Studio Project - Setting up a drum kit recording on Protools HD

Before starting the recording/mix:

1. Grab hold of mix screen, click all on the top right of the 'edit' screen, click 'expanded transport'

2. A-Z needs to be highlighted gold (on the edit screen) to enable keyboard shortcuts

3. Go on to the set up menu, click 'playback engine', choose 'short' on the 'delay compensation engine'

4. Click on the Protools HD preferences, click 'operation', 'open-ended recording', limit to 5 minutes (or however long the overall piece will be)

5. Always use Phantom Power when recording with Condenser microphones!

Microphones:

Bass Drum - Sennheiser E602 (Cardioid, Dynamic microphone)



Snare - DPA 4090 (Condenser microphone), two, placed above and below the snare, Phase reverse one of these two microphones



High hat - AKG 414 (Omnidirectional, Condenser), angle the microphone at the sound edge, avoiding proximity/ bass tip-up effect



Overheads - Neumann TLN 103 (Condenser), one microphone above the drum kit, the second on the side across from the Tom at a lower level, both should be the same distance from the Snare


Setting up drum tracks:

Bass drum - mono
Two Snares - mono
High hat - mono
Overheads - Stereo (or two monos but 'pan' one to the left and the other to the right)

"You can have the best gear in the world, but unless you've got a really good person dealing with it.." "..it doesn't mean a thing."

"..it's people that make it work, not technology. If you get the right people, you'll be OK. You can have the best gear in the world, but unless you've got a really good person dealing with it - and dealing with the client, of course - it doesn't mean a thing."

- Sir George Martin, http://www.recordproduction.com/sir_george_martin.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFPMrXpWX04 - Strawberry Fields Forever alternate version and George Martin interview



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2jHbwE4DdM&feature=related - Mono vs Stereo interview with George Martin

http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/mersey/11814.shtml - a BBC interview with George Martin



"..George Martin and his team endlessly doubled up backing tracks in order to free up a track for a vocal or guitar solo. Even
Sgt Pepper, made in 1967, was recorded on only a four-track machine."

"Years later, in a television documentary about the making of 'Sgt Pepper', George martin asked Paul,
'Do you know what caused 'Sgt Pepper'?'
Paul replied, 'In one word, George, drugs. Pot.'
Martin protested, 'No, no. You weren't on it all the time.'
'Yes, we were, George. 'Sgt Pepper' was a drug album.'..."

- 'In the Sixties', Barry Miles

''Water is powerful. It can wash away earth, put out fire, and even destroy iron''

''I was like water... Water can carve its way through stone. And when trapped, water makes a new path.'' - Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)