Big John wrote:di the bass and mike the cab you get all the low end that way.I really aint a fan of DI'd bass anymore, I'd like to learn to achieve it with micsBig John wrote:Spend time rehearsing the material you plan to record and listening to the rehearsals to fix your performance and arrangements.Do some shows or a short tour doing the new material and see how it plays to audiences.The biggest problem with recording to me seems less the technical issues of the recording but making sure your performance is good and you can efficiently get the song tracks down and be working on the nuance of your performance not just trying to get a basic take together.We're already doing this. It's going down well and we're pretty tight naturally (although we like a little 'slop' in our sandwich for flavour). We generally nail a song in 2-3 takes when recording.

numberthirty wrote:On the tech end...Don't overlook trying those Oktavas in the "extra" pile on the toms. Lots of folks have said good things.Yeah? That could be a good idea. Didn't even consider that.Rethinking the D112 conundrum..would the e609 planned as the 'bright' mic not balance out the wooly tone of the AKG? The plan was to blend to get the whole 50Hz-6kHz+ spectrum anyway

So would the general consensus be to scrap the tom bottom mics and maybe make use of the spare channels running maybe with an extra pair of room mics? We've gone to the effort of finding the nice sounding room/hall...should I make the most of it that way?Any further opinions on bass mic combos? He has a slightly scooped tone to make space for the guitar and vocals anyway but id like to capture his rig accurately...seeing as he's painstakingly found what he likes.And we'll be well practiced, don't you worry. The only overdubs will be vocals.

The amps will be in another room for separation, cables trailing out so we're in with the drummer. Isolation should be pretty good. The last few bands I tracked and our last record were in one big room with gobos and careful amp placement for isolation. Bleed wasn't too bad actually.The telefunken is more of a good luck charm. Silly really. Not actually used as a legitimate room mic, just pointing up at the drums and gives a really really subtle crunch. Hard to explain.I'm hoping the M-S will give me a nice drum image. Maybe pop the LDCs out as stereo rooms and the Oktava as the overheads

I think you have the makings of a very good session. I don't care for 57s on anything else but they're perfectly usable on a snare drum. You'll get nothing but fundamental-freq Motown bass if you're using a D112, but that's a valid goal.You should direct most of your pre-pro effort towards renaming your band.

Johnny, do you have enough time in the space to try out different setups?

Gleamhound wrote:JohnnySomersett wrote:The decision to top & bottom was made purely on the fact that we have the channels and some mics and if it's there we can use it if we like it.My gut feeling is that you might be better off spending more time getting things right with fewer mics than filling up every last track you have, just because you can. Get the best possible sound in the overheads, then position other mics to complement that basic sound. If you've got 16 mics on a drum kit there's a lot of potential for everything to end up a phasey mess.If that happens, they can just toss those tracks.

On the tech end...Don't overlook trying those Oktavas in the "extra" pile on the toms. Lots of folks have said good things.

bishopdante wrote:JohnnySomersett wrote:1. Kick front - Beta 52a2. Kick batter - AT20353. Snare - SM57 (I know, sorry)4. High Tom top - e6095. High Tom bottom - e6096. Floor Tom top - AT Pro257. Floor Tom bottom - Beta 52a (not sure about this)8. OH left - sE4400a or MK0129. OH right - sE4400a or MK01210. Mid - AT203511. Side - Behringer PRO-2B (sorry, its the only spare fig-8 we have) 12. GTR Bright - Pro 3713. GTR Dark - sE VR1 ribbon14. BASS bright - e60915. BASS dark - D11216. Room - some weird old telefunken electret we have that sounds gnarly. Some of these seem like an inadvisable use of channels. Generally have not found it preferable to mic up the bottom skins of the toms, creates more phase problems than improvements to the sound. Seems better to get various recordings of the whole kit to pick up the various sympathetic resonances, rather than close-mic on anything that isn't being hit with a stick directly, other than kick drum resonant head, or possibly floor tom resonant head.Would rather have stereo reverb/room mics, possibly even a microphone in the room next door/corridor, mono room mic and double-mic toms is probably not an ideal tradeoff.There is no reason they can't set up the mics you are talking about and have both options open. You are also assuming they have ideal distance microphones. May not be the case.

russ wrote:@JohnnySomersett, you should be able to upload an avatar now. Sorry for the issue. NIce one man