the session

7/27/2019 The Session

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B Y A L E X C A SE

PART 11

Pr epr o d u c t io n an d l iv e r ec o r d in gTh e Ses s io n

Pr epr o d u c t io n an d l iv e r ec o r d in gTh e S es s io n

RECORDIN G M AY 2000

S

urely part of the plea sure of music recording is that i tis such a free, liq uid , no-rules sort of endeavor. I n th is

episode of Nuts & Bolts we look at the act ua l process ofre c o rd i n g .(Y es, I know we proba bly shouldve done t hisbef ore looking a t a mix the way we did las t month , but i twa s Mixings Art And Science Month in April a nd t hoseEditor guys asked so nicely....)

Armed w ith the specif ic knowledge of components ofthe recording chain discussed so far in this series, let sdiscuss the a ctual session and our crea t ive and technica loptions along the w ay. Throughout this art ic le I l l be dis-pensing advice and t hen making the ca se for i t ; whilethis is all based on ex perience, bea r in m in d th a t d i f f e r -ent producers and art ists have dif ferent wa ys of working.So dont get ma d if you disagre e.

Beg in at t he beg inn ingPerha ps the single most neglected pa rt of ma king a good

recording is preproduct ion. I t is an investment that allbands and producers should make. And I m a fa n of involv-ing the recording engineer during preproduction as we ll.

Big bud get a rtists as w ell as struggling up-and-comersneed to scrounge up the time it ta kes to work off -sta ge ina cheap studio , rehea rsa l space , or gara ge, a n d ma k erough recordings of the songs they plan t o record lat er.

Think ab out i t . The way most people hear our music isby listening to the recording over loudspeakers. The waythe ba nd listens to the music of other ar tists is by listen-ing to those recordings over loudspeakers. B ut t h e w aythe ba nd listens to their own music is l ive at the gigs, or

during rehea rsals and ja m sessions. There is an unfort u-nat e inconsistency here.

Ta len t ed , p as sio na te n ew a r t i s t s o f ten c rea te a ban dthat is simply thril l ing live. Then the a lbum fa i ls to ca pt ure t h i s . Qui te poss ibly a l l tha t has gone wrong isth a t th e ban d h asn t h ad a c h an c e to l i sten to th em -se lves the same way t hey l isten to a l l the bands theyl ovethe same w ay t heir fu t ure fan s wi l l l i s ten tothem: on loud speakers.

G ive the a rtists a chance to rea ct to themselves as theyappear in loudspeaker playba ck and theyll often ma kethe appropriate adjustments necessary to sound great ona record ing. The same band tha t rea lly works the crowdlive can oft en work the loudspeakers through theirre cordings; they just need a cha nce.

P reproduction req uires just a f ew mics and a cassettedeck . Working w ith m ore mics an d a DAT or 8-tra ckre corder is sometimes even bet ter. The mission of prepro-

duction is to capt ure the performan ces on ta pe for studyand evaluation later.

Ma ny bands have never actually heard themselvesuntil the f irst ta ke in the studio on the f irst song of thef irst session for their f irst a lbum. There is alrea dy a lot ofpressure bui lt in to tha t f i rs t s tudio si tua t ion . It s a lot ofmoney. There are a lot of mics all over the pla ce. There isa lot of gea r in the control room with lights and met ersevaluat ing every thought t he musicians have.

For the f irst-time recording ar t is t , an underst a nda b lepa ranoia sets in . An overwhelming fea r of making mis-ta kes that will be captured , ampli f ied and mocked byevery mic, meter an d loudspeaker in the s tudio leads toa performa nce tha t is more conservat ive, les s excit ing.

Tha t s not the sor t o f vibe tha t wi l l lead to a G rammy-winning performa nce.


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RECORDIN G MA Y 2000

I f the ba nd has never heard t hem-selves before, g et r ea dy for somech a llenges. Think back to th e f irsttime you recorded yourself . Whenyou arent play ing, an d y o u a re ju stlistening, you s tar t to hear th ingsthat have perhaps gone unnoticedfor yea rs. I dr i f t f la t when I s ingloud , I rush during the so lo, and I doth is funny th ing a t t he end o f thebr idge tha t just sounds aw fulIa lways thought i t sounded awesome.

