Now Now Children!
And I don't mean to patronize any of you by saying that... but my god, this is just about recording a drum kit, we're not debating world politics.
Right, well here's my view based on 15 years of playing and recording experience... not an incredible amount of drum recording, but enough to know what has worked, and experience from a very recent session using the Glynn Johns technique with results that amazed me.
Ok, so we all know the standard overhead configurations, and although they do work, they do lack something for me. I do agree that it's important to get a good stereo picture, and although there are great recordings from the past (Beatles etc), where the drums had to be in mono for technical reasons, there seems little sense these days to do that with the modern equipment we have... unless of course you want to do it for artistic reasons. There are many reasons a balanced stereo image is desirable from a drum kit, like - It adds interest for the listener, and it spreads the weight of the sound signals evenly across the speakers. Having said that, you could whack a mono kit in the center of your mix and as long as you've got a good balance between the individual drums it shouldn't be a problem. In the past I have enjoyed recording drums (and other instruments) in many crazy ways (just to learn, and often because of limited equipment and mics). Processing signals afterwards can often allow you to shape the sound into what you desire - though I actually prefer the reverse ethos of getting it right when it goes down to tape so you don't have to do much afterwards.
Sorry, I'm really babbling. I only came on to here to recommend the Glynn Johns technique. I recently had the pleasure of recording one of London & Australia's top session drummers, but I've only got a limited amount of equipment and decided to research 4-mic drum recording techniques, which is when I discovered Glynn Johns. It seems like a really odd setup, buy my god is it effective. The technique recommends large diaphragm mics, but I only have a couple a couple of cheap small condensers (Takstar PCM-6100). Now let me just say something about these mics (because you're probably thinking what the hell are they???). Now these are cheap Chinese 'secret weapons', if you ever get the chance to buy some, make sure you do. I bought 2 for £15 each of eBay a couple of years ago, and every time I plug them in I get good results (and I am experienced with Neumann’s... and other really high end mics). I also used the cheapest kick & snare mics that I bought of eBay especially for this session. Anyway, the drummer was knocked out by the technique and the results. There are a couple of good articles on this and I'd recommend it to anyone to go and check them out. The technique is not set in stone, you can vary the distances of mics, just don't forget your tape measure, as it's essential for the technique to work properly. But when it does work, it works a treat - and I have no problem using something developed by one of the greatest engineers of all time!
Right, that's enough waffle from me - this is actually my first post (sorry it's a bit crap ;o). Ah, just one other thing - there's another technique called the 'recorderman' method which only used two mics - I've heard good things and I want to try it.
Now a question for you - anyone got any groovy, interesting mixing techniques for drum overheads (like compression, eq, reverbs etc), I'm interested in knowing how people handle the mix side of drums.
Happy recording all – and have fun and don’t get too stressed about it… there is so much crap music being recorded perfectly – but I’d much prefer to listen to good music that recorded not nessasarily perfect - but creatively (like it used to be). How do you think Glynn Johns descovered a great technique? - by being creative! The rule book can be good to get started with, but sometimes you just have to throw it out the window and say ‘I’m doing this my way!’
