From the
YouTube community we’ve seen a growing number of drum microphone comparisons,
of both conventional pro-level and affordable microphones. These comparisons
are of great value to new buyers and even to more seasoned engineers. In this article
I will share my own current top three pic for dynamic snare-drum microphones. At
least one of the mics should be familiar to most readers, and they vary in
price from average to high as far as dynamic microphones go.
The three microphones have slightly
different profiles: one is the cleanest and clearest; another is the most
trusted both over and under the snare; and the final has a pleasant high-mid
punch for those snares that really should cut through the mix.
Sennhesiser MD 441
This is
perhaps my all-time favourite to capture the top of a snare-drum. The advantage of this microphone is how it positions the snare-sound in the larger mix. My
ears have always perceived it as more tidy and focused in the mid-range than
the trusted SM57, when recording a whole kit. The micrphone includes
a bass roll-off and a treble boost, but there have been different versions in
the past and at least one I know of without the roll-off. This is an excerpt of
what Sennheiser writes about the MD 441 on their web-page: ‘Dynamic super-cardioid microphone […].
Balanced sound. Precise and distortion-free reproduction even at highest sound
pressure levels.’ Those words are very much in line with my experience.
Home-studio owners might be
hard-pressed to cash out for one of these right off the bat, but since it has
been around for a while there will be a few in circulation in the second hand
market. It is also a well worth microphone to save up for in
the long run. Personally, I would rather start off with getting one of these
for use on snare-drum, and wait with getting a whole line-up of MD 421s for the
toms. The rational is simple: How many times per beat do you hear the snare vs.
how many times do you hear toms?
As much as
I have a soft spot for the MD441, I have never been disappointed with the sound
of an SM57. It is easily the most trusted and predictable snare microphone in
history and it is my personal top pick for a dynamic under the snare-drum. It is also my top pick for deep snare-drum
sounds as it produces a really nice punch in the low mids. In addition to being
a great snare-drum mic, it is one of the most versatile microphones you can own. Its most under-valued use may be on voice as the SM58 steals all the thunder
due to its grille. Custom-made wind-screens exist and pop-filters can be found
in most studios.The SM57
has been a top pick for drums for more than half a
century and I guess my grandchildren will one day inherit my own collection
and keep using them as nothing had changed. Which it hopefully won’t. I'm now in my 30's
with no children, so it's not exactly around the corner. That should put some
perspective on what I think about the future of this microphone.
Audix i5
This is the
only microphone on the list that I have not yet used, but I have heard it in a
number of comparison-reviews and come across it in articles from the industry-press. Sound on Sound did a great
review of this microphone. Their article also tells you about the diversity
of sound-sources this mic can be put to use on. It is intended to compete with
the SM57 and they are closely comparable in price, and certainly not too far
from each other in sound. Perhaps not surprising from Audix, the sound has slightly
more high-end snap than the SM57. It also appears to be a tad clearer and more
open sounding.
For high-pitch drum-sounds and piccolo-snares,
this is the microphone I find most interesting on offer right now. Think about
those haunting, piercing snappy snare-sounds in fast-paced funky grooves that
keeps playing inside your head and prevents you from sleeping at night. This is
what I would capture them with!
That this microphone is not in my own
collection yet is just a temporary deficit. It is irrevocably on the
purchasing-list!
A Pinch of Inspiration
Here’s one of my favourite YouTubers, Rick Russie,
making great sound with a mix of Shure and Audix close-microphones. He has
chosen one SM57 on the snare:
A good
friend of mine, Oda Kveinå Tonstad,
is just about to embark on Leeds
College of Music’s Music Production program. She has called me ‘mentor’ for
a few years — a title I didn’t request but am very happy to receive!
Before departure she wanted to run through some recording techniques for acoustic
guitar. We met at my project studio and had a limit of two hours before other
obligations kicked in. We ran through four different recording techniques and I’ll give you a brief summary
here. These are not meant to be ‘the four quintessential techniques for every
engineer,’ but rather a selection of techniques that I like. Other articles may
have slight variations over some of the techniques I’ll describe — this is where
you should let your personal preferences be the guide.
The microphones we used was a small collection of typical
project-studio microphones.
