Second Engineer Drew Dunn adding layers of duct tape to tame the rattling of the snare and toms

Let me detour here from other people’s music and turn to a track I wrote which is tentatively titled “Broadcast” and will be the lead track on my upcoming instrumental EP.  Broadcast started out as a combination of electric rhythm guitars and a distorted guitar melody along with some cool synth sounds from my Korg MS2000r (see 9/24/08 post).  All of it was underpinned by a steady drum machine track.

Since it is the lead song, I wanted to give Broadcast a more live feel, and decided that it needed a real drummer.  Naturally, I turned to Darby Cicci (see 8/27/08 post), who agreed to play and record the drums at his home studio.  My friend, AE, also graciously lent me his laptop, his RME Fireface 400, newly-modded by Black Lion Audio, and the Micro Clock that AE had also purchased from Black Lion.  Click here for BLA’s explanation of the mod, and RME’s understandably contentious reply.  Also, see the Wikipedia explanation of a word clock’s significance.  Note: whether BLA’s mod and micro clock actually makes a huge difference is a debate that is beyond me.  All I know is that when I heard AE’s latest track employing the mod and the Micro Clock, I was confronted with a better sounding track and could not refuse his offer to use the same setup on my recording.

Left: RME Fireface 400 featuring Black Lion Audio’s mod; Center: Micro-Clock also from Black Lion Audio; Right: Four microphones went through the Studiomaster board into the Fireface. The overhead mic went into the Neve Portico mic pre/EQ, and into an unbalanced input on the front of the Fireface.  The kick mic went into a phantom-powered balanced input on the Fireface.

Armed with these new toys and my only mic stand, I headed to Ft. Greene one recent Saturday and returned with over three gigabytes of audio.  Here’s how we did it.

The Microphones

We worked with what was available at Mr. Cicci’s studio to achieve a good drum track.  For the snare, we used a Shure SM57 on top, and a Shure Beta 58a underneath.  We used a Sennheiser MD421 for the hi-tom, an Audio-Technica AT 3035 for the high-hat, and an AT 4033 for the overhead.  Mr. Cicci’s friend, Drew Dunn, helped out as Second Engineer and brought a Bock Soundeluxe U195 condenser which we used on the kick drum.  He ran the overhead mic into his Neve Portico mic pre/EQ for a different, colored sound, which could be brought down in the mix if necessary.  Both the overhead and the kick microphones went into the Fireface, while the others went to the Studiomaster board before arriving at the Fireface’s line inputs.

Left: Bock Soundelux U195 Condenser for kick (phantom-powered); Left-Center:: Shure SM57 dynamic above snare; Right-Center: Shure Beta 58a dynamic underneath snare; Right: Sennheiser MD421 Dynamic for Hi-Tom

Tracking

We had blocked off a six-hour session, and the microphone placement and setup took almost four and a half hours.  One of the more interesting troubleshoots was when we discovered that Mr. Cicci’s headphones exhibited a delay affecting the distorted guitar melody.  The tracks in Cubase were all in sync, and the delay appeared whether the headphones were plugged into the Fireface headphone jack or the Studiomaster output.  The surprising twist occurred when Mr. Cicci disconnected his coiled headphone extension cable.  The delay disappeared once he plugged the headphones straight into the board or the Fireface!  Mr. Cicci chalked it up to the strands of the old cable perhaps touching each other and creating capacitance, which could cause a delay. So we had a headphone extension cable which essentially doubled as a natural analog delay effect, and only on the frequency range containing the guitar solo!  Of course, I suggested that he keep it as a potential “insert” effect in the future.

Left: Audio-Technica AT 3035 Condenser for high-hat (phantom-powered)); Center: Audio-Technica AT 4033 Condenser for overhead, run through a Neve Portico 5032 Mic Pre/EQ (right).

Left: Neve Portico 5032 Mic Pre/EQ on the left feeding the overhead mic into the RME Fireface.  Right: Mr. Dunn runs a sound check as Mr. Cicci rehearses the author’s drum part.

Mixing

Overall, I was pleased with the recording quality.  However, I’ve realized that the greatest challenges with the ongoing mixing process have come from the limitations posed by our mic placement and the time crunch which resulted in a better performance at the beginning of the song than at the end.  I went into the recording not feeling very strongly about mic placement or sound isolation.  In hindsight, I wished we could have captured more beater definition (since the mic was only on the outside of the drum). We also did not have enough time for as many takes as Mr. Cicci or I would have wanted.  An interesting note about the RME Fireface is that latency was near zero.  After recording the click track by playing it through the headphones into one of the drum mics, the latency was almost undetectable.  Even zooming in all the way on the waveform failed to show a noticeable amount of latency.

Stay tuned for a sneak preview of the soon-to-be finished track.