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My New Studio Build (perhaps overly detailed)
- Thread starter silky smoove
- Start date
The solution sounds like more gear and having both AB and Xy set up simultaneously, not that anyone around here would suggest buying more gear...
I’ve used it in years passed and I do not like it at all. Too dry, too drum focused, lack of cymbal sheen, etc. That technique is excellent in untreated rooms as it removes a lot of the room sound, but for someone like me with a treated space where it’s beneficial to get the sound of the room into the mics I find it lackluster. If I were doing modern rock or metal I would probably dig this technique, and would likely supplement with mics on the hihats and ride as a backup.
I’ve got enough inputs, I’ve got enough mics, but I don’t have the patience, haha. If I take the time to get a spaced pair setup correctly, account for distances relative to snare resonance, account for phase between the mics relative to the snare, follow the 3:1 rule (or one of its variants), and generally get it sounding good... well... at that point forget the XY, haha.
I’ll probably go back to ORTF, which is what I used to use with great results.
Conceptually I really like George Massenburg’s spaces pair arrangement. Treating the line between the snare center and the center of the bass drum’s batter head as an axis, and then placing the spaced pair opposite each other along that acid makes a ton of sense. It should keep both the bass drum and snare centered in the stereo image, and give a much wider spread than XY.
Oh yeah I definitely would never use it on its own like the link suggests, just as a technique for positioning stereo overheads. Best supplemented with super wide or distant room mic(s) to get the “life” back but IMO you can’t beat it for maximum tightness between kick and snare at the core of the mix.
But, yeah, I do love brutally dry snare tones. Different strokes for different folks.
If you like dry drum sounds it would be hard to beat Recorderman's technique for overheads. Super tight, limited room sound, reduced cymbal wash, etc. It's a cool approach. If I ever have a session with a modern rock outfit I'll very likely use that method. Most of what I do benefits from a roomier sound, although admittedly not quite as room as a lot of indie records I hear coming out these days.
I'm mimicking something he does in his studio. I ordered a pair of small diaphragm condensers and male mic thread flanges that should be here next week. I'm going to mount them to a piece of wood in an ORTF arrangement (i.e. capsules spaced 17cm apart with the mics angled at 110-degrees (i.e. each mic is 55-degrees from center). I'm going to mount this with some brackets above the sound door facing into the room and likely pointing slightly down while maintaining the ORTF criteria. I've got a pair of right-angle XLR cables and set of adhesive wallmount cable clips so I can leave the two mics cabled and only need to throw a regular XLR in the corresponding interface channel and then connect to the free end coming down the wall. That way I can leave the mics up and not worry about screwing up ORTF. Should make for an easy to grab room sound on whatever I happen to be recording at the time. Drums are the obvious choice, but it could be nice added ambience on a roomy guitar track, especially if it's acoustic guitar. I'm also thinking of it for horns, strings, backing vocals, etc.
I saw Simon play with Hiromi and Anthony Jackson. The SPACE in Evanston a couple of years back.
Simon's overall sound was powerful but not booming. What a player. And by the way, that really helps regardless of the sound system
Dynamics!
I saw Simon play with Hiromi and Anthony Jackson. The SPACE in Evanston a couple of years back.
Simon's overall sound was powerful but not booming. What a player. And by the way, that really helps regardless of the sound system
Oooo that must have been awesome to see!
I've got to make sure I catch her next time she plays in LA. If the teaser song she released is any indication, her next album is going to be great!
It's a shame that I saw AJ shortly before his stroke. Still wishing him a recovery - he is a GOB
Hmm, that looks interesting. What’s the vertical offset from, say, the snare drum?
The higher you place overheads the more balanced the sound is (ie more drums AND cymbals AND room). If you place them lower you get less drums, less room and more cymbals. So the answer is that it depends on the room, the kit, and the intended sound. For both AB and XY setups demoed previously I was liking about 4’ above the snare I had on my kit at the time of testing in my particular room for the general purpose sound I had in mind at the time.
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Finally got word back regarding my subwoofer. Sweetwater couldn’t repair it, so ADAM Audio is sending me a new one under warranty to replace it. Sweet!
Permanently installed ORTF room mics.
It already matches the treatments, the mic flanges are already mounted, the brackets are already mounted, it will never be out in the elements... I'll be passing on staining
They're inexpensive small diaphragm condensers from Samson. The C02 model if I'm not mistaken. Since their only job is to capture room ambience, reverb decay, etc. I wasn't too concerned with paying for high end mics. These will always have the bottom end high passed in a mix, and possibly a low pass on the high end as well depending on the content. As such, they work great! If I were feeling lazy I could use them as overheads for drums, but I much prefer my original Russian-built and stereo-matched Oktava MC-012s, which are the older ones before they moved over to the MK-012 designation. They're much nicer mics than these Samsons and can be easily thrown into a spaced pair, Blumlein, Recorderman, Glyn Johns or Massenburg setup. The Samsons are permanently ORTF and placed pretty high by design, which yields a very drum and cymbal balanced overhead sound, which is desirable on some material and not on others where you may want a cymbal-heavy sound on the overheads which you achieve with low placement. It's nice to have options, and there will be plenty of times when I'm feeling lazy or have a tiny budget and don't feel like using anything other than these permanent mics