The Techniques
1. Stereo Pair/ Spaced Pair
The only small-membrane
pair I had available was a
pair of affordable omni-mics. Ideally, I’d like to use a pair of cardioid
microphones in, for instance, an X-Y configuration. There is little point in
trying to use a pair of omnis in X-Y so we did a spaced pair configuration (but
leaving out spacing-rules since we just wanted to build up
some ‘vocabulary’ of techniques). We used a stereo
bar, which roughly mimics the distance between someone’s ears. We placed
the microphones about half a meter away from the guitar, just above it, physically
pointing towards the guitar-body.
While the
X-Y, ORTF and similar techniques work by literally pointing the microphones in
different directions, omnis don’t ‘point,’ as it were. A spaced pair utilises
the distance between microphones —the sound hits the microphones at different points
in time and the combination of the two creates a stereo-image. In other words, the
sound is delayed between the channels in your mix if the sound hits the
microphones at different points in time. This also means that sound that hits
at the same time will be in the centre of your mix. While reflections from the
surrounding walls will arrive at different times. Sources placed at the side of the set-up will have more delay
between the channels (the stereo-image gets wider or tilts to one side). But with
sources placed at the side of the set-up you should look out for cancellations
of important frequencies. The X-Y technique or other techniques where the
membranes of the microphones are placed as close as possible does not have the
same problem with cancellations. That doesn’t make these techniques better in
themselves, but they might be better suited for certain applications.
This is technique
where a big-membrane condenser in pointed towards a guitar from a medium
distance. When I was sitting down with the guitar, the microphone was placed
about half a meter in front of me and a little higher than my head. The
distance allows the microphone to pick up the whole guitar, plus some of the
room, and not just the relatively isolated sound of the instrument. –not unlike
a person sitting in front of someone playing a guitar. The mix between the room
and the guitar can be adjusted by moving the mic closer or further from the
guitar, just like a pair of ears.
3. Mono — 12th fret
When we
were done recording the over-head, Oda insisted that we lowered the mic and put
it in front of the 12th fret. I had thought about dropping this technique
because of limited time, but it turned out to be a great thing that we kept it.
The mic was placed at about 30 cm. (or around a foot) away from the guitar. Perhaps
the most classic mics to use in this configuration are SM57s
and U47s
(although they are very different). Placing a mic in front of the sound-hole can
produce a lot of bass-rumble. Placing a mic pointing at the body/ soundboard of
the guitar can produce a pleasant sound but with very little ‘bite’. Placing a
mic in front of the 12th fret is a good way of capturing both the
attack of the strings and some of the sound of the body — with just one mic. This
is probably the most used recording technique for acoustic guitar in recording-history.
Graham from
the Recording Revolutionrecently
did a great video where he shows a variation of this technique:
4. Two microphones — 12th fret and
body
This is my
personal favourite. It involves two mics that capture two different parts of
the guitar. We changed the condenser mic on the 12th fret to an
SM57. This produces a sound with a bit more ‘bite’ and a bit less ‘body’. We then put the big-membrane
microphone pointing towards the soundboard behind the bridge. We put it just
off the corner of the guitar, pointing at an angle towards the soundboard
between the bridge and the edge of the instrument. I tend to use small-membrane
condensers (Oktava MK-012 and Neumann KM 184 are favourites). Small membrane mics have a
cleaner off-axis response, which is something to take into
account, especially when placing the mic at an angle. But a big-membrane or another
dynamic will also do. One aspect of making the microphones blend well is to
avoid phasing. To adjust the position if the condenser-mic, I usually put on a
pair of headphones and move the mic around until I find a sweet-spot where the
two microphones blend well. (Naturally, you have to hear both microphones in
the headphones when performing this manoeuvre. They should not be panned out,
but be dead-centre to reveal any phasing if you have stereo-listening.) We didn’t
have time for this today and we ended up needing to invert the phase of one
microphone in the mix. After applying the phase-reverse the guitar sounded heavier/
deeper and more focused. Using headphones during mic-placement is a couple of
minutes well spent for optimising and focusing your sound. In the mix, the
microphones are panned hard left and right, or to - 25%, + 75% according to
your preference.
If the
guitar has an internal mic or pic-up I usually add this as a separate line. It
often turns out redundant, but it adds an extra back-up or option for the mix.
In the mix it can be used for layering — panned out opposite another layer, or with
processing/ amp-simulation if desired. Though if it is intended from the beginning
to feature opposite another layer in a section of the song, I would usually record
this track separately to get true double-tracking.
