Adam, Tariq and me went into the studio with the intention of re-recording the song I had posted in my previous blog for his second piece. My arrhythmic drumming had caused problems which is has now improved due to using lighter drum sticks. We used 8 microphones to record this time and also brought in our own cymbals and snare drum with its dampening pad to get a cleaner punchier sound. We placed the dampening pad half on the skin so the circumference lay almost over the centre.
Arial view of 8 mic set up. Bass mic inside bass drum
We patched through 8 channels from Loud Room 1 to the ISA 282-1 and added 8 mono audio tracks on ProTools, routing them through with the inputs going from A1-A8. After placing the microphones in effective positions and tying all cables out of the way we started to take readings from all of the microphones 1 at a time. Straight off the bat we experienced peaking on almost all 8 tracks so we turned off the +30dbs button on 8 channels of the ISA 282-1.
Soloing tracks to take peak levels/nice sounds
ISA 282-1 levels for recording drums.
As we were using considerably more microphones this time round we spent a lot longer placing microphones and taking readings from each channel by soloing them in the mixer window and playing repeated hits of each respective part of the drum kit. Due to the small dimensions of the room combined with large amounts of cables, stands and microphones we found it difficult to capture any usable pictures of the microphone set up, so instead I recorded all of the microphone placements and models used in this video here.
With the limitation on post-production editing this task required I wanted to capture sounds similar to what I have heard on In Rainbows by Radiohead which were produced by long-time collaborator Nigel Godrich. He is referred to by fans as the ‘sixth member of Radiohead’ in a similar way to how George Martin was often called the fifth member of The Beatles. From reading this interview with Nigel Godrich I had to seriously reconsider what role he plays in Radiohead. Here’s a short interview excerpt circa the release of OK Computer.
Nigel Godrich, picture cropped to eliminate fivehead
One concession to digital technology was made in the form of a Pro Tools system, which was used for tidying up little mistakes. “It’s been really handy”, he admitted. “But again it’s something that you have to learn not to use. Because when we first got it, I was trying to do this and that with it, and ended up sitting in front of the thing for two days. And everybody gets pissed off, and you lose the feeling that you’re excited about something. The trick is to do something fast enough and then keep going so you can’t get bored with the thing you’ve just done. “You just go and go and you don’t stop, and when you go back later and look at what you’ve done, you can say this one doesn’t work but that one is great.
Earlier in the interview he talks about the importance of capturing the energy of a performance and says on recording guitars he simply uses a Shure SM57 mic pointed towards the amp, and how making your performers labour too long over a song can cause the song to become stale as the feeling it has on its inception is lost when you try to retrospect on what elements you want to amplify. On recording OK Computer he also said he’d try to record the band playing new songs asap while they were unfinished so they could listen back to their songs with all parts included, rather than allow them to grow bored of certain elements played to death in rehearsal.
My problems with playing drums to a click track have always been trying to play with feeling while staying in time. In the same interview Nigel Godrich spoke about this.
As for click tracks, they were used for establishing tempos on some songs, and then switched off. “Obviously clicks will hold you back, expression wise. They’re useful as a tool, but they can take the performance out of it.”
It has been refreshing reading that the producer of my favourite band is more openly concerned with techniques in capturing performance and the feeling of a song in favour of pristine production.
