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In Reply to: RE: A few thoughts posted by E-Stat on August 25, 2014 at 05:48:05
Maybe you're right. Now here's a very straight question: how do you mic drums?
WW
"A man need merely light the filaments of his receiving set and the world's greatest artists will perform for him." Alfred N. Goldsmith, RCA, 1922
Follow Ups:
The SOP in rock recording at the time was to put the drummer in a small, dead isolation room with multiple mikes on different parts of his kit.
Jimmy reasoned that this unduly constricted the sound by robbing it of the acoustic ambience that made live drums sound good. He put Bonham out in the middle of a large, somewhat reflective room and set just a stereo pair of mikes about 12 feet away.
So what do you think of the drum sound on those Zep records? To me, it has more punch and more spaciousness than was typical in other rock recordings of the same era. Of course, Bonham was such a balanced player that he didn't need different parts of his kit balanced and mixed electronically. That certainly helped.
I don't, but my reference depends upon whether you refer to rock or classical. For rock, it is the Sheffield Drum Record. Contrary to your previous assertion:You can mic a drum kit for a small jazz combo with mics on the snare and kick, plus a pair of overheads - four mics total. But for rock, you'll get mud.
the resulting sound is anything but "mud" to these ears. Are you familiar with that recording? That is exactly how the miking was achieved by Bill Schnee. Actually, the Keltner track used but three mics omitting the snare highlight.
My reference for classical is any number of Telarc recordings such as the Firebird or Carmina Burana by the ASO. Renner used a total of five on the former with no need for drum specific mics. Or, the Fine team you mentioned earlier.
Edits: 08/25/14
I just pulled it out and gave it a listen for the first time in a couple decades. It's pretty great.
I guess what I should have said is that most engineers, in typical live rooms, will get mud trying to minimally mic rock. And the track record *is* a very pared-down ensemble; mostly bass, reduced drum kit, and synthesizer. (Is there any snare or hat?) I don't think I've heard anyone try to do a minimalist mic setup on a typical rock band, i.e. two EGTs, 1 bass, drums, 2+ vocals, keyboard.
But the drum sound on that record is really good.
Love the pic, BTW. A couple years ago at the AES, a nephew (I think) presented pics and home movies of the early Mercury days, including their location recording truck.
WW
"A man need merely light the filaments of his receiving set and the world's greatest artists will perform for him." Alfred N. Goldsmith, RCA, 1922
And the track record *is* a very pared-down ensemble; mostly bass, reduced drum kit, and synthesizer. (Is there any snare or hat?)
That must not be the same recording. This "not-at-all-pared-down" kit has kick, toms, snare, high hat, cymbals, cow bells and a wee recorder.
This recording is taut and punchy with crisp sounding "skins" and plenty of upper harmonic extension on the steel. Not sure if you followed the post from The Devil that included a link as to how the Fleetwood Mac Dreams album was recorded. Apparently, six mics were used on the drums with the difference being two on the toms. The toms on SH14 (despite not having their own mics) sound darn good on my electrostats. :)
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