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WHY SO SERIOUS?(CLAYTREE) LIVE TRACK(21/09/21)

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WHY SO SERIOUS?(CLAYTREE) LIVE TRACK(21/09/21)

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For my live track I will be submitting a live performance with my band "CLAY TREE" of a track written by Francesca Bisson and Jake on Waterbears songwritting factory. so for this section I will be documenting the learning process of the track and the relevent notes and practice videos. The track it's self if a fast "Pretty Reckless" insipired track with a down tunned insturments. So to better understand this style i have listened to and picked out key tracks from "The Pretty Reckless" to inform my learning and playing for this track

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"The Pretty Reckless" Case study research 1

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"The Pretty Reckless" Case study research 1

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Here is a table detailing the key tracks I have listened to. So I can better understand this genre of music.

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The pretty reckless case study research 

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Here is a video of me practicing Fran's track "Why so serious" slowed down. The challenge for me here was holding the groove and also re-working the track to fit my guitar style.

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Here is a video of me rehrsing the why so serious solo

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Here are the programme notes for "Why so serious?"

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Here are the programme notes for House full of animals

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Programme notes House full of animals WB05

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For my recorded track idea I have deveolped  the track I spoke about in my last diary on the 6/10/21. I have come up with a title for my track, which is now called "HOUSE FULL OF ANIMALS" I chose this name idea from a "click-bait" article I saw when i was reading up on somthing else. I can't rmeber the article I was reading but at some point I wrote it in my notes on my phone and when it cam to this week and I was chekcing through my notes to find any name ideas for a second track this one jumped out and helped me think of the itial riff idea as a full song. so I tracked the riff idea into logic and experimented with verse chords and pulled a drum beat in the style of the aforementioned artists from youtube. so that I could have a rough demo to bring to my band.

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For House full of animals, I've thought a lot about drum recording and ways to mic up the kit. For this track in particular I really want to have a huge punchy drum sound, much like Lower than ataltis's drum sound from Eddy Thrower. where the drums are a huge driving force holding up  the rest of the instrumentation. T achieve this I have looked into the Gyln Johns technique, it is a very minimalist mic technique but requires some setting up as it uses 2 overhead microphones both measured equaly above  the kick drum and the other next to the floor tom. Gyln Johns used this technque when during recoridng sessions with Led Zeppelin, soon making this tehcnique a stable sound of 70's hard rock as it creats a large stero image of of the kit. he also added a kick mic to bring it out and somtimes a snare mic. most modern applications of this techique utalise a kick and snare mic which adds body to the drum kit. Some other examples as shown above close mic the rest of the kit. for even more options and control over the sound of the kit as these sound examples from the article linked above.

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Today we are going to take a look at a classic drum recording technique: the Glyn Johns method. The Glyn Johns method uses two microphones to capture the bulk of the drum kit, and often times an added kick and snare mic for a little more emphasis and clarity.

My band is working on a self-recorded album and we've started to test out a few different drum miking techniques. We started this project with a four mic setup (overhead, side, kick, and snare), but we slowly tried adding in more mics to the mix and ended up with what we would like to call the Glyn Johns plus.

In this blog post, I will walk you through the more traditional Glyn Johns method first, eventually adding some mics, and then walking you through our mixing process.

Who is Glyn Johns?

Glyn Johns is an English musician, producer, and engineer. He worked on records with legends like Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and even the Beatles.

The Glyn Johns Method

Glyn came up with a unique drum recording technique known today as the Glyn Johns method. This drum miking technique uses one overhead mic, several feet above the center of the kick, and another mic off to the side near the floor tom. He would usually add in a kick drum mic and occasionally use a snare drum close mic.

A quick snapshot of our setup, with the Overhead and Side Mics circled in red.

The idea is to create a full stereo image of the kit with the overhead and side mics. This is a really effective minimalistic approach that can also be ideal for anyone recording drums on a budget or is limited to a few mics or inputs on their interface.

Today's Gear

An overhead shot of the kit

Overheads

AKG C-214

The key to nailing the Glyn Johns method is getting a great stereo image of the kit. This is achieved by placing one mic directly over the center of the kick, and one off to the side of the floor tom. Then you want to measure and make sure they are equidistant from the snare drum.

For our recordings we are keeping both mics 42.5 inches from the snare drum and using the AKG C214s as our overhead mics. Both mics are going into two Universal Audio 710 Twin Finity Preamp s, into the line inputs on the Focusrite, and then into Logic Pro X.

UA 710 Twin Finity Preamp

Below I have included samples of both mics separately, as well as panned together. The goal should be to get a great-sounding full kit from these two mics alone, and then use additional mics to emphasize the other drums if needed.