The two
microphones used for this technique: one dynamic pointing at the 12th
fret, and one condenser pointing at an angle towards the soundboard behind the
bridge.
The Verdict
Assessing
the recordings. Oda was the Pro Tools-operator for today's session.
1. Spaced Pair
We found
the sound to be a bit boxy and bright, which partially reflects the affordable
home-studio microphones. We tried to soften, sweeten and focus the sound by
gentle use of eq., compression and reverb. –but fixing things in the mix have
their limitations. We both agreed that the clear, bright omnis would be a more
interesting option if used as room mics in a multiple-mic set-up. Oda felt some bass was lacking. This
cannot really be alleviated by moving the mics closer to the source (as it
usually can), since omnis have no proximity effect.
2. Mono Overhead
The
microphone captured the natural sound of the guitar nicely. Some of the room
bled into the recording (which you may or may not like). I have had good
success with this technique on bright and rattly guitars with tube-mics before.
However, on this particular recording we felt that the sense of the guitar’s physical
presence was not as strong as we had hoped for in the mix. So we muted it and
moved on to:
3. Mono — 12th fret
This was
one of our two favourites today! The sound was focused, large enough, bright
enough and very-very mix-friendly. Processing and placement in the mix would have
been the easiest to do of all the recordings. The result was a good testimony
to how much you can do with a simple home-studio microphone.
4. Two microphones — 12th fret and
body
This was
the other favourite. The stereo-image is good, but in some mixes it can
compromise a clear sense of the sound’s ‘location’ (this can be improved
somewhat by finding the sweet-spot when placing the second mic as described
above). Oda said that this was the technique she wanted the most to experiment further
with, while we both agreed technique number 3 was the safest option to get good
results quickly. An added bonus of this technique is that if the two channels are
panned out in stereo, it helps to clean up the phantom-centre for vocals or
other lead-sounds. But if you have a busy mix and you want the guitar to be exactly
in one location, technique number 3
will be the easiest to work with. Technique number 4, on the other hand, can also
be used as a mono-technique where the two microphones provide ‘bite’ and ‘body’,
to construct a more complete sound. This can be bounced to mono or mixed down
to a group-track on a mixer (that is, an aux-track in ProTools), and subsequently be
placed in the mix in one particular location.
–just like with technique 3.
* * *
To create
the most amount of diversity between the techniques, in this article we have convered:
·Two mono-techniques (respectively
close and distant)
·Two stereo-techniques (respectively
close and distant)
If you’re starting
out doing recording, my advice would be to get to know technique 3 first. The
video from The Recording Revolution will show you a way to expand on this technique.
If you’re used
to close-micing guitars in mono, you might want to try technique number 4, as this
will broaden your toolbox quite a bit.
Alternatively, you could also experiment with adding a
pair of room-mic or more closely paced overheads (or a single microphone for
that matter), to the mono-technique you are already familiar with. This can add
more depth and room to the sound, but this is also subject to having a nice
sounding room. With more than one microphone you should stay on the look-out
for phase problems. Also remember that room mics are a compliment to the close-sound
and can be brought up and down according to the need, just like with an artificial
reverb.
If you want some fresh thoughts on how to set up microphones
in a way that plans ahead to the mix, see another one of my blogposts: ‘Mixing
with Microphones’.
Have fun recording, and feel free to leave your own recording-experiences
or questions in the comments below!
Me pretending
to be a Greek Philosopher at the university campus later the same day. (Photo:
Oda)
This is a blog-post
from a visit to Leeds College of Music (LCoM) in 2012. LCoM was in 2012 in the
process of transforming its programmes. They were cutting down on the number of
degrees and made the degrees they provided more flexible. They also opened for
more studio-time for everyone and much longer opening-hours. Mac-labs, studios and rehearsal rooms are now also open till 3am! Level 1 and 2 HE students now had access to
facilities only level 3 students and above had access to before. Music students
also had access to more of the technical facilities that only technology and
production students used to have. You may think this makes everyone fight more
for studio-time, but I won’t believe it. Last time I checked LCoM had about 60 teaching and practice rooms, seven recording studios, three mixing
studios, a large in-house venue and a small recital-hall. The college is not
lacking in facilities. The library is well-provided in literature for practical
skills and academic knowledge. There is also a substantial collection of
printed and recorded music—especially the latter category was important for us
production students. (Although, today most music can be streamed if you risk
the lower resolution for critical listening.) In 2012 Leeds College of Music also
got its ‘all Steinway status,’ which means that close to all pianos are made by
Steinway.
My 2012 visit to the college was part of a private
study-trip in the UK for a prospective student. At LCoM we had an appointment
with lecturer Brian Morell to talk about admissions and student life, and we met
with a number of other staff. I am not going to present the current line-up of
degrees here, but I’ll rather provide a few highlights from my own experience
as a Leeds College of Music student (I graduated autumn 2009):
- The college is a dedicated music conservatory and it
is strong in both jazz, pop, classical and production studies. This meant that
I always had access to top-of-the-range musicians for collaborations. LCoM’s
old slogan ‘where music happens’ described our student-days spot on.
- Leeds is a great city for music, and the legendary
venue ‘the Wardrobe’ is just across the street.
- LCoM always had great facilities. Significant
upgrades have been undertaken in recent years. If I have any critique on the current
state of the studios, may I suggest that they are so well-equipped that no
studios now represent the lower end of the industry? Though that luxury is
hardly a problem!
- During my post-graduate studies in Music Production
our little class had four doctorate-holders overseeing us. That gave us a density
of PhDs to Masters-students of almost 3 to 1. That’s even before counting
visiting lecturers.
- Several of my friends from LCoM have gone on to
great places in both music and academia. For me, being linked to the LCoM-community
today means I’m linked to a living organism of musicians and producers. And it
means being linked to a college that is big enough to conquer new ground and
increase my CV-prestige as a degree-holder, but small enough to receive us alumni
back in a family-like fashion.
…but then again, I’m the wrong guy to ask for an
objective outside-perspective! Cause I loved it too much!
Big thanks
to Senior Studio Technician Keith Smith and all the other staff who spent the day with us!
This post
is from a 2012 visit to School of Sound Recording (SSR) in Manchester. I first
visited SSR in 2008 during a workshop on new features in Pro Tools for the
launch of PT 8. Back then it was an industry training academy with no degree
programmes. They were quite clear on it: ‘we don’t want any red tape!’ Four
years later they had welcomed the red tape (even though you can’t record on it!)
because many students want academic credits to show if they spend a year or
more studying something. I would want the same thing! SSR has been broadening
its appeal in several ways. Currently, I can’t see the name ‘School of Sound
Recording’ anywhere strategic on their web-page, and their logo has gotten four
new words attached to it: ‘Music, Film, Games, Education.’ Evidently, SSR isn’t
just a school of sound recording any more.But true to their beginnings, the school still offers short courses and
industry training. Notably amongst these is an impressive range of Avid Pro
Tools certifications.
I was
travelling with two Norwegians and we had booked an appointment to see the
school, since one of them considered applying. We got a full private tour of
the facilities and a long talk with (then) Vice Principal Ian Carmichael. Big thanks to everyone, as we were
incredibly well received, and especially to Vicky Batrak (link to her company) who gave us a glimpse of what a student’s life is like at SSR.
Since I
first set foot there, I have liked SSR. It has a number of studios spread across
three floors. All smaller recording-studios are set up with Soundcraft Ghost
consoles. These are easy and intuitive to use, while teaching in-line
work-flow. Different Ghost-studios are set up with different tasks in mind:
tracking or mixing, compact studio or larger studio with more outboard. Beyond the
Ghost-studios we find consoles from Avid, DigiCo, Amek and Neve, plus a live
venue with several traditional analogue consoles, a large analogue Midas and an
Avid Venue system. The whole building is served by an Avid ISIS shared storage server and the venue has
lines running to several of the studios.
SSR has long-standing
collaborations with the audio industry and have very close ties with Wigwam. I believe there has also been some donations
of gear towards the school from the industry who recognises that it attracts a
lot of young talents. In my last post I mentioned how Leeds Beckett University
has been teaming up with accrediting body JAMES. SSRs close collaboration with
the industry is the traditional way of handling industry-connections in music and
sound production. For prospectus students who might wonder, in my opinion there
is no need for further validation of SSR Manchester’s various audio-courses as the
institute has always been closely woven into the fabric of the industry.
Over the
last few years SSR has branched out from Manchester to London, and further on
to Asia. As a former resident of Singapore myself, I am really happy to hear
they have set up a school there. Another school is set up in Jakarta. Both the
Asian campuses are distinctly simpler than the UK campuses, but they provide a
valuable addition in a part of the world that has a very short history in
educating audio engineers. One of the areas you can specialise in at the Jakarta
campus is live sound for ‘Houses of Worship.’ Let me put this into context for
you! When I studied Music Technology in Singapore one of my classmates came
from Jakarta. His cousin is from Surabaya and was one of my best friends. After
Christmas brake I asked my classmate what he had been up to over the holidays.
He said he had played at a festival. Ok, festival sounds good I thought! How
big? Sixty thousand people, came the calm reply! I was a bit taken aback and
later told his cousin. She just went “oh, well… it was just for his Church” (we
attended a pretty big Church ourselves). “Just Church” doesn’t make the crowd
smaller. Live sound for Houses of Worship in Jakarta makes great sense! Indonesia
is also a great place for live music (think: Jakarta Jazz Festival) and has a
music scene prominent with funk, RnB and soul.
SSR in Manchester
is on my shortlist over great places to do professional courses and
industry-training. It sports up-to date and extremely varied facilities for teaching
sound engineering for both venue and studio. It also has computer-labs and short
courses for certification on DAWs and the likes. I have never studied at SSR
myself, but visiting always feels like coming home!
Studios
SSR use Soundcraft Ghost consoles in a number of studios.
It is a simple console with good pre-amps that teaches the use of
traditional analogue in-line consoles without too much clutter. Consoles
are set up with patch-bays and a few pieces of nice outboard.
Amek Einstein console. The room is well-stocked with outboard
and has lines running to the live venue and one of the other studios.
Judging from the SSR web-site, it looks like this Control 24 is now
changed to a newer C 24. These are great little consoles for integration
with ProTools and represent a cost-efficient solution for students
eventually setting up their own facilities. The room is set up with
screen and projector.
ICON studio with screen and projector. The current incarnation of
Manchester SSR's ICON studio looks a bit different. It sports both
a stereo and a 5.1 monitoring system.
A room set up with a DigiCo mixer. It has lines to the live venue.
This is a great facility for anyone wanting to record live concerts
or train for working in high-end sound-trucks or modern theatres.
Interestingly, the room also has synthesizers and software for music production, so this will also work as a place for music-creation.
The Neve studio is said to be 'loosely built on Abbey Road Studio 1.'
It is a desirable recording facility and it has been attempted booked
by the recording industry in Manchester several times. Often they are
turned down, since it would interfere with student-work. This studio is for training of advanced students.
It is set in a large room where you can record without having to
be separated by a wall of glass. There is an isolation booth for when separation is needed.
Venue and Live Sound
DigiDesign Venue
Midas Verona
SSR have several analogue consoles on tables with wheels.
The workstations have HD recorders with multi-track recordings
of performances in them for mixing-practice.
Monitor mix at the side of the stage
Thanks
again to everyone we met during our visit for their generosity with time!
Leeds Beckett
University changed name in 2014 and was still Leeds Metropolitan University
when I visited in 2012. With its Headingly Campus set in the charming old
Beckett Park area, the name-change makes good sense in connecting with the
local history.
Leeds Beckett is a large modern University with a wide range of courses on
offer. The challenge for music students at a large university is often that
music takes a minor role after business, law, medicine and other high-profile
programmes. Leeds Beckett has no music stream as such and music production and
technology is a part of the performing arts department. It also sports a number
of other creative programmes, including dance, film, animation and various media
technologies. This indicates what kind of collaborations you can make. For
example, at a dedicated music college you will have plenty of musicians to
collaborate with. But if you are more inclined to work with filmmakers,
dancers, animators and media students, Leeds Beckett provides a community for
you. And after having lived in Leeds for many years myself, one thing I can say
that the city does not lack is musicians!
On my tour of
the performing arts department, the staff was keen to promote the quality of
the university library. The academic focus of the performing arts courses thus seems
central (this will suit some performing arts-students well (such as myself) but
others less well). At any rate, the library has staff who is prepared to assist
students in their literature-searches, which is absolutely a good thing. Another
thing they were keen to promote was the fact that two of the Kaiser Chiefs were
alumni. Successful Alumni is always good, but perhaps there were a few other non-study-related
criteria behind the Kaiser Chiefs’ success? Though hear-hear, every university
should be proud of its alumni indeed!
