So I showed up to the studio early on Tuesday to a monstrosity of a drumset. Two enourmous 24" x 36" kick drums with (sharp) spikes sticking out of them and a matching 14" x 8.5" snare with the same spikes! This is the signature set for Jason Mooney (Acrophet, Rob Anthony, Sacred Reich). It was made by Devil's Workshop drums: http://www.devilsworkshopdrums.com. Jason came in to record this kit and get some video of him playing it for Devil's Workshop to display in their booth at the upcoming NAMM show. Along with the custom pieces were four toms: 8 and 10 inch racks and 14 and 16 inch floors, 8 cymbals of various sizes and types, and hi-hats.
Knowing that this session was all about showcasing not only Jason's talent, but also the custom kicks and snare, my workflow was a bit different from the norm. Usually I will mic up the entire kit then get sounds, swap mics, and play with placement with the drummer rocking out on the whole drumset. This day, I decided to focus on the kicks alone, the snare alone, then mic up the rest and tweak from there.
First on the "to-do" list was getting sounds on the kick drums. I began with my typical, go-to microphone combination for heavy-metal kick drums. A Heil PR-40 inside of the drum about 6-7 inches from the beater head, and a BLUE Bluebird angled slightly off-axis about 7-8 inches from the resonant head. Upon listening to the inside mic, I quickly realized this was not going to work. The drums were so large inside, that the sound resonated like crazy. (Most metal drummers come in with a fairly dead kick drum to make for easy triggering and/or to provide a very short, articulated sound.... But, this was a stadium kit... big, huge, bombastic and loud... of course the inside mic wasn't going to work [cue me smacking myself in the head]) However, the Bluebird on the outside worked exactly as I always expect it to. A nice, fat, extended bottom end. Add a touch of EQ to remove some knock in the low mids and a little resonance in the high-mids... BEAUTIFUL! It sounded very tight and well defined.... threatening to turn my NS-10s (studio monitors) into confetti. Those drums have some SERIOUS power!!!! So, I had my low end "BOOM" taken care of, but this is metal music. High frequency articulation is a necessity, so I placed one of my trusty Rode NT-5s to look right at where the beater was striking the drum (about 5" inches away). I headed back into the control room to take a listen. Again, I used a hint of EQ to make the attack more aggressive on the beater mic and to remove a bit of mud from the low-mid frequencies. The combination was perfect. A massive sound to complement and capture a massive drum. I matched the mic choices, placement and general EQ for the second kick drum and put a nice big check mark next to task #1.
Next was the snare. My first choice was a Heil PR-20 a couple inches above the rim looking at where the stick strikes the skin. It sounded nice, but Jason and I both felt that it was lacking a bit of power. Second choice was the trusty Shure SM7 positioned in the same way. It took a bit of fancy footwork to get it positioned (this is a rather large microphone). Back to the other side of the glass to take a listen. KAPOW! That did the trick. I patched the Motown EQ (you'll hear a lot about these guys from everyone posting in both of our studio forums, I'm certain) into the insert and cranked the 320hz and 5Khz to accent the nice solid thud and give a good snap. Normally, I would pair a bottom snare mic, but this proved to be completely unnecessary. The SM7 captured every bit of the drum with ease.
Finally, I mic'd the rest of the kit up. I went with Sennheiser MD504s for the two rack toms. They sound very similar to an MD421 with a slightly tighter bottom and a more articulated attack. I tend to like them quite a bit on smaller toms. CAD M179s took care of floor tom duties. I like to set the continuously variable polar pattern on these to somewhere between Cardiod and Hyper-Cardiod. It gives a great punch, well defined attack, and does a great job of eliminating bleed from cymbals. Next I brought out my trusty AKG C414s (far and away the most used mics in my collection). One of them was positioned over each side of the set with a Cardiod pickup pattern to take care of added tone on the drums and to pick up all of the cymbals. Jason rocked out for a bit while I ran back and forth to make minor adjustments to my microphone placement, and before long everything was sounding great. I had planned to set up a pair of Earthworks TC30Ks as room mics and possibly an additional spot mic for the hi-hats. These proved unecessary after hearing everything else working together.
Paul Kronk and Michael Hoffman, in the meantime, had gotten the lighting package and the camera set up for video. Jason played several times through some select Slayer songs allowing Paul to film him from several angles. He then did some freestyle jamming.
This session was a ton of fun. Once everything is mixed and the video is edited, I'll make sure to get links to where it can be viewed/heard. These drums sound absolutely insane. The kick drums are the loudest, most aggressive things I've ever heard.
P.S. - Rob Summers just came in and put 2 pennies on my desk to make sure that his 2ยข made it into this........ *shakes head*
