Recording - January 2012 - 22

PHOTO COURTESY CHET MCCRACKEN

Do you still have that lovely maple kit of yours? Chet McCracken: Yes, my fave kit is still the Pearl Masters Custom. All companies are making great drums but there is something special to my ears about this kit. Blended with the right mics, preamps, room and performance, it can’t be beat (HA! pun intended..!) What mics do you use? Kick: Shure Beta 52 inside and AKG 414 outside, 3" from head. Snare over: Sennheiser 504 (not the 604, a great mic but not as good!); snare under: Shure 545. Hi-hat: Sennheiser 504. Ride cymbal: AKG 451. Toms: Sennheiser 504s. Overheads: Michael Joly Modified (Premium Electronics) Oktava 319s. Room: MXL V69 Tube (Stereo). What is your drum-recording room like? I built this room myself and am very proud of its sound. It’s a very live-sounding room but I am able to deaden the sound with blankets over the “angled-down” window behind me, as well as with a thick blanket hanging in the middle of the room in front of the kit. This cuts the room in half and offers a dead room sound when clients ask for the “tighter sound”.

Steve answered our questions with a brief narrative about a session that highlights not just matters of gear and miking technique, but also about a whole different approach to drum miking. Steve Bowman: One of the most enjoyable sessions I ever had was recording Rob Hotchkiss’ record, Midnight Ghost, with engineer/producer Tom Schick (Ryan Adams, Norah Jones, Wilco). Tom’s theory on recording drums was that while close miking may have technical perks like isolation and tweakability, it isn’t a good representation of how we listen to drums, and therefore wasn’t the best way to record the drum performances. He reasoned that you wouldn’t test the sound of a tom by placing your ear two inches over the rim facing the middle, and that you would avoid this not just because the volume would hurt your ears, but because it wouldn’t occur to you to judge the tone of an evolving note from a place that captured the sound before it had the time and space to be affected by decay and reverberation. Tom theorized that the drum sound you get from close miking is very different from what you hear in the room when the drummer is cutting a track, and that in order to catch a performance from the artist’s perspective, the mic positioning must capture not just where the sounds are created, but where the sounds are heard. Tom was attempting to record the actual space where the listener hears the notes—where the drummer’s sound and intention are most accurately represented. To this end he chose not to mike each individual piece of the drum set, but to carefully mike the space around the drums instead.

PHOTO COURTESY STEVE BOWMAN

Steve Bowman
Rather than making up something, let’s quote Steve from his website (stevethedrummer.com):
“Hello. My name is Steve and I’m a drummer. (HI, Steve!) As the original drummer for Counting Crows (August and Everything After) I got to see the world and meet many of my heroes at a fairly young age. Since then I’ve been able to make records I’m proud of and tour with people I like. In 2007 my family and I moved to Nashville so I could play with the best musicians in the world. Since then we have come to love this city, and its history, beauty, and creative, thoughtful people. In Nashville I have been able to record some great songs/records in some amazing rooms with some killer musicians. I’ve also had the pleasure of playing live with artists such as Sarah Buxton, Kim Richey, Greta Gaines... and some dudes, too... like Big Kenny, whom I currently tour and record with. I love my wife, kids, and Ringo Starr, in that order.”
22
RECORDING JANUARY 2012

There were only five mics used. Two Coles ribbon mics were set up as overheads, a couple of feet above and in front of the drums—they got most of the sound. A Shure SM57 was close to the snare, and subsequently feathered into and under some of the tracks. An AKG D112 was inside the kick, which was added for presence, and a Neumann U 87 was about 2 feet off the ground and approximately 5 feet in front of the kit. As for compression, Tom used a combination of Empirical Labs Distressors and Universal Audio 1176 units. The recording of Midnight Ghost brings back great memories. It was a beautiful place to be, we had a solid team of people, and everything just felt easy and comfortable. As for the drums, well... they came out just the way I thought they should. They came out just the way I heard them! Links: Tom Schick: tomschick.com. Rob Hotchkiss’ Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Rob-Hotchkiss/11501 2368576559

http://www.stevethedrummer.com http://www.tomschick.com http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rob-Hotchkiss/115012368576559 http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rob-Hotchkiss/115012368576559

Recording - January 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - January 2012