RECORDING January 2023 - 32

Padgham
Behind the g ates of the h itmaker
I'm so sorry to hear that. I met David in 2019 when
I toured British Grove. Beyond his fantastic stories,
he made me a proper cup of British tea.
It was VERY good going back and working at British Grove
again and seeing his wife and my friend Mark Knopfler.
So on later albums, you started using more of a
traditional gated reverb sound?
A lot of those sounds were the AMS RMX16 reverb that had
just come out. It had a preset that we helped develop called
Non-Lin2 (for non-linear reverb), which sounded a bit like the
stone room at the Townhouse.
I can't recall all of the particulars, but when I was recording
Stewart Copeland with The Police, we would try and record in a
nice-sounding room-probably not as echoey as the Townhouse-
and I would take a feed from the snare drum, which was gated,
and then side chain that to the room mics. I would manipulate those
so that when the gate triggered them, they would open and be louder
as he hit the snare. This would hopefully make the room seem
bigger without bringing out the cymbals too much. Then I would
mix in a bit of the AMS reverb. But I would try and do it so it wasn't
too obvious. It took quite a lot of fiddling around to keep it subtle.
Of course, it became sort of trendy at the time, didn't it? Like
mullet haircuts. [Both laugh].
At what point did you personally go, " Okay, I'm
done with this? "
My whole thing with producing records is to look at each
song one at a time and try to do the most tasteful thing. I'm
highly grateful for it because it helped my career, but eventually,
my career had enough momentum that I didn't have to resort
to that sound on every song.
And as the 80s moved into the 90s, bombastic drum sounds
didn't necessarily go with some of the delicate songs and stuff
like I was working on with Sting, for instance.
You seem to use similar consistent miking across the
whole Hitmaker SDX collection: Shure SM57 on the
snare, Sennheiser MD-421 mics on the toms, AKG
D112 and Neumann U 47 FET on the kick, and
Coles 4038 ribbon mics on the overheads.
Over the years, I've tried many different mics on drums, and
I would always be thinking, " This doesn't sound as good as a
421 on the toms, " or " You can't beat an SM57 on the snare. " If
I am recording a jazz kit or something like that, I'm much more
likely to use more condenser mics, especially the snare-drums
that aren't being hit as hard. But when working with condenser
mics as close mics with a rock drummer, the likelihood that
they're going to overload is pretty good.
32 RECORDING January 2023
I want the different sounds to come from the different drum
kits, not the mics. Another reason for sticking with mics I know
is that I never like spending more than half an hour getting a
drum sound in the studio.
Really?
Maybe three-quarters of an hour. These guys want to get on
and record some music. The drummer doesn't want to sit for
hours on end playing different snare drums and this, that and
the other.
Knowing how the microphones sound helps move things
along. Plus, I always have the drummer play the whole kit. I
rarely ever have them play the drums singly, at least not to start.
I only do that to check the balance and the phase.
Back in the days of analog, I would be recording three to five
toms onto two stereo tracks, usually only using one or two mics
to pick up groups of toms. So I would need to get the balance
and panning correct from the start.
Then I would have them play drums like the snare on its own
to check that the phase between the overhead mics and the
close mic sounded correct.
When it comes to the drum sound, the best drummers have
the best-sounding equipment. Great drummers understand their
drums, and they know how to tune them and all that.
Do you use the SSL Bus Compressor on the drums?
I don't compress any close mics, but room mics always sound
better compressed. I would only use the bus compressor on the
SSL for the full mix. I hit the SSL compressor gently, and then
I might use a Manley Vari-Mu after the SSL. I love that thing. I
usually use it in limit mode, so you can hardly see the needles
on the VU meters moving.
What was it like working on the Hitmaker SDX?
When they first asked me, I was a bit iffy about it because
I was thinking, " Will Vinnie or the other drummers be very
pleased when they see we are copying their sound? "
Then I thought, " Well, most people can't afford to have Vinnie,
Phil, or whoever play on their tracks. " And with more people
recording at home who don't have access to professional drum
sounds, I thought, " Well, I should do this, " especially after hearing
what Toontrack had already done with Superior Drummer 3.
Norman Garschke was the guy who played all the drums
and created the grooves. He's a brilliant man. And how you
can adjust each drum's spill and the intricacy of what Toontrack
can do is unbelievable.
At Gearbox Record's
mastering room.
Photo by Andy Earl
hugh
RECORDING January 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of RECORDING January 2023
