Glen John's Technique
Glyn Johns is a simple drum recording technique that requires at least 3-4 microphones: 2 for overhead(preferably condenser mics), 1 for kick drum(a dynamic/bass mic) and 1 for the snare(the snare is optional but it’s much better with). This technique offers a wide natural sound due to the fact that the overheads are required to be panned extreme left and right.
So how do I set this up?
First, start with the kick and snare. Set up a small microphone stand and place your microphone inside of the kick sound hole (if you have a Beyerdynamic MG 88 on hand, I suggest using it with this technique. If not use a bass/dynamic mic such as Shure Beta 52A). Moving onto the snare, I’ve learnt that setting up a snare is all about preference and what your overall goal is. I normally place the microphone pointing just over, not touching, the rim to give a crisp but not dull sound.
Next, move on to the overheads. A tip: use the snare drum as a point of interest. One microphone (left, from drummer's perspective) should be high above the kit and drummer, pointing down towards the snare. The other mic should be at the side facing the drummer but point towards the snare. The microphones must be perpendicular, at a 90 degree angle, and be an equal distance from the snare(see image below). Another tip: you can use wires, for example XLR, to measure the distance from both microphones and make any adjustments if needed.
Once the microphones are up. Set the gain/dynamics for them and test the sound of each microphone individually, including the overheads together. It’s always good to do this as you may not like the positioning of certain mics. It’s a simple case of trial and error and making adjustments.
Once the gain is set and you are happy with the positioning of the microphones there is one last to do. The Glyn Johns technique suggests to pan the overhead mics extreme left and extreme right. This gives the technique it’s wide sound, elevating your drums overall sound.
Here are my examples of non-panned and panned overheads:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=19wdsD_avvc-k1keMtsFrVROM1pjCNN2J (All mics = Non-panned)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SICGJcq0cYY62NkyprRYKYnFL2LJRNaI (All mics - Overhead panned)
You can definitely hear the difference between both audio clips. Comparing both, the panned overheads make the whole track sound brighter and elevated compared to the previous non-panned recording where it sounds flat and dull.
(Glyn Johns explaining his technique)
Spaced Pair/AB method
The AB technique is based on a parallel pair of omnidirectional microphones spaced apart from each other. This setup provides a pleasant reverberant sound, a wide room ambience and captures the low-frequency of a drum kit. However, the directional information is less distinctive compared to other setups.
First, you have to set up the microphones, they must be fairly high above the drum kit. Omnidirectional Microphones are preferred when using Space Pair because the distance between the microphone and the drum kit is large. Directional microphones show a loss of low frequencies at larger distances, this is not ideal for recording drums. The microphones can be placed anywhere from 3-10 feet apart and parallel from each other(see image below). This setup requires some experimentation about where and how far apart the microphones are put, again it’s down to individual preference and experimentation.
However, the amount of ambiance when recording can be adjusted by moving the microphones. If you increase the distance between the two microphones you decrease the pickup angle.
IRL example:
Nathan(TEDDYYBEARR)brought in his drummer, Max, into the studio to record drums for a couple of his EP songs. I offered to help them set up the drum kit and microphones. Nathan wanted to have a wide sound for the drums so I suggested the Glyn Johns technique as I thought it would suit the songs playing style.
The first task was to move around the kit since his drummer is left handed.
Next, the microphones. Alongside the Glyn Johns technique we added room mics, mics to the toms and a mic to the high-hat. We used:
Overheads - Neumann KM 183 mics
Room - Beyerdynamic M 160 ribbon mics
Snare - Shure SM57
High-hat - Sennheiser E614 Condenser Microphone
Toms - Sennheiser MD 421-II - Dynamic Microphone
Kick - Beyerdynamic MG 88
The room mics were placed against the opposite wall to the drum. Our hope was to capture the room's ambience which would add an extra layer to the drums sound.
I placed the high-hat mic facing away from the kit but pointing at the edge of the high-hat. Because I was using a condenser mic I knew it would pick up the rest of the drum but I wanted the main focus to be the high-hat. By doing this it worked well and mainly captured the high-hat.
For the snare and toms I pointed the mics just over the rims of each. When doing test recordings both required a little adjustment as there was a horrible ringing noise being produced. To counter this we put a couple of moongel pads on them to soften the ring.
As for the kick drum microphone. I had to change the kick drum mic because the previous mic AKG D112 Dynamic Mic sounded dull and I didn’t like the sound. So I took the initiative asking for the opinions of Nathan and Max, they agreed that it would be best to change it. So that's what I did. I changed it, opting for my favorite Beyerdynamic MG 88. This cleared up any issues I had about the kick drum.
Overall, after making tweaks and making sure Nathan and Max were happy we had a productive recording session. The drum recording came out well and both were happy with the results of the wide sound and ranges of frequencies.
(Front view of the final setup)
Biblography:
Pickford, J., 2018. Technique Of The Week - Glyn Johns Method. [online] MusicTech. Available at: <https://www.musictech.net/tutorials/technique-of-the-week-glyn-johns-method/> [Accessed 14 May 2020].
McGlynn, M., 2011. Five Techniques For Stereo Miking Drums. [online] Shure.com. Available at: <https://www.shure.com/en-US/performance-production/louder/five-techniques-for-stereo-miking-drums> [Accessed 14 May 2020].
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