Leeds Beckett
University provides four undergrad degrees central to my blogging (and several
related ones).
-plus four
post-graduate courses along the same paths (I won’t cover these here as
applicants will be more aware of what they are looking for). All courses are
accredited by ‘JointAudio Media Education Services’ (JAMES). The performing arts sector has little tradition
in industry-accreditation and some institutes rather have their own strong industry-links.
Thus, performing arts accreditation won’t weigh in as heavy on your CV as industry-accreditation
on an MBA. But the JAMES-accreditation is a confirmation to prospectus students
that industry-relevant knowledge is being taught in audio-courses. It confirms that
the university maintains a dialogue with a respected organisation about the
industry’s development.
BA Music Production and Performance: There is no traditional main-study instrument-tutoring
on this programme. This means the degree will fit best for performers who already
have some ideas of where they are headed. The degree aims at establishing a
wide production-toolbox (arranging, recording, industry knowledge, etc.), while
letting you develop your current level of performance more independently. The
degree is less flexible than the others with regards to optional modules, but the
real flexibility is found in your personal choice of performance-style.
The Bachelor of Science in Music Technology will suit students wanting to work with
music and sound in the media sector, or students who go on to study other
branches of engineering and technical research. A Bachelor of Science (BSc) is
preferable in some lines of work and for some types of post-graduate studies. If
you think this might apply to your intended post-graduate studies or for your professional
aims, you should investigate this further. With the introduction of the BSc in Audio Engineering there is now also the option of focusing solely on the engineering and
science of sound, without studying music-topics. As a general rule of thumb, I
would recommend the BA courses to students who actually want to create music,
and the BSc courses to students who want to work with technology for
manipulating or distributing sound and music. The exception to the rule is
often production of music for computer games and new media. Music technology
courses can here be a better choice since both sound, music and complete
product is entirely technology based.
TheBachelor of Arts in Music Production explains itself best of the three, and I’ll
leave it up to the university’s web-page to describe the current course
content. If you enrol on this course and you’re not primarily a musician, your
task number one should be to create connections with good performers around the
city. As mentioned, Leeds is a great place to make such connections.
Here
are my condensed impressions of Leeds Becket’s music production and technology courses:
-- The
university has invested in very good studio-facilities (in fact, it was this rumour
that first made me want to visit).
-- It has a
number of (non-music) programmes well suited for collaboration (I do not know
to what extend such collaborations happen, and it is often up to you as a
student to initiate your own collaborations).
-- Established community for music producers and
technologists (three undergrad and four post grad programmes) with external
accreditation.
While not
having a dedicated music-programme, Leeds Beckett has well-established courses
and above average facilities for both music production and technology. It is a
university worth a visit.
The main building at the Headingly Campus in the beautiful area of Beckett Park
A 19th Century courtyard surrounds a central lawn
Studios
Several mid-sized studios are set up with small Allen & Heath consoles.
They don't have the analogue in-line architecture usually associated with studio
consoles, but they provide an intuitive front-end to the recording-chain. The R16 depicted has digital functionality similar to that of an in-line console. Dynaudio BM15s provide full-range listening, and a simple collection of outboards provide training in traditional work-flow. In spite of their simple set-up and relatively compact size these studios are well equipped to
provide basic training.
The larger studios are equipped with Audient ASP8024 consoles. The
Audient consoles have traditional in-line architecture and provide a
natural progression from the smaller A&H Zed-based studios. The
Audient-equipped studios are also set up with more backline and
outboard than the smaller studios.
The largest of the Audient-consoles is a 32-channel frame. That is,
32 lines of recording and 32 tape-inputs for mixing, plus returns.
Always nice to see analogue tape being available
Hammond & Leslie
Computer Labs
Work-stations
All workstations in this lab had both extra USB and analogue connectivity
below the interface for better ease of use. All stations were set up
with headphones.
Years ago I went to FE college in Norway studying electronics,
a background that has often come in handy while working with
sound. Computer labs like this one provides a tangible proof that
Leeds Beckett takes the link between sound and electronics seriously.
