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So, I've done the spaced pair thing, the X/Y thing, now I'm using a strange ORTF type thing... But I'm curious about the Glyn Johns Method. Anyone on here use it with any regularity? I'm thinking of finally starting to record my jazz album this winter (maybe) and I'm thinking of completely going a different direction sonically.

I've only tried it once with moderate success, but I didn't really spend the time to tweak things to see what's possible. Also I pretty much sucked back then. We should sit down and do some experiments. I'm coming up for Pauls thing this weekend, do you have a couple of hours?



side note: you're doing a jazz album? details?

macrae11 wrote:I've only tried it once with moderate success, but I didn't really spend the time to tweak things to see what's possible. Also I pretty much sucked back then. We should sit down and do some experiments. I'm coming up for Pauls thing this weekend, do you have a couple of hours?

I'm going to try my best to make some time to hang out for sure!

macrae11 wrote:side note: you're doing a jazz album? details?

I don't know that it'll be any good... but yeah I've been meaning to do a EP of jazz ballads I've written over the past 4 or 5 years, but then to get all kinds of local jazz guys in on different tracks. I can't just record everyone else's stuff all the time. For once I'd like to do somethign a little selfish, and this allows me to avoid making up lyrics too. That is if I don't suffer some kind of burn-out before then... Hahaha!

No, I don't know why I don't remember this thread...

The smallest number of mics I've used in a long time for drums is 4.

You see many people online talking about this and that and Glyn Johns... Blah blah blah... but the actual technique that he, as well as many of his contemporaries used had only three mics. Bass drum, one OH pointing down toward the snare, on OH pointing across the "Floor Tom" toward the Hats/Snare. OHs equal distances from the snare is a must. So many people using the "Glyn Johns" technique show themselves using spot mics on a pile of stuff which completely ignores exactly what this is all about. Truth be told, I'm confident that if we had pictures of kits miced by Glyn you would see variations on the theme without even getting into what other people did.

My minimal setup is typically bass drum, one OH above and in front of the high tom, one OH above and "behind" the floor tom, and either snare bottom, or snare top, depending on the drum typically. I try to raise and lower and space the OHs to be equal distant to the axis between the snare and bass drum. The "floor tom side" mic is inevitably lower than the "front tom" mic. The OHs are "focused" at the toms.

These minimal setups for me really depend on the quality of the room matching what your intentions are sonically because of the distance to the kit the mics end up being. The space really becomes a factor, so it really needs to accent what you are going for tone wise.

My new favourite OH method is referred to as the "Recorderman" technique. Uses matched cardioid LDC's, one over the snare/hats/tom1 area, about a foot over the drummers head, dia pointing straight down. The second one is behind the drummer, behind the floortom, dia facing forward, at about eye level. It sounds kinda weird, but it actually rocks. Really nice wide image, and actually has excellent phase relation to the close mics.

Regarding micing with few mics, the smallest I've done is 3 mics. A beta52 on kick, about a foot out front aimed at the hole, an EV Cardinal on snare (I LOVE this mic for snare!!!), and an Apex 460 in cardioid/omni in front of the kit, a few feet out and a foot or so over drummers head. I used this setup to record a noise rock album for The Taste of Piss (http://thetasteofpiss.bandcamp.com). Aside from not quite having the ummmph of the toms that I would have liked, I was pretty happy with the over all kit sound.

I never looked into the Glyn John method before, but after looking at his discography, it's something I'd be very interested in trying. Without having tried it, I would imagine that you'd lose a lot of presence, particularly from the toms. That being said, Who's Next apparently features this setup and that record certainly can't be accused of lacking any kind of presence from the drums.