The ba nd d eserves a chance towork these things out ahea d of thealbum sessions. The fact is , musicia nswill f ix ma ny technical issues ontheir own if you just give them ata pe of some rehea rsa ls. The drum-mer will s top rushing during the cho-rus, the s inger wi l l p lan out some o fth ose oohs a nd a hs a t t he en d,et c. Ma ke a rough recording of thepreproduction session for everymember of the ba nd.

The songwrit er a lso benefits f rompreproduct ion. Most pop music songsa re s tudied on paper : meter, rhy me,word choice, an d s t ru ctu re a re evalu-ated with the same care given apoem. Songs d i f fer f rom poetry intha t they are se t to music. The song-write r should therefore get thechance to study his or her work as i tlives on loudspeakers. Ma ke a roughre cording for the songwrit er.

The project en gineer a lso benefitsf rom doing the recording during pre-product ion. The audio qua lity of thefinal product will improve marked lyif everyone gets to hear w hat theyand their instrument s sound like

coming back off t ape.The drummer may not notice the

sq uea ky kick peda l during perfor-ma nces, bu t du r in g p layba ck every-one will . The guitarist may not seemto know tha t the strings on her gui-tar a re repla cea b le, bu t du r in g p lay -ba ck the sad, li feless tone mightmot ivate the effort .

R ecord the instrument an d youllf ind its every wea knessgua ra nteed .I f the squea ky pedal and d ul l oldstrings a re discovered before the bigsession , then the problem can be

a ddressed . I f i t happens in the heatof the actua l album-making session,

youll f ind yourself trying t o smoothover and h ide a problem or wast ingprecious studio time a nd crea t iveenergy wait ing for someone to run tothe mu sic store for the $5 solution.

I t is , b ut it is n t

The rules for t he prepr oductionsession:

First, t reat it like the act ual session.

Every one must put their hearts intothe session 100% and make it count.

The second ruleand this is iron-icis to make sure e veryone knowsthat i t s no t the ac tua l session . Aline must be dr awn b etween prepro-duction an d session work. The bestway t o ex trac t a l l the benef i ts o fpreproduct ion is remove the tempta -tion to keep some of the takes orsome of the tracks.

At first it seems perfectly logica l:record the preproduction session toDAT, and if they nail a ta ke well use

it on the record .R ecord the rehea rsa lsto multitra ck , and if we get a killervocal take well use on the a lbum.

Beep/Qua ck/Eep o r w ha tever no iseyour computer makes when a n erroris made. Trying to rescue the voca lt a ke from preproduction and u se it onthe album will draw so much at ten-tion and req uire so much effort tha tyoull fail to properly evaluate therest of the recording; the whole rea -son for preproduction is undermined.

H ow can the songwriter change aword or two la ter i f the track isa lrea dy recorded? Well j ust punchin the new words, someone says.

Beep/Qua ck /E ep. Ma t ching th esound of the vocal will be a lot oft rouble when you leave the rehea rsa lroom and go t o the fa ncy, a coust icpa rad ise of the recording stud io,when you leave the live vocal mic(the Indestructo X2000) in the vanand st art using the sweet vocal mic(the D elicat o Tube2k) in th e stud io.And asking even world-class d rum-mers to overdub their drum perfor-mance to an a lrea dy existing voca lt a ke is rarely successful.

The point of preproduction is todocument wi th a dequa te sonic qual i-ty a ll the music and p erforma nceideas tha t t he band ha s as of today .Then these ideas a re evaluated dur-ing playba ck over loudspeakers,w herever people prefer to l isten:turbo-t w ea ked mega-hi-fi systems, inth e c a r, in h eadp h o nes, a ny w herew here you do a lot of l is tening to t here cordings you buy.

Mist a kes become audible , and a remost always f ixable be fore the a lbumsessions. And more excit ing, t his

ba nd tha t you like so much live willcome up with ideas for modifying

Excerpted fromthe May edition of RECORDINGmagazine.2000 MusicMaker Publications, Inc. Reprinted withpermission.

