Sorry about that

Playing around with my new Twin Flicks preamp. Smushing the front end with a humble M88/fethead. Zero eq/comp/buss fiddling. Nasty! 👌🏾💥🍻

Fun. Are you using a drum machine as a mic stand?

Um….yes. 😬😂
It’s actually the best use I’ve found for the Drumbrute. Jokes! It’s not too bad.

Ohhh that’s nasty!

I got a session going and here’s what was used.

Kick beater - Sony ECM50
K Out - Akg D112 and diy sub kick mic
Sn Top - Shure SM57
Sn Btm - Akg SE391
Hat - Audix i5
R Tom - Sennheiser MD421/2
F Tom - Shure SM7B
OH - Neumann KMS105 pair
Dick mic - SM57
FOD - Shure Beta 58
Mono Room - Lomo 19A9

When you get the chance, try the KMS105 on snare top.

Goodness me, that's glorious!

R.

set up a little temporary setup at home to record some tracks for some friends.

one of my typical frankenstein kits. the room is basically my living room which is almost the entire bottom floor of my house. about 20 ft wide by 62ft deep. ceilings are only 9ft, but the room is massive. not too live sounding. tile floors, but acoustic tile on ceiling and lots of stuff everywhere as it is my living space.

just got a bunch of new gear as i'm rebuilding my rig after a decade of being out of the game with health issues.

really enjoying these capi preamps. always have my trusty daking stuff. been trying out some new microphones. remembering how fun this
can be.

kick inside. telefunken m82 into capi vp25 and API 560 eq
snare: audio technica atm23he into capi vp26 and API 560 eq
rack tom: lauten ls308 into api 512v
floor tom: lauten ls308 into api 512v
overheads: pair of SE VR1 ribbons into pair of daking 500 series preamps
room: AEA R88 stereo ribbon into Langevin DVC pre/eq/comp
mono kit: Stager SR1a ribbon into AEA preamp with shelving eq, daking limiter
far room 1: u89 into chandler germ preamp
behind kit room: Groove Tubes GT55 FET into daking mic pre one

recorded to luna through universal audio apollo twin and apollo 8

i'll post an audio file later.

i've always had fairly large spaces for my studios. this is the first time i'm working in a mostly dead, but very large room. interesting how
much the environment drives...everything from mic choice and position and mic preamp and processing.

i'm getting useable drum tones with just the stager and the pair of overheads...or a slightly more ambient sound with just kick, snare and the AEA stereo mic with some compression.

feels good to be making music again.








https://photos.app.goo.gl/BhjdTmRncRD38hNGA

Did a remote drum tracking session on Wednesday. Based on the feel of the demo I wanted to do a few different things slightly different from my normal. The hats needed to be brighter that what I would usually use, so I pulled out a pair of Dream 14"s that sound bright, but not modern piercing bright. I also put up an AT Pro 37 for that hats. They drive the groove with the snare in a different way than a backbeat type tune. I also chose a 7x13" Acrylic Pork Pie and tuned and muffled it in a similar way to the programmed beat. I also decided to borrow and use an additional Octava MC012 (with pad and hypercardiioid capsule). I used M88s on toms and tuned them down to being almost not tuned... Just enough tension to not sound like loose pieces of plastic. I also overdubbed the toms and crashes, a production idea the client loved. The main groove doesn't stop ala 25 or 6 to 4 by Chicago or You've Got Time by Regina Spector. BD is Sennheiser e602II in about halfway with a couple of pillows in the drum. Overs are MC012 in ORTF on the diagonal and the rooms are $30 boundary mics someone brought up on the TOMB that I bought on a whim. Knee mic is a TOMB ribbon and an EV RE10 under the snare.

In the last pic, you'll notice I played a tension rod right out of the snare bottom.

Here's the rest of the pict.

A recent picture of my home studio.

Oriollo Bakar Spun Copper Drums: 22X14, 13X9, 16x14
Joyful Noise TKO Bronze 14X6.5 Snare Drum
UFIP Cymbals

Interface: Antelope Discrete 8 Synergy Core, Arturia Audiofuse 8pre (2x)
Bass Drum 1: Shure Beta 91A
Bass Drum 2: Electro-Voice RE20 with Earthworks KickPad KP1
Bass Drum 3: Antelope Edge Solo (U47 Fet Emulation)
Snare: Earthworks SR25
Tom Top: Shure Beta 98H/C
Tom Bottom: Shure Beta 98AMP
Floor Tom Top: Shure Beta 98H/C
Floor Tom Bottom:Shure Beta 98AMP
Overheads: Earthworks SR25 (2x)
Room: Cascade Fat Head II with Lundahl Transformer (2x)

https://youtu.be/v6G6V7q2_vs

Wowee! I am seriously drooling over that snare collection. I need to get off this phone and on a PC so I can expand the pics and see what each snare is! Heh!

Preparing to record some loops/breakbeats/song ideas over the holidays.
- Overhead Coles 4038
- Bass drum AKG D12VR in dynamic mode
- Snare SM57 (utter crap on its own, but perfect to add some pop and directness when you have a decent overhead and room sound. Whodathunk I‘d come to like that...)
- Room mics AKG C414XL-S in omni/no hpf/no pad, all but touching the wall, like PZMs
- And the secret sauce: the EQs on the Studer 963. Looks like overkill, but sounds smooth like a record...OK, the low end will need some housekeeping down the line, but I‘d rather thin it out as needed in the mix, than not have it recorded at all.
EDIT/ADDENDUM: I can‘t remember the last time I had such a great complication-to-satisfaction ratio with a drum mic setup. I might even skip the Coles and build the whole drum sound around the room mics.
There‘s a valuable lesson in there somewhere...

