This week I thought the most effective way I could get back into the swing of uni was to just go into the studio and refresh my memory on the desk and try a few mic techniques. I went with Mike and Liam to set up a few different microphone choices just to see how they worked. Mike had a few idea’s from some research he had done. Last year Mike and I recorded a three track EP for a band called The Jang and although the recordings were good the mic techniques we used for the drums were basic. This trimester we are planning on recording them again in anticipation of an EP release later this year. The parts of the kit that were lacking the professional depth of sound were the kick and snare drum. Let me real here for a sec too, kick and snares always sound bad. We need ways to make these two crucial parts of the beat sound amazing when we record the band next.
The list of mics we tried were:
Sm57 - bottom of snare
Sm57- side of snare
MD421- Top Snare
Rode NT5- Top Snare
Sennheiser- MD441U
Royer Pencil mic- Ambience
M88 - Kick in
C414- Kick out
D112- Kick
Some weird things we tired we definitely inclusive of the pencil microphone being place in between the snare and tom.
This article is what inspired me to try a conbination of mic’s on the top of the snare and then the classic SM57 on the bottom. Perks of using two different microphones give a sound depth and allows for more creativity in the production phase. For instance it allows you to EQ and pan two different sounds just like you would a guitar amp if you used more than one mic. I guess I have been thinking about the things I have learnt by making mistakes recently. Like making the wrong mic choice for something and having to layer it with a one shot. This is actually a technique I have been reading up on a lot also. Snares sound shit all the time but when used in conjunction with a professionally recorded trigger can sound much punchier. This leads to my point of using two microphones. It also allows room for mistakes. Blending microphone sounds allows you to demonstrate a higher level of mixing techniques also.
This artice was just a refersher mentioning all the basic placements of the classic mirphones for kick and snares. I think that I am becoming more adventurous when it comes to choosing microphones i know abit about a lot of them or know what they are for at least. It also reminded me that fixing stuff in the live room is the most crustal part of recording. Saying that you can fix it later is true in most cases but will never have the same effect than just fixing something as you go. I had this issue when I recorded The Jang last year there was one take of a song and the Sm57 on the snare was moving around and you could hear it. I only noticed because I was looking for mistakes in our set up and thank goodness I noticed. This is also another reason to have more than one microphone to a snare drum.
This article was helpful when deciding on some different mic techniques that were simple to try during this short session. Using the Royer pencil microphone was definitely something I thought wasn’t possible due to the sensitivity of the microphone. I really liked to combination of adding this sound in with the SM57 on the bottom and the Sennheiser MD441U. The combination of the solid sound of the SM57 capturing the ring and rumble from the bottom of the snare and the 441U capturing the 'thwacky" punchiness of the skin along along with the ribbon mic to capture the natural reverb and ringing tones it was a great combination I can't wait to use this technique to record a band.
The conclusion I came to with this microphone shootout was that there is not ever right or wrong. It's all subjective and the sound you might want for a particular band might just break the industry standard rules. Anyways this was just a quick overview of the first studio session I did this year and the samples that are completely untreated are likened HERE.
I am very excited as to what I am going to achieve through recording a few different bands this year and I believe this exercise was good research. I can use the samples i took as a reference point to even show the band I am recording and show them how the different mics sound and how processing with different mics will have varied effects.
biblyography:
Microphone, S. (2019). Sennheiser MD 441U Supercardioid Dynamic Microphone. Retrieved from https://reverb.com/au/p/sennheiser-md-441
Drums - Royer Labs. (2019). Retrieved from
Recording Drums - Royer Labs. (2019). Retrieved from http://royerlabs.com/recording-drums/
Mixing Snare Drums By Blending Multiple Microphones. (2019). Retrieved from https://ask.audio/articles/mixing-snare-drums-by-blending-multiple-microphones
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