Week 1: Drums

We recorded drums in the Iso-booth as this would enable a clean and crisp sound to the drums, The mics we used were AKG D112 for the kick drum as its a mid range mic and can handle up to 160dB SPL without any distortion ,Audix D2 for the top of the snare as it is a hypercardioid mic and it is has anti-feedback design. Shure SM57 on th bottom snare as it has a range of 40Hz to 15kHz and has an extremely effective cardioid pickup pattern , Audix D2 and for the floor tom we used an Audix D4 which is very similar to the Audix D2 in many ways the only real difference is that the Audix D4 response is a bit ‘deeper’, on the high hat and the overheads we used  Audix adx51’s, because they are  known for there clear, accurate response and flexibility to handle close or distance miking.

For this session we decided to not record the drums with a metronome/click track but instead we used a guide track for the drummer to listen and play with. I was in the control room and our group took it in turns to control the mixing desk and pro tools, we had to set up fold back ‘A’ in order for Jack to be able to hear what was going on in order for him to play competently so we could record a good take. The only problems experienced during this session was that Jack wanted to have a couple of takes to ensure that he played the track properly but other than that the whole recording process ran smoothly.

This session really allowed me to get hands on with the mixing desk as I have never really had the plesure of working with one before and gave me the ablility to extend my knowledge and become familiar with the equipment, it also gave me a good sence of working in a live studio.

Next week we will be recording Bass.