The ATM650 is really nice on the snare. It's a shame that mic gets no recognition.

Looks effective. Results are all that matter.

On a side note, is that a mid-70s Marshall Artiste in what appears to be a stripped wooden head cabinet?

I wasn‘t expecting much when I decided to try this, but was pleasantly surprised by the results.

Yeah, I think it‘s a ‘76.
When I bought it in the early eighties, the finish was this ugly, grubby black. So I proceeded to rip off the vinyl, only to find out that it was originally orange and had been painted black by the previous owner.
It‘s an absolute monster, one channel is quite clean but really comes alive when cranked with a booster or other dirt pedal in front, the other channel is dirtier, but has that bludgeoning mid punch that‘ll rattle your teeth.
Too loud for live takes (and power soaks don‘t do it justice), but brilliant for overdubs. And very versatile, depending on the pedals and speakers I combine with it.

Had a session in my new small space to test out a few things. For drums we did

Kick: Sm7b - I would normally use my RE20, but it was on loan.
Snare: AKD D224E - I love these mics on snare top and bottom. The tone of the bleed is very pleasing which I find useful.
Overheads: Cascade Vin Jet pair - I really dug the sound of these. Making me want to dive in the world of more expensive ribbons
Rack: AKD D224E
Floor: RE320 - I didn't love this mic. Ha! Will be back to my MD421s soon I think.
Room: EV 635a - My first time using this on drums. Definitely a cool sound, though I think I've yet to find to perfect application for this mic on drums

I also used the Warm Audio 412 on all the drum mics. A good first impression for sure, but I think I was running it too hot at first for my liking.

U 89 in Omni --AT pencil on snare -- AKG D3600 on kick

AEA R88 as overheads, Flea 47 on snare, Flea 49 on bass drum. Pres: Neve 5211 and AEA RPQ2.

I'm setting up for a session in a day or two where I'm filming as well. Really weird mic setup. I had done it once before and it worked out well, so figured I would try it again (I'm limited to 4 mics because of a weird project).

-RCA PB-90, main kit mic
-Dr Alien Smith Alien8, Kick
-OktavaMod MK012 Snare Bottom
-OktavaMod MK012 Floor tom/Ride Cymbal

The first time I did this, the intention was to do a mono one mic setup with the RCA and add a little reinforcement as needed. Not a lot going on in the song, so kept the kit at just the floor tom. Added a kick mic, added a snare bottom, added a floor tom mic as well and wanted to pick up a little more ride cymbal. I accidentally routed things incorrectly to my console and ended up with the RCA panned hard to one side and the OktavaMod floor tom mic panned hard to the other. SUPER wide stereo image (RCA null is pointed right at the OktavaMod mic) and it works surprisingly well! I added the snare bottom and kick down the middle a bit.

That's just the faders up feed from my API Box Console. I've got 550b EQ's and the 527 compressors on the RCA mic and the kick mic. I'm excited to hear it when the drummer comes in. I need to tweak things and pick up a little more crash cymbal and a little less ride cymbal. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with it! The fun thing about that setup is that you can crash it down to mono if need be, or spread things out a bit. I hard panned the RCA and tom mic for the video, that width is pretty addicting but I'm not sure if it's going to work with the arrangement. There's going to be two hard panned piano parts, so I might have to bring the drums in a bit image wise.

Yes please! That's generally where I put my R88 as well.

How are you liking the 5211? i've thought about one, but I keeping thinking "is it that much better than a pair of 511's"?

I like it very much. Quiet, nice gain, silky, good quality knobs. Only drawback is the missing power button on the front.

That's the one thing I don't like about my 5424. I do have a rack of switches and have it plugged into that.

Here's one from last weekend's session. The client had a pretty big kit, so while 19 mics sounds like a lot, I was just trying to cover all aspects of the kit well and once I was done with fine-tuning mic positions and checking phase on all tracks I was very happy with the sounds. There are certainly plenty of options come mix time for a wetter or tighter overall sound. I opted for a trio overhead setup, to cover the big forest of cymbals. I borrowed a pair of Earthworks TC25's and used my Neumann KM54 in the center and I was immensely happy with that. It was my first time using my KM54 near drums, and only because this drummer had a very light touch and wasn't ever pushing high SPL's. One more thing I will say is once you’ve experienced e22S’s on toms, even 414’s are kind of a bummer. But I only have 2 and I really needed one to spot the tiny aux snare. And the KM184 for me is a solid snare top mic.

Kick - AKG D12 - Chandler LTD1
Sub - Solomon LoFreq - McAllister MP2
SnTp - Neumann KM184 - Chandler LTD1 - Distressor
SnBt - Shure SM7B - McAllister MP2
Tiny Snare - Josephson e22S - McAllister MP2 - api560
FatSnareTop - Sennheiser MD421 - Chandler LTD1 - UA 2-1176
FatSnareBot - Sennheiser MD421 U5 - Chandler LTD1
Hats - AKG C451E - Amek 9098
T1/T2 - AKG C414B-ULS - McAllister MP2 - api550B
T3 - Josephson e22S - Amek 9098
OHC - Neumann KM54 - Millennia Origin STT-1
OHLR - Earthworks TC25's - Millennia HV-3D
FOK - Royer 122's - Millennia HV-3D
Hall - Stapes Omnis - A-Designs EM Gold
Crotch - Coles 4038 - Chandler Germamium - api560 - Distressor

Nice set up. Congrats!

I had one question: I listened to all the .mp3s you provided. I was wondering why there was piano and bass in the 'Full Kit' and 'Overhead Trio' .mp3s?

Oops, thanks for catching that! Should be fixed now.

Seems like only one of them was corrected. You still need to correct the overhead Trio track.