So how do you get that Led Zep 1 sound?

[Jerome Higgins]

Ok guys - here's the deal I've got a tascam m320 desk (20 inputs with pres, 3 band eq, 4 busses) and a tascam 38 8 track 1/2". have got a few assortments of mikes, nothing too flash (2 rode ntk's, 1 AT4033a, a few 57's/58's) and am looking to get stereo o/h mikes (probably rode nt5 - i'm a big rode fan) . i also have a fatman stereo compressor by TLA . I find that the tascam preamps are crunchy enough for the sound i want.
I'm trying to get that crunchy yet clean sound, done so well on Led Zep 1 by Glynn Johns, and more recently by his son Ethan on Kings of Leon and Ryan Adams records. So waht do i do? Mike the crap out of the kit or keep it simple? I reckon at best i could afford 8 tracks and buss them into 2-4 on the 8 track. But i really want to use as little miking as possible.
Any thoughts?

[mrface2112]

how do you get that bonzo sound? well, it starts with bonzo. playing on bonzo's kit.

in my experience 90% of the drum sound is *the drummer*. nothing matters more than that. not the kit, not the mics, pres or the room. i've heard a great drummer sit behind a crappy kit and sound fantastic. i've heard crappy drummers sit behind killer kits with dead-on tuning and sound like they were beating cardboard boxes.

so, if you want that bonzo sound, to paraphrase Fletcher, "you're gonna need a plane ticket to england, a shovel and some air freshener".


aside from bonzo and his drums, much of the glyn and andy johns zep drum sounds involved beyer ribbons as overheads, u47s on kick and big rooms (and minimalist micing). and mixing as they bounced the tracks over. not much to it--just make sure you start with a drummer that can make the drums sound good first.


cheers,
wade

[dr.colossus]

to get relatively close, shouldn't be too hard. for starters, that 1/2" tape is going to go a long way in obtaining the sound. try the ntk's as spaced overheads, and a 4033/57combo on the bass drum, perhaps a touch of compression on the kick on the way in, but more important a steady even foot

[Ronan]

I wrote an article about this for FUSE magazine. Its sort of answers your question.

http://www.homerecordingbootcamp.com/links/bonham.html

[Jerome Higgins]

thanks guys - will keep you posted on the result

[HangDawg]

My band practices in a very large room (35' x 100') or so. I'm going to try for the elusive Bonham type sound in there. Drum set is a really nice Ludwig kit. I think I'm going to go the less mics route. Overheads, kick, 1 room mic back oh, maybe 6-8 feet and another waaaaayyyyy back. And mess with it from there. Should be interesting.

[Louddog]

Here's a link to John Bonhams web page at Drummer world, it has a video of the guy playing one of his sets and talking about his setup and sound.

http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/John_Bonham.html

Doug

[Scottgman]

Originally Posted by Ronan

I wrote an article about this for FUSE magazine. Its sort of answers your question.

http://www.homerecordingbootcamp.com/links/bonham.html

Hey, nice article! I noticed at the bottom that you have worked with Bozzio. He put on a drum clinic at GC here last spring. Man, that was cool! He said that was one of his first "shows" with his new PDP racks and was still getting used to the new setup. The drummer in my band bought a PDP rack because of that clinic (it's a really nice rack).

Anyway, I had always thought of drums as a strictly rhythm/percussion kind of thing. Because you can't really play melodies on drums, right? Wrong! Boy was I wrong. Bozzio played Happy Birthday for a girl in the crowd-- on the drums!! It was too cool!

Anyway, Bozzio was a real down-to-earth, approachable, and helpful kind of guy (and his playing was incredible). Just thought I would share...

[Ronan]

Yeah, Bozzio was really really cool guy. I loved working with him and I am trying to find the right project where I can do it again. Such an amazing player and as you said increadibly down to earth. Its kind of easy to put on a nice public face and be a dick behind closed doors but Bozzio is totally cool all the time.

One of the great things about him aside from that fact that he is really nice, is that is works so hard to really push the boundries of what drumming can be and what is possible with the drum set. It was a thrill working with him and really opened my eyes to a lot of things, but he was also really open to my ideas as well. I know he changed his approach to drum micing after working with me which was flattering.

Here is a cool pic of his set while we were recording.

http://www.venetowest.com/gallery/bozziokit.jpg