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the arrangement , song s truc ture, gui-t a r to ne , l yrics, an d so o n th a t w i l lb low y o u away. G ive them a record -ing of how t hey sound and let t hemdo what they are rea lly good at : mak-ing their own music sound grea t .

P reproduction also gives the pro-ducer and en gineer a chance to con-tribute meaningfully to the crea t ivemusic making process. The jobs of

production and engineering happenin th e stu d io. P roducers and engi-neers have a fa mil iar i ty wi th t hegear of the stud io like musicia nshave with their instruments.

The stu dio experience of the p ro-duct ion and engineer ing teamenables the m to ma ke musica l sug-ges t ions tha t are unique to recordedmu sic. Double the voca ls in the ch o-ru ses, a dd s lap -bac k to th e gu i t a rduring the so lo , use some ga tedroom mics on the drums, run thepiano tra ck t hrough a Les l ie cab i-net , e t c.t here is a vast sonicpale t t e t o choose f rom.

These are creat ions that rely onthe s tudio and i ts equipment to becrea ted . They rely on loudspeakerpla yba ck to be rea lize d . I t i s impera-t ive tha t the producer and engineerlook out for these audio concoctionsthat will contribute to the music andt rans la te i t in to an a c t ion tha t theband unders tands and a pprecia t es.

The ba nd is expected to have a nopinion on how a ppropriat e suchsounds are to their music, b u t it i sthe job o f the s tudio ca t s to be ab leto crea te th em . P reproduction givesthe producer and engineer their f irstchance to start ma king these studiodecisions.

St r at eg ize: who , what ,when, wher e, why?

Before the a c tua l a lbum sessionsbeg in, th e p ro duc er, en g in eer, an dband should develop a recordings tra tegy . I t s just a schedule o f whorecords their ins truments and when.In wha t order should the songs berecorded? Which tra cks get recordedf irs t , and which are overdubs? Thesesorts of decisions are important towork out.

Like so much in music, there is

ra rely a single right way t o do things.But some approa ches are more use-

ful than others. Youve got to decideamon g the live to 2-tra ck , live to mul-t itra ck , ba sics, or overdub sessions.This month we d iscuss the live ses-sions. Next m ont hs Nuts & Bolt st a kes on basics and overdubs.

L iv e t o t wo

I t isnt always necessary t o recordto a mult it ra ck . I f you are recording a

single, s imple instrument , you canre cord it stra ight to your 2-tra ck mas-ter machineproba bly a DAT. Solopia no, voice, or gui tar are obviousex a mples.

Without the d istraction of otherinstruments and performers, t heengineer can rea lly focus. Mixdow nwont be necessary, as there is noth-ing to mix the solo instrument wit h.Captur ing the tone and adding jus tthe right effects is the sole priorityof a live to 2-tra ck session.

Your decision to go live to tw os houl dn t be based on engineer ingco nvenience or desires alone. Th ere c o rd ing s tra te gy must a lso fa ct orin the musica l advan tage s and dis-a dvan tages a s we ll . I n a l ive to twothe performer is as focused as thee ngi n e e r, chas ing tha t e lus ive goa ltheir bes t per fo r m a n c e .

An importa n t musica l benef i t o fthe s ingle p la yer l ive t o two sess ionis tha t there are no o ther mu s ic i a n sa ro u nd . O th er p l ay e r s o f ten addp ressu re, s t op t a k e s , o r r e q u irec o m p ro m i s e :

S inger: Let s use ta ke 17! List ento how I phrased t he opening line.

Drummer: But I fumbled tha t f i l lin the f irst ch orus. I m r ea lly diggingt a ke 12.

In ma ny live to 2-tra ck sessions itis just an e ngineer looking for asweet sound and a musician search-ing for his or her personal best.

Of course, there is sti l l opportunityto modify and e nhance the live

re cord ing. Po st recording processingconsists of two options: editing a ndma st er ing.

