Recording Doom

[D.o.S.]

Lots of drugs.

[tremolo3]

Yeah, but which ones? Early '90s were dark man, plus WA and the spooky forest stuff?

From what I've read Dylan likes small combo amps, but not sure on early Earth stuff. When I saw Earth in 2010 he was running a half stack, though.

I'm about to record some drone/doomy guitars and I only have a couple of mics and amps: e609, ES57 (SM57 clone), a Twin, Eighty-Five, YBA1 and a Champ. I know when it comes to this is all about trying mics and amp combinations but specially placements. I guess I'm just being lazy here and I just want to do the follow the recipe sort of thing. Google didn't help this time.

[D.o.S.]

I mean Earth 2 has a bunch of pills on the back of it, so.

If I remember correctly (i.e. it was in an interview) he was using a solid state Sunn for Earth 2. I think the combo amps is the post-country influences.

[ari3lc]

Hey, thanks for sharing your methods and approachs! There's a lot of useful information here about recording and mixing, plus it is always interesting to read about recording processes, at least for me. I'm not recording or mixing doom right now but when I have to do it, surely I will come here again.

[louderthangod]

How do you guys feel about mono overheads? The more drum recording I've done lately the more extreme panning is starting to sound unnatural. I won't be doing any rehearsal recording for at least a few more weeks so I'm trying to think of some new ideas. I've got one good ribbon (Beyer m160) that I've been thinking of trying a single, mono overhead. When I look it up it seems like lots of people think it's a great idea but when I watch videos of bands in the studio there are always a stereo pair of OH and often a pair of stereo rooms as well. I'd like the drums to sound a little closer and directly intimate.

[Kacey Y]

How do you guys feel about mono overheads? The more drum recording I've done lately the more extreme panning is starting to sound unnatural. I won't be doing any rehearsal recording for at least a few more weeks so I'm trying to think of some new ideas. I've got one good ribbon (Beyer m160) that I've been thinking of trying a single, mono overhead. When I look it up it seems like lots of people think it's a great idea but when I watch videos of bands in the studio there are always a stereo pair of OH and often a pair of stereo rooms as well. I'd like the drums to sound a little closer and directly intimate.

Mono overhead on drums can work fine, it's just an atypical choice. So if you do it, you really have to plan everything else around that to work with/compliment it. Most recording engineers aren't going to make atypical or bold choices on drums, unless they're trying to be experimental. So usually it's done out of necessity and then there's a drive to make it work, so it usually does if the person is competent. Just try it out and experiment with it. You might find you want or need to do something else to compliment it, either with the drums or the other instruments or it might just work for a particular song or specific drum vibe. I know recording time is a luxury for most people, certainly for me now, but if you have the opportunity to experiment with different mic placement, recording or mixing techniques, I would always suggest just going for it. Even if you don't like the result, you'll probably learn something useful.

[louderthangod]

I got some new mics lately.
-Drums:
...Beyer m160 pair OH
...Sennheiser MD421 for each tom
...Sennheiser e602 for the kick (I also have an AKG D112 I could use)
...Solomon LoFreq Subkick style mic for the kick as well
...Right angled Granelli SM57 on top for the snare, nothing on the bottom for now

For my guitar I'm going to try combining a Beyer m88 and an SM7B.

I'm not sure what to do with the bass. I'm mic'ing a 15 right now with the D112 and an Audix i5 because that's what we've got left. Another 421 seems like the reasonable thing to do I'd like to give my mic collection a little diversity. I was thinking about the EV RE20. Any thoughts?

[waltdogg]

audix d6

[nablock]

RE20 sounds boss on a 15. What I've found that most metal records over the past decade have used is a large diaphragm condenser 1 foot away, and a DI track.

We just used a RE20 on grille and a CAD e200 ldc 1 foot away on the 2x15 taking lows from an SVT, and a RE16 on grille on a 4x15 taking mids from a V2. Also ran a DI track, but mostly as backup.

[Kacey Y]

RE20 is a good solid bass mic. I've used an MD421 before, but usually in conjunction with something else.

That's very close to the mic configuration I've been using on drums for a long time. Except the overheads, I've been using Oktava MK012's for a while, was using a pair of ribbon mics before that, but that was when I was recording in a huge space. I kind of want to upgrade to some different SDCs, but I haven't even recorded live drums in over a year, so it hasn't been much of a priority.

[louderthangod]

I kinda hate cymbals and I'm using some cheap SDC and it's just a lot of bright and "ting". I've used the m160'on guitar and for a ribbon it's still got nice detail and it's not too dark but has body so I'm hailing I like it on the OH's.

[waltdogg]

i just use fucking mxl990s and have no problems with them on overheads, their subdued highs and super high transient rejection (coz theyre just not sensitive mics) make them super useful for ridiculously heavy music. but ive only used them over really nice zildjian and paiste cymbals.

[BitchPudding]

Solo stuff: direct in theough my amps speaker out. Find tune in my daw. Drums are midi trash.

With Star King: my drummer is a recording engineer and has access to professional recording gear. So that usually wnds up soundig more "live" if that makes sense.

[ricks.pics]

For Bass 15's my go to is a Beta 52 right on the dust cap, and a SM7 slightly into the cone from where the cone meets the dust cap.

Lately I've had the luxury or recording is a great room for drums so I have ended up mostly using room mics for my over heads because my drummer likes to hit huge cymbals super hard which gives me too much of a phasing cymbal sound in the overheads.

[louderthangod]

How do you guys mic kick drums? So far I've just had my e602 just a few inches inside the port of the res-head but I now have a Solomon LoFreq (like a Yamaha subkick) and I'm thinking about maybe putting the e602 deeper in to get more attack so I don't have a mic on the beater head.