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di the bass and mike the cab you get all the low end that way.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.

Big John wrote: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.I agree with this. I also as I've gotten older have come to appreciate simpler drum miking type techniques, which may or may not work for you. You could always use a lot of microphones and then mute down tracks until you find something that sounds good to your ears.I was just listening to some recordings thinking "how could I get this sound?" ...and I came to the realization it was mostly the sound of a very good musician just nailing a take moreso than any recording technique. My advice would be to practice a lot. Go in and do some sound tests and take notes... Then take a short break, return, man your stations! hit record and perform as if you were at practice basically, then do overdubs. Have fun and don't take it too seriously, but proficiently execute a plan as well. There's always going to be some flaw with a take or song that makes the album that you wish you'd left off or decision made that is later on slightly questioned...If you can record, get an idea of how it went, then return to the same spot and re-record all in the span of a few weeks, this might help also. Similar to the concept of first drafting a paper...figure out what works/doesn't work and how to fix it... then apply any necessary changes and settle on a finished product.

My advice would be don't over-think it. Concentrate on finding one mic that sounds good on each source and getting them to work well together. Really not sure there's much point in double miking each tom, you'll just get into a tangle. Good luck.

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 you are recording bass, drums and guitars live in the same room, all the more reason to keep the number of mics and channels under control. You will make far more of a difference to the end result by being careful about things such as the relative levels and positions of the amps in the room, and making sure everyone gets a great foldback mix, than by fretting over the minutiae of what mic to use where.And, as others have said, by rehearsing properly.

One other thing... if I was tracking an entire album in a day, I'd probably want to give some thought to the ways in which I could stop it all sounding the same. I'm guessing you're unlikely to have the time or resources to swap over drum kits and amps for different songs, but perhaps it would be worth having a couple of different overhead and room miking options set up simultaneously, so you could have somewhat different drum sounds on different tracks.

Hi everyone. Long-time lurker/learner from these boards but thought I'd finally register and try and get some nuggets of wisdom direct from the horses mouth.My current band are about to (self) record our second record and it's going on vinyl so we're determined to "not fuck it up" and do the best we can. I've always done the recording/mixing/mastering jobs in my bands and have built up a reasonable level of ability - but, no doubt, horribly flawed regardless. I have invested a bit of cash in advance of our session (we record live as a band) on upgrading the choice of mics. Can I run the list by you and see if you can advise of maybe if I've made the wrong choice in position/allocation? Okay...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. Vocals are undecided...I'll probably put up a LDC and a ribbon and decide on mixdown.Preamps are just the ones in our interfaces...not bad, but nothing special. It'll all be done on Reaper DAW.Other mics available to us are: 2x C1000's, some weird Tom mics, more 57's and a couple of 58's, a Superlux R102 ribbon (very dark sounding) and possibly some Oktava MK012's. I maybe have a couple of hundred more available to spend if I really needed to!We've hired a nice hall/room with wooden floors and high ceilings for the drums and there's a dry side room for the guitars. I think it goes without saying we'll be trying for some appropriation of a EA studio B vibe.If it helps, were a power trio with touches of noise/grunge/punk and here's our last rough and ready recording as a reference (and, no, I won't be using the horrid "fake doubled" guitar this time):https://secretblackboyfriend.bandcamp.com/releasesSO, advice, recommendations, declarations of idiocy etc...all welcomed with open arms.Many thanks in advanceJohnny

Gleamhound wrote:My advice would be don't over-think it. Concentrate on finding one mic that sounds good on each source and getting them to work well together. Really not sure there's much point in double miking each tom, you'll just get into a tangle. Good luck.Well, I know I can get a fat-bastard kick sound out of my combination of B52a & AT2035 as I used that last time and the kick was ridiculous (by my standards).The guitar mix is one I've done lots of experiments to get to so I'm happy with that.The D112 concerns me on the bass cab as I haven't had chance to try it yet but looking at the freq charts it looks as though I'll be able to get the sub 100hz nicely where the b52a on kick scoops down - hoping for lack of conflict. I can get just as much a thump from the kick above 100hz anyway...lower than that sounds more hip-hop than I like these days. The e609 should make the mids nice and forward too I hope.That and the toms/overheads. 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.I hate to use a 57 on the snare too but it IS easy to get a reasonable sound out of it.Whats opinions around here on the Oktava MK012's for cymbals? I like a nice brightness to them in mixdown which I got last time from the C1000s we used but - ergh - they didnt sound too great as a whole. If i grab a pair I'd hate them to be too dark.

Mason wrote:You'll get nothing but fundamental-freq Motown bass if you're using a D112, but that's a valid goal.Hmmm, defnitely NOT the vibe we'd be going for! hahah. Maybe I'll rethink that then.Mason wrote:You should direct most of your pre-pro effort towards renaming your band. We've had equal amounts of this and compliments on the name. Gleamhound wrote: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.Good point. Maybe I'll stick with batter sides then. It has worked fine for me in the past so maybe stick with what I know how to EQ better. Going on Mason's D112 comment, I might shift it over to floor tom and re-think the bass dark mic. I used a b52a last time and it sounded alright...but the bassist has changed his amp since (Glockenklang??)

numberthirty wrote:Johnny, do you have enough time in the space to try out different setups?Not at all unfortunately - we have 9 hours total (we recorded the last one in 8 so it's do-able)