You can cut a nd pa ste together (lit-era lly or digitally) the best pa rts of allthe ta kes into a single best take .A n dyou can ma ster the 2-tra ck tape justrecorded. That is, you can still modifythe sound of the recording with a f inaldose of any ef fects you desiretypi-

ca lly equa lizat ion and compression,but t here is no reason not to ad dreverb or more elab orate effects aswell. Do what ever you think soundsbest .

To a chieve simplicity a nd int imacy,we plan on a l ive to two record ingsession. But l ive to two isnt just forsolo instruments. We can certa inlyre cord more complex arra ngementsand b igger bands l ive to two tra ck s.

Let s put i t in context by skippingahea d for a moment to tha t commonm ult it ra ck sess ion , the overdub . Sa y

d r u m s , ba s s an d gu it a r h ave beenre cord ed . Time for a saxophoneoverd ub .

Consider the vibe at t he overdub.The saxophon e player is a ll alone inthe s tudio, playing into perhaps asingle microphone, living in a musi-cal world tha t ex is ts wi th in the head-phones. I t i sn t ea sy to f ind the k i l lersolo that will take over the worldwhen youre playing all alone inhea dphones. Certa in components o fmusic feed off the live interaction ofother musicia ns.

This sax solo might be nefit frombeing recorded a t the same t imethat t he rest o f the band p lays .Record it l ive.

And there are other instancesw here the live to two is tempt ing.Drummers and ba ss p layers are oft enso musica lly intera ct ive tha t theyprefer tracking together (dont missour discussion of the Basics session

next month) . I f you can record thesolo during t he inspired groove ofthe live session, youll f ind moreex pressiveness, more power, moreemot ion.

Certa in styles of music are built on afoundation of interaction: jazz, blues,and power trios often like to be record -ed all at once. Highly improvisa t iona l

music is difficult to pull off musica llythrough an assembly of overdubs.

The f ina l pr oduct wil l impr ove

mar kedl y if ever yone get s t o hear

what t h ey an d t h eir in s t r u men t ssound l ike coming back o f f t ape.

Per haps t he band hasn t had a chance

t o l is t en t o t hemsel ves t he same way

t h ey l is t en t o al l t h e ban ds t h ey

l oveon l oudspeaker s .


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RECO RDING M AY 2000

Live to t wo becomes a mu ch moreinten se session now. Two t racks ofre corded music can ea sily come frommore than a dozen microphonesa imed a t a ny number o f ins trumentsplaying live, a t o nc e. An d e la bora tesignal processing might be req uired .

Skip the coffee. Youll have plentyof adrena line as you adj ust the levelson all those microphones; dial in

equalization that is just right for eachof them; set up compression on half , proba bly more ofthem; send the snare to a pla te reverb , th e R h odes to aqua r ter no te delay, and t he voca l to bo th the reverb anddelay; a nd so on.

Youve got to hear every li ttle t hing going on micro-phone by m icrophone, ins t rum en t by in st ru m en t , a ndeffects unit by effects unit in t he live to two session.

I n addit ion, you must somehow hea r the big t h ing : theoverall 2-track mix i tse lf . Ba ck in the day, ent ire orches-t ras were recorded live with a single well-placed micro-phone. I t can be done, but i t s a lways something of athril l r ide. Consider these idea s to help out.

Sa fe ty net? What sa fe t y net?

First , know the tune. Try to get a cha rt , a t t en d are hea rsa l, ge t a t a p e f ro m th e preproduct ion session (seeabove), and /or just plain lear n the tune in deta il duringthe f irst couple of ta kes. Youve got t o know w hat t hesong is about a nd memorize the arran gement: know w hois p lay ing when, when the loud pa r ts are, wh en th e sof tpar ts are, a n d r id e t h e fa ders accordingly.

Second ,t a ke a li ve a pp roa ch to the recording tech-niq ue. We know that in a l ive to t wo track session there w illbe no mixdown late r. The good news is that in a live to two-track session we dont perform overdubs.

