I had a fantastic drum session with Russ Irwin (Aerosmith) and Anthony Thompson (24-7 Spyz).
Anthony is the energetic backbone of the New York band 24-7 Spyz and has a truly unique style of playing.
Russ Irwin is an amazing multi-instrumentalist and composer that has written songs for Aerosmith, Foreigner, Scorpions, and Meat Loaf to name a few. Check him out at: http://russirwin.com
The Duo is working on a new album featuring songs they have written together over the years. I can say they’ve written some great songs and Russ’s melodies are infectious! I will definitely share more when they release these songs!
On our next Console Live Chat Live Stream we are actually going to do some recording!
If you’ve joined us for one of our Console Side Chat Live Streams then you know we cover a LOT of topics. The best part being that we get to hang out with all of you!
Since our topic of conversation always centers around recording music we decided to have a little fun and record a little ditty live during the stream! The setup will be drums (2 mics only!), bass, electric guitar and acoustic guitar.
But……
We need your help in selecting the mics we’re going to use for the recording. We’ve created a simple poll with a set of mics for each instrument and we need to you vote. Sunday before the live stream we’ll tally the votes, setup up the session and go live!
For episode 2 of the new Microphone Monday series I decided to make 180? turn and pick one of my favorite dynamic mics. The Heil PR30.
If you have followed my videos you already know that I love the PR30. It’s quite possibly my favorite tom mic ever and also gets used on guitar cabinets a lot. The nice round low mid, tight low end and forward mid-range make it easy to work with in a mix.
Plus it has fantastic off-axis rejection. That comes in real handy when you are miking a tom and there are cymbals in close proximity.
Besides toms and guitar cabs I’ve had great luck with the Heil PR30 on overheads (especially in a live situation), hi-hat and bass cab. Wait till you hear the bass in this video! It’s tight and punchy.
Recording bass with the Heil PR30
Another place I’ve had great luck with the PR30 is vocals. The smooth but pronounced mid-range make it a no brainier on a vocal. Heil Sound also make a handheld version called the PR35.
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a full service recording studio, mixing studio and band development resource located in Los Angeles, Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Panorama City, CA 91402 https://www.ultimatestudiosinc.com
We believe EVERYONE deserves great sounding music! Ultimate Studios, Inc is a boutique production facility for artists and bands to collaborate, create, and record.
Led by Producer/Engineer Charlie Waymire, our team assists artists through the entire creative process including recording, mixing, mastering, and video production.
Our ultimate goal is to help bands and artists build a strong brand for a lasting career!
Contact us for more information about how we can help you achieve your musical goals!
I LOVE experimenting with drum room miking. I also love finding techniques that can work in any room, provide some extra vibe and give me extra options during mix down. That to me is a win win!
In our last window we used an amp to create a vibey room sound but in this video we’ll use a wall!
One technique (or trick if you will) that I have used for a long, long time is miking the wall. Yes, miking the wall!
My mic of choice for this is the ubiquitous SM57 and by placing the mic as close to the wall as possible, so a business card can barely fit between the wall and the mic, the 57 is turned into a boundary mic. The 57 is already filtered on the top and bottom by nature and the wall tends to add to that.
I like this because that can help soften the cymbals a little as well as smearing the transient in a really cool way. This is what allowed me to get a “room sound” in my old studio that was pretty small and didn’t actually sound great. Add a little compression and you can get some real excitement out of this one microphone!
Now every room is different. As always I highly recommend experimenting in your room to find the best placement. And don’t forget the floor is a wall too!
Check out the video below and let me know how this works for you!
Happy recording!
Charlie
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a full service recording studio, mixing studio and band development resource located in Los Angeles, CA.
Panorama City, CA 91402
We believe EVERYONE deserves great sounding music!
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a boutique production facility for artists and bands to collaborate, create, and record.
Led by Producer/Engineer Charlie Waymire, our team assists artists through the entire creative process including recording, mixing, mastering, and video production.
One of my favorite parts of the music making process is when a band wants to record all together at the same time. Live off the floor. Not only is the energy from the band great but it’s also a challenge from the recording aspect.
