I prefer recording my drums in small to medium sized rooms. There’s something about the attack and tightness you get when you’re not bouncing the sound off of 30′ ceilings. I’ve been fortunate enough to have had the chance to record in the “big” rooms at The Hit Factory (RIP) and Avatar in NYC and while the drums sounded HUGE and bigger than life, it was almost too much. If you’re tracking drums for Whitesnake, this might be the sound you’re looking for… but often it can be hard to reign it in and fit in a mix.
The Hit Factory - Studio A
On the flip side, when you record in a smaller room, sometimes you need to make things sound bigger than the natural acoustics can provide. One trick to making this happen (without reaching for the dreaded reverb insert) is to place a microphone in the hallway outside of the drum room. This is a technique I stole from one of my favorite producers and engineers, Tchad Blake. This mic placement often gives you something that’s a few notches beyond your typical room mic, and can sound great both on it’s own and mixed in with the full drum track.
The Hit Basement - Studio G.
Loop #37
Today’s loop is based on the “hallway mic’ing” technique. The first 8 bars is just the single mic (SM57) placed outside of the drum room about 10″ and positioned in the “sweet spot” (the second step). The next 8 bar phrase is the full drum mix along with the hallway mic. I attribute the fine-tuned ambient characteristics to the acoustically treated carpet that lines the basement of my house. The combination of ground in cat hair and Dorito crumbs seems to cancel out all unwanted bass frequencies.
Preview Here:
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Download the Logic session here. (50MB)
Get the .wav file here. (Room Only)
Get the .wav file here. (Full Mix)
181 BPM
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Simple but effective.
On a semi-unrelated note, ever played with the “speaker as a mic” trick? I have an old bass amp with a 10″ speaker waiting for cannibalization, if I ever recorded anything.
yeah, I’ve done the speaker as a mic thing many times. mainly on the kick drum to capture some extra low end. here’s a pic from a session I did at conway studios in LA….
http://ryangruss.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/img_0225.jpg
it’s yamaha’s ‘sub kick’… which is basically the same thing. a speaker mounted in a frame that’s easy to place in front of a kick.