Musical issue: its hard on the performers. Theyve gotto get the performance just r igh t , as there can be no f ix-ing of mistakes, ju st rep ea ted a t tem p ts a t th e tu n e Oka y. H ere we go aga in. Ta ke 94...rolling...

But i t s good news for the engineer. It s fine if the voca lleaks into the guitar mic and t he drums leak into theorgan mic. Well never rerecord one wi thout t he o ther, sosuch co-mingling of sound swe ca ll it lea kage ofte nisnt a prob lem.

L ive recording l ibera tes the engineer o f a l l t hosehea d a ches associa t ed wi th try ing to separa t e the p lay-ers and get c lean tra ck s. B y e b y e b o ot h s. G ood byeg o b os . No need t o h ide the gui ta r a mp in the c loset a ndthe ba ss amp in the ba sement ( isn t t ha t why i t s ca l leda basement?) .

We constant ly go to such trouble to a chieve isolation inmu lt it ra ck sessions. And those habits die ha rd.

You ve go t ta try i t l ive and loose . S t i ck a l l t he p laye rsin one room and l ive i t up . Th ey can a rrange t hem-se lves in the way tha t is most comfo r t ab le for themp rob a b ly t h e way th ey re he a rse , t h e w a y t h e y w r i t e t h eso n gs , o r th e way th ey p lay l i ve . A r r an ged th i s way ,t h ey a re so comfo r t able they might forge t th ey a re

being rec o rded . This is a g ood way t o capture some-th ing spec ia l on tape .

Arranged t his way they can see eachot her. Moreover, t hey can hear eachother acoustically. So you can get r id ofthe headphones . Hea dphones are a d is-t racting part of any session for theengineer. Musicians d ont l ike emmu ch either. They dont make for ave ry exciting or comfortable environ-ment to jam. Headphones are a neces-sa ry evil in mult it ra ck product ion. But

live recording often per mits you to dis-pense with them altoget her.

What should we w a t ch out for when we put t he bandall in one room? First the good news. When an instru-ment is picked up by microphones other t han its own, amagic thing start s to happen. This leaka ge into othermics start s to capt ure a dif ferent view of t he instrumenttha n a closely placed mic can mana ge alone. When it isworking it s tarts to ma ke the instruments come toget herinto a more compelling single sonic ensemble. The ba ndwill sound tight er, the song will gel.

The l ive re cording might lack the precision that cancome from well-isolat ed tra ck s, but i t ga ins a more in te-gra t ed , more organic tota l sound tha t is ofte n well-

aligned wit h the aesthet ic of the music being recorded .The music we t end t o record live to two, this highlyimprovised , highly interact ive sort of music benefits frombeing recorded in this sonically integrat ed way.

Mann i ng t he boar d

R ecording the ba nd all at once in a single roomre q uires you to keep in mind two key issues: processingand pa nning . I f you p lan to apply some heavy processingto a single instrument, you need to minimize leaka geinto its microphones.

For exa mple, the vocal signal is proba b ly going to getsome careful signal p rocessing. Perhaps you want to useeq a nd compression to keep it s trong and audib le in themix. I f there is too much bass leaka ge into the vocal micyou might f ind yourself ge tting int o some troub le.

When you try to eq in some low end strength t o thevoice itself you also bring up the unwa nted low freq uen-cy bass leakage . I f the snare s tumbles loudly in to thevocal mic , it s going to cause the vocal compressor to

reac t d i f ferent ly. I f the s inger were fac ing the ba nd andsinging into a ca rdioid microphone, ma ximum a cousticrejection could be achieved and the problem avoided .

The lead vocal deserves special at tention. On the otherha nd , the microphone sitting bravely in front of theFend er Twi n R everb w ont notice a bit of voca l.Youvegot to minimize leaka ge into the quiet instruments, espe-cia lly the ones getting ex t ra processing , bu t m o st o f th eother leaka ge isnt a problem at all .

The second issue to ma nag e in a live recording situa-tion is panning. As instruments are panned left a nd right(and rea r for you surround sound experiment ers outthere), y ouve got to l isten for th e impact i t ha s on thesound that h as leaked into the mic.

