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| AKG c3000 |
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| Audio Technica 4047 |
Butch Vig Recommends Cheap Mics
"AKG make a good mic C3000, large diaphragm, you might be able to get it on Ebay for a couple hundred bucks. The Audio Technica 4047 is also good and not very expensive."
Butch Vig on Tracking Bands Live
Butch Vig is known to track bands live for both the vibe and natural bass and drum connection. Bassists and drummers lock in to each other in a more organic way when they play together. And this allows the guitars to play more naturally as they would if it were a live concert.
He almost always isolates any guitar or bass amps and will often overdub or replace the guitar tracks, sometimes the bass track as well. But most times he keeps the drum takes.
SOURCE
He almost always isolates any guitar or bass amps and will often overdub or replace the guitar tracks, sometimes the bass track as well. But most times he keeps the drum takes.
SOURCE
Daniel Lanois on Control Room Vocals
Daniel is known to track strong vocalists from the control room with no headphones just the monitors in the control room playing the band track. He turns off the vocalist in the mix and turns the overall volume down. He also uses a Shure Beta 58, which already rejects more bleed than another condenser microphone.
SOURCE
SOURCE
Daniel Lanois on Tracking Drums
Kick: AKG D12 and Coles ribbon mic (placed 3 feet away)
Snare: Shure SM57
OH: RCA 44 (but unlike most engineers, Lanois opts to put his overhead over the rack toms. So, in all intents and purposes it's a tom mic that acts as an overhead as well)
Snare: Shure SM57
OH: RCA 44 (but unlike most engineers, Lanois opts to put his overhead over the rack toms. So, in all intents and purposes it's a tom mic that acts as an overhead as well)
"There are two philosophies for recording drums. You can completely isolate the drums or not isolate them at all. Lately I've been using the latter approach. I just did a recording with my drummer, Brian Blade, sitting right next to me. My amps were right by his kit, and we treated it all as one. We miked everything separately, but we didn't put the guitar amps down the hall to separate them from the drums like I'd normally do.
"I've discovered that musicians self-balance if you keep them close together," he elaborates. "Musicians try to harmonize and balance so everything sounds musical in its acoustic form. I seem to get my best results when people are close together. When I listen back to those recordings, they have more depth of field and the positioning just automatically adjusts itself so you don't have to do much fake positioning with mixing."
--Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois on Tracking Vocals
Daniel Lanois has a track record for producing that has hit every who's who in popular music, working with; U2, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Emmy Lou Harris, Willie Nelson, and many more.
So...when he says something about how to capture vocals...I'm going to listen.
Daniel is partial to recording vocalists with mics that most would consider to be a live microphone instead of old condenser mics.
He's been known to track Bono of U2 exclusively with either the Shure Beta 58 or Shure SM58.
"I find singers perform better when it's like they're performing on stage. The Beta 58s sounds great when the singer gets right on top of it and it minimizes drum leakage."
I've found this to be the case too, not that you need my opinion. Try it out! I've learned that half the battle is making the singer feel comftorable. If you can reduce the pressure of the studio and let the artist emote into the mic, the performance captured will be better for it.
SOURCE
So...when he says something about how to capture vocals...I'm going to listen.
Daniel is partial to recording vocalists with mics that most would consider to be a live microphone instead of old condenser mics.
He's been known to track Bono of U2 exclusively with either the Shure Beta 58 or Shure SM58.
"I find singers perform better when it's like they're performing on stage. The Beta 58s sounds great when the singer gets right on top of it and it minimizes drum leakage."
I've found this to be the case too, not that you need my opinion. Try it out! I've learned that half the battle is making the singer feel comftorable. If you can reduce the pressure of the studio and let the artist emote into the mic, the performance captured will be better for it.
SOURCE
Recording Drums with Bob Clearmountain
Using Two Mics
Shure Beta 52a placed inside kick drum which is baffled to deaden the sound. In my experience for most popular style genres, deadened kicks record better. For styles like jazz, you may want to leave a bit more resonance and note to the kick drum. Talk to the artist, they probably know their music better than you do.
