Lesson 14 Part 2 - Posted on 2013-05-10 by Vanessa Agosto

Kung Fu Bakery observe: May 9th, 4 hours

We were originally going to watch Steve make drum samples for Cloverdale, a band headed to Nashville in the fall. The idea is for the band to show up in Nashville with something a little different - a little poppier, I'm guessing. They had to cancel, so instead we students attempted to set up and mike a drum set for Steve's Master's student, Kiel. It was fun and we were largely clueless. We had to strike it all (except the mikes) when the drummer showed up. 

So! A general order of events: set up the drums, set up the mikes, choose cords that are suitable lengths, hook them up according to the line list, keep them very neat by connecting them to the wall first and then walking the cord to the mike, leaving any extra length neatly coiled under the mike stand. Then: label the preamp inputs and do all the patchbay hookups. Steve asked the drummer to play different things so he could set levels, and there was some mixing going on at this point because not all the drums were at the same level. I do remember the kick was loud. They ended up moving the kick-in mike away from inside the drum because it was too "toppy", but it ended up giving much more signal because of all the "poofy air" it was exposed to be a little farther out. Interesting!

Because the song was in a slow 4/4, Steve doubled up the click to help out the drummer. Also, after they adjusted levels and took out the excessive delay and weird phasing that was happening in the drummer's mix, he was ready to go. He was rocking! It was really good. Can I just say I'm always impressed by the studio musicians, having played when I was a kid and knowing I could never do what they do. Steve and Kiel gave a bunch of notes to the drummer, and the next take was good to go. It was crazy.