Drums de Dorfsman: Chimene Badi at Avatar's Studio A
Something is obviously working for Neil Dorfsman. This NYC-honed producer/engineer’s credits are impeccable, with GRAMMY awards for the likes of Sting (Nothing Like the Sun) and Dire Straits (Brothers In Arms), and a whole bunch of clients that you’ve got somewhere in your iPod (Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Kiss, Def Leppard, Oasis, Weather Report).
Neil Makes a point! Photo credit: Jan Cain
Maybe it’s just his sterling personality – try and match him for upbeat enthusiasm — that gets him these great gigs, but probably it’s just as much because he really knows how to record musicians and their instruments. And while capturing drums can be a quagmire for the faint of heart, Dorfsman charges fearlessly into any session, mics in hand, applying his deep experience to getting that sound down.
“My main approach to recording drums hasn’t changed much over the years,” he explains, “especially in Avatar’s Studio A, where I started when it was the Power Station, after coming there from a brief stint at Electric Lady.
“Drums are my favorite thing to record. People seem to be intimidated by them. Maybe it’s because they’re cumbersome and there’s so many elements to them — but that’s actually what I love the most. As I’ve gotten more experienced, I’ve come to really appreciate how ‘here-and-now’ the whole live recording process is. It forces you to be extremely focused and in the moment. To me, it’s invaluable to be recording live musicians at the level of these guys –– I always feel so honored to have the opportunity to do this.
“So for drum tracks, I’m trying to capture as much sonic energy as is passing through the room in this brief window of time as possible. The running joke in these sessions was, ‘THIS LOOKS LIKE A PRESS CONFERENCE — there’s so many mics!’ There’s not really that many total mics, but I do tend to multi-mic everything. I’m trying to grab and preserve as many ‘angles’ as possible to the sound coming off the floor.”
So how does Neil Dorfsman record drums? The answer in 3, 2, 1…
POINT OF ORIGIN — THE MUSIC AND THE DRUMMER:
“I heard the music in demo form before we came into Avatar, it’s mid-tempo. The artist is Chimene Badi, who’s the ‘French Idol’ from a few years ago. She’s absolutely great, the songs were excellent and the band was amazing.
Drummer's eye view. Photo credit: Jan Cain
“The drummer was Graham Hawthorne, who plays with David Byrne, Paul Simon, and Suzanne Vega. Graham was incredible, one of the finest drummers I’ve ever worked with. He’s kind of a secret weapon. He is extremely and intuitively musical, and he’s a terrific percussionist – which quite a few drummers think they are, even though they may not be.
“Scott Jacoby was producing – he’s an up-and-coming, brilliant guy. It really was a fantastic session, and it felt so great to be at Avatar with this special group of people.”
THE ALMIGHTY SNARE:
“Top of the snare I used a Shure Beta 56, and the bottom a Shure SM57. I didn’t used to record the bottom of the snare, but producers seem to like a more ‘snarey’ snare drum now.
“I have a little Countryman EM101 microphone, which I used to tape to the rim of the snare to open a gate on the top and bottom mic if the guy was playing really loud. Recently I started recording it, and it gives you a metallic, ringy sound. It injects some personality into the drum. It doesn’t work well on its own, but mixed in it’s really nice.”
THOSE THUNDEROUS TOMS:
“I mic the toms with Sennheiser 421’s top and bottom. I gated the bottom mics on the drums, and I flipped the phase relative to the top. I have the gates set to open even if the drummer taps pretty slightly – the bottom mic provides bit of fundamental to the tone of the drum.”
THE KICK, TO WIT:
“I’m tending to put more mics in the kick drum as time goes on. On this session, I used a Shure 52 Beta— or Beyer M88 — inside. I had a Neumann 47FET outside and in front of the kick, about 7” from the front of the head.
