The Morning Rain

I played some more with the drum mic setup, and got a sound I’m happier with. Here’s better mix of Don’t Think I Don’t Miss You:

And here’s how the drums sound solo’d:

I miked the kit with a modified Recorderman setup, using 6 mics in total:
- 2 Apex205’s as overheads (marked in the picture below with green arrows.) This is the “recorderman” part of the setup. The other 4 mics just augment the OH signal.
- An SM58 on the snare drum rim (shown in the second picture below)
- An Apex 210 on the kick drum, about 2 feet in front.
- 2 Studio Projects C4’s as stereo room mics, about 15 feet in front of the kit, up high.

The overheads clearly aren’t “over head.” I have them on the same plane as the toms where they pick up a better balance of the toms and cymbals.

Note, too, that I have a red pillow between the high hat and the OH mic in front of the kit, to cut down the hi hat level in that mic. Listening to the drum track now, I realize the hats are almost too quiet. (If you’ve ever miked drums in a room with low ceilings, you’ll appreciate that’s a good problem to have!)

The new baffles around my drum kit completely changed the way my room sounds. So even though I’ve mic’d the drum kit dozens of times, we decided it made sense to start from scratch and get the right sound.

Here’s a short mix I sent to Rich for feedback.

(The song is Don’t Think I Don’t Miss You, and it’s the same bass, guitar, and vocals as the original, with a new drum track.) I was happy with it at the time, but as so often happens when I listened to the mix a few hours later, I realized it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped. The snare drum is a little smeared in the stereo image, and the cymbals lack focus.

We’re recording a no-messing-around rock album. We don’t expect to have a lot of sonic experimentation, or production trickery in the final tracks. So once we get the drum sound we want, I can probably use the same mic setup for every track. It’s worth it to put the time in now and get it right!

My first step in achieving a consistent, reproducible drum sound was to treat the acoustics of my recording space. The ceiling in my studio is low, at 8 feet. The room itself is spacious, so I get a nice open room sound. But the low ceiling means I still have to worry about reflections. The more I can tame the sound around my drum kit, the more control I’ll have

To that end, I enlisted Sarah’s help to make these baffles for around the drum kit. (Click each image to enlarge.)

  

We (i.e. Sarah :-)) sewed doubled-over sheets into pockets which I then filled with Roxul Safe’n'Sound. I hung the baffles from ceiling hooks drilled into the joists. Really cheap, and really effective. And since they’re hung from fixed hooks, I don’t have to worry about them moving and changing my room’s response.

Samples to follow.

Rich and I agree on the importance of a consistent sound from track to track on this album. We don’t want to record a collection of singles. Rather, the album should sound coherent, as though recorded like a traditional album: In a series of sessions, in the same studio, by the same musicians.

We expect this will be a challenge for two guys recording 500 miles apart, over 6 months.

More than any other instrument, and especially in full-band arrangements, the drum tracks define the acoustic “space” in which a song sits. A small, constricted drum sound can make a mix sound lifeless, regardless of how much energy there is in the performance. Alternately a big live drum sound can pull the rest of the instruments out into the open.

Further, although Rich and I are used to recording our instrument parts to a click track, music usually sounds more organic when the band follows the natural push and pull of the rhythm section. We want that organic sound!

It makes sense, then, to get the drums sounding great before we record anything else. (This is how it’s done in a traditional album recording session, too. For example, read about Ryan Hewitt recording Stadium Arcadium.)

I’ll be recording all the drum tracks for the album, so at this point, it falls on me to get miking and nail those drum tones!

Here’s the original demo of Whether or Not, written by Rich. You can also read the lyrics.

Here’s the original demo of Won’t Be Long, written by Des. You can also read the lyrics.

Here’s the original demo of Good For Nothing, written by Des. You can also read the lyrics.

Here’s the original demo of Nights and Songs (written by Des for Songfight.) You can also read the lyrics.

Here’s the original demo of Don’t Think I Don’t Miss You (written by Rich for Songfight.) You can also read the lyrics.

Here’s the original demo of We All Need Love (written by Rich for Songfight.) You can also read the lyrics.