Drum recording on-location with big verb? Video incl.

by Nikolay Georgiev on October 11, 2017

So I finally got to add the audio mix to this video – the recording was done in July 2015 at the Underground Gallery Sofia, Bulgaria. Check out Ivan Andreev on drums just smashing it without any preparation. And yes, I am finally back to this blog and website and you should see many updates coming soon.

Our intention was not to film any solos, but instead to record some nice beats for my own experimental projects, which I finally have some time to work on. So spare me the comments on the video quality or the tiny glitches in the performance! – it was done with my phone and simply as a ‘why not?’ video thing…

And I just created this YouTube channel and I hope that a lot more is to come incl. some videos on recording and mixing techniques – you know, the kind of topics I love to talk about!

I want to say thanks to everyone who helped me with this project. Special thanks go for:

• Ralitza Stefanova and Samuil Djoganov at the Underground Gallery Sofia for allowing us to use this wonderful recording location
https://www.facebook.com/undergroundgallerystudio/
• Kiril Yanev and Studio Balkandji for helping out by lending me most of those lovely mics, stands, etc. (it was kind of inconvenient to carry all of this stuff from the UK to Bulgaria)
http://www.studiobalkandji.com/
• Alex Nushev at Alex Nushev Music Creation for the valve mic pres
http://www.aleksnushev.com/
• Boris Chakarov at Chako Music for helping with some very needed extra mics
http://www.chakomusic.com/
• Andrey Andreev for being the dude he is!

And here are some pictures from the session on which one can see all the mic placements. I will be writing shortly a blog post about the reasons for those placements and the ideas behind them. But below is also some basic info on the recording and mixing process:

• Gear used: Neumann U89 on kick into Grace Design preamp, Earthworks SR40 cardioids into TAB-Funkenwerk valve preamps on overheads, a pair of Neumann U89s in omni as room mics into Prism Sound preamps, sE RNR1 ribbon on snare drum and kick into a Grace Design pre, AKG C414EBs on Toms/kit sides into Metric Halo preamps.
• Prism Sound, Grace Design and Metric Halo ULN8 analogue to digital converters were used.
• All mixing was done extensively with Acustica Audio plug-ins entirely in-the-box

AKG C4141EB on Toms & left side of the kit

AKG C4141EB on Toms & left side of the kit

AKG C4141EB on Toms & right side of the kit

Here one can see the close mics on the kit incl. the sE RNR1 used to record the kick, snare and two rack toms.

Here one can see the close mics on the kit incl. the sE RNR1 used to record the kick, snare and two rack toms.

Front of kit as seen in the video - Neumann U89 as kick.

Front of kit as seen in the video – Neumann U89 as kick.

A better view of the overhead mics - Earthworks SR40.

A better view of the overhead mics – Earthworks SR40.

The sE RNR1 ribbon here used to pick 50% of the sound for this mix...

The sE RNR1 ribbon here used to pick 50% of the sound for this mix…

The OH and Room mics - U89s in onmi for a big verb sound.

The OH and Room mics – U89s in onmi for a big verb sound.

The room mics and some of the gear used.

The room mics and some of the gear used.