For the audio samples below, I have the Overhead mic panned all the way to the left and the Side mic panned all the way right. In later samples they will be spread a little closer to the image of the actual mic placement, but this seemed best for these mics on their own.

Both mics are being sent to a reverb bus, and out into a drum bus track with a Slate Virtual Tape Machine, the UAD SSL G-Bus Compressor, and Logic's Channel EQ Plug In.

Section A

Overhead Mic

Section B

Overhead Mic

Section C

Overhead Mic

Kick and Snare

The most common additions to the overhead mics are separate mics for kick and snare. This gives a little more control over the sound of the kit and how it sits in the mix.

Adding more mics can lead to more bleed between tracks, which can be both a good or bad effect, depending on the sound you want. Always be sure to check for phase issues!

We used a Shure SM-57 on the snare, and an AKG D112 inside the kick. Both mics are using the Clarett's onboard preamps and utilizing the "air" circuitry. Below are samples of each mic isolated, and mixed in with the overheads.

Section A

Section B

Section C

Toms

The Sennheiser MD-421 on the Floor Tom

While this is a departure from the typical Glyn Johns technique, we decided to try adding some tom mics into the mix next. This song in particular has some pounding tom fills throughout, and these mics help to add a little more punch. They also help to fill the space and add more motion to fills that move across the kit.

For our tom mics, we put a Sennheiser e604 on the rack tom, and a Sennheiser MD-421 for the floor tom. Below are some examples of each mic separated, as well as in the mix (with the snare bottom mic added in, which we will discuss shortly). Again, always check for phase issues.

For this sample, I decided to just focus on Section A of the song, since the toms are most present in this section of the track.

Section A

Full Mix (Kick, Snare Top, Snare Bottom, Rack Tom, Floor Tom, Overhead, and Side)

Snare Bottom

Snare Bottom

While experimenting with additional mics in this setup, we tried out both the hi-hat and the snare bottom mic. We eventually decided that the snare bottom was adding the most to the mix, and helping to really bring out the snap and attack of the snare drum.

Below is a sample of the snare bottom mic on its own, and mixed with all of the previous mics for Section C of the song. We used another Sennheiser e604 for Snare bottom into the Black Lion Audio Preamp.

Again, ALWAYS CHECK THE PHASE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MICS! This is where the phase inversion switch comes in handy on a preamp to help balance out the snare top and bottom mics.

Section C

Snare Bottom

Full Mix (Kick, Snare Top, Snare Bottom, Rack Tom, Floor Tom, Overhead, and Side)

Room

The final mic we tried adding into this mix was a room mic. For this, we placed the mic about 6 feet away, 4 feet off the ground and facing the center of the kit.

A Warm Audio WA47-Jr Mic served as our room mic, running through the Black Lion Audio Preamp. It really helps to fill up any missing space in the kit and adds a little punch to the track.

The samples below are the room mic isolated for each section of the song. Instead of just the dry room track, I bounced it out with the plug-ins enabled. I used a Slate Distressor plug in with some over-the-top compression dialed in, EQ boosting the low end a little bit extra around 3K, and then I sent the signal through the reverb bus, and out through the drum bus.

Room Mic Section A

Room Mic Section B

Room Mic Section C

Mixing

Since the other tracks (guitar, bass, and keys) have yet to be recorded, this is far from a final mix, but we wanted to get an idea of how the finished drums might sound.

Compression & EQ

For the four main drums (kick, snare, and toms) I used the UAD 1176-LN Legacy plug-in on each channel. This tends to be one of my go-to compressors for both drums and guitar. For the kick and snare I kept an 8:1 ratio, but the toms I did the classic "all in" to get a little extra crunch.

For snare top I boosted around 250 Hz and added a high shelf around 6K. On snare bottom I used a hi-pass filter to roll off everything under 200 Hz and let the high frequencies shine. On kick, I gradually rolled off everything above 2K, and gave it a big boost right around 60 Hz. On toms I tried to boost right around 100 and 250 Hz to get the fundemental note, and also around 2.5K to bring out the attack and definition.

For the overhead and side mics, I just used a subtle EQ and no compression. I like to keep the overhead mics more open and uncompressed. This helps to keep the kit dynamic, and they will still get some compression later on in the drum bus.

As I stated earlier, for the room mic I used some heavy compression from the Distressor, and an EQ bump around 100 Hz and 3K.

Panning

One of the biggest decisions to make with any multi-mic drum recording is how to pan. I personally like to pan the drums from the perspective of the drummer, but many producers like to do it the other way around. There's no wrong way to do it, but you typically want to create a stereo image that matches the layout of the kit.

