THE DRUM KIT

[babayaga]

Hi Mark D.

My good friend Peter Scott-Jones (who was rocking with me at the Manchester Thunder gig tonight) asked me about the details of the kit you're currently using?

He's been drumming since we were at High School together, (and currently has a kit in his front room!) so would appreciate the fine detail of tom sizes, snare types, cymbal sizes and makes etc. His drum heroes are Carl P and Bill Bruford, so as much information as you can give will keep him happy for a while.

Oh...and if you can throw in the type of mikes / configuration you use to record your kit, I can check it against my ideas for recording some drum samples in the near future. Might as well be cheeky whie I'm at it I suppose!! ;-)

Cheers - G.

[MDDRUMZ]

Gladly Graham. The kit I'm currently using is a 1970' era Ludwig Blue Vistalite kit, with the exception of the snare, which is a metal Ludwig probably from late 60's/early 70's metal. There is a picture on the EMP Photos Section of the Hawk Studio website that may make what I'm about to describe a bit easier for Peter to envision.

If seated at the kit, toms from left to right are four single-headed concert toms (6x9, 8x9, 10x9 & 12x10), two double-headed toms (13x9 & 14x10), then two more single-headed concert toms (15x14 & 16x15). These last two don't really get used much anymore, because I don't have them mic'd and the mike for my floor toms presents a bit of an obstacle for getting to them easily.

Speaking of floor toms, off to my right are a a 16x15 double-headed floor tom and a 16x15 single-headed floor tom (how I wish I had an 18, because the lowest drum is really pushing the limit on how low it can go). Off to my left adjacent to the hi-hat is a 15x14 single-headed floor tom that doesn't see much action.

The 14 x 4 1/2 snare is dead center between two 22x14 bass drums. While I'd prefer to use both bass drums, my lack of a second bass drum mic and limited number of mic inputs (8) on my board has left me with using a double pedal.

All drums have Ludwig silver dot drum heads except the snare, which has a Remo Weather King Coated head.

Cymbals left to right include the center of a ride cymbal that my speed metal drummer friend from my childhood actually cracked out of his ride cymbal! I use this inverted like those that Carl Palmer has atop his crashes to get that *PING bell sound. Then we have more "traditional FACTORY-made" cymbals that include 15", 18", 12", 17", 18" crashes, 8" splash, 20" ride, 16" crash, 18" China-Lo and an 18" riveted that I invert and use almost like a riveted swish. Hi-Hats are 14". All cymbals are the old Avedis Zildjian (most pre-dating the use of the logo) except one of the 18" crashes is an old Paiste and I have no clue about the riveted (although I think it's a REALLY old Zildjian) and my friend's chop-shop cymbal bell. hehe

As mentioned previously, I can only record 8 tracks at a time and I actually only have 7 decent mic's, which are Shure. So I have a Beta 57 on the snare. Achieving the snare sound I really want has been a huge challenge. Initially it was clearly due to a TOTAL lack of experience but then as I corrected certain techniques, I still wasn't getting the desired result. So I could use some advice from you here. Probably adding to the problem is that the more I listen to just snare tracks, the more I think that this mic is actually damaged. I'm ashamed to say that in the many years that I wasn't playing out, this microphone sat in it's case in the relatively damp basement of my former home. I think that may have taken its toll on the mic b/c it is so unresponsive and when a neighbor lent me an SM-58 mic to test out some vocals, the difference in response was drastice. The SM-58 was a very hot mic whereas I could barely get anything out of the Beta 57. But Christmas is just around the corner..... :wink:

The bass has a hole cut in the center of the head and I've inserted a PG-52 almost all the way to the batter head. I have three PG-56 microphones clip mounted between the 10 &12, the 13 & 14, and the two 16" floor toms. Because they are clip-mounted to the rim of a drum, one of the drums in each pair is favored and this is evident on some of the tom runs around the kit in th form of some volume differences. I have an extremely cheap mic (LabTech AM-20) stuck up the center of the 6" tom to give it a little more punch. This picks up a little on the 8" as well. Someday I hope to replace that with an SM or Beta-57, PG56, or equivalent that I can position in such a way to pick up on these two toms and the hi-hat. Finally, I have two overhead PG-81 condensers. The condenser positioned to the left is also picking up the hi-hat at present.

As much as I hate doing this, I used Remo O-Rings on all toms except the two highest and even on the snare to kill some of the rings that were getting picked up.

FYI, all that I've explained above applies to Pirates and Bouree only, plus anything else moving forward. I'm not sure if you were wanting to compare my configurations with what you were hearing, but the early recordings (Take A Pebble, The Barbarian) were done on a five piece Tama Swingstar kit with the seven Shure mics. Same snare but toms were double-headed 10x12, 12x10 and 16x15. Also changed up the cymbals slightly and used an older, heavier, darker 20" ride. When I worked on these, I barely knew the basics of my Digital recorder, so there are no pans set and some of the EQs are a bit off. I've re-mixed The Barbarian but unfortunately, I never did for Take A Pebble.

I'd love to hear any advice/suggestions you or Peter have on drum mic'ing, as I'm relatively new at this and need to make the most out of what I have at my disposal and where I have to use it (an unfinished basement).

In the mean time, I hope this info was somewhat useful/helpful.

Mark D.

[babayaga]

Thanks Mark.

I've pointed Peter in the direction of your reply. I'll digest the parts about the miking of the kit later today.... unfortunately a couple of DIY jobs ned my attention today.

Cheers - G.