Session Drummer

Spend your time MAKING MUSIC - not mixing a million different drum tracks. My speciality is getting a warm, balanced drum track that you can drop into your mix with little to no additional sweetening (EQ, compression, phase correcting, etc.) needed. Keep it simple!

I first came across a minimal micing technique when I did a session with famed producer/engineer/drummer Andy Kravitz, who has worked with the likes of Billy Joel, Gloria Estefan, etc. He had me play and slowly walked/stalked around my kit, sticking his head in different places and listening from various vantage points. After a few minutes he stuck just 2 mics on the whole kit. I was skeptical, but once I heard the results I couldn’t believe my ears. It was the best I’d ever heard my drums and playing captured up to that point. Of course it probably didn’t hurt that he was tracking to 2 inch analog tape and had some amazing preamps and mics to capture the sound, but I definitely took notice that you didn’t have to capture everything individually. He really took the approach that he was recording 1 instrument, not a collection of 8-10 individual instruments.

I've found the best success both sonically and musically is using minimal microphones on the drums. Usually this means just a stereo ribbon mic (AEA R88) running through top flight preamps and compressors (DW Fearn) into top of the line convertors (Merging ANUBIS). While I have all the usual mics/pres you'd expect from a studio drummer, and can record and deliver multiple tracks, I believe the best sounds come from using a minimalist approach to recording the full drum kit.

Tell me about your project and how I can help, through the 'Contact' button above.

Credits

3 Reviews