XONE is nuts about recording. I mean, we record everything. And everything must be recorded, in case we play something "brilliant". It sucks to have played something awesome, but you can't remember the exact progression, feel, phrasing the next day. Been there, done that! So, I learned to record EVERYTHING!
I've been recording every rehearsal of XONE for the last 6 years. In the beginning, I recorded with a Yamaha mixer into a Sony Mini-DV cam for stereo recording of every rehearsal. Then I got a Fostex VF-160 and began to multitrack record every rehearsal. It's been my workhorse for the last 4 years. It's very portable, and I basically "rubber stamp" mix my mixes so that I can have a CD of our last rehearsal ready for the guys at the next rehearsal. Obviously, I put way more work into mixing our actual CDs, but for rehearsal CDs, time is of the essence.
Since both the Line 6 Vetta and the Line 6 Bass POD Pro XT feed direct into the Fostex, they use no mics. But Drums need mics to record them. For the most part we've been faking our rehearsal recordings with a 4 mic setup. A Kick Mic on the Kick drum, a mic on the Snare & Hi-Hat area, a Left Overall mic that picks up both Cymbals, Ride cymbal, and the Floor Tom, and a Right Overall mic for the Cymbals and Rack Toms. It wasn't perfect, but it did the job, day in and day out. This somewhat easy setup has served us well for a number of years, although we used an 8 mic setup on our debut CD.
Well, all that has changed for the better!! Jason, our drummer, got an excellent kit of Beyerdynamic Opus Drum mics for his drum kit and we now have a 10 mic setup on the drums. Jason also got a Presonus Digimax FS, which is a Digital interface that allows us to hook the mics directly to the Digimax and then connect all of that with 1 optical cable to the Fostex (or Pro Tools). Talk about simple!! The mics stay in place as each one is hooked up to kit and the cables are snaked together and labeled at both ends. We now have mic coverage of the Kick, Snare, Hi-Hat, Left Overall, Right Overall, 10" Tom, 12" Tom, 14" Tom, Left 18" Floor Tom/Ride Cymbal, and Right 18" Floor Tom. I'm mixing down 2 free jams that we played after we got the new mic system setup and configured. The drums sound so 3D, it awesome!!! And that's at 16 bit! We'll be doing everything in 24 bit Pro Tools when we track our third CD starting in April!
We can't say enough about having quality mics for drums!
They are making all the difference...
Be sure to check out our latest Blog on Drum Miking Jason's Kit!
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