EQ Magazine - January 2008 - (Page 29)

THAT OLD BOOM BAP “When I go into a lot of studios, I see a whole lot of equipment not being used, or I see people who have a lot of equipment they don’t even know how to use,” says producer and RZA collaborator Trú James. “For me, it’s knowing how to use what you have, and my setup is pretty simple. I have one mic that comes right over the top side of the snare, and I don’t put any mics on the bottom. When I hit the snare, I want a thick, solid signal coming in. I don’t like to do a lot of messing with it afterwards. Old wooden snares are my preference, because they have a thicker, warmer sound. I found a nice ten-inch Pearl at a pawnshop while I was on the road. It’s a small, stinging snare, and it’s just incredible-sounding. For miking, I use an old Shure mic kit with a PG56 for the kick and a PG52 for the snare. I keep a blanket inside the kick, and I set the mic back just a touch from the beater to get a signal that has a good attack and nice roundness.You can put the mic closer to the beater for more attack if you want, and if you loosen up the back skin you get an 808 thing happening. “Then, I have an old Sony condenser mic I put face down right over the top of the hi-hat, close to where the stick will hit because I like to hear the attack. I use Zildjian A Custom 12-inch hats that, like the snare, have a lot of sting to them. My crash is a Zildjian A Custom medium. For my overheads, I use a pair of AKG C-1000 S mics. I set one up closer to the right side in between the floor tom and mid tom, and I have the other hanging over the crash, which gets the high tom and crash side of the set. “Once I have it all set up, I mute everything except for the mic I’m working on.The key is making it sound like I’m sitting there playing the set.You’ll hear the snare because it’s right there next to you.The hi-hat is heard a little off-center to the left, but it’s not as strong an attack as the snare. The kick and the snare I usually keep in the center of the mix. My goal in mixing in the overheads is just to add a little dimension to the sound—kind of like how James Brown used to record back in the day.” —Richard Thomas http://primacoustic.com http://primacoustic.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - January 2008

EQ Magazine - January 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Robbers On High Street Rafter RTX Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings Toolbox Rahim Dimmu Borgir Wu-Tang Clan Special Feature! Mastering for Musicians Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drumheads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Cakewalk Sonar 7 IK Multimedia Virtual Instruments Yamaha MSP7 Shure KSM137/SL K+H O 300 & O 800 Sonica Livetracker Apple Logic Studio Novation XioSynth 25, Audio-Technica ATH-M50, Samson G-Track

EQ Magazine - January 2008

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