Wow look at that... 64 drum mics!

[Indrestudios]

Thought you guys would get a kick out of this...

We had our biggest tracking gig to date this past weekend, major rock artist + giant orchestra in a swanky concert hall. We got levels from the orchestra first (beautiful, lush, giant sound) but when the rock band came on stage the producer (wearing phones & solo'ing up various channels) turned to me, smiled, and said, "Wow look at that, 64 drum mics." The plexiglass shield did wonders, but I'm sure it'll still be a challenge in post.

In the end, I think we wound up with some usable stuff, but it was a definitely interesting dealing with all those cool Schoeps & Neumann spot mics 20' from a rockin' drummer. I'll post some pictures later, it was a great gig - just about maxing out our two tracking rigs for a grand total of 94 tracks.

-MC

[Remoteness]

Nice...

Tell us more about gig.

I'm looking forward to the photos.

[lakeshorephatty]

Well thats Billy Joel for one!

Sweet! Love "The Stranger".. Rock on!

Russell

[Jim vanBergen]

Yeah, Liberty will do that...all those years banging the hell out of the cans, can't change his ways now as a drummer!

What was the venue?

I thought the truck 2mix captured it pretty well...certainly compares to BJ's live work to date very nicely. Was Brian Ruggles mixing the FOH PA or in the truck, either mixing or producing? He'd a good guy, great engineer, really has developed Billy Joel's band miking to a sweet accuracy.

Can't wait to see more!

JvB

[Indrestudios]

I was a bit disappointed as it wasn't Liberty on drums, I think they had a falling out last year. The new drummer was Chuck Burgi, younger dude - solid as a rock. I think it was Brian out at front of house, Billy's people were pretty hands-off on this gig when it came to the recording. I was alone in the truck 90% of the time.

Here are a few pictures:

Picture 1: The orchestra shot

Picture 2: Our "A" rig splitter, behind the Clair Bros. rats nest

Picture 3: Our A2 Mike Richelle at the "A" rig pre rack

Picture 4: Looking down on the truck, lonley and cold

[Indrestudios]

My view from the truck:

[jbjoubaud]

sounds pretty good for a rough mix !
Nice playing too!

Will you do a surround mix with all those tracks ?

[salvomix]

Nice gig! Mp3 sounds good!

www.salvomix.com

[bishopthomas]

Awesome gig, Michael. I see the pres are inside - How do you send the signal to the truck? I would guess that it has to do with the units above the Digimaxes but I can't tell what they are.

[drew]

Should you be posting clients unfinished work here????

[Testing123]

This must have been the gig?...

Billy Joel headlines a night of music, money | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/27/2008

[drew]

Good idea. Sounds great BTW, nice job!!!

[Indrestudios]

Hindsight is 20/20 - I probably would have mixed the sax a bit lower... That clip is a reference mix - no eq, no dynamics, no verb.

[Remoteness]

Michael,

Tell us more about the input list and mics you used.

And, any other information you think is of interest to us!

[Indrestudios]

Due to budget constraints we arrived in the morning on the show day, got a brief dress rehearsal, and hit the ground running. For better or for worse, we stepped into the show that was fully mic'ed up. They had been in rehearsals for a few days prior.

Clair Bros. did all of the band micing, pretty sure it was the same rig he has out on tour. Pretty standard stuff. Shure SM91 & B52, 57s, KSM32s for drum overheads, 57 on the guitar, SM98 clip on for the sax - Billy sang into a good old SM58.

The orchestra mics we're a bit more interesting: Rode NT5s on violins, KMi84s on violas, Shure KSM 137s on cellos, AKG 460s on winds, SM81s on horns, 57s on trpts, 441s on bones, Audix mini M1290HC on the harps & a ORTF hang w/ (2) beautiful schoeps 4006s. A couple more shotguns were in the rear of the hall as well.

[Jim vanBergen]

Originally Posted by Indrestudios

Audix mini M1290HC on the harps & a ORTF hang w/ (2) beautiful schoeps 4006s. A couple more shotguns were in the rear of the hall as well.

Not to rain on your parade but 4006 mics are DPA (formerly Bruel & Kjaer). Schoeps would be CMC 4, 5 or 6 with an MK-type capsule, for example, CMC 6 MK2s matched pair.

