Some recording unhinged :)

Masters Q&A Q&A Sylvia Massy
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Hi, Sylvia! I am grateful to you and the MWTM team for this Q&A session, it’s invaluable. I have a couple of questions for you.

  1. I recently read your book «Recording unhinged» (and it really inspired me!) and yesterday on drums recording session used your hose mic technique. It was really weird sound, that created a unique color for the drums. Is this important, how far away from drum kit I put mic into hose? Under the floor tom or 6 feet away from drums? Is hose has to lay under all drums, pedals or only behind the drums? I put some picture-scheme, how I made it. Do you compressed this mic with fast A and R settings or make 1073 saturation or do any other processing?
  2. I have trouble in AB drum overheads recording. As I understand, we have acoustic axis of the drums on the snare-kick line and I need to put AB mics perpendicular to it. But in this case my snare or kick go to the side. When I have snare in stereo image center - kick go to the side, when I have kick in the center - snare is gone. How to mic AB that kick and snare be in the stereo image center? Or in AB it impossible? Should the equal distance to each microphone be measured from the center of the snare drum or from the center of the kick? Also put picture how I make it.
  3. Do you phase align your trash mics with the spot and overheads mics?
  4. What’s news about your new book? Waiting for it :slight_smile:
    Regards and best wishes,
    Vlad.
    Hose mic
    Hose mic1052×714 35.4 KB

    Overheads
    Overheads1176×780 41.2 KB
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Helo Vladis!

  1. The hose is best if run very close to the kit. I often thread the hose through the cymbal stands. The mic-end of the hose I’ll put next to the floor tom. The hose is best if it is not too long, I’ll cut it to 10-12 feet. I’ll compress the signal to taste. Usually fast attack and release, but sometimes I’ll make it very slow and pumpy. 1073 saturation is also a good idea. See how it works in the drum blend and adjust.
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  1. I am less concerned about the snare being dead-center of the drum picture, though when your snare disappears it may be because of a phase discrepancy. Make sure your SU-013s are not facing each other. You can face them straight down or in an XY pattern. Compare each individual OH mic, in mono, with first the kick mic then the top snare mic to make sure these mikes are in phase. When the two mics are playing together in mono, it should sound thicker and deeper, not thinner. Flip the phase on the OH tracks until you get the best sound. You can do this test with tom tracks and room tracks too for the very best punchy drum tracks!
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Thank you so much for time and for answers!