Hi everyone, if you’re not familiar with me my name is Tom and I’m a drum teacher in Manchester. I’ve been focusing mostly on teaching drum lessons at my studio in Manchester and gigging over the past year, however I have recently acquired a nice pair of AKG 414s to round out my recording setup, and have been enjoying learning how to get the most out of them. Here’s an example of a recording I did recently:

I’ve been really enjoying how accurately they present the kit, and have enjoyed putting the overheads literally over my head, i.e. just behind me and angled down towards the kit. I stole this idea from Gavin Harrison, but I believe Steve Albini also does a similar thing with his overhead position. This gives a decent image of the drums as well as the cymbals, and if you play consistently and accurately can give a pretty decent representation of the kit on its own. Here’s a picture of the kit setup:

And here’s a picture from behind the kit where you can see the overhead mic placement:

I’ve also had some good luck placing a more affordable Behringer mic over the bass drum aimed at the knee. This does a good job of filling in some of the attack and shell sound of the bass drum and snare, and although you don’t notice it so much consciously in the mix it’s definitely something you miss when you mute it.

Although I’m currently not offering remote recording (my studio isn’t really setup will to teach and record at the same time) I will be offering lessons on recording drums as part of my usual lessons. So please get in touch if you need a drum teacher in Manchester at my contact page. Thanks!