From left to right these are my levels for panning the kit:

The overhead mic is technically placed in the center of the kit, but pushing it to the left helped to widen the stereo spread of the cymbals. I also decided to push the kick slightly to the right to add a subtle back-and-forth effect with the snare. This will also leave room to pan the bass guitar slightly to the left without the two clashing as much later on.

Reverb

For reverb I opted to use the UAD Capitol Chambers Plug In. I have really come to love this reverb and it works well with the drums. I set up an aux send with the reverb effect 100% wet, and sent differing amounts of each track to the reverb track.

Below is a sample of the reverb bus all on its own for each section of the song.

Reverb Bus Section A

Reverb Bus Section B

Reverb Bus Section C

I sent a fair amount of the snare and toms to the reverb track, with a little more of the snare bottom than the snare top. I sent a little bit of the overheads as well to help let all of the cymbals really ring out. For the room mic, I went a little over the top to really add some ambience to the whole kit. And the kick was the only thing I did not send to the reverb bus.

The Drum Bus

Finally, every individual track's output is routed to a drum bus track. This really helps to glue the whole kit together and makes it easier for mixing with the other instruments later on.

For the drum bus, I always start wth the Slate Virtual Tape Machine. This helps to add some warmth and saturation to the drums as a whole. Next I go through the UAD SSL G-Bus Compressor. This compressor has been used on the mix bus of countless records over the years, but I also like using it for drums. It really helps to glue the whole kit together and tame any transients that may still be sticking out. Finally, I add in a final EQ on the whole kit. Typically I like to bring out the kick and snare just a little more and also fine-tune the high end of the spectrum for any areas that may be a little too harsh.

The (almost) Finished Product

Well this is all I've got for today, and while I'm liking how the drums sound so far, we will definitely have to start from scratch once the other instruments are added into the mix. Hopefully this gives you some new ideas for drum tracking using different mic setups.

Full Mix - Section A

Full Mix - Section B

Full Mix - Section C

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The Glyn Johns Drum Mic Method...and Beyond! - zZounds Music Blog

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Today we are going to take a look at a classic drum recording technique: the Glyn Johns method. The Glyn Johns method uses two microphones to capture the bulk of the drum kit, and often times an added kick and snare mic for a little more emphasis and clarity.

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With my original track "HOUSE FULL OF ANIMLAS" Francessca bisson is now collaborating with me and writting lyrics and we hope to get the rest of our band involved in the writting process. I sang a melody into my voice memos for a possible chorus idea which i plan to take to fran to see if she could develop it.

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HOUSE FULL OF ANIMALS Programming drums 

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HOUSE FULL OF ANIMALS Programming drums 

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For the first demo of house full of animals, I used a youtube drum track  titled "Bounce groove" (Guitar Maps Drum tracks, 2020) which allowed me to have a rough idea of the groove i wanted but as it was mor eof backing track the parts on the track didn't fit with what i'm writting. So I used logics drummer feature where I could programme the kick and snare to follow to Bounce groove track. I think moced it to a Midi track where I had more crotrol over dynamics and could edit the drums to fit my guitar parts.

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for our track hosue full of animals I went to Frans songwritting lecture to run the song with a house band.

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HOUSE FULL OF ANIMALS Song writting work shop

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HOUSE FULL OF ANIMALS Song writting work shop

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The rehersal process for this track has been tricky as organising the band in one room has been hard as some of our memebers have full time jobs which has made practicing tricky. but we have managed to have a fair amount of rehersals but I would prefer to have  more consistent ones in the lead up to the recording of our live performance. along with this we have had to find a new bass player as the first bass player became unrealable and wasn't what we were looking for musicaly but we had a  profrssional disscusion with them to tell them we would like a differnt person for the job, which they accepted. As we had no bass for a while but we have found a dep who is happy to fill in for the live recording until we find a full time bass player.

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for my second idea I have a riff idea that a wrote when I came back to brighton on 4/09/21. currently it's just a voice memo of a Don Broco/Lower Than Atlantis  style track useing minor and major 9ths, major 7th and power chords. I plan to take this idea to 'CLAYTREE' and write it fully at some point. I am yet to come up with a name for the track. this voice memo is me jamming with a 100bpm "bouncy drum beat" form

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Don Broco/Lower than Atlantis inspired riff idea

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Don Broco/Lower than Atlantis inspired riff idea

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For this module I'm planning on performing and recording with my band "CLAYTREE" as we are going to use this as an oportunity to get live playing experience and build on our originals repertorie.