For the overhead mic, Bob used a large diaphragm condenser set to cardioid overlooking the toms and the snare drum
Using Four Mics
OH: Bob used two Neumann U87's placed 31" from the diaphragm of the mic to the rack toms, overlooking the kit.
Snare Top: Shure SM57 (no snare bottom mic necessary)
Kick: AKG D112 inside the kick drum hanging inside the kick drum shell, suspended in the center.
Using Multiple Mics
Kick: Shure Beta 52a placed inside kick drum port for more attack of the beater.
OH: Here, Bob uses a stereo ribbon mic for his overhead mic, the Royer SF-12.
Toms: Sennheiser 604e, a fantastic clip on mic (usually for live purposes). Bob extends the clip as far as it goes to get the most body out of the tom toms.
HH: AKG C452, about 3.5-4" away pointed at the bell of the hi-hat on the top side, for a crisper attack.
Snare Top: Shure SM57 about an inch and a half above the snare and just past the rim of the snare, pointed toward the center of the drum.
Snare Bottom: Shure SM57, off-axis pointed toward the center of the snare about 2 inches away from snares and with it's phase flipped.
Room: Neumann U87, set to omni and placed a few foot above head height and slightly angled.
Shure Beta 52a placed inside kick drum which is baffled to deaden the sound. In my experience for most popular style genres, deadened kicks record better. For styles like jazz, you may want to leave a bit more resonance and note to the kick drum. Talk to the artist, they probably know their music better than you do.
For the overhead mic, Bob used a large diaphragm condenser set to cardioid overlooking the toms and the snare drum
Using Four Mics
OH: Bob used two Neumann U87's placed 31" from the diaphragm of the mic to the rack toms, overlooking the kit.
Snare Top: Shure SM57 (no snare bottom mic necessary)
Kick: AKG D112 inside the kick drum hanging inside the kick drum shell, suspended in the center.
Using Multiple Mics
Kick: Shure Beta 52a placed inside kick drum port for more attack of the beater.
OH: Here, Bob uses a stereo ribbon mic for his overhead mic, the Royer SF-12.
Toms: Sennheiser 604e, a fantastic clip on mic (usually for live purposes). Bob extends the clip as far as it goes to get the most body out of the tom toms.
HH: AKG C452, about 3.5-4" away pointed at the bell of the hi-hat on the top side, for a crisper attack.
Snare Top: Shure SM57 about an inch and a half above the snare and just past the rim of the snare, pointed toward the center of the drum.
Snare Bottom: Shure SM57, off-axis pointed toward the center of the snare about 2 inches away from snares and with it's phase flipped.
Room: Neumann U87, set to omni and placed a few foot above head height and slightly angled.
Daptone Records on Tracking Drums with One Mic
About as unusual and minimal as you can get these days for drum tracking, Daptone Studios takes the cake. Gabriel Roth, bassist for Sharon Stone and engineer at Daptone Studios takes an old school approach to tracking drums. He'll either use a RCA DX77 or a Shure 55.
Place the mic on the hi-hat side between the kick and the snare pointed toward the snare drum. Leave the mic about two feet away from the snare.
Gabriel will often use other cheap microphones to get his drum sound. He favors Radio Shack dynamic mics pointed over the drummer's left shoulder when the 55 doesn't sound right for the track.
Gabriel believes that having one mic allows for the drummer to balance themselves and for a smooth tom performance as the volume lessens as the drummer moves across the kit. An example of this can be heard in Amy Winehouse's song "Rehab".
SOURCE
Place the mic on the hi-hat side between the kick and the snare pointed toward the snare drum. Leave the mic about two feet away from the snare.
Gabriel will often use other cheap microphones to get his drum sound. He favors Radio Shack dynamic mics pointed over the drummer's left shoulder when the 55 doesn't sound right for the track.
Gabriel believes that having one mic allows for the drummer to balance themselves and for a smooth tom performance as the volume lessens as the drummer moves across the kit. An example of this can be heard in Amy Winehouse's song "Rehab".
SOURCE
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