***The Official Home Recording Studio Thread***

[Lowe]

What mic ? I'm in the process of sorting my drums mic wise...

I want simple

Thinking sm57 on snare another on Tom and two overheads

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb14/articles/rode-m5.htm


And Shure Beta 52a on the bass drum

Simplish setup for drums that works pretty well:

Audix D6 on kick.
SM57 x2 on snare (top and bottom)
MD 421 x3 on toms (though 57's can be used if money's starting to get tight)
Sontronics STC-10's x3 for cymbals and hats.

That gives you a pretty good 'close' mic sound. But, it lacks depth - as pretty much any close mic recording does with drums. Ideally you need a room mic as well. There's a great technique that Clint Murphy shared not that long ago that requires a pair of AKG 414's (or similar condensers) that have an omni pattern. You place them a couple of meters or so away from the kit as a spaced pair, but have them pointing at the floor and the ceiling rather than the kit. Ideally you'll have a nice wooden floor and high ceiling for this. You then take the recording of the kit, stick it through an 1176 and smash the living whatsits out of it - super high ratio. Add a little bit of low end EQ, and then blend that fairly quietly underneath your close mics. The result is a much more natural sounding kit, that's also grown a pair.

There's a video showing my recreation of it here:

http://www.recordproduction.com/rec...ding-wolverhampton-university-andrew-lowe.htm

We don't have a wooden room, so we put plexiglass underneath the mics to help the sound bounce around a little bit. The audio on the video is purely the 414's, not the sound mixed together, so yes it's a little bit on the boomy side. The idea was to show how you can be inventive to get around having a less than ideal room rather than the final result in this case. Some other guys recreated it and took the door of the frame and put that under the mics!

 

[SexyGreyFox]

We should have a LIKE button

 

[easyrider]

Pics incoming of my progress so far...Absolutely no acoustic treatment!

Simplish setup for drums that works pretty well:

Audix D6 on kick.
SM57 x2 on snare (top and bottom)
MD 421 x3 on toms (though 57's can be used if money's starting to get tight)
Sontronics STC-10's x3 for cymbals and hats.

That gives you a pretty good 'close' mic sound. But, it lacks depth - as pretty much any close mic recording does with drums. Ideally you need a room mic as well. There's a great technique that Clint Murphy shared not that long ago that requires a pair of AKG 414's (or similar condensers) that have an omni pattern. You place them a couple of meters or so away from the kit as a spaced pair, but have them pointing at the floor and the ceiling rather than the kit. Ideally you'll have a nice wooden floor and high ceiling for this. You then take the recording of the kit, stick it through an 1176 and smash the living whatsits out of it - super high ratio. Add a little bit of low end EQ, and then blend that fairly quietly underneath your close mics. The result is a much more natural sounding kit, that's also grown a pair.

There's a video showing my recreation of it here:

http://www.recordproduction.com/rec...ding-wolverhampton-university-andrew-lowe.htm

We don't have a wooden room, so we put plexiglass underneath the mics to help the sound bounce around a little bit. The audio on the video is purely the 414's, not the sound mixed together, so yes it's a little bit on the boomy side. The idea was to show how you can be inventive to get around having a less than ideal room rather than the final result in this case. Some other guys recreated it and took the door of the frame and put that under the mics!

Cheers for the info...Ive got quite a low ceiling but I do have 2 x PZM's I might have a play with...Mic the snare bass and tom up close then use the two PZM's as "room mics"...The fun is is the experimenting when I get it all setup.




Drum Corner



Lava Lamp (got my priorities right)



Fender Blues Deluxe



Fender Champ XD



Drums again



New Piano still to move it in.

 

[redline]

Pics incoming of my progress so far...Absolutely no acoustic treatment!

But, you have rugs man, and Persian ones too, so you're already going in the right direction

Seriously, looking great so far, and feeling very-very jelly already.

These are surprising little mics.

I love my pair, especially with the addition of some omni capsules, which I've used to capture sounds in some interesting acoustic spaces, such as churches and a piano in an NT property. They may not be up to the standard of the best mics, but in their price range feel they are worthy of consideration.

 

[easyrider]

But, you have rugs man, and Persian ones too, so you're already going in the right direction
.

 

[v0n]

If the drums are tuned correctly then the condenser will pick up a true sound of the drums which is what Stuart Copeland did in the studio on the Syncronicity album.
Stick a mic two fingers above a drum head and you are altering the sound of the drum and never catch the quality of the drum so I know the theory behind it.

I'm going to be anal about it, but only because it's a studio thread. It is true that they used ambient miking for Copeland on Synchronicity but only to add it to the usual close miking in a final mix in small percentage, for "air". The guys at AIR Montserrat borrowed the effect from something they devised for Phil Collins' few months prior but with less echo/ambience added. Copeland was close miked with SM57s on specifically for the occasion overtightened snare and bass, Sennheiser 421 on toms, two Coles 4038 ribbon mikes overhead to fetch cymbals, and two or three Neumann u87 about 3.5 meters away to the front of the drum set with compressor in line. He wasn't happy with the acoustics so after prolonged search they found "the magic" in an open plan kitchen/messhole at the living quarters annex adjacent to the studio, where the room had higher, pitched ceiling and thick wooden floor, providing just the right acoustics (and enough space for the members of the band not to kill each other).

 

[SexyGreyFox]

I'm going to be anal about it, but only because it's a studio thread. It is true that they used ambient miking for Copeland on Synchronicity but only to add it to the usual close miking in a final mix in small percentage, for "air". The guys at AIR Montserrat borrowed the effect from something they devised for Phil Collins' few months prior but with less echo/ambience added. Copeland was close miked with SM57s on specifically for the occasion overtightened snare and bass, Sennheiser 421 on toms, two Coles 4038 ribbon mikes overhead to fetch cymbals, and two or three Neumann u87 about 3.5 meters away to the front of the drum set with compressor in line. He wasn't happy with the acoustics so after prolonged search they found "the magic" in an open plan kitchen/messhole at the living quarters annex adjacent to the studio, where the room had higher, pitched ceiling and thick wooden floor, providing just the right acoustics (and enough space for the members of the band not to kill each other).

Well they told fibs on the Synchronicity DVD about the recording of the album.
I thought it was too good to be true.

 

[Lowe]

I love my pair, especially with the addition of some omni capsules, which I've used to capture sounds in some interesting acoustic spaces, such as churches and a piano in an NT property. They may not be up to the standard of the best mics, but in their price range feel they are worthy of consideration.

Don't know if you know, but they're a fairly small British company, it's good to support people like this.

They're up for an award this year - show them a bit of love and give them a click.

http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech...icrophone-brand-of-the-year-award-2015-607086

 

[easyrider]

I have been looking at the Rode M5

http://www.rode.com/microphones/m5

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb14/articles/rode-m5.htm

They seem a good buy at 129 for a pair...I have been looking at these for cheapish Overheads...and they come with a 10yr warranty...

As I say I'm still sourcing Mics so the cheaper the better but I don't want to buy Tat..But want decent sound quality. With the look to maybe upgrade down the line.

The would be useful for recording my acoustic in stereo aswell....(seem a bargain for the price?)

http://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and...CjwKEAjw1f6vBRC7tLqO_aih5WISJAAE0CYwNDDverVe7***bu8W8c_BIb8B2bEcxwOYYkzp15V5xxoCsVvw_wcB

 

[Lowe]

Rode make some decent mics for the money. Can't comment on those specifically, but would imagine whilst they'd be ok for OH duties, I doubt they'd give much warmth and richness with an acoustic guitar.

I'd probably look to save up some more and get something a bit bigger to be honest. One of the things I've come to realise over the years is that the most important parts of the recording chain are the start and the finish; i.e. the instrument and the mic at the start and the monitors at the end. Everything else is helpful, but not entirely essential to getting a good recording. Don't get me wrong, a nice preamp console and ADC/DAC is great, but it's not where you should be putting your money to start with imho.

 

[easyrider]

Rode make some decent mics for the money. Can't comment on those specifically, but would imagine whilst they'd be ok for OH duties, I doubt they'd give much warmth and richness with an acoustic guitar.

I'd probably look to save up some more and get something a bit bigger to be honest. One of the things I've come to realise over the years is that the most important parts of the recording chain are the start and the finish; i.e. the instrument and the mic at the start and the monitors at the end. Everything else is helpful, but not entirely essential to getting a good recording. Don't get me wrong, a nice preamp console and ADC/DAC is great, but it's not where you should be putting your money to start with imho.

I have a Rode NT1 so I could use that for acoustic Guitar recording.

So for around 200 what would you suggest for some Drum Overheads mate ?

 

[v0n]

Well they told fibs on the Synchronicity DVD about the recording of the album.
I thought it was too good to be true.

Not necessarily, the sound on Synchronicity is "special" because of ambient miking in the mix (and the room) - but they still use mainly close miking. Ambient miking from above is difficult because of cymbals. You have to give up whacking any metal closer to the mics in the track or it's going to drown everything underneath.
But Synchronicity sound is a very nice variation of Phil Collins' setup in the 80ies - you know the "huge set stadium sound" - perfect example would be the transition drum solo in "In The Air Tonight", the one used in Cadbury gorilla advert. That sound is 80-90% ambient using two Neumann U87s positioned in the corners at 3.5-4 meters away, running through separate UREI 1176 peak limiters plus compressed to the max ancient, reverse talkback STC 4017A in the middle and then just tiny mix-in of Neumann U47 on bass and Shure SM57 on snare for that extra crisp crash and whoompf.

The high ceiling open room trick is of course Led Zeppelin's "When The Levee Breaks" which was recorded at the bottom of a wooden stairwell at the Headley Grange with the spacious thumping effect coming from the acoustic properties of the room captured with two Beyerdynamic M160 microphones in stereo hanged at the top of the stairwell on the second floor. It is by far the most sampled and reused drum sound in history, used by anyone from Beastie Boys, through Enigma and Bjork to all digitally mimicked drum sound in some of the modern Joe Bonamassa recordings and live performances ("Albion" live, "Black Lung Heartache" studio version - very old-England-folk Zeppelinish track on its own, drum whackage starts at about 1:27)

 

[easyrider]

The high ceiling open room trick is of course Led Zeppelin's "When The Levee Breaks" which was recorded at the bottom of a wooden stairwell at the Headley Grange with the spacious thumping effect coming from the acoustic properties of the room captured with two Beyerdynamic M160 microphones in stereo hanged at the top of the stairwell on the second floor. It is by far the most sampled and reused drum sound in history, used by anyone from Beastie Boys, through Enigma and Bjork to all digitally mimicked drum sound in some of Joe Bonamassa recordings and live peformances ("Albion" live, "Black Lung Heartache" studio version - very old-England-folk Zeppelin track on its own)

For context

 

[Lowe]

I have a Rode NT1 so I could use that for acoustic Guitar recording.

So for around 200 what would you suggest for some Drum Overheads mate ?

As said - have a look at the Sontronics STC's. The STC-1 and 10 are broadly similar, but the 1 has switchable capsules.

http://www.sontronics.com/stc1.htm

They're 100 quid each, or the STC-10 is about 85 quid. Lifetime guarantee as well which isn't to be sniffed at. These wouldn't be too bad for recording other stuff too - and would combined with the Rode could make an interesting Mid/Side combo on acoustic guitar

 

[easyrider]

As said - have a look at the Sontronics STC's. The STC-1 and 10 are broadly similar, but the 1 has switchable capsules.

http://www.sontronics.com/stc1.htm

They're 100 quid each, or the STC-10 is about 85 quid. Lifetime guarantee as well which isn't to be sniffed at. These wouldn't be too bad for recording other stuff too - and would combined with the Rode could make an interesting Mid/Side combo on acoustic guitar

Cheers...I like the look of them and being UK designed is kinda funky

 

[SexyGreyFox]

The high ceiling open room trick is of course Led Zeppelin's "When The Levee Breaks" which was recorded at the bottom of a wooden stairwell at the Headley Grange with the spacious thumping effect coming from the acoustic properties of the room captured with two Beyerdynamic M160 microphones in stereo hanged at the top of the stairwell on the second floor. It is by far the most sampled and reused drum sound in history, used by anyone from Beastie Boys, through Enigma and Bjork to all digitally mimicked drum sound in some of the modern Joe Bonamassa recordings and live performances ("Albion" live, "Black Lung Heartache" studio version - very old-England-folk Zeppelinish track on its own, drum whackage starts at about 1:27)

There's a couple of alternate versions just been released by Page on the remastered albums.

 

[easyrider]

Don't know if you know, but they're a fairly small British company, it's good to support people like this.

They're up for an award this year - show them a bit of love and give them a click.

http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech...icrophone-brand-of-the-year-award-2015-607086

Sent you a PM mate...check your email.

 

[redline]

Cheers...I like the look of them and being UK designed is kinda funky

They are a very good company to deal with too.. unfortunately I had a problem with my first set, with one of them becoming very noisy after a few weeks use. I contacted Sontronics and had the founder/MD Trevor Coley contact me immediately to help resolve the issue... he was very keen to find out exactly why this happened so he could make sure it didn't happen again. I received a new set very quickly which have been perfect in the three years I've had them. Its not often an MD takes such a personal interest, and its good to support a UK company.

I would also like to recommend 'Sound on Sound' magazine to anyone with an interest in recording. They cover everything from home studio projects and trouble shooting to the worlds best studios, engineers and producers, as well as product reviews. I've learned a ton from reading it for well over a decade now... this month has the making of Muse Drones LP which is a great read.

 

[easyrider]

They are a very good company to deal with too.. unfortunately I had a problem with my first set, with one of them becoming very noisy after a few weeks use. I contacted Sontronics and had the founder/MD Trevor Coley contact me immediately to help resolve the issue... he was very keen to find out exactly why this happened so he could make sure it didn't happen again. I received a new set very quickly which have been perfect in the three years I've had them. Its not often an MD takes such a personal interest, and its good to support a UK company.

I would also like to recommend 'Sound on Sound' magazine to anyone with an interest in recording. They cover everything from home studio projects and trouble shooting to the worlds best studios, engineers and producers, as well as product reviews. I've learned a ton from reading it for well over a decade now... this month has the making of Muse Drones LP which is a great read.

Just need see pics off you now

 

[redline]

Just need see pics off you now

Ok, tomorrow, though its a pretty meagre affair.. but it is what it is