BLOG

Recording Lounge
  • Home
  • Episodes
    • Listen
    • RL on YouTube
    • RSS Feed
    • Archive
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Resources
  • Support RL
    • via Patreon
    • via Paypal Donation

Episode 93 - Drum Mixing 303 - Additional Info

9/2/2016

2 Comments

 

Hello Friends - 

Figured I would provide some additional info regarding Episode 93 - Drum Mixing 303. Let's start with the Tracking info one more time, but in more detail. Below is a list of all of the mics, mic positions, and preamps used for this setup [FYI - Channels 5/6 and 19/20 were not used for this setup]...

Channel 
Mic Position
Mic Used
Preamp
1 + 2
Stereo Overheads
Neumann KM184, Spaced, 2' over crashes
API 312
3
Mono Overhead
Beyerdynamic M160, Over the Ride 1-2', pointed at snare
​API 312
4
PZM Overhead
CAD PZM...not sure on the model. It's cheap.
API 312
7
Snare Bottom
Telefunken M80* (too bright for this position IMO)
BAE 1073
8
Snare Top
Telefunken M80
BAE 1073
9
Rack Tom
CAD M179
Vintech X73
10
Floor Tom
CAD M179
Vintech X73
11
Kick In
Telefunken M82
AML 1073
12
Kick Out
CharterOak E700 (original model)
AML 1073
13
OTK
Rode NT2, right in front of the rim of the kick
AML 1073
14
HiHat
Gefell UMT70 in Fig8
Electrodyne
15
UTF
SM57 underneath the floor tom.
Mercury M76 (completely unnecessary for this...but hey, why not)
16
Mono Room* not used in final mix
Mojave MA300 in wide cardioid, 8-10' from kit
UTA MPEQ1
17 + 18
Stereo Room
AEA R88 about 15' from the snare, about 6' up.
AEA RPQ 500 series
Picture
This is a photo of the drum setup. I'm standing right behind the AEA R88 stereo room mic. The Kit is a custom maple kit, 22" kick, 13" rack tom, 16" floor tom, 14x6.5" Ludwig Supraphonic snare. The cymbals are Meinl Extra Thin Hammered Crashes, and a 24" Big Apple Dark Ride. Hihats were Sabian Evolution 16" Crash (top) and Zildjian Medium Thin Crash (bottom). Yes, you can use crash cymbals as hi-hats! Asy you can see, my room has a high ceiling (13' at the highest) and is treated well. The drums seem to sound best in this corner, as opposed to out in the room. The walls are not parallel in this space, so this corner is actually more like 110 degrees rather than 90 degrees - maybe that helps. The walls are treated with a combination of diffusion, deflection, and absorption. The floor is laminate over concrete, and it sounds great to my ear. I am always tweaking the space - it's so critical to getting a great sound on any instrument. 

Number of Plugins used total: 14

2 - Native Instruments Transient Designer (Kick Bus, OTK)
7 - Fabfilter Pro Q (Kick Bus, Snr Bot, Snr Bus, Rack, Floor, Stereo Room, Drum Bus)
1 - Soundtoys Decapitator (UTF)
1 - Kush UBK1 (OTK)
1 - Valhalla Room Verb (Stereo Room)
1 - Cytomic THE GLUE (Drum Bus)
1 - Plugin Alliance / ACME Opticom (Drum Bus Parallel)

To hear the comparison again between DRY drums (balanced / panned) versus the MIXED drums, listen below. Again, PLEASE excuse my mediocre drumming! 
​

DRY DRUMS

​MIXED DRUMS

REMEMBER

A lot of this stuff can only truly be determined by the mix you're doing. These drums might be too compressed, or not compressed enough, too bright, too fat, too thin, too much kick, not enough snare, too much/too little WHATEVER... depending on the mix they're in. It all depends on context. However, you can tell that I didn't really have to do a lot to the drums to get them to sound good. Most of this is because: 

a) I have spent a lot of time over the years finding mic positions, mic choices, drum choices, cymbal choices, and room treatments that work for me. Sometimes they don't work. I often tweak based on the drummer, the song, etc. I don't play my cymbals very loud and neither does my primary session drummer, but if the drummer DID play their cymbals loud, I would have to adjust at LEAST the overheads, likely the room mics as well. 

b) I try to get 90% of the way there with my mic choices and balances, and my DRUM BUS processing. If things are recorded well, there's no "tricks" or "magic" or "special techniques" or "secrets" that I do. Lots of people out there are looking for the "secrets" to getting a good mix - I'll spoil it now: a good recording. Wanna know how to get a good recording? Good players playing good instruments in good rooms and all of this is being captured by skilled engineers. I know you've heard that a million times, but seriously....that's all there is to it. There are a lot of people out there charging a lot of money on their websites trying to get you to sign up for their mix technique skills classes and whatnot, but the truth is, mixing is easy and fun if the recorded tracks are solid. 

Moral of the story: 90% of the time, the problems you have are because of your recordings, not because of your mixes. Therefore: 

PRACTICE. GET BETTER. TAKE NOTES. RECORD CONSTANTLY. IMPROVE. REJOICE.

​ROCK! 
​

- K
2 Comments
Paolo Montinaro
10/8/2019 09:13:05 am

Hi there
I'am looking for a kick out microphone a sort of U47 fet and I am actually oriented towards the Charter Oak E 700. Do you reccomend it to me?
Thanks
Paolo

Reply
Black Massage Minnesota link
3/24/2021 02:07:19 pm

Hi thanks ffor posting this

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Kendal Osborne is the Host of the Recording Lounge Podcast and the Owner / Head Engineer at The Closet Studios

    Archives

    April 2021
    April 2019
    May 2018
    November 2017
    June 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    September 2016
    August 2016

    Categories

    All
    Bass
    Clients
    Compression
    Drums
    Engineering
    Guitar
    Internships
    Interviews
    Mastering
    Mic Technique
    Mixbus
    Mixing
    Musicians
    Performance
    Plugins
    Practice
    Preamps
    Preproduction
    Proximity Effect
    Recording
    Ribbon Mics
    Royer 121
    Saturation
    Studio Business
    Techniques
    Tips
    Vocals

    RSS Feed

Copyright © 2017 The Recording Lounge Podcast
  • Home
  • Episodes
    • Listen
    • RL on YouTube
    • RSS Feed
    • Archive
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Resources
  • Support RL
    • via Patreon
    • via Paypal Donation