Consider the good ol snare . The sound of the snare isgoing to be audible in pretty much every microphone

Two t r acks o f r ecor ded mus ic can eas il y come f r om

mor e t h an a do zen micr opho n es aimed at any number

o f ins t r umen t s pl ay ing l ive at once.

Sk ip t he co f f eeyou l l have pl en t y o f ad r ena l ine.


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musical benefits of the live session a reca ptured.R ecord with similar strate-gies.Arrange t he musicians to ma xi-mize their comfort and encourage theircreativ ity. Seek advantageous blendingof the instruments in the room throughstrategic mic placement that capturesthe tone of the instruments and a gooddose of acoustic leakage. But do a voidtoo much leakage on those tracks des-

tined for a good dose of signal process-ing or aggressive pann ing.

The live t o mult it ra ck session ta kessome of the pressure off the e ngineeras the priority is all ab out sessionvibe, musician comfort , a n d a wesomeraw t r ack s. The mixing of th e track swill get to happen in a separat e, lesscrow d e d ,l ower stress session.

Next month we explore the moretypica l production process: record ingto mult it ra ck and th en overdub binga ny number o f addi t ional t racks sotha t they can be mixed in to a power-

ful, polished , and pro fessional s tereomaster relea se.

Al ex Case thi nk s they should cal l

t hat TV showSat ur day Ni ght L i ve to

Two. Requ est N ut s & Bol ts topics via

case@record i ngmag.com .

tha t is in the same time zone. If t hesna re leaks loudly into the guita rand you pan the gui tar to the le f t ,then youll hea r the snare ima ge

dri f t le f t . I f the snare sound a lsoleaks in to the p iano tha t ge tspanned r igh t , the overall snare soundcan stay more centered .

In fact , the sound of the snare inthe more distan t microphones oftensounds fanta st ic. You might wa nt toplan your panning strategies so tha tleakage like that of the snare can bekept under control. You may have toba ck off on the ext reme pan pot set-t ings, pulling things in closer to cen-ter t o keep the stereophonic ima ge ofthe ba nd tighter.

Alterna t ively, you might u se leak-age on purp o s e .K n owing that thesna re will leak into th e acoustic gui-tar track that you want to pan left ,you might use an omnid irectional micon the piano pa nned right t o pick upex t ra snare leakage on purpose.

With a l i tt le att ention to thesest rateg ies on processing and pan-

ning, you l l f ind recording the bandall a t once in a single room is a l iber-a t ing way to work.

L iv e t o mu l t i

Sometimes it just isnt possible tomeet the a udio demands of the pro-ject in a l ive to two. Wild and compli-ca ted arrangements and large bandsma ke getting the mix right w hile

re cording nearly impossible. I f youvegot d ru m s, ba ss, guit a rs, ke ys, a h or nsect ion, a chorus sect ion , lead voca ls,and miscellaneous hand percussion,the se ssion is proba bly too complicat-ed for a l ive to two tra ck approa ch .

The live feeling a nd sonic benef itsof a l ive to t wo session can also beca pt ured in a mult it ra ck environ-ment . Jus t because the music needsto be recorded a ll at once doesntmean the engineering has to happenal l a t once .That is , we can record theband wi th a l l the l ive and in t imate

a pproa ches described ab ove a nd sti l lmix i t down la t er. R ecord the livesession to mult it ra ck . Old t imers l ikeme cal l this live to 24, but as mydig i ta l audio workstat ion goes to (anot yet u til ized) 64 track s, i t seem ssafer t o call i t live to mult i.

All or most elements of t he tune a rerecorded simulta neously so that the


6/6


The drums are easily the most difficult partof thelive to two challenge. A small kit might con-

sist of kick, snare, hi-hat, two rack toms, a floor tom, aride cymbal and a crash cymbal.

Thats asmall kit. It might also have more drums, handper-cussion taped on, two kick drums, a couple of snares, aswell as a

long list of additional toms, cymbals, gongs, trash can lids, cerealboxes, buckets andbeer kegs.

What a mess. Its an engineering challenge: oneplayer, many instruments. And theseinstruments are all in closeproximity to each other.

