Glyn Johns OTHER cool ass technique

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 3:32 pm

So, This weekend I was at Webster University's AES Student Summit. One of my fellow panelists was Jeff Powell from Memphis. He's done some sessions as Glyn Johns' engineer. We talked some about the 3 mic technique but also about setting the band up in a line with the amps even with the front bass drum head.

On our Saturday night session we decided to set up the band that way. We had drums center with bass to his left, keyboard amp to the left of the bass and guitar amp to the right of the drummer. There were gobos on either side of the drummer, but they only went out to around the batter head of the BD.

The band was a fusion/funk type thing called Ground Flow Fusion. There was also a conga/percussionist and a trumpet player. They were both across from the others.

There was a 421 and a sE Voodoo ribbon on the guitar amp and an SM 7 on the bass amp. It was pretty amazing how LITTLE (if any) drums were in the amp mics. The conga player also had a Voodoo ribbon, parallel with the floor, using the null to the band, and the trumpet had an AEA 44 again with the null towards the band. The trumpet mic had some bleed, but nothing life shattering or unusable. We set up am EMT plate reverb and sent the trumpet through it and there was a little sheen on the whole band. I think partially because we had the gain pretty hot to pick up the trumpet. We also had an AEA R88 stereo mic capturing the whole band, when it's faders were brought things got just a bit wider, in a very nice way.

The drums had a full compliment of mics. OH were sE RN17 (which are the fucking shit), snare had an M88 (greatest mic ