The Music Chamber has been a HUGE success! We’ve been fortunate to have some amazing musicians performing to a fantastic live audience in the studio as well as a huge online streaming audience. It’s been electric in the studio for these performances.
At the last Music Chamber concert the audience was electrified by Bleeding Harp’s performance. They were simply on fire!! Now we have video out for everyone to enjoy!
Over the past couple of months I’ve started doing a lot of live streaming seminars. I love going live because I can interact directly with other recording enthusiasts that are watching….in real-time!
One recent seminar was on the topic of capturing a full rock drum sound with only 4-5 mics. Not just drums on their own though.
That’s too easy.
Since the ultimate goal is for the tones to work in a song, we used a full blown rock track to test our sounds.
Before you watch the video I want to reiterate my stance on minimal micing….
I am not a hard core minimal micing setup only fanatic. However, I ALWAYS start with some sort of minimal mic setup. No matter what style of music I’m recording.
By making sure that I’ve captured my drum sound with only a few mics (3-5) I’m ensuring that the drum sound will be full and have good depth. Then I listen to the drums along with the music to find out what other mics I need to add to make the sound work for the song.
Sometimes I don’t need any other mics. Sometimes I need a few spot mics to make sure certain elements will fit. Sometimes it all just needs to get miced up. It ALL depends on the song.
Since my core overall sound has been captured with only a few mics I know the kit will sound full and cohesive and not fall prey to the “spot miced” drum sound.
Happy recording everyone!
Charlie
p.s. We’ll be releasing a full schedule of live streaming seminars very soon! Check out the events page to stay informed!
There is simply no better way to add depth, space, and sometimes excitement to your drum sounds than using room mics. Can you say Led Zeppelin?
However, I realize that not everyone has the space to really explore all the cool room mic possibilities. Yes, you could use reverb to simulate a room sound and it would work nicely, but…..
There is nothing cooler, and more realistic, than the feeling of an actual mic capturing the drummers performance in the room.
Today I want to show you a cool room mic trick that can work in ANY size room. Small or large.
On a recent Live Streaming Seminar I pulled out an old trick I used to do in my first studio that was considerably smaller than my studio now. Actually it was smaller than my current control room!
Best of all this trick used only 1 microphone so all you need is a single condenser (you could try a dynamic mic too).
So watch the video and then go grab a mic and experiment!
Happy recording!
Charlie
p.s. I’ll be doing a part 2 with concept soon!
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Yesterday we posted video of Chad & Kevin tracking “Eagle Eye”. Today we bring behind the scenes footage from the session.
As far as sessions go it went pretty smooth. Working with professional musicians like Chad & Kevin make my job as an engineer pretty easy. Kevin and I had talked quite a bit in the weeks leading up to the session so I had a pretty good idea on what type of tones they wanted.
We decided to use a vintage Rogers Holiday kit restored by a good friend of mine Kurt Berger and drum whisperer Chris Heuer. It is a truly amazing drum set. I love all of my kits but that kit just has the “it” factor. It really is amazing.
Kevin brought his Mark Bass rig which is a piece of cake to record. Although Kevin could make any bass rig sound good the Mark Bass is bad ass.
All in all this was a really fun day in the studio. Tarja joined us via Skype from Buenos Aires and stayed on for the entire session. Once we’d get a track we would also send them an MP3 to listen to. This is one of the great ways that technology has made our lives better. It was an international session!
Tarja is a wonderful person and an amazing artist. Check the new album out at www.tarja-theshadowself.com. Links to purchase the album are below.
Anyway let’s get to the video! I’ll post a full list of the mics used and a few photos below too.
Enjoy!
Charlie
The Brightest Void
Tarja CD Digipak – Tarja 1LP+Download – Tarja iTunes
Some sessions are fun…and then some sessions are FUN!
Few drummers can lay down a groove like Chad Smith. Few bass players can lay down a groove like Kevin Chown. Together, they form an unstoppable rhythm section. For most musicians watching them work together would be the ultimate educational experience.
They are not only masters at their crafts but they understand that music is made by collaboration. By working together, they create parts they lay the foundation for great music.
Now mix that formidable rhythm section with rock superstar, Tarja Turunen, and you’ve got yourself one hell of an album!
“Eagle Eye“, from Tarja’s new album “The Brightest Void“, is a track that features Chad Smith on drums. We filmed the entire session (almost 10 hours!) and have put together an awesome, in-studio, music video feature Chad & Kevin with the final audio from the album!