Mic placement

You might want to abandon the idea of close-miking every pieceof the kit in a live totwo session. Try insteadto capture theentire kit with a pair ofoverhead microphonesplacedabovethedrumset. Placing just a coupleof mics to capture so complicatedan instrument isa skill acquired through experience, so try to give yourself roomto make and fix mistakes.

For thestereo image to work in loudspeakers you must arrange mics symmetrically aboutthekit. Placethe micsso that the snareand kick remain asclose to thecenter as possible.

These overheads might becoincident (thetwo directional capsulesplaced ascloseto eachother aspossiblebut orientedin different directions) in either XY or MSconfiguration. Or they

might bea spaced pair of microphones, lookingdown on the kit andthe roomfromabove andoff tothesides. Pleaserefer to the 2/97 issue for moreabout stereo miking configurations.Howhigh? To make this determination youve got to wrestlewith two conflictingtrends.

First youve got to find the right drumsound versusroomsoundcombination. As you movethemics away fromthedrums(higher or farther) theyll pick-up more and more of theambient sound of the room. The amount of ambience is a matter of musical judgement.Make sure it supports the mood of the songsomewhere between tight/focusedandwild/out of control.

The secondissue is that movingthe overhead microphones will adjust therelativebal-ancebetween cymbalsversus snare/kick/ toms. When the overheadsarein closeto thecymbalsthey act more likecymbal mics. As you back themicsaway fromthe kit they startto viewthe whole kit without preference to the cymbals. With themics down close the snaremight be four times farther away fromthe overheadmicthan the crash cymbal; pull themicaway and the relativedistancesfrommicto snare andfrommicto cymbal converge.

So placement of overheadsdetermines the cymbalsvs. drums balance and the drumsvs. roomcombination. Listen to both trendsas you move the overhead microphones andyoull findthe sweet spot that solvesboth problems.

Mic type

Condenser mics are the most popular choice here because they tend to be best at cap-turing transients. The drumkit rattles out transients fromdown beat to fade out.

Ribbon microphones, with their unique high frequency detail, arealso a good choiceifthey can takethesometimes very high soundpressure levels booming out of thekit. Newrib-bon microphonescan handle this; old (andnearly irreplaceable) ones probablycant. Powerrock androll playing will crush them; morelaid back jazz and brushwork are no problem.

Moving coil dynamicmicrophones certainly arent ruledout for the pair of drumover-heads. These days they often have a terrifictransient response, so they are up for the jobof capturing thepercussivedetail of the drums accurately.

Andsometimes wethrowaccuracy out thewindow. Dynamicmics can act a little like

compressorswhen highly transient waveforms hit their capsules. Andwhat musical com-pressors they are! Rock drums can benefit frombeingcarefully captured by a condenseror ribbon, andthey make a makea musical statement when massagedever so by ourindestructible friend themovingcoil dynamic.

Pick-up patt ern

Anything goes here. Cardioidslet you aim themicrophonesto tailor the sound. Toomuch ride cymbal andnot enough toms? Just rotatethe microphone so that it faces moretowardthe toms andlooks less directly at the cymbal.

Figure eight patternslet you do some aiming as well. The bidirectional microphone ismost sensitive to soundsdirectly in front anddirectly behind the capsule; it totally rejectssound incident fromthe sides.

Whileits typical to think of themas hearing mostly whats in front and whats behind,I findit helpful to focus on what they dont hear. Think of the bidirectional mics rejection

off to the sides asyour tweaking tool:for instance, for less ridecymbal, rotate the figureeight pattern so that the ride falls a little more into the siderejection area.

Onmidirectional patternsarealso a good choicefor overheadmicrophones, though theyare a littlemoredifficult to place. Capturing acousticenergy fromall directions, theyll grabmoreambiancethan a cardioidor figure eight. Asa result, to get thesamebalanceof roomsoundversus kit sound, omniswill need to be closer to the kit than moredirectional mics.

