Recording Drums 5 - Overdriving / Distorting Mics for Clarity & Power!

www.shrunkenheadsstudios.com

Recording Drums, Percussion - & Dealing with People Who Like to Hit Things 5

Here at The Coolest Recording Studio in London Town - we got a thing for alchemy - cause that's what music production is all about - you get a bunch of musicians - place them into an environment conducive to creativity - let 'em get the feel - then hit the Big Red Record button & listen out for the magic takes. 
That's just the beginning - once you have all that recorded material edited & knocked into shape - it's funtime - & this is where Mixing begins. 
However - when you're trying to construct a piece of art - it's always good to have different flavours, textures & options to experiment with - so - here's how we use distortion to capture some pretty mean, savage & beautiful drum energy.

1. Using Distortion / Overdrive Pedals

King Krule Ghostpoet Micachu Recording Studio South London domino records
Mic Preamp Distortion



Place the mic facing the drumkit approx 3-6 feet away from the top of the kick drum. Run the mic into a mic preamp - then run the mic preamp (keep the output low so it doesn't break the pedal) into a distortion pedal - like the Boss Metalzone - this pedal has a ton of cool overdrive - but also has a superb mid scoop eq - so you should be able to find your sweet spot real easy. Turn the level & Dist knobs full left - leave the eq centred for now - put the level slowly up to 12 o'clock to get your level as the drummer plays - then start turning up the distortion - don't be shy. Then ! start taking out mid frequencies to clear up the mud - don't add too much treble or bass - unless it sounds right. 
It may sound crap by itsself - but mix that audio in with regular mics - & boom! You gonna get you some Mo' Juicy drum audio!!

If You Want It Killer 

micachu kingkrule king krule ghostpoet millions songdog domino records
Mic Preamp FUZZ

Same setup applies here - just use your fave fuzz pedal instead of the Metalzone pedal. It will be Much more scary & outta control - but shit! Push the boat out kidz - just try something new. You'll need to pull out the mids with this in the mix - but it's always worth it - you'll getchaself some Very cool loops if nothing else. 

2. Using Mixing Desks & / Or Preamps 

the ooz king krule recording studio ghost poet micachu songdog millions
Alice 828 Mixer
A lot of older Mixing Desks are transformer fronted - meaning they use Transformers to boost the microphone levels as opposed to transistors or microchips. 
These transformers add weight & colour to the audio passing through them - but! they can also be used to add harmonicaly rich distortion - which is what we want to make our audio sound sweet & interesting. Modern recording equipment can sound bland & boring - because most modern electronics are just that.... bland & boring. Here at SHS - we got a whole Plethora of transformer fronted microphone preamps & mixers - we make that audio Sing!!! 
Just turn up the gain til it all starts shining - eq to taste - & you're good to go. 

 Next time - Percussion!

You can see the studio Here:
www.shrunkenheadsstudios.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rudimentary Electric Bass Recording - Puttin' the Big into Booty!

Image
Here at the Coolest Recording Studio in London Town - we do like a big fat bootifull low end - as much as we like melodic mids & tingling highs - & while there are a gazillion mixing / production tricks to make the bass sit nice, pop out or groove summore - you always gotta start out with the basics - & get the badass tracked. First thing's first - get your bass player settled - doesn't matter if they're sitting or standing - they're gonna want to see the drummer - or at least the control room. Plug the bass into a DI ( Direct Injection ) box before any pedals or fx units they may be using - you want a good clean signal going to your recorder - you can use this as is to mix in with the mic'd up amp - you may want to process it with effects or software amp emulations - or indeed you may want to run it into a different amplifier and re record a different tone later down the line. Here's a pretty good quality di: You just plug into t
Read more

Mic Pre's - Putting Flavour In The Mix!

Image
Here at The Coolest Recording Space in London Town - we got all kinds of studio shazzle - mixers / compressors / eq's - but for audio capture, the most important thing aside for the mics - are mic preamplifiers. They come in all shapes & forms - from lovely vintage tube pre's that warm up the sound of an instrument or space to super fast solid state units that capture transient material (like metal drums or fast picked acoustic guitar) to transformer based pre's that you can distort at the input to add bloom & energy to an audio source. This is a Vortexion tube preamp as used by Joe Meek & the Who back in the 50's & 60's - beautiful for recording drums, guitars, vocals & ambient spaces with ribbon microphones. They were broadcast quality units that add a rich, fullness to the mic chain. You can also use them to pleasantly saturate vocals etc in post production. vortexion   These Ampex 602 units came out of an old tape recorder
Read more

Microphone Making - The 3 Capsule Mid Side Recording Studio Mic

Image
south london recording studio London Recording Studio Life !!   Here at The Coolest recording Studio in South London - we got the creation craving! We just Have to make new, interesting & exciting recording & mixing devices for our excellent clients . Our most recent research has led us to develop a set of microphones (Coppermics - made out of copper!) the formats of which do not appear to be readily available on the market. You can of course get mics spec built - but boy does this cost a ton of moolah & takes ages - so .... we put our heads together & came up with This beauty - the Coppermic King ! Microphone - The King - for vocals - guitar - drums Coppermic The King All three capsules are identical in tone & volume - the centre mic picks up the centre image of the audio you're recording, and the left & right capsules pick up the stereo information. You should always eq the centre mic with a slight (1-3 db) boost at the fundament
Read more