Recording Revolution is at it again

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Schwarzenyaeger

Schwarzenyaeger

Formerly "Dog-In-Door"
From the new RR mail:

"Just because many people use a lot of microphones to record a drum kit doesn’t mean it’s the only (or best) way to do it.

In fact, a strong case can be made that the fewer mics you involve the likelihood of your recording sounding better is higher. I know, it sounds crazy, but it’s true.

Today I want to share with you four reasons why recording with the fewest mics possible (i.e. one mic) is a great way to work.

Reason #1 - Absolutely Zero Phase Issues
Did you know that anytime you have more than one microphone capturing a single source (acoustic guitar, piano, drum kit) you introduce potential phase issues?

Phase cancellation is really the problem – and it means a chunk of your sound waves are being cancelled out, leaving you with a thin and un-fulfilling sound. Not cool.

Obviously, with careful consideration of mic placement and some strategic polarity inversion, one can get a relatively phase free drum recording with multiple mics (I’m not trying to scare you away from using more mics), but the simple truth of the matter is that a drum recording that involves only a single microphone will by definition have absolutely NO phase cancellation whatsoever.

That is a wonderful thing because it saves time, hassle, and it works as a hack – a guarantee of no phase problems, no matter where you put the mic.

Reason #2 - An Instantly Punchy Sound
Drums are inherently punchy. And yet many of our attempts of home drum recording with 6+ mics leads to a very NON punchy sound. Why is that?

A huge reason is the above problem of phase cancellation. What sounds good to us in the room can get cancelled out with multiple mics.

The other reason is that we can overthink mic placement and have very un-natural sounds (maybe too close to a drum) that just doesn’t sound like what we all know drums to sound like in real life.

If you only have one microphone, by putting it anywhere near the kit, you can’t help but get a punchy sound because the drums are by their nature, punchy.

What your ear hears, the microphone hears (tonally maybe not quiet the same – but we’ll touch on that next). It’s that simple.

Reason #3 - Easier To Find The Right Balance
When using multiple mics on a drum kit, it takes a lot of time and effort to get just the right balance.

You have to balance the overheads to the close mics to maybe even the room mics – all to get that perfect picture of the kit.

But with one microphone balancing becomes super simple.

Put the mic somewhere, listen back, and assess what you hear. Too much cymbals? Move them closer to the other drums. Too little kick? Find a better position and angle to “see” the kick more.

You place it, record, and listen back. Each time you hear what is good and what is missing you only have one mic to adjust to find that balance.

Now, obviously the one mic option limits your tonal balance (you can’t get the sound of the inside of a kick AND above the cymbals) but it also forces you to make quick compromises allowing you to land on a great sound faster.

Reason #4 - Super Fast To Mix
The fourth and final reason recording drums with one microphone is so powerful is that when it comes time to mix, things go super quick.

With no phase issues to work through, and no individual drum mics to process, you simply have to take your one drum track and wield it the best you can.

This saves a ton of time and brain power.

Get a good sound (fix any EQ problems, give it some more smack with a compressor, and maybe use a touch of reverb to widen it up) and then move on to the rest of your mix.

This was how mixing went many years ago – fast and to the point. Seems like a good dream if you ask me!

Give One Mic Drums A Chance
Why am I harping on this one mic drum recording thing?

Well for one, if you’re a band or singer/songwriter that is getting into your first home studio setup, you might only be able to afford one mic. And I’m here to tell you that you can do an entire full band production with that thing!

And two, I believe there is much to be gained by focusing on simplicity, minimalism, and an overall “less is more” approach to recording. In recent years we’ve veered to the “more is more” approach.

More plugins, more tracks, more mics, etc.

I’m of the mind that going back to a more focused and simpler setup and approach can be both liberating and sonically satisfying. What say you?"


What do you think?
I think having no control over the loudness of my snare and kick while mixing and not being able to target frequencies on specific parts of the kit sounds absolutely terrible.
 
You know, I used to love this guy. I even posted one of his videos here, even though I didn't agree with EVERYTHING he said in it, thinking it was still a good eye-opener for beginners.

But now, it just seems like he's trying to just come up with anything so that he has a new video every month.

Some of the above is ridiculous. I only use 4 mics on my drums, so it's not as if what he's saying affects me personally, because it doesn't.

But still, "When using multiple mics on a drum kit, it takes a lot of time and effort to get just the right balance". So what? So, it takes time. So does tuning your drums, practicing your parts, placing mics, whether it's 1 or 12, etc.....

He's beginning to come off like someone who just likes to hear himself talk. But like many people that put videos together in the name of helping people, he doesn't seem to know what he's talking about most of the time. (Sort of like someone that makes videos and posts here lately....not going to mention any names).
 
Reposting that nonsensical horseshit is almost as bad as writing it.
 
Thanks for posting! Great food for thought and discussion. For folks new to home recording (and this is an HR forum :-), it might be a great way to get in the game.

From there, they might consider placing two overhead mics to achieve a bit of stereo and/or get a better balance of the cymbals and/or snare vs floor tom.

A next step might be to mic the kick.

A next next step might be to mic the snare.

Continue until you are in a high end home studio or have become an experienced HR engineer or get to a semi-professional studio. Mic placement gets really time consuming / expensive for virtually all instruments. At least that is my experience from the other side. Just a half inch here or there can make a huge difference. Not for the feint of heart :-)

Just my 2 cents..... Thanks for starting what will likely be an interesting discussion.
 
Same.
I think he spews a lot of bad information.
I think it's worth a try to record an entire drum kit with one microphone so that you can find out first hand why people don't do it.