Tomorrow we’ll roll out some behind the scenes footage from the session so stay tuned!
The Brightest Void
Tarja CD Digipak – Tarja 1LP+Download – Tarja iTunes
We’ve been live streaming some great education Master Classes this month! Guitar improv, drum recording, blues guitar & bass, and we have much more coming up.
Here’s a little excerpt from our live Blues Improv Master Class with Ernesto Homeyer and Jesse Stern.
There is much more to come and we’re broadcasting every Wednesday at 6pm and Saturday at 12pm for the month of May!
Don’t miss an event, visit: www.ultimatestudiosinc.com/events/ to stay in the loop!!
We are extremely happy to announce that we have the first video from our new show “The Music Chamber” online! Last month we featured 3 amazing artist in a live, in-studio concert, that we streamed live to the entire world. Sonja Midtune, Dankrupt, and Statues of Cats.
“The Music Chamber” concert series features in-studio performances by some of the best artists in Los Angeles with a live studio audience as well as streaming live to the world!
The series of live music performances presented in a studio setting, similar to VH1 Storytellers. The goal is to give music artists a chance to perform in a personal setting meant specifically for music and to give audiences a chance to see musicians in a way they’ve never seen them before…live in a recording studio.
Ultimate Studios has the ability to record, video and live stream these performances, which gives the artists a channel to an audience beyond the people in the room on the day of the show.
Enjoy 3 amazing performances from Sonja Midtune!
So far we’ve captured one heck of a sound with only 4 mics. It’s mono but it’s really good. It’s full, it’s big, it’s punchy. It totally works.
For the record I love a mono drum sound. It’s tight, focused, and punchy. It also leaves a lot of room in the mix for other elements such as guitars, keys, vocals, etc..
However, mono can become a little stagnant as far as modern music is concerned. A lot of music can really benefit from a stereo image or left/right movement from the drums.
So I’m going to use the tom microphones for two things: Attack/presence and stereo image.
The spot microphones on the toms will definitely help them cut by adding attack. It will also give them more clarity and a little more body.
By panning the mics slightly to the left and right the drums will start to get a bit of a stereo image. This is a really neat setup. The grooves will be tight, focused, and centered while the fills will have left to right movement. It’s cool!!
Enjoy “Building A Drum Sound pt3” and I’ll see you in the studio!
All the best,
Charlie
View “Building A Drums Sound pt1“
View “Building A Drums Sound pt2”
In “Building A Drum Sound pt1” I focused on getting a complete drum sound with only 2 microphones. A mono overhead and a mic in front of the kit.
Those 2 mics produced a very nice, full, and accurate drum sound. They work on their own but they also give us a strong foundation to build a full, modern, punchy, rock tone.
So now that we have a strong foundation we’re going to add spot mics on the kick and snare to help give our drum sound some punch, presence, and a bit more clarity.
With the ribbon mic supplying our low end and body of the kick, we’ll place our kick mic well inside the drum. This will help give the kick some much need punch to cut through the mix.
Although the overhead mic captured a wonderful snare sound, adding a mic to the top of the snare will help with articulation and, like the kick, help the snare cut through the mix.
Remember, the first two mics are really important. Without them our spot mics will sound small and lack any sense of space or depth.
Last week I challenged you to pick two microphones from your mic locker and record the best drum sound possible. Now I want to you take those two microphones and add a mic on the kick and snare. Send me a message and let me know how it goes!
Enjoy “Building A Drum Sound pt2” and I’ll see you next week for part 3!
Happy recording!
Charlie
A new kids web series from Hooplakidz, “The Adventures of Annie & Ben“, is an instant hit. Just 10 days after release the first 3 episodes have garnered 200,000 views!
Written by Dennys McCoy & Pamela Hickey and Produced by Anu Javeri, “THE ADVENTURES OF ANNIE AND BEN” is a funny, happy, friendly show about three really great, loyal friends. They like adventure, travel, making new friends, and music. All four subjects meld together perfectly with our trio of globe-trotters.
The Voice Over cast is absolutely amazing. Annie is read by Anu Javeri, Ben is read by John Biondolillo, and Mango and most of the other characters are read by Gerard Marzilli
The Voices were recorded by Engineer Charlie Waymire at Ultimate Studios, Inc and YouTube studios.
If you have kids then these links are for you!
Adventures of Annie & Ben on Hooplakidz
Adventures of Annie & Ben on YouTube
