percussion in rock

[drundall]

For rock I like the SSL comp on congas. helps 'em cut.

[dale116dot7]

I've found using the skin mic only helps, and I make that one a pretty bright mic (C451 or something like that) - the sound comes through being really thin when soloed but seems to sit well in a mix when added together - especially when there's a drum kit as well. At least that works for me, your mileage may vary. When doing this I find I need to roll off some of the top end off of any distorted guitar or use a dark mic and positioning since the harmonics of the distortion can hide the percussion. There needs to be a bit of space for the congas to come in. I also compress them a bit just to get them to not fade in and out - usually only as much GR as needed to even out the sound but a fairly high ratio - it depends on the dynamics of the song and player.

[toledo3]

Hmm, I have never had too much of a problem with that, with some pretty guitar heavy tracks....

My main thing is that if the guitars are wide, the percussion usually ends up centered, and if the guitars are centered, the percussion is wide... however....

Anopther thing that I will pretty commonly do is to mic them up close with a dynamic- like a 57, SM7, or ribbon.... then a little further out with a condenser. I will put the close miked congas/bongos to one side, for the up-front sound, and then put the room mic to the other... about 9 and 3 o clock... squeeze the crap out of the room mic- kind of similar to the old school Van Halen guitar technique.

[RKrizman]

Don't forget George Martin's technique of putting the entire drumkit in one channel so it doesn't interfere with the tambourine in the other.