The DPAs are, like the Schoeps, damn accurate and great sounding. I have a pair of 4007s (higher SPL/slightly less sensitive) which are wonderful as well.

[sonicdefault]

Good Work!




-SD

[FossilTooth]

Isn't posting this here a bit of a faux-pas?

I hope it doesn't hurt your relations with this client... or scare away future potential clients of a similar profile.

Established artists and label reps can be a very touchy bunch...............

I know I wouldn't want my music or my rough mixes posted on GS without my expressed approval.



Good luck!

[Indrestudios]

FossilTooth & Drew: common sense prevails...music sample removed. It was just one of those songs, even the rough mix, that left me with a huge smile on my face. I have great memories of sitting in front of my parent's stereo (probably 1979), wearing giant Koss headphones listening to that very track. Sometimes I forget how open this old internet can be - this forum feels more like a bunch of friends sitting around a bar telling stories. I digress...

Jim you're right, those were DPA mics up in the air, I stand corrected.

Here's a picture of the rig we had running off stage, dedicated to the orchestra:

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by bishopthomas

Awesome gig, Michael. I see the pres are inside - How do you send the signal to the truck? I would guess that it has to do with the units above the Digimaxes but I can't tell what they are.

Michael has a RME box with fiber going to and from the truck.

[drew]

Originally Posted by Indrestudios

........FossilTooth & Drew: common sense prevails...music sample removed. ..........

Sorry bout that. I guess it's the cynic in me that that was my first thought.

[Indrestudios]

No worries, it's nice to have a community like this watching my back.

[Remoteness]

Michael,

Was the off stage dedicated orchestra rig (SMPTE TC) locked to the band recording system in the truck?

Furthermore, were you able to monitor everything from the truck?

[Gerax]

Wow, nice post!!

I see you are using lots of Presonus Digimaxes and Focusrite Octopres. I though they were considered pretty "low end" stuff, and I'm a bit surprised to see them used on a gig of this caliber. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they aren't any good or can't be used to get a quality recording (I have a pair myself and use them in almost every gig I do), but, you know...I see them trashed so much around here that it made me wonder. How do you like them for that kind of work? Did you use anything else on the "money channels"?

L.G.

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by dylansmale

i would like to see a picture of the 64 mic'd drum set. This is food for the eyes . I'm sure it looks like an alien/robot of death.

I believe they were referring to the fact that the drum kit was leaking into all the orchestra mics, hence the title of "64 drum mics."

[Indrestudios]

Yep, Steve's right - the title refers to the problem of bleed with that many mics on stage.

As to the sync question - we were the code master on this gig. We were responsible for making sure our two audio rigs were perfectly in sync, as well as delivering code to the video village. We have a SMPTE generator on the truck, spitting out time-of-day code. One of the advantages of the RME fiber system is that it allows for 64 return lines back to the stage - one of them was used here for a SMPTE return. It also passes Word Clock, which is how we clock our mic pres & converter rack to the master Lucid clock in the truck. That second PT rig also referenced that same word clock - keeping everything in check.

[Indrestudios]

L.G. The Presonus Digimax have been great units for us. Solid, quiet, plenty of headroom, and very affordable. We clock the whole rig with a Lucid SSG192, designed to get the best possible conversion out of them. I wanted to build a rack of 48 (now growing to 64) identical pres. On a typical concert recording or broadcast we're usually handed a 48 channel input list and told to "make it work". When I explain the system (Presonus / RME / Fiber / RADAR & PT) to the producer and or engineer - everyone has been quite happy. Even better, when they sit down in the truck to hear their tracks, it's dead quiet, super clean - and generally very workable for post production.

We've demo'ed some very cool pres recently, like the Aphex 1788 & the very similar RME "micstasy", but both of those are nearly $5k per 8 channels. We're not quite in that league yet, and it's hard to justify the upgrade when the current system is busy, keeping clients happy, and giving us a great return on the investment.

In a pinch we do have a few "money channels" floating around - 8 channels of John Hardy M1 & 8 channels of API 3124. But, honestly they spend more time on the shelf than not.


-MC

[Firefox]

too many mics

just my 2c

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by Firefox

too many mics

just my 2c

Too many mics for what?

[drew]

Originally Posted by Firefox

too many mics

just my 2c

Mixers have this called a cut switch, it allows you to turn things off. I've yet to see one called "Spot mic on the solo Cellist"