Great Drum Micing Technique

Now this might not work for everyone, and certainly won't work in every situation; but I have begun using a 3 mic technique for a drum kit that I find absolutely stunning. It won't give you the "Toms of Doom" or anything unusual. It will give you a great natural sounding drum kit. This technique was first described to me by Gary Baldassari (who works for or quite closely with DPA Microphones) a number of years ago. You can find his description at http://www.dpamicrophones.com. Click the Applications Guide and select Drums-Jazz for his description.

My take on this utilized 2 AKG C451s with omni capsules and -10dB pads inline.  On the kick I was checking it with both an AKG D112 in the kick and an ElectroVoice RE20 outside and on axis a couple of inchs from the front head.  Placement of the 451s was a bit tricky.  On the hat side of the kit, the mic is placed in the middle of the snare, rack tom, and hat "triangle".  I found myself pulling it more towards the rack tom (away from the hat) and away from the snare a bit as well. The second mic comes in under the ride cymbal, between mid and floor toms.

In usage, the omni condenser tracks should be panned hard right and left (which one is which depends on going for player or audience perspective.  The kick is panned straight up the center. You will need to adjust positioning to get good blends of toms and cymbals and I highly recommend using a tape measure to make certain the condenser are equal distances from the snare.

Reactions? I was floored as was everyone else on the session. We had a great sounding drum kit with three mics! Less phase issues (and NO bleed issues!) to deal with than with multi-micing and smooth, even toms and cymbals! The snare had plenty of snap and body, with natural ring. The omni patterned mics gave a wonderfully realistic panorama as well!

Of course, there are drawbacks. You have to decide how you want the drums to sound while recording. Any processing you do to the hat side mic needs to be done to the ride side mic as well to maintain a good stereo perspective. And (of course) you need a good, consistant drummer. And, of course, a good room is really going to help the sound as well!

Give it a try and check Gary's DPA post as well for more info.

Thanks, Gary! I will use this!

The Hohner Clavinet

Figuring that this blog is named Clavinet, I felt I ought to give a bit of background and info about it.  The clavinet (often shortened to clav) is based on the clavichord, an instrument that began to show up around the late 14th and early 15th centuries.  The clavichord is often described as an unfretted keyboard instrument, as there is a separate string for each key.  The keys are on one end of an arm; at the other end is a small brass pyramid called a tangent.  The tangent strikes the string giving a very sharp attack to the sound.

I should point out that the following describes a Hohner Clavinet D6 model - other models should be similar, although they are outside my personal experience.  

The clavinet is similar as it also has a string per key.  The clavinet's keys have a hard rubber hammer underneath (which serves as it's tangent).  Past it's similarities with the clavichord, it really starts resembling an electric guitar with active electronics.  There are two pickups - the originals are single coils, replacement humbuckers are available from www.clavinet.com among others- and there are two pickup switches (controlling on/off for both pickups as well as in-phase & out-of-phase settings when both pickups are engaged) and 4 switches which control level and (to a certain extent) EQ.  There is also a string mute attached to a slider which allows varying levels of string damping.

The clavinet's electronics can be powered by a 9 Volt DC supply or via battery.

Stevie Wonder is probably the best known clavinet player, thanks to his ultra-groovy mega-hit "Superstition" among others.  I was lucky enough to see him on tour a month or so ago, and there were two (count 'em) clavinets on stage!  Stevie often ran his through what I believe was a Boss Auto-Wah pedal.

The clavinet is best known as a funk instrument but was ubiquitous throughout pop and rock hits of the 1970s and early 1980s.  

Electromechanical keyboards vs synths

There's something about electromechanical keyboards.  By these I mean such legendary favorites as the Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos, the Hammond organs, and of course I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Hohner Clavinet.  When they are in good condition, they are a joy to play.  They seem to have a life of their own.  

I have a love for these keyboards, mainly because they seem to maintain a sense of space in a mix.  By comparison, when mixing synth or sampled emulations of the same instruments, I always have to work much harder to make the synths sit into a mix.  Generally short (sub-50 ms) delays are needed to create some sense of ambience.  Not so with the Rhodes or Wurly.

The Rhodes, taken direct has more "space around it" and "depth" than an arguably good (I'd say very good, in fact) sampled Rhodes.  I've tried this with multiple DIs and preamps with built-in DIs, always with the same subjective results.

Why?  I have some theories but I'd love to hear others.  Any ideas?  I'll post some of mine in a future update.