#aaron bastinelli

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Birthday Club Announces Debut EP, “Lighten Up”

Birthday Club Announces Debut EP, “Lighten Up”

Alt-pop band Birthday Club is excited to announce their debut EP “Lighten Up,” which is set to release on September 30th. The band has teamed up with Consequence Of Sound to exclusively premiere the first single off of their EP, “Having Too Much Fun.” Check it out here. You can also check out the official video for “Having Too Much Fun” on YouTube.…

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Drum Miking 101

Almost every band has experienced the same frustration - the drums sound great at rehearsal, but when you put the song on tape, all the booming bass and crisp snares have turned into a muddy mess. What gives?

Well, lots of drummers know how to play a killer drum part. But without a good mic setup, the effect is totally lost on record. Unfortunately, drum miking can seem like such a pain that most bands would rather just set up a mic and call it a day.

The truth is: a few minutes of preparation and focus can turn anything from a garage to a living room into a great space for recording excellent live drums.

Click below to read our intro to drum miking, featuring tips from Converse Rubber Tracks lead in-house engineer Aaron Bastinelli on how he mics specific kits.

Step One: Tuning and Preparation

Before even thinking about setting up mics and recording, you’re going to have to tune your drums to eliminate ugly and unwanted sounds. Make sure the kick and bass drum pedals don't squeak and the metal fixings don't rattle.

You can get rid of ringIng sounds and excessive resonance by taping a small piece of material to the drum skin. Don’t damp too much - you don’t want to the drum to rattle, but you also don’t want to lose the heavy sound.

Step Two: Choosing the Right Mic

Every kind of microphone will give different sounds on different drums, and there are no ‘correct’ choices - just what suits the need of individual bands

Dynamic mics are sturdy and inexpensive, good for picking up mid range sounds.

They typically use whats called a cardioid pattern, meaning that they don’t pick up sound coming from behind the mic. This makes sure that other sounds won’t wash out the drum.

Condenser mics are more sensitive than dynamic mics and can pick up a greater range of sound. They’re typically used to mic bright and crisp instruments like hi-hats.

“Generally, I go for a dynamic on the tom, but if I was going to use something like a condenser, i’d use a hypercardioid and back it off so there’s not as much attack of the head, more resonance off the rim. You have to know how every microphone responds.”

Step Three: Spacing and placement

The easiest way to mic drums is to just hang a couple of mikes in the air, but reasoned and intentional mic placement can allow a band to develop a deeper relationship with the way they sound on tape. By understanding why certain mic positions result in certain sounds, a band can manipulate their mic setup to get great sound without having to work too hard in post production.

You can always experiment with different placement before resorting to digital enhancement or hours spent fiddling with EQ settings.

“I used the spacing so it can still get enough attack and there’s not too much low mids in the sound. You get nice body out of it.”

Step Four: Room Sound

Setting up mics to capture the ambience of the room itself can add an essential element to recorded sound. A good room mike setup can make a band’s performance on tape go from sterile to full and booming.

“I put the room mics in the main recording space because you can get a big bombastic sound, especially the snare. Since this time we’re going for a tighter kick sound, we want everything to feel really close. So I’m going to put them behind the baffles, closer to the drums, so they stay dark. It gets a big splatty sound out of the kick but not like any kind of air around it. But not too much air around it.”

Step Five: Personal Touches

Reading guides and advice online can be an effective way to get started with drum miking, but only experience and experimentation can teach you what actually sounds best for your band.

“I set up these drums for a mono mic setup. This allows me to capture the attack of the drums while really getting the woodiness of the shells.”

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Suzi Analogue

Suzi Analogue and our engineer Aaron Bastinelli confer in the control room at Converse Rubber Tracks in Brooklyn during her Moog Week recording session.

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Gear Love: Moog Model 15

T-minus 3 days until Moog Week begins. Our studio engineers had a blast playing around with the Model 15 at Converse Rubber Tracks in Brooklyn