Recording - January 2018 - 28

ONE KIT,

TWO MICS,
LOTS OF INSPIRATION
How do you track a kit with the most minimal
of tools? Get help from your DAW!
How does one
track drums? That's a common question with a myriad of
often-complicated answers... especially in this day and age,
when even small 4-piece drum kits often get tracked with two
mics each on the snare and kick, mics on every tom, spot
mics on the hi-hats and ride, stereo and mono overheads, a
front-of-kit mic, room mics, and a mic to capture drum throne
squeaks. It's no wonder many small studios opt for one of the
many excellent virtual drum programs on the market.
What is easy to forget is that many of the classic records
we love often had the drums captured with four mics or less,
and often just two. While this classic approach is making a
comeback with many engineers and producers, it does mean
giving up the ability to alter the levels, EQ, or panning of
individual kit pieces.... or does it?
My friend David Blascoe is the drummer for Citizen Way,
whose latest single "Bulletproof" just spent ten weeks at
Number One on the Billboard
Contemporary Christian Music chart.
He also plays drums and synths/
programming in the experimental
hip-hop duo Black Fuse, who just
released their second album Come
Back Different last March.
David is also at the top of my list
when I need a session drummer.
On the last three projects I have
done for clients, he has indeed
provided the drums, but rather than
recording them at my studio with
my collection of mics and preamps,
he did them in his studio with two
Shure SM57s, an Apogee Duet for
iPad and Mac, and Ableton Live...
wait, what?
BY PAUL VNUK JR AND DAVID BLASCOE

28

RECORDING January 2018

At first, this did make me a little nervous when he suggested it.
If I'm being honest, I had to wrestle with my ego and give up
some control. After all, I have spent two decades hand-picking
my mics and gear just so I can get the "perfect" drum sound
with no compromises, or worse yet, sample replacement.
Sound familiar?
In the end, I am glad I listened. After I heard the results for my
first client, I began to recommend this method to the others.
I suspect that many drummers like David, after tracking in
larger studios and touring, still want to be creative and record at
home. Limited space, gear, and finances might make large mic
collections and 16-channel interfaces impractical. The following
technique is a great alternative, and all it takes is two dynamic
microphones, a 2-channel interface, and a DAW capable of
sample-drum replacement. (In this example, we'll use Ableton Live.)
David uses an Apogee Duet for iPad and Mac, a high-end
portable 2-channel audio interface that includes a pair of
built-in mic preamps. While he will
occasionally use others, his mics of
choice are usually a pair of Shure
SM57 dynamics.

David Blascoe: I love SM57s for
a few reasons. There is almost no
other microphone that sounds so
good yet is so accessible to everyone. Award-winning engineers
have them, and so can a 13-year-old
kid recording in his parents' basement. I love its reliability: you
plug it in and it works. Today I
have become so familiar with the
sound of a 57 that I know how to
manipulate it after the fact with
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - January 2018
