Alex Cook

Unit 25: Music Production Techniques

Overheads: When recording drums in the studio, the microphones of choice to record over heads are the Neumann KM184's. The KTM184's have a frequency range of 20Hz to 20Khz with a cardioid polar pattern. We use two of these and face them either towards the centre of the snare drum at an equal distance, alternatively, they can be placed in the XY position where the microphones are placed opposite each other at a right angle. And face towards the outside of the drum kit. When drums are recorded this way, the microphones pick up more of a roomy sound as they're faced away from the drum kit. Kick Drum: The kick drum is recorded via an Audix F14. This microphone has a frequency response of 30Hz to 10kHz the reason it has a smaller frequency response than the Neumann's is because it is designed for recording kick drums and doesn't need the frequencies higher than 10khz due to a kick drum being such a low frequency. The F14 is a dynamic microphone with a cardioid polar pattern, this makes sure that the other drums cannot be heard and to reduce any feedback. The Microphone can either be placed facing the skin of the kick drum or inside the kick drum through a hole in the skin, each giving a different characteristic in recording. High Hat: The High Hat uses an Audix F15 to record with. The Audix F15 is a condenser microphone in oppose to the Audix F14 used on the kick drum and the F15 also has a wider frequency response of 100Hz to 20Khz. This condenser mic has a wide cardioid polar pattern and is placed above the high hat facing the centre and this is done to achieve the full sound of the high hat rather than just the rim. Toms: In the studio, tom's are mic'ed up with Audix F10's. This quite similar to the F14 kick drum apart from the frequency response of about 50hz to 12Khz, it has a higher low frequency response because toms belong in the mids on the frequency spectrum and this makes the F10's a perfect candidate for toms recording. There are two ways to mic up the toms, one is with a clamp on the side of the rim pointing towards the centre of the skin and the other is to mic it up with a stand and place it into the same central position as pointed before. Snare Top: Snares a most commonly recorded with a Shure SM57. It has a cardioid polar pattern which gives it a more direct recording (it will record only what is pointed at) it has a frequency response of 40Hz 15Khz. The SM57 is placed next to the snare drum ever so slightly over hanging the snare while facing towards the centre of the snare drum. Because when recording a snare drum it is popular to record with two mic's; a top and bottom snare; there is a phase inversion button to avoid phase cancellation. This is where two sounds contend with each other and cancel each other out. Snare Bottom: The bottom of the snare is mic'd up with the Shure SM58. This is very similar to the SM57 apart from the shape and frequency response of 50hz to 15Khz. This microphone is placed underneath the snare drum hence the name 'bottom snare' and captures the sound of the bottom of the snare, underneath a snare is the snare wires. When a snare is hit, these are what give it the snappy hard hitting sound. If these were not recorded the snare wouldn't sound as full.

Stage Box: Stage Box's are used to input microphones to send to the producers/engineers computer. 8 microphones are most common when recording drum's and each microphone has a designated number on the stage box. This order goes as follows: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Kick Drum Snare Top Snare Bottom Mid Tom Floor Tom Hi Hat Overhead Left Overhead Right

When in this industry standard order, it makes finding the instrument in the inputs a lot easier and creates a better organisation on the computer/desk as well as in the studio. Polar Patterns: Polar patterns are graphs that show the shape that the microphone is most sensetive. There are 5 different polar patterns in microphones, cardioids, omnidirectional, Bidirectional, supercardioid or hypercardioid Cardioids are most sensitive to sound when being pointed in a particular direction, this is more commonly used on snare drums, kick drums and toms to pick up the single hits of one drum instead of the overall kit. Cardioids also come in supercardioid and hypercardioid. Hypercardioids and Super cardioids are used for when maximum isolation is needed. The omnidirectional polar pattern means that the microphone can pick up audio from any position you face it, meaning its pattern is a full 360 degrees, this is especially good for ambience. Bidirectional microphones record sound from both sides, front and back. Sound being delivered from the side of these kind of microphones meet equally at the front and back, therefore this microphone doesn't have a sensitivity to a certain direction.