Now of course you guys don't have to divulge your secrets to me here, but I'm just curious because I think Dev's records always have great knock-you-on-your-ass drums and the pics I find quite interesting.

So is this a standard kind of micing scheme for Dev? Or do you guys approach everything fresh each time?

I was very surprised to see a 421 on the kick instead of a 602 or a shure Beta91. And I see what looks like a Rode Classic II, but there's something else in there behind it that I can't quite make out.



Also on the snare and up high above the high hat are mics placed very close together. Are you guys A-B'ing? Or creating comb filters? And also WTF is that giant honking mic sitting right over the high hat? Also, what's that mic sitting on its lonesome room center for the drums above the kick tunnel?

Well I suppose that's enough of 20 questions. I only wish I could have been there. It made me very happy to see that SSL in the pics. hahaha I love the 4000 series.

I'll step in to contribute to this answer a little bit for ya'.....

First of all, Shaun Thingvold (Dev's partner in Engineering crime) put the mic's on the kit. As far as mic placement goes, it can vary from time to time. Same with the "Tent" over the kick drum, sometimes we use it sometimes we don't. You can get a very awesome kick drum sound either way. For "AE" we did'nt use a "Tent" on the kick and it kicked ass.... for "Synchestra" we did use a "Tent" and it sounds killer !!!!!!

As for the Mic questions and what they are......I'm not fully qualified to answer those questions cuz I just tune and play drums and only know a few of the many mic's that are used.

Lastly and most importantly, the big secret to getting a killer drum sound is getting someone who knows how to tune and record the drums ! The combination of a good drum tuner, a great engineer and producer is what gets you a killer drum sound. It does'nt hurt if the drummer knows how to hit them drums right either I always tune my own drums for the recordings I play on. Dev and Shaun have hired me for a few recording gigs, that Dev has produced, to tune drums and we always get a killer sound. It's awesome when you get a good team together who know eachother and consistently can achieve a great sound. You would be amazed at how many bands out there get in a top notch Studio, get the best gear you can possibly get and still get a bad drum sound. It happens all the time and it's because they don't have all the right pieces of the puzzle.....This is where Dev and Shaun work real well together.

All these things combined with Mic placement and the right Mics for the room you are in will help you achieve a killer sound. It's actually quite complicated if you think about it It takes years of practice for most Engineers before they get even half decent ! I know this cuz I've been doing this for quite a while (Session work) and my younger brother Jay is a very popular Engineer in the Vancouver scene. I've seen and heard him make many mistakes over the years to learn and get to where he is now. Jay is a smokin' engineer now and is being asked to record big albums for big Record Labels now, only cuz of the years of mistakes and learning that he put into engineering.

Anyways, I'm gonna' shut-up now I love the engineering part of music too and find it quite interesting......then I get carried away, like this post Hopefully there are a few answers for ya' in there !

All the best,

RVP

That's a Fet 47 on the kik, SM7 on hat. I've never seen people use the other kik mics you were talking about. Becuase the 2 mics on the snare are so close the phase is almost perfect without comb filtering.