Videos
Short tips & inspiration from my studio
I really love minimal mic setups and bold choices like mono drums with a wurst mic only for a whole song or a verse. But when I am recording drums for a song that I don’t mix myself, I want to give the producer and mixing engineer choices.
This is a quick showcase for the use of a generous mic setup for different sections of the song (e.g. mono vs very ambient vs very punchy).
Even when recording with just a few mics, it is always a good idea to add a kick and snare mic. You don’t need to use it in the mix. But you can use it to sidechain the bass or enhance gritty 1 mic drums with kick and snare samples for more impact - depending on what you are going for.
I try to record drums as good as possible, so that the use of samples is a choice - not a necessity.
I got this very nice bass drum enhancement technique from Eric Valentine. He is always so inspiring when it comes to recording and mixing.
Additional notes to my video: check out different frequencies for the eq’s and experiment with the delay!
The “Droom” room mic setup explained. I also compare this setup with a stereo AEA r88 and a mono Neumann U87 in omni.
Overhead mic placement: most of the time people are only focused on how the snare and the stereo image is represented. In addition to this l, the mic placement plays a crucial role in how your cymbals sounds!
The spaced & perfectly aligned stereo pair of the Coles 4038’s is my go-to overhead setup it captures a wonderful image of the whole drum kit and maintains the clean sound of the cymbals. But be aware of the little details!
Here is the follow-up for the overhead mic alignment. One of the questions asked was: How to align a multiple cymbal setup with more than one cymbal on each side. So here is my answer.
I used the brand new @undertoneaudio MPEQ-1 on the drumbus for the saturation. Big like. There is a little 4-bar in full swing moment at the end of the video without me doing the voiceover.
The cymbal-reverb! It works kind of like a plate reverb. The dry drums are just a pair of Coles 4038 with a contact mic as bass drum mic - I couldn’t resist to try.
The cymbals in this video used for the cymbal-reverb are Paiste Masters Thin 24” and 22”.
I often simply use Slatedigital ‘s Trigger 2 as the fastest way to get a perfectly gated snare, bass drum or tom.
I love making all these videos with recording tricks and fun experiments, but what I love even more, is playing music myself and making records!
This is a little taste of a remote drum recording session I had this week for an artist based in the US.
After getting the recordings, I try to pick the artist’s brain to get as much information that helps me find the best sounds & parts for the song. Then I record the first layer of drums.
Usually I get right back to the artist to have a short “check-in” call or app/mail conversation. We discuss if this is what it should be and if there are additional notes. After that I finish the drums and add multiple layers of percussion, additional drums and other sounds - obviously only if the song calls for it…
These layers help to accentuate the basic drums and lifting parts of the song even more.
I use this Art Pro Audio desktop mic pre for years as my go to for my wurst/crouch mic. I love the beautiful, gritty saturation.
I have plenty of 1st class mic preamps at my disposal, but this one just does a thing in combination with my @sennheiser MD441 that I really like.
I compared my selfmade 5mm/3mm/5mm solid steel snare with my beloved A&F Raw Brass Snare with custom AK Drums hoops.
The shell construction and material is obviously different same as the hoop and the depth. But they punch in the same class in terms of weight.
I tried to match the tuning as good as possible - next time I will use a tunebot to make it the exact same.
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