As instructed, I’ll be keeping these posts rather short. I’ll be updating each week after the multitrack recording sessions, letting you know what we got up to as a group, as well as my individual input.
So, for the first week we recorded the drums. We only had a short time window of two hours to do so, but we actually managed it with time to spare. Drums aren’t exactly the easiest instrument to record. Well, electronic drums are, but still. When you record drums there is one main thing that you need to take into consideration, and that is microphone choice. What with different types of microphones responding to different frequency ranges, choosing the right mic for a particular piece of kit is quite important. Fortunately, we had the mics chosen for us and they were as follows:
- 2x AKG 414, condenser – Overheads
- 2x Shure SM57, dynamic- Snare top and bottom
- 2x Beyerdynamic, dynamic (M201 I think? – Will edit!) – Toms
- 1x AKG D112, dynamic – Kick drum
By having two overheads we were able to record the drum kit as a whole, and could have actually done so without the other five mics. However, to allow us to fine tune the sound of the kit, it was necessary to use as many microphones as we did.
Everyone took a microphone and then attached it to a stand, we then carted them through into the drum booth, placed them roughly where we wanted them, and then attached the cables. All seven of them. And well, it’s safe to say that it made a bit of a mess. Maybe because I plugged them all in, and made it a mess, but they all worked. Sort of. One of the cables decided to stop working properly during the first take, meaning it needed to be replaced. I’ll also add the mic stand I used fell down (I did it as tight as I could, I swear!) No matter, the issue was soon resolved and everything ran smoothly for the second take.
Once the kit was properly set up, and all the mics were plugged in, we were able to adjust the levels of each of them to get a good mix. The left and right overheads were panned respectively so that an even sound was generated, and we also flipped the phase on the bottom snare mic as the cancellation between the two SM57s meant that a lot of the lower frequencies were lost.
Everything was sent into Pro Tools from the desk, and the recording levels adjusted there accordingly. This would ensure that there would be no clipping, and we would have a good sounding recording. Each track in Pro Tools was labelled identically to how it was on the desk, just so we knew which track recorded which part of the kit.
I was tasked with doing the guide bass part, and with just two takes I think that we got an excellent drum track recorded. We add the actual bass part next time, and before we know it Superstition will be complete!
– Anthony.