Especially when their are 6 band member including drums, bass, 2 guitar players, saxaphone, harmonica, keys, sitar, tabla…and a second bass? Yep!
That is Paracosmic. They are funk, they are rock, they are blues, they are psychedelic and they are heavy on improv. That last part is why recording live is so important for a band like Paracosmic. They feed off each other every second of every song and it’s a lot of fun.
So how did we go about recording this band live here at Ultimate Studios, Inc? Very carefully!
We had Brandon Cooke (drums) setup in the live room with 16 mics. To open up some space in the room we decided to record the drums in the corner. Not only do the drums sound great there but it opens up room for the other musicians in the room.
Joining Brandon in the live room was Ashton Slater (guitar), Travis Soto (guitar/bass2) and Leo ‘Toad’ Meginley (bass).
For Toad we had a DI as well as a Mark Bass rig setup in the back room. That allowed Toad to have his tone in his ears as well as options for mixing. Both guitar amps were setup in the ISO booth separated by to 4” thick panels. The ISO is very dead and works well with multiple amps.
So far it’s pretty straight forward but it’s about to get interesting!
In the Control Room
With need for isolation for the keys, sax and flute Evan Hatfield (sax/keys/sitar) and Adrian Johnson (harmonica/flute) joined me in the control where we tracked them live with the rest of the band. To help get a little extra isolation between the sax and flute we setup a clear sonic shield between them. It worked really well too!
On one of the songs we tracked live sitar and table in the control room too. It was crowded for sure but it allowed the band to play together like they were used to. It sounded great!
Recording in a room that doesn’t allow for room mics? I have something for you to try!
Getting a drum room sound can be challenging without a good sounding room. Especially if your recording at home or in a rehearsal space or another space not designed for getting good acoustic drum sounds.
I like to find ways to not only get space from my room sounds but also a VIBE! You know, a sound that adds some cool sauce to your tracks and also puts a unique stamp on them.
One of the things I’ve done lately is run a microphone in front of the kit, in this case and SM57, into a guitar amp in my ISO booth and miking the amp. At that point you can do all sorts of fun stuff with mic placement, amp settings, distortions, EQ, mic types, etc..
When the sounds are used in moderation this technique can add a space around your kit without sounding too roomy but if used heavily it can really add some cool color to your tone. For this video I chose to use my Marshall JCM2000 but you can try this with any amp. My cheap little Fender 212 sounded pretty cool!
If you’re really interested in experimenting try putting some different guitar pedals in front of the amp. This is also a good way to bond with your guitar player! 🙂
Give it a shot and leave a comment how it worked for you and what amp(s) you tried!
Happy recording
Charlie
More about Ultimate Studios, Inc.
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a full service recording studio, mixing studio and band development resource located in Los Angeles, CA.
Panorama City, CA 91402
We believe EVERYONE deserves great sounding music!
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a boutique production facility for artists and bands to collaborate, create, and record.
Led by Producer/Engineer Charlie Waymire, our team assists artists through the entire creative process including recording, mixing, mastering, and video production.
At Ultimate Studios, Inc we understand that the recording process is just the beginning. That’s why we have a full team to help you create an online presence with full web development, SEO, advertising coaching and designing for Facebook, YouTube and Google.
Our ultimate goal is to help bands and artists build a strong brand for a lasting career!
A Page Unturned was back in the studio recording drums for two more singles. Drummer Ryan Sebold does an amazing job of laying down the foundation for this band. Part of the wave of pop-punk revival acts, A Page Unturned cited influences like Blink 182, New Found Glory, and Ellegarden, Creating energetic, melodic, fast-paced music that captures the essential roots of the 90’s/2000’s Pop-punk sound while creating a new exciting sound of their own.
For all of my sessions I like to talk with the artists before hand about what the goals are for the session. In this case Ryan and I talked at length about what type of sounds the band wanted for this round of songs. That helps me put together a plan on how best to achieve the artists goals. For these songs he wanted a big, aggressive, sound.