Greg_L said:
Reposting that nonsensical horseshit is almost as bad as writing it.
Click to expand...

I was going to post it in Prime Time but it was about recording :drunk:
And I know you guys like a good outrage.
 
On the plus side, fewer and fewer people have the skill, chops, or balls to even sit behind a real drum kit, so it's probably all moot.
 
I'm new to this forum and don't know the history, but given that your intent is to do a reasonable demo in a home studio to bring to your band, this might be a good way to go. Spend the time on the creative-writing process and get things on "tape" in the most representative way for the band but with minimal overhead. Better than trying to do it with a 4-track Fostex, no?
 
Do it however you want, just don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining.
 
Easier to mix? Right, because after 90 seconds you say "this sucks" and re-track it.
 
DinoRock said:
I'm new to this forum and don't know the history, but given that your intent is to do a reasonable demo in a home studio to bring to your band, this might be a good way to go. Spend the time on the creative-writing process and get things on "tape" in the most representative way for the band but with minimal overhead. Better than trying to do it with a 4-track Fostex, no?
Click to expand...

I'm sure you can make a cool tape to share around with your buddies in the schoolyard but anybody who isn't a complete cheapo should at least be able to afford a four mic set up. A 57, a D112 and some condenser overheads should be doable to most people.
Plus, I assume that the kind of microphone that might capture a drum set well by itself would cost twice as much as those four put together.

There is a time to cut costs but it's not on the essential basics.
 
I've listened to some of your stuff previously. Very impressed. I'll bet that given a talented band with an excellent tune, if you had one 58, you could get a band recorded at a quality that it could be played successfully on college radio stations. One mic on drums. Same mic for vocals and maybe an acoustic. Everything else direct.
 
DinoRock said:
I've listened to some of your stuff previously. Very impressed. I'll bet that given a talented band with an excellent tune, if you had one 58, you could get a band recorded at a quality that it could be played successfully on college radio stations. One mic on drums. Same mic for vocals and maybe an acoustic. Everything else direct.
Click to expand...
Probably not. The drums would sound like crap using a 58. If you ever found a spot where it captured the whole kit nothing would be in balance and the track would likely be filled with room effect.
 
ido1957 said:
Probably not. The drums would sound like crap using a 58. If you ever found a spot where it captured the whole kit nothing would be in balance and the track would likely be filled with room effect.
Click to expand...

I agree that for many genres, even for a college station, you would likely need to get the kick and the snare, along with stereo overheads. So, 4 proper mics at a min. Exceptions might be music that doesn't rely on a kick/snare to be real prominent - some songs in genres like blues, jazz, singer-songwriter, etc. I've been doing a lot of singer-songwriter type of work recently, so that was influencing my thinking.
 
Recording Revolution dude seems like a nice guy, and I like a few of his motivational videos. (I use his 4dB rule all the time!)

He seems like he's knowledgeable, and capable...
But, I think the music in his recording and mixing videos sounds painfully amateur. Nothing ever sounds cohesive. The vocals are uncomfortably on top of everything, guitars sound dorkishly wide, and the drums always sound like they were just thrown into the mix as an afterthought. It's like listening to a shopping mall talent show or something. It sounds like shortcuts.
So, this shortcut piece isn't surprising :(

That's not to say that one mic recording isn't possible/awesome, though. Just that his main reason seems to be that it's a shortcut. Not because it's better for the player, room, or most importantly, the rest of the elements in the recording.
 
RR is ok for beginners and he has worked out that there is a HUGE market for beginners, but I disagree with almost everything he says. lol

To be fair to him though, it IS free, and he is successful in what he does so I can respect that.
 
A lot of his videos seem like they were not worth making. I can't stand the artsy fartsy crap that mix engineers get caught up in. The difference though is this guy thinks his artsy fartsy crap is worth sharing with people.
 
The point could be argued that starting off with as few mics as possible is a good way to get started learning to track drums.

If you start off with a 12-mic array on your kit, you're not going to know how to mix it. You could start with one mic, learn the best way to track with that, add a second, repeat until everything is mic'd individually. You'll probably have some pretty good results by the end. You'll have made a lot of unlistenable cruft along the way, but who of us hasn't done that?
 
I think that this original post lacks some context. Graham does these "challenges" where his main point is that people that are newer to recording and have not had any professional training should focus on learning how to use stock plugins and cheap microphones and minimize purchasing of equipment, instead focusing on proper songwriting and arranging, getting it right at the source (mic placement and proper gain staging) and learning HOW to properly use the plugins that you have already purchased stock with your DAW to achieve better mixes. He did an introductory video where someone challenged him that it was not possible to complete a good sounding song or EP with $300 worth of equipment. He admits he's never tried before but is confident that he can get a decent sounding album using minimalist techniques.

His whole website/youtube channel is geared towards beginners and those who are on a very tight budget....as well as those who have had the mindset that buying the next piece of gear that will be the "missing link or magic bullet" to getting a better mix (which doesn't exist as a beginner who doesnt understand the fundamental recording concepts well enough to have a new piece of equipment "fix" their mixes). He's not saying that people should only use 1 mic on drums (I know he typically uses 2 OHs, kick, snare, and tom mics)...however if you have a very tight budget, you should still be able to get a useable sound and an end result that many would be happy with. There will be some drawbacks as those above mentioned, however his point is that there are also some benefits to using less mics and it CAN be done, not that you SHOULD if you have access to more mics. So I dont think it's really fair to bash him for the content in the original email without some of that context. I'm looking forward to hearing the end result...and I think the end result will be eye opening to BEGINNERS who thought they needed to spend a ton of money to get something of the quality that he will produce.
 
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