Recording - May 2015 - 14

Abbey Road: "The End" (the only drum solo
an any Beatles album). So to accent the floor
tom Glyn placed another large-diameter cardioid condenser off to the side of the drum,
about a foot away and maybe a foot higher
than the drum head, also in photo 1. This mic
was positioned to pick up the tom but also
the ride and crash cymbals on that side of the
set, the height being an important factor in
achieving a suitable balance and tone
between these three elements. See photo 2.
A suitable dynamic or condenser mic was
placed a foot or two in front of the kick-
photo 3 shows a Shure Beta 52, but you will
get great results from an AKG D112, Audix
D6, or Lewitt DTP 640 REX-and there you have it, everything
covered! See photo 4. He would also place a dynamic mic on
the snare, just as we all do today, but according to his book he
rarely used (or uses) it; it's visible in photo 1.

still some leakage between mics. This was
not a huge problem as the band recorded
together and relied on street-tough playing
chops rather than digital trickery to produce
perfect takes... or near-perfect takes, as
Glyn writes that the best take was usually
the one that was still a bit rough around the
edges but retained the energy and vibe that
often got lost in the later "perfect" take. That
bit of leakage was like a slight touch of big
old room reverb that glued the whole mix
together and added girth to the sound.
Glyn's approach was indeed minimal,
even for the day, when Ringo's drum set
was often recorded with additional mics
under the toms, a mic on the hi-hat, etc., and there were times
when Glyn had to assure an experienced studio drummer that
he knew what he was doing. Then one day a wonderful accident happened....
Suddenly stereo
Many engineers were using multiple mics on the drum set, but
still summing down to mono. Glyn was engineering a session for
the first album by a very unusual and unknown band called Led
Zeppelin. (By the way, Glyn took the Led Zeppelin tapes to the
Beatles and the Stones and neither group was at all impressed.)
Glyn had been tracking mono drums in his usual manner when
the time came to do an acoustic guitar overdub. Glyn grabbed
the floor tom mic and used it for the guitar part, which was

This elegant setup provides even coverage across the set with
the minimum possible number of mics. Remember that in the
1960s even superstar bands like The Beatles had access to only
4- or 8-track recorders, so the entire drum set usually ended up
on only one track, maybe even mixed in with the bass guitar. In
this arrangement, these mics could be quickly balanced out to
provide a satisfying single track drum sound.
Except for the the snare, the mics were somewhat distant by
today's tight miking standards, but this resulted in a rounder and
fuller sound, as the extra distance gives the drums "room to
breathe." For example, a modern floor tom mic placed just a
few inches from the drum picks up a nice big snappy isolated
sound from one spot on the head, but Glyn's more distant mic
also captures some resonance from the shell, and maybe even
a bit of room sound to fatten things up.
In those days the entire band would set up in one big room.
Amplifiers and drums were baffled with gobos, but there was

panned hard left. Once he was done he put the mic back on the
floor tom but forgot to pan it back to center with the rest of the
drums. John Bonham sat back down to play, and all of a sudden Glyn heard the sound of the hard left floor tom combined
with the other center panned mics.
Hearing an unfamiliar stereo effect, Glyn wondered what
would happen if he panned the overhead mic to the right. He
did so, while also tilting up the floor tom mic to point over the
floor tom and directly at the snare, adjusting the distance so that
14

RECORDING May 2015

Recording - May 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - May 2015