Choosing the Drums
Knowing that we used a combination of drums. My 18×22 Gretsch kick with an Evans Emad head, Ryan’s Pearl Forum toms with clear Remo Emperor heads, and Ryan’s Orange County Percussion snare drum with a Remo P77 head.
The Emad on the kick does a great job of giving a tight punchy low end while still having some high end smack to cut through the mix.
The clear Remo Emperors (my favorite) do a little better job of cutting through a mix than their coated counter parts. At least for this king of music where there is a lot happening in the songs.
Miking the Drums
I cover all the mic setup in the video but some of the stand outs for me are the Audio-Technica ATM250/Roswell Pro Audio Mini K47 combo on the kit. This combo give me the good note definition I need with a good solid low end that is fast and punchy.
Add in some DBX 160x on the inside kick mic and we’ve got one hell of a kick sound.
The snare was a combo of an SM57 and AKG 451b on top and a SM57 on bottom. The top mics get a little eq from the Trident 88 and some compression from my Aphex 651 Expressors.
lately I’ve been leaning towards my Heil PR30 for hi-hats. They are not harsh like a condenser but still have really good articulation.
Those mics comprise the core of the setup. The rest you’ll have to watch the video for. 🙂
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a full service recording studio, mixing studio and band development resource located in Los Angeles, Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Panorama City, CA 91402
We believe EVERYONE deserves great sounding music!
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a boutique production facility for artists and bands to collaborate, create, and record.
Led by Producer/Engineer Charlie Waymire, our team assists artists through the entire creative process including recording, mixing, mastering, and video production.
At Ultimate Studios, Inc we understand that the recording process is just the beginning. That’s why we have a full team to help you create an online presence with full web development, SEO, advertising coaching and designing for Facebook, YouTube and Google.
Our ultimate goal is to help bands and artists build a strong brand for a lasting career!
Recording Studio Tools! Charlie’s Favorite Gear: Cloudlifter Zi
It’s been a while since I’ve had time to shoot some new video for the site. I’m excited to be back talking about some of my favorite recording studio tools. Over the past few months while I’ve been hiding in the studio a lot of cool gear has come through the doors but a few pieces have stood out. The Cloudlifter Zi is one of them.
As a studio owner it’s always beneficial to find gear that is versatile enough to be used in many applications. I need tools that help me get to the sounds I need as quick as I can and that I can use on every session. The Cloudlifter Zi is one of these pieces of gear.
Bass was the first instrument (obviously!) I used it on and man was I happy. Good player+good bass+Zi= great tone! Add in the variably impedance and I’m able to dial in the perfect tone.
Like I said before I like recording studio tools that are versatile. I have used the Zi on quite a few of my drum sessions as well. Quite often I like to put a dynamic mic right in front of the kit pointed at the ceiling and crush it with guitar pedals. The signal chain goes through the Zi and I use the variable impedance and high-pass filter to tweak the tone to taste.
I have done a similar setup with vocals too. Where I have a second mic setup running through a guitar pedal and the Zi.
The Zi has become one of my favorite recording studio tools and I use it on almost every session. Check out the Cloudlifter Zi from Cloudlifter microphones!
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a full service recording studio, mixing studio and band development resource located in Los Angeles, Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Panorama City, CA 91402
We believe EVERYONE deserves great sounding music!
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a boutique production facility for artists and bands to collaborate, create, and record.
Led by Producer/Engineer Charlie Waymire, our team assists artists through the entire creative process including recording, mixing, mastering, and video production.
At Ultimate Studios, Inc we understand that the recording process is just the beginning. That’s why we have a full team to help you create an online presence with full web development, SEO, advertising coaching and designing for Facebook, YouTube and Google.
Our ultimate goal is to help bands and artists build a strong brand for a lasting career!
New Ultimate Studios, Inc Recording Studio Trailer
Recording, Mixing, Mastering, Video Production. Yes of course we do all of these things. Ultimate Studios, Inc is a full service recording studio in Los Angeles. Continue reading →
Once again I’m very honored to work with my friends in Dankrupt. In one form or another I’ve worked with them since the very beginning and it has been fun to watch them grow as band. Continue reading →
