Page 15 - August InDesign

Wild Bill O’Halloran

pick up everyone else in the empty space, and the drums and now, you’ll need 3 people to have a complete good
leak (“bleed”) into anything else in the room. My fast take ( or something close), and you’ll need to get the
and dirty simple trick? No amps for other things in same guitar sound good (and good in the headphones, lest
room. Do NOT put two mics way up in the sky (“ Don’t he ( I keep using “he” because recording problems and
put them close, my sticks will hit them”.....that’s the mating the male ego intersect so frequently) try to “Fix” a
call of the drummer who’s about to hate the finished problem that’s not really there). Books have been writ-
recording sound)….work out a way to get them somewhat ten about how to aim the Shure SM57 at the edge of the
close….I use one on kick, one on hi hat, one on snare speaker cone, but I suggest a beefier mic aimed anywhere
(someone will tell you to put one mic halfway, but good at the speaker (remember, you can overdub a double of
luck changing your mind about the mix later…..someone the guitar later and push the fussing further down the
else will tell you to mic the bottom snare head….punch road). More on him (or her) next time.
that person), one above left side crash, one above right
side ride cymbal, one between the rack toms, one aimed Last point for this time: Because of the inherent difficulty
at floor tom (away from cymbal).....you could use more, of capturing the drums without crappy, echo-ey sound
but you’re already at 7 mics..persuade the drummer not to leaking from source to source….and the respect that’s
bring more drums--very important!--…..now for the real given to those who succeed in this, you’ll find that you
trick: eq. Turn on only the kick drum burn a giant portion of your time (and possibly your
microphone, and have drummer record about 1 minute budget) on something that ends up way in the back-
of him playing the whole kit…..that mic will pick up the ground (with compression, which we’ll cover next time,
whole thing, and it will sound HORRIBLE…...turn all the maybe only sorta in the background)....thing is,
high frequencies down until the cymbals are inaudible…... most demos rush through the vocals at the end of the
now turn the mids down til the snare is mostly gone….. day when everyone is tired, running out of paid studio
don’t worry about making the kick sound “good” until hours, and patience. Vocals….you know, the
you’ve gotten rid of everything else. Then go to the thing that people will notice most….that contain those
cymbals and….you guessed it, turn all the lows off until brilliant lyrics and gut-wrenching emotions you worked
you don’t hear the other drums…..will you end up so hard to express. Avoid this mistake if you possibly can.
needing to compromise? Absolutely. The first time you Happy hunting til next time. We’ll push eq,
do this, will your ears start to deceive you. compression, reverb and time correction down the road,
Absolutely…..but tomorrow, you’ll START with those like we did with the annoying guitar... and grossly
settings, so you’ll get something acceptable before your oversimplify them….later.
ears get tired…..then
www.wildcatohalloran.com
Bass: Plug it straight into the board, only to be heard in
headphones….fuss with tone for a few minutes….bass is
in a separate track, you can fuss more later. It was good
enough for the Beatles.

Guitar: “Wait a minute Bill, we’ve already used 8 tracks,
our budget recorder may not have any more inputs. Fast
and DIrty answer: If the guitarist has really good time,
don’t give him a mic. Put him (actually, his amp)
around a corner, in another room, still able to see the
bassist and drummer, but his amp far away from those
pesky drum mics. Tell him “you’re overdubbing later,
like the keys, and the singer…..and the cowbell or
whatever….be quiet, just loud enough to be able to tell
you’re here….we’ll perfect your sound when you
overdub….and that will mask any crappy sound that leaks
through into the drums….don’t solo, play a simple version
of the song”

“ But Bill, what if my guitarist has somewhat shaky time?”
Well, now we have to make a compromise by eliminating
a drum mic (or pre mixing 2….I suggest maybe the
cymbal nearest the floor tom and the floor tom itself….
you can adjust the mix afterward with low and high eq).....

www.writeawaymag.co.uk 15