Surfer Rosa - Microphones - Drums - And The Like

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No mics are used on the drumkit
it was a new technique which involves the drumkit being placed into your speakers and a man comes in to play them. The sound is reproduced via a tikertape reel spool which activates the mans arms and legs in time to a pre defined beat code thus replicating the original recording on real time drum skins inside the actual enclosure. This method is used as a basis for all drumes recordings in the modern post medieval world and can be seen in ancient times before mummy and daddy had a baby.

thankyou to you and i must go and do my doings instead of wasting my self on this.

Surfer Rosa - Microphones - Drums - And The Like

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shagboy wrote:i'd rather hear some semblance of an actual answer than a fountain of BS about pop filters and cheesy bread. honestly.


An answer from who? From Steve?

I think if you were paying Steve his normal hourly rate to do it, it might be reasonable to expect him to make an effort to address questions like these. Otherwise probably not so much.

I don't know if my question was exceptional, but I once asked him a question about the mix of Surfer Rosa. His answer was that he didn't remember. Believe it or not, he doesn't necessarily remember every detail about every mic that was used (and its orientation) during the tracking/mixing of the 1,000 or whatever albums he's done. And my question wasn't even a technical one!

The important thing for people to learn, I think, is that the key to recording is not trying to mimic exactly what Steve or anybody else does. It's to learn how to record by studying the technical aspects in school or with heavy personal committment to reading technical docs. And to learn by doing it. A lot. Experimentation in a scientific kinda way (change one variable at a time) is worth a million times more than "I used a pair of XYZ's". What room was it in? What kinda drumkit? How good was the drummer's technique? What kinda mixer? Tape machine?

Without answers to most or all of those questions, all you get is a product endorsement. If you want that, just look at the equipment section of this website. There's a wealth of information right there as to what mics Steve and his studio think are useful.
LVP wrote:If, say, 10% of lions tried to kill gazelles, compared with 10% of savannah animals in general, I think that gazelle would be a lousy racist jerk.

Surfer Rosa - Microphones - Drums - And The Like

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I don't know if my question was exceptional, but I once asked him a question about the mix of Surfer Rosa. His answer was that he didn't remember.


Given my limited recording studio experience (which is probably nearing a thousand hours), I can't imagine anyone remembering this kind of detail after 15 or 16 years.

so surfer rosa sounds awesome

what type of mics were used on the drum kit


Intrigued by the question, I've put on my LP and let it spin. It's spinning as we speak but I don't think the microphones are the biggest variable.

What strikes me is that I don't think he's compressing much (if at all), I don't think he's putting gaits on the drum mics and I'm fairly damn sure he's not making the the frequency cuts in mixing that conventional wisdom says you're supposed to make. (Listen to that high-hat for Pete's sake).

As per mics, I thinks he's at least micing both the top and bottom of the snare, but how much the bottom mic is mixed in varies from mix to mix.

This is all 20 minutes of speculation on my part and this is not my field of expertise.
Brian McNeil, BA, MA, PhD drop out,

I'm just a thousand monkeys with typewriters.

Surfer Rosa - Microphones - Drums - And The Like

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D0Cdet wrote:what type of mics were used on the drum kit

Bass drum: RE20
Snare drum beyer 201+shure sm98 (top) no bottom mic
Small toms AKG C451 +CK1 top & bottom
Floor tom AKG C414 top & bottom
Stereo room 2xAKG C414 in M-S
Mono overhead Crown PZM (not used much)

No limiting. Occasionally a distant room mic (NeumannU87) was added.
steve albini
Electrical Audio
sa at electrical dot com
Quicumque quattuor feles possidet insanus est.

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