open to take advantage of that room's live, but not out-of-control ambience. Let's see, as far as mics go: RE-20 inside the kick, 47 FET outside (tented with authentic Chop Shop piss blankets!), 57 on snare, 409 underneath, 421 on each of the toms, B & K's overtop and Coles on the room. Mostly Neve 1081 and 1073s for the preamps...definitely aggressive compression on the way in (1176 on the snare, SPL Transient Designer on the 47 FET. Manley Vari Mu on the overheads). Overall, the philosophy I had and still have with drums is this:
Try to aggressively capture the sound with the least number of mics. The more open mics there are, the more phasing issues you have to worry about. (Chris Baseford has some great techniques on phase- coherent stereo imaging with overhead mics...be sure to ask him about it)
Say hi to Alesh! I miss those guys!