There's a kick in there somewhere. Photo credit: Jan Cain
“I’ll put the head of the mic three or four inches inside the front hole. I try to feel where the air pressure is ending, and put the mic at that point where the wave seems to end. I used to put that mic straight on, but lately I’ve been putting it at an angle towards the rim – to the corner/circumference of the drum shell. I’m finding I’m getting a little more tone that way. That mic is low down in the drum physically, below the equator of the drum, pointing slightly to the side.
“The whole drum kit is on a carpet, and the head of the kick is right at the edge of the carpet. I’ll tape a PZM right in front of the drum on the floor, centered on the kick drum. That will often present a bright and airy sound, but today it gave us a very woody/ knocky sound. It depends on the PZM and the room. It’s different every time, and sometimes you need a bit of luck.
“Additionally, I’ll put a Yamaha NS 10 subkick right there in line with the PZM. That’s providing 60 Hz and lower.
“Then I tunnel the bass drum. I tape a super-light packing blanket and gaffer tape to the outside rim of the kick drum, and build what I call ‘The Elephant Man.’ It’s a tunnel to keep extraneous, awful leakage out.”
CAPTCHA THE HAT:
“I was going to try a ribbon Royer, but I used that on the electric guitar. So I went with the standby AKG 451 with a 20 dB pad. I love those mics. I think those are the best mics AKG has ever made.”
Another angle. Photo credit: Jan Cain
AMBIENT. OVER. HEAD:
“Overhead are AKG 460’s. I originally set up with three overheads, but wound up with just two – one to the left of the bass drum, and one to the right. I measure their distance from the top of the kick drum, and point them straight down at the cymbals, as I’m trying to get a clean recording of the cymbals and snare drum – I don’t really look to the overheads
“I measure their distance from the top of the kick drum and point them straight down at the cymbals, as I’m trying to get a clean recording of the cymbals and snare drum – I don’t really look to the overheads for the tom sound.
“For the ambient mics there were two Coles 4038 mics 8 feet in front of the drums, about waist high, and I put little gobos around them to cut down on the room size, then hammered them pretty hard with an SSL “SMART” compressor.
“I also have my own Brauner VMA, a super high-end microphone which I put in front of the drums 10 feet away, in omni, about chest high. I squashed it with an Empirical Labs Distressor, going for a modified hi-fi sound. It’s pretty compressed, but an accurate representation of what’s going on in the room. I change the Brauner from cardioid to omni depending on how much life the producer wanted on the kit. I varied the attack and release on the compression, and I would compress hard – about 10 dB on the Distressor – spanked pretty hard.
“We used Avatar’s Custom A76 tube mics, which (Avatar’s) Roy Hendrickson designed and sound incredible. I put those up 15 feet in cardioid, often facing the drums and sometimes facing away, so that they’re picking up reflections off the dome of Avatar’s Studio A. If you want a big room sound, you can do it that way. Those went through two LA-3A’s with about five dB of compression.
“Avatar has a crusty old RCA 44 ribbon mic that I placed in the back of the drums. I put that about six feet over Graham’s head, angled down looking down at the snare. That’s a thick, dark, chocolatey sound, compressed a little with an 1176 with a fast attack. At times it gets a bit thick and murky, but if you want some thick bottom. It’s there.
“Lastly, I have a Shure bullet mic – a crystal microphone — that I built a little foam doughnut for. It looks like a doughnut with a tennis ball sitting on it. That’s a killer mic: It’s instantly distorted, messed up and lo-fi. I placed it under the snare drum on the floor and angled it slightly to the beater of the kick drum. That instantly turns it into a lo-fi loopophonic kind of sound. Even if you don’t use it for a loop per se, you can mix it into the “normal” kit sound and it adds some power, aggressiveness and forwardness. You don’t really hear the distortion, but it adds something unique. That’s a pretty recent addition to the setup.”
Now THAT'S headroom. Photo credit: Jan Cain
IN TUNE WITH THE ROOM:
“I know Avatar’s Studio A room and desk so well, I can get a pretty respectable drum sound in half an hour or less. If I don’t get a good sound fast, I know something’s really wrong.” – David Weiss