Continued: Glyn Johns Drum Set up with added close tom mics and Out Kick

Danny Danzi


I'm with Alex...however, the things you added were things I felt were missing in your sound when you were straight GJ method.

Also, I'm not crazy about that V67, Paul. The reason being...it's sort of in the line of fire. Those big mic's look like they can take a beating until you whack one dead on with a stick.

Not only that but...for me, techniques 101 rule 1...never do something that inconveniences a player or makes them play differently than they would normally. As soon as you make someone uncomfortable or to the point of them having to be careful about how they play, you have altered their playing style. This could also make them a bit too aware of going near that floor tom which *could* change the impact or execution when goin in that area. 

But, see how it sounds and go from there. Again, just hearing the drums without music won't tell much of a story. It will sound like a drum kit no matter what. We have to see if it sounds like a quality drum kit/print/mic config within a song. It's good you took pictures of this and logged the information for your records.

At the end of the day Paul, what kind of drum sound are you looking for? Whatever names of bands you can come up with, that's where you need to research as far as how they may have went about their drum technique. In my business, a tight kit along the "today" options of sound will work with just about any style of music. The more room oriented drum sounds only work for select things really...so in my personal opinion, I'd try to go for as much of a "now sound" as I can because it just works with just about everything today.

For example, kicks with a nice thud as well as beater attack with a little room in them with a light gate at the end. Not like a gated kick drum....but the gate controls how the decay of the room in the kick reacts.

Snares that don't sound like you're punching a cardboard box. A nice crack with a little ring and come to life when you rim shot them.

Toms that have a nice attack, a little ring and do NOT have that mid-range, roomy/cheap sound to them.

Crashes, rides and hats will always be subjective. Sometimes darker works, sometimes brighter works. The quality of the cymbals is important but as I said before in another message, sometimes lower line cymbals wind up sounding good once you throw a mic on them and hear them in the mix.

All mic's should be nice and close like you have them. Watch the super room mic's as well as mic's that are super sensitive when used as room mics. The more sensitive the mic is...the more room "goodness" you can sometimes get. My point in saying that is...sometimes more of a low-fi room with lesser quality mic's is the answer.

Some reading this may ask "what are you smoking Danny?!" The method to the madness is...we totally alter room mics when we process them. 8 out of 10 times you're going to totally annihilate OH's with compression, eq and whatever else you feel like throwing on them. As soon as you do that, you've done what? Right...you've sort of degraded the print from the original.

Distance room mic's....be careful of these too. Though they can sound awesome, in a mix they can make your drums harder to hear....or even too big to where the other instruments don't sound like they belong. Meaning, it's a catch 22....it can be too roomy and be like using too much reverb, or blow everything else away due to the size of the sound. Hope this helps. :)

-Danny

Rimshot


I just woke up this morning and read this thread.  I can't see the hi hat mic.  I also would have positioned the overheads in an XY pattern.  

Love your drum kit!  It's beautiful.  

Rimshot