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Devin Zorn
Wednesday, October 30th
Time In: 12 Noon
Wednesdays are always booked with a session that Rick invites all his students to come watch and observe. We were recording drums and the drummer and singer of the group were in that day. (I had met the singer before at an open mic night at Bronson Rock in Keller) Most of the students who weren't done or almost at the end of the Recording Connection program weren't allowed to touch/ help out and could only observe which was extremely irritating to me because I had driven all the way out there to help setup and were only wanting me to watch. Having almost 2 years of experience with micing up a drum kit before this made it very upsetting that I was suppose to just sit around in the control room while two other guys set everything up, it wasnt teaching me anything and by the time they were halfway done, more than half the people who were there when i got there left. So as everybody else was sitting quietely on their phone, texting and looking through facebook and being bored to death I stood up and walked in the recording room to lend whatever hand they needed with the setup. There wasnt much left for me to help with, but I did get acquainted with some people who were in the latest stages/ done with the Recording Connection program. They were really cool guys and fun to talk to with similar music taste, which is always refreshing! Anyways, after that we all go back in the control room and hang out for about half an hour waiting for the drummer and singer to arrive. Rick asked for a volunteer to go check the mics while we were waiting and naturally my hand shot straight up before anybody else even looked. I was there to do some hands on stuff! So I go in and check the mics, snapping in front of them and lightly tapped on them (Because i was told to, which is weird because ive alway been told beofore to NEVER do that to a microphone, but whatever Rick says when it comes to audio I'll do) and that was that. When the drummer finally arrived, I kinda just walked in and started helping any way they would let me amd I got to see exactly where the mics where placed to get the sound right. Thick front head of the kick drum was totally removed but it sounded gorgeous, which i always thought it would sound the opposite, but now I know! And the mic in the kick (AKG D112. I prefer the Shure Beta 52, but this sounded better than I ever normally hear the AKG, which was impressive) was up towards the top of the drum very far into the drum. Again, the drum sounded absolutely amazing, very punchy and boomy just how I like it with only one mic and NO compression or EQ. I was astounded. The overheads were AKG c414's and not pencil condensers, which i have seen before (with Neumann u87's) but I'm still very accustomed to seeing pencil condensers as overheads, but I'm guessing that is going to change sooner than later. The rest of the close mics were just like I already knew how to do, using SM57s on the top of the snare pointing somewhere between dead center and the rim to get optimal attack and tone and on the bottom facing straight up at the springs (where where tight on this drumkit. The guy had a beautiful Gretch kit made out of maple in an almost vintage Les Paul-type burst finsish. It is one of the nicest sounding kits I've ever heard in person) to get the "smack" (for lack of a better term" from the snare. The toms had Shure Beta 56's (looks like the Beta 52 kick drum mic, but smaller so it could be used for toms) placed again, somewhere between dead center and the rim (but closer to the center) There were several room mics placed just for experimenting. There were Coles 4038s in the back, AKG condensers (not sure which ones they were, but they looked like a regular dynamic mic/ SM58- style mic) just in front of those and AKG Pencil condensers behind the drum kit on each side pointing at the snare. (It was an idea by the guy who had already completed the course) We only used the pencil condensers in the back for the room mics because it sounded awesome. Rick told him it was "the sprinkles and cherry on top" of the drum mix. Everybody liked the way it sounded. So from there, the drummer laid down his tracks, where were really cool acoustic jazz/ singer- songwriter type songs and sounded great! during the session while some of us stepped out of the control room, Rick handed me a CD that he said I would like and should listen to because Chris Lord-Alge engineered it (who i was familiar with and respected greatly) which he had been playing while they were setting the mics up before the drummer arrived. It sounded great! By the time the session was almost over I was the last student left and it was just Rick, The guy who graduated and I and the artists recording. Once they were finished I helped tear down (again the most they would let me. I understand they dont know me too well yet to trust me handling the expensive thousand dollar mics and everything, but i have almost all the same standard mics aside from the nice condensers at my house and use them regularly. It's a little irritating to have to let them talk to me like I have no idea what I'm doing when in reality I have a very strong grasp on exactly what all is going on) So i took the mic stands and put them in the corner and make them neat. I tried to get them as perfectly as I could, which got me made fun of just a tiny bit because it was taking a while for me to get them just right, but it was funny anyways. And that concluded my day at January Sound with that session. It was an awesome learning experience (I've been itching to do more drum recording and mess with the mic placement ever since) and I got acquainted with some cool people. I'll be going back this next coming wednesday and the day after for my class which was moved due to the studio being booked on my normal class day. I left as the last student there at 6pm when the studio was closed. Again, it was an awesome day, despite the slow start and I absolutely can not wait for the next time i go!
Sorry for the extremely long winded blog post! haha
Time Out: 6:04pm