Lessobvious isthe fact that the omni micis a simpler, arguably purer device than thecardioid mic. Directional micsrequire a littlesignal processingto achieverejection in certain

directions. Itsusually very careful, clever, andexcellent sounding, but even acousticsignalprocessingof thehighest quality paysa price. To over-generalize grossly, omnis often havea sweeter lowfrequency character than a lot of directional microphones, but of coursethissort of thingvariesfromone micmodel to thenext. There are cardioidswith fantasticlowend and omnisthat are lowfrequency deficient. What Imreally tryingto say is that choos-ingbetween omni, bidirectional, and cardioid isnt just about pick-up pattern, its also aboutfrequency response.

Compare not just the blend of cymbals versus toms anddrums versus roomsound, butalso the soundquality of the drums comingthrough the mics. Listen to the spectral andtimbral effect of choosinga different pick-up pattern.

More than tw o drum mics?

It is possible to capture the entirekit with just a pair of overheads. In fact a single micro-phonecan work, placedeither overheador down in the kit tucked between the snare and

the rack tomopposite the hi-hat.Usingso fewmicrophoneson so broadan instrument requiresthat you havetimeto real-ly tweak the micplacement andthat you havea nice soundingroomto helpbalance the sound.For thissort of work, first listen to the kit in theliveroom, then position themics, andfinallylisten in the control room. Youvegot to listen to the wholekit as well asall its individual pieces.

If you dont like what you hear, return to the roomwith a specificobjectivein mind (e.g.too much crash cymbal, or snare pulls left) and movethe mics (or change the mics, changethe pick-up pattern, move the kit, etc.) in a way that you think will help. Return to the con-trol room, listen, and repeat...and repeat...until you love the overall balance of the kit.

Thissort of judgement also requiresexperience. Just using one or two overhead micson the drums requires finesse. More typically, we support the overheads with a couple ofclose mics, even in a liveto two-track session.

First, the kick drumwelcomesa dedicatedmic. To extract a decent amount of lowendthumpwithout too much messy roomambience, youvegot to get a microphonein close.

The kick isloud, so youll need a micwith theability to handle high soundpressurelevels(up to andabove120 or even 130 dB SPL). Many condenser mics thesedayscan take it,but most of the time the kick demands the robustnessof a dynamic.

The snare, so important musically, also getsthe special attention of a close mic. In theheat of a session you may not be able to count on the drumbalance that you can pull outof the overhead microphonesalone. Sticking a mic in close to the snare letsyou ride afader to change the amount of snare in the live mixa handy thing.

A dynamiccardioid micis up to thejob, andespecially for rock it grabsa present tonethatwill soundexciting. Condensers andribbons are also desirablefor the high frequency detail.

If you go for a condenser, it probably needs a padto prevent nasty distortion of themicrophones electronics. If you use a ribbon mic(especially an old one)on the snare, takeout someinsurance or book the studio under a false nameone hit, one shreddedribbon.

Effects

For multitrack sessions it is common to eq andcompressevery single drumtrack on its

way to the tape machinein pop and rock, anyway. For a live to two, youve got to backoff on this approach; itssuicidal to dial upa stack of effects in a live to two session.

If youve just got overheads up, gentlecompression is probably welcome. Three goals:1. Safety : use compression to prevent the distortion that comes with levels to tape/diskthat are too hot.2.Punch: use compression to tighten up each hit of the drums andadd a bit more attack.3. Care: not too much compression or youll hear the decay of the cymbals become unnat-ural, pumping softer then louder as the compressor rides the gain too aggressively.Theseconflicting goals force usto back off the compression on the overheads significantly.

If youve added close mics to the kick and snare, go ahead and compress themhard sothat they add punchiness, clarity, andattack to the overall sound in the overheads. Theideais to get maybe 80%of thedrumsound fromtheoverheads. Sneak in the close micro-phones to add that extra little power anddetail.

Thistwo to four microphone approach should enable you to get the kit under control in

pretty short order, freeing you to focus on the bass, andthe guitar, and the vocal, andIsnt live to two a blast?

Lear n By D r umming : Live To TwoLear n By D r umming : Live To Two

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