Update: My session plan

My session plan

Overview
When listening to my track I realised that it was lacking an authentic feel even with the guitars and bass done at this point, so I decided to book a time slot for a recording session both in the live room and control room, as they will both be needed in conjunction for the session, and this session will take place on the 30th of April at 9am - 12pm. In the session I am going to record drums for my track as they will help to sonically fill out the sound and to give a realistic live sound to the track, which will help to make the track sound more complete as a hole rather than lacking something. Another reason for doing this is that I wanted to replace the midi drums that I was using, as they felt too robotic and that if I was to use a real acoustic drum kit, when used by a drummer they can make the track really stand out, again adding to the overall effect.

What's my role?
My role is the producer making me responsible for getting any work that I want done in the session complete on time, to a standard that I am happy with that is in time and a complete piece, meaning that I wont have to spend time later on in logic working with it to get it how I could have done in the session beforehand. My other responsibilities included making sure that all of the people I have brought in to work on the track from the assistants to the performer work well and do not slack which would therefore ruin my session leaving me loss of money and no result at the end which would mean I would then have to do another session costing double for what I should have gotten at the end of the first. My role also requires me to be an assistant as well to a degree, getting hands on and getting involved can be some times more beneficial than to do sit back and tell others what they should be doing, this is because I can just get it done what ever is in my head rather than have any miscommunication, apart from that it also just saves time when setting up which is important as it gives us more time to work on the performance, by that I mean more time to do more takes if needed.

Equipment list and cost's

Setup of drum kit and Microphones

Edit: Microphone placement

As you can from this picture I will be setting up the microphones in a more orthodox fashion by placing a microphone on each drum, that will pick the best quality sound it can from its corresponding drum, and then using a set of overheads that will be able to record the entirety of the drum kit as well as some of the rooms natural sound and ambiance. The distances give will be an estimate in inches as it will be difficult and far too time consuming to determinate and measure the exact distance of each microphone placement, so therefore, when setting up I will just determine the best place for each microphone by eye.

The kick drum on this particular kit is often notorious with sounding flat and lifeless sometimes, so i wanted to make sure that I could try and capture the most out of its initial punch as well as trying to cut down on the muddiness that will be recorded. To do this I will position the Shure Beta52A around 3-4", facing directly towards the beater, into the cut-out on the exterior skin of the kick drum, as this should encapsulate the microphone enough to reduce some spilling that may occur from the rest of the kit if it is too far out, as well as increasing the treble that will be picked up and using the increased response times of this mic to its fullest potential.

The microphone on the snare will be place about 2" away from the skin as well as being at a fairly straight angle, around 120 degrees as well as trying to face it away from the rest of the kit. The microphone will be placed like this for a couple of reasons, the first of which is because of how the instrument is played, since it is struck the microphone needs to be positioned well enough so it gets a solid recording of the sound but mainly so it is not knocked by the snare drum or the performer which could ruin a recording. It will be positioned at the top of the snare with an angle of around 120 degrees and 1-2" over the rim, this is so it does a couple of things, the first of which is so it facing away from the rest of the kit which should help to reduce any spill from the rest of the kit but mainly so that it can capture the sharp, high attack sounds as well as some of the more subtle nuances like rolls and positioning on the snare itself, I also wanted it to maintain some of the snap that the snare naturally possesses which is why it is more to the edge rather than the middle.

This drawing just shows an out line of what it would look like, the snare itself will generally not be completely flat as the performer will angle it to suit them, thereby making the positioning of the mic more effective.

The position of the microphone on the high tom will be around 2" from the skin of the tom to avoid problems with any movement with the drum itself and to get a solid tone, to get the best tone i could from the high tom I positioned the SM57 2" in towards the centre with an angle around 120 degrees like previously with the snare. The angle and position all work towards giving the best tone possible to far out or high will produce a thin sounding tom which would sound week to the ear. With the positioning I have chosen I should get a great tone with plenty of mid-high frequencies while capturing some of the low-middle frequencies to complete the sound. 

The microphone placement for the low tom will be similar to the high tom as it will be about 1-2" of the skin of the drum and about 2" in towards the centre as well as at an angle of around 45-50 degrees, this is because I am looking to capture good solid mid tone with enough lower tones to really give a more powerful sound while still getting some higher tones that will just add to the overall sound by brightening it.

For the floor tom I will again position the mic in a similar manner like with the other toms as I am looking for a quality tone more than anything else. It will be at an angle of around 45-60 degrees pointed towards the centre at a height of 2" off the skin so I can get a good lower-mid tone which shouldn't be too muddy. The only difference between the floor tom positioning and the others will be how far in the mic is positioned as it will be about 3" in towards the centre, this is due to the drum just being larger and therefore the mic needs to be moved closer to get the best tone. 

The overhead microphones will be at a height of 6' from the ground meaning they will be about 2-3' from the highest point on the drum kit and will be angled at around 60-70 degrees so the cover the entirety of the drum kit. These mics will be a stereo pair which means they must be positioned at the same angle and height otherwise phasing will occur and could ruin a take due it giving off an effect that will be clearly audible and would be difficult and long winded to remove, the best option is to make sure they are properly set up before any recording starts. The overheads will be positioned like this for a few reasons, the first is that the microphones are extremely sensitive and have a delicate diaphragm which can break if something too loud is played, particularly snare drums when recording a drum kit. Another reason why they will be positioned like this is again because they are extremely sensitive, but in a positive way this time, by that I mean that they can capture a rooms natural sound profile and ambiance that helps to bring out the liveliness of the drum kit and make it sound less artificial. The angle of the overheads is also key to getting the sound just right, subjectively depending on the producer, because if the are too horizontal they will record little due to the particular polar pattern that condenser microphones like the ones I am using, AKG C1000, have as they are incredibly point able, therefore a good balance is required.

