Recording - May 2020 - 50

Photo by Nigel Dick

Inside the

Studio
with Mark Hornsby

Miking and Making Invisible

The Drums

The drum kit on 'Turn Your Life Around' is a Sonor SQ2 maple
with a walnut roots satin veneer. It has 8", 10", and 12" rack
toms, 14" and 16" floor toms, and a 22" kick drum. The snare
drum is a 6 1/2" by 14" Sonor SQ1. Heads by Aquarian: Response 2 on the toms with Classic Clear heads underneath, a
clear Force One on the kick drum, and a coated Super 2 on the
snare drum. For cymbals, we used Zildjian for this track, a combination of A and K types. Some of my personal favorites from
this setup are the K Sweet Crashes and K Custom Organic Ride.
This maple kit is pretty unique in that there are reinforcement
rings on the tops and bottoms of every drum (kick included)
which creates a tight and punchy sound. At first glance, these
drums look wide open-no tape or Moongel here, but we did
dampen the decay of the floor toms with an old-school trick:
cotton balls. Tip: if the drum keeps ringing and you're trying
to stop or shorten the decay, it's usually the bottom head-not
the top one. Take a couple of cotton balls and stretch them out
into a small flat pillow, and put them inside the drum, resting on
the bottom head. This shortens the decay without altering the
attack. On the snare drum, we used one Drumdot. Drumdots
are small, clear polymer discs that you can put on the actual
drum head to control or dampen the sound.
50 RECORDING May 2020

A note on tuning: most drums have a sweet spot where they
really speak. When a drum is tuned too low, it sounds flabby.
When it's tuned too high, it sounds choked. What we try and
do is find the sweet spot where there's nice attack and good
tone. If one drum creates a droning sound or cross-talk with
another, then that's a problem because the drone creates a
sustaining note that bleeds into everything. Use these tips and
your own common sense, advance the conversation with your
drummers, and even the differences between what you're hearing in the control room vs. what's happening in the tracking
room. Trust me, this will save you a ton of time.

The Drum Mics

We used DPA microphones-some of the best microphones
in the world. DPA is transparent with high max SPL and superb
off-axis sound quality-great for drums, since everything is
bleeding into each other. Here's a breakdown of how we did it:
inside the kick drum we used a DPA 2011 A cardioid (159dB
SPL). Outside the kick drum, on the floor and pointed up at the
exterior of the head was a DPA 4011 Cardioid (144dB SPL).
On the snare top and bottom we used the 2011 F (140dB SPL).
One of the coolest things we discovered is that DPA makes



Recording - May 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - May 2020

No label
Fade In
Fast Forward
That One Instrument Mic
Plugin Outlet: Chandler Limited Germanium Compressor by Softube
Incidents in The Sound Lab: Recording and Mixing The String Cheese Incident
Peluso P-28 Pencil Tube Condenser Microphone
Austrian Audio Hi-X55 Professional Over-Ear Headphones
Creative Miking Techniques for Flute, Snare, Piano, and more!
The Do’s and Don’ts of Flute Recording
Stereo Snare and Fun Room Miking Tips
Recording Piano Wrong
Plugin Outlet: Silo Soundlabs Trident EQ plugins
Inside the Studio with Mark Hornsby: miking and making Nick D’Virgilio’s
Samar Audio Design AL95 Passive Ribbon Microphone
Heiserman H47tube Microphone
Inside the Box with Joe Albano: Microphone and Preamp Modeling
Readers' Tracks
Plugin Outlet: Polyverse Comet
Recording - May 2020 - No label
Recording - May 2020 - Cover1
Recording - May 2020 - Cover2
Recording - May 2020 - 1
Recording - May 2020 - 2
Recording - May 2020 - 3
Recording - May 2020 - Fade In
Recording - May 2020 - 5
Recording - May 2020 - 6
Recording - May 2020 - 7
Recording - May 2020 - Fast Forward
Recording - May 2020 - 9
Recording - May 2020 - That One Instrument Mic
Recording - May 2020 - 11
Recording - May 2020 - 12
Recording - May 2020 - 13
Recording - May 2020 - 14
Recording - May 2020 - 15
Recording - May 2020 - 16
Recording - May 2020 - 17
Recording - May 2020 - 18
Recording - May 2020 - 19
Recording - May 2020 - Plugin Outlet: Chandler Limited Germanium Compressor by Softube
Recording - May 2020 - 21
Recording - May 2020 - 22
Recording - May 2020 - 23
Recording - May 2020 - Incidents in The Sound Lab: Recording and Mixing The String Cheese Incident
Recording - May 2020 - 25
Recording - May 2020 - 26
Recording - May 2020 - 27
Recording - May 2020 - 28
Recording - May 2020 - 29
Recording - May 2020 - 30
Recording - May 2020 - 31
Recording - May 2020 - 32
Recording - May 2020 - 33
Recording - May 2020 - Peluso P-28 Pencil Tube Condenser Microphone
Recording - May 2020 - 35
Recording - May 2020 - Austrian Audio Hi-X55 Professional Over-Ear Headphones
Recording - May 2020 - 37
Recording - May 2020 - Creative Miking Techniques for Flute, Snare, Piano, and more!
Recording - May 2020 - 39
Recording - May 2020 - The Do’s and Don’ts of Flute Recording
Recording - May 2020 - 41
Recording - May 2020 - Stereo Snare and Fun Room Miking Tips
Recording - May 2020 - 43
Recording - May 2020 - Recording Piano Wrong
Recording - May 2020 - 45
Recording - May 2020 - Plugin Outlet: Silo Soundlabs Trident EQ plugins
Recording - May 2020 - 47
Recording - May 2020 - Inside the Studio with Mark Hornsby: miking and making Nick D’Virgilio’s
Recording - May 2020 - 49
Recording - May 2020 - 50
Recording - May 2020 - 51
Recording - May 2020 - 52
Recording - May 2020 - 53
Recording - May 2020 - 54
Recording - May 2020 - 55
Recording - May 2020 - Samar Audio Design AL95 Passive Ribbon Microphone
Recording - May 2020 - 57
Recording - May 2020 - Heiserman H47tube Microphone
Recording - May 2020 - 59
Recording - May 2020 - Inside the Box with Joe Albano: Microphone and Preamp Modeling
Recording - May 2020 - 61
Recording - May 2020 - 62
Recording - May 2020 - 63
Recording - May 2020 - 64
Recording - May 2020 - 65
Recording - May 2020 - 66
Recording - May 2020 - 67
Recording - May 2020 - 68
Recording - May 2020 - 69
Recording - May 2020 - Readers' Tracks
Recording - May 2020 - 71
Recording - May 2020 - Plugin Outlet: Polyverse Comet
Recording - May 2020 - Cover3
Recording - May 2020 - Cover4
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