So as some of you may know I don't just work on projects where I'm playing the drum parts - I'm also available as an engineer for hire to record drums for bands or artists who already have a drummer in their ranks and want high quality drum recordings done. They can then take these drum tracks to whatever studio they're booked to complete their project. Such a session took place yesterday for the incredibly popular Whistlin' Donkeys who have been taking Ireland by storm in recent months.With a debut album in the pipeline I got the call to track their drums and so we hit the Blast Furnace studio yesterday with their drummer Oscar who seriously brought the ruckus - He was incredibly well prepared which makes any recording session go like clockwork and he nailed his parts without any issue. An absolute pleasure to work with him and the drum parts for the 9 songs we did sound awesome!
For anyone interested in the recording technique used here is some information:
Instructions from the band were that the recording had to be natural, punchy but with a sense of space - exactly what is required for the genre in question. In my opinion less is more when it comes to capturing a more natural sounding drum kit and this was reflected in my mic'ing setup.
I used a modified Glyn Johns technique with a Neumann U87 over the floor tom aimed at the snare and another U87 positioned above the rack tom also aimed at the snare. Both went through Neve 1073 preamps These mics are roughly equidistant to the snare however it is advisable to check how they SOUND rather than measuring the distances to perfection and thinking that you're golden. This mic setup pretty much negates the need for any close tom mics which can sound artificial at times. For this recording we were looking for something completely natural so this setup worked perfectly.
For the kick we used an RE-20 which along with the M88 is fast becoming my favourite kick drum mic through a BAE pre, Hi hats were mic'ed using an AKG C414 and the snare drum was mic'ed with an Audix D1 also through a BAE. This mic was selected not because it's the best snare mic on offer in the studio (it's still great though!) but simply because it's off axis rejection is superb and very little bleed gets into it which can be a Godsend if you have a hi hat basher. Thankfully Oscar was very tasteful with his hi hat playing so there was no problem to begin with but for the sake of having a nice isolated snare drum sound I decided to go with it.
Room mics were positioned to get as much bottom end as possible - A Royer 121 was positioned several feet in front of the kick drum about 3 inches off the floor and sent though a distressor with a maximum of 3dB compression to give it a bit of grit and a far room mic (another 121) was positioned in the hallway which links the main live room to a second live room. This was sent to a purple audio M77 and compressed a bit harder (7-10dB) to bring up more ambience. Between the two room mics there was a superb blend of 'near field' drum kit sound and a more distant and ambient sound although because I was subtle enough with my compression settings it never reached the levels of Led Zep bombast!
The remainder of the album is being tracked with my great friend Peter Doherty at Neon Noise studios in Strabane and I honestly can't wait to hear the results!
To hear a brief snippet of the raw drum sound we captured check out the soundclip below.
Room mics were positioned to get as much bottom end as possible - A Royer 121 was positioned several feet in front of the kick drum about 3 inches off the floor and sent though a distressor with a maximum of 3dB compression to give it a bit of grit and a far room mic (another 121) was positioned in the hallway which links the main live room to a second live room. This was sent to a purple audio M77 and compressed a bit harder (7-10dB) to bring up more ambience. Between the two room mics there was a superb blend of 'near field' drum kit sound and a more distant and ambient sound although because I was subtle enough with my compression settings it never reached the levels of Led Zep bombast!
The remainder of the album is being tracked with my great friend Peter Doherty at Neon Noise studios in Strabane and I honestly can't wait to hear the results!
To hear a brief snippet of the raw drum sound we captured check out the soundclip below.