Microphone choice

As you can see from this chart I have comprised a list of microphones that I will be using in the following session, each microphone that I have chosen has been picked out because of a particular feature or role it is best suited to, such as having a high sound pressure level, SPL, which means the amount of volume (DB) it can record without it being damaged or losing any quality in most cases the higher the better.

The reason why I chose to use a Shure Beta52A to record the kick drum, firstly due to it being designed as a purpose built microphone for recording kick drums or bass guitars which means it has features on it, for example one feature is its super cardioid pattern which means it picks up the majority of sound from the front and very little from the sides and generally very little to none from the rear.

The main reason why I have chosen this microphone is because of its higher frequency response at louder volumes/closer to the source which should compensate for the initial lack of frequency response when compared to the AKG D112. This is what will give the best response from the initial impact from the beater onto the drum skin which will be the loudest point and therefore give the best bass frequency response out of the available microphones.

However when compared the AKG D112 has the better low end as it can pick up lower frequencies than the Shure, which is disappointing as it will perform slightly better than the Shure, however the reasoning why I have chosen the Shure Beta52A remains as it is more responsive at the higher volumes and frequencies which would therefore allow me to get a more sharp rock style sound for the kick drum recording when in comparison to the AKG.

I chose to use a Shure SM57 which is a dynamic microphone to record the snare, Low tom and high tom because of its great frequency range and its ability to handle high SPL levels at those ranges which is needed in the case of the snare drum as the volume it produces could damage more fragile microphones like condenser mics. Firstly this microphone has a cardioid pattern which records most of the sound from the front and some from the sides and back, therefore with this recording things like the snare and toms I may get some bleeding from the rest of the kit, however, with the correct positioning like I mentioned earlier it should minimize any excess sound that I will get.

As the SM57 has such a wide frequency range it can be used for the toms to help get the best possible tone when positioned right, however this mics can often sound like they have too much bass which means that the recorded instrument can sound muddy but I think with the specifics of the room and the positioning of the microphones like I mentioned earlier I will get a great tone from the use of these microphones and if the sound is still slightly too muddy I can EQ them at a later stage, however to do that I will have to make sure the recording sounds excellent as I will only really have one chance due to the studio and live room being in popular demand meaning it will be hard to get a booking to re-record anything should it sound wrong. 

For the overheads I chose to use a stereo pair of AKG C1000, this is because they are condenser microphones which are incredibly sensitive to sound and can capture sound from a greater distance than almost any dynamic microphone. being able to record sound from a distance is important because they can not tolerate the SPL levels of a dynamic microphone like a SM57, further more if they were to be used in a similar way to a SM57 recording a snare, for example, then they would break as the diaphragm inside the microphone would break as it would be too much for it too handle. Therefore, it means that you would then have to go and replace it, or if it was on stage at a performance it could ruin the whole thing. In order to be able to do all of this condenser microphones require phantom power, which means that they need to be powered through a mixing desk or patch bay. The AKG C1000 are hyper cardioid patterned microphones which means when they are extremely point able, by that I mean they record only in the direction they are facing and very little from the sides if any at all, this is good for a pair of stereo overheads as you can position them so they are capturing the kit the best as well as any ambiance of the room due to their heightened sensitivity. The frequency response is almost flat through out almost with it dipping in the low end and peeking at the high, this means that it is good at capturing all of the frequencies present with the exception of the very low end and therefore means they are well suited to record the entire kit as other microphones would not be able to do it well even at all.

The last microphone I used was a Shure Beta57 which is very similar to the normal SM57, however where it differs is that it is a super cardioid where as the SM57 is has just a cardioid polar pattern which means that it is a bit more point able recording more from the front and records less from the sides and back. The other change is that it has a better frequency response the closer it is to the sound source than a SM57 meaning that at a much closer range it potentially would be able to record an instrument with a bit more clarity than a SM57. However, the only real reason why I would take this mic to record the Floor Tom is because there is only three SM57's and this does the same job as them but slightly better depending on the final positioning of the microphone and what you are recording, since it is a floor tom I still want it to capture a great tone.

The Other studio roles

Engineer
The engineer for my session is Alex Dudley whose role is to level the audio and to make sure there is no clipping when recording as well as to apply any necessary enhancements to the audio like a compressor and finally to set up the computer and Protools.

Performer
The performer for this session is Alex Ross whose role it is to play the drums to best of his ability for the track, for my session I have told Alex to play roughly along to the backing track for an idea of what I what, but I also wanted him to mould it around his style to make it as authentically real as possible to help the track really stand out.

Assistant
The main assistant for the session is Dan Burrows whose role it is to help set up any equipment that we ask him to as well as to fetch and carry anything we need of him, in this case through his role will mainly consist of setting up the drum kit and microphones as well as to take it all down at the end of the session. When it comes to assistants however, even though Dan will be the main assistant we will all be helping to set it up and to dismantle it at the end of the session as it will inevitably help to save time that otherwise would have been wasted

A final note, this is obviously being written up later than the session and has already taken place, this is because I had already done one session plan at the time but I did not upload it via the blog so this is that however, I have also added a lot more detail as the original was extremely Spartan in detail and only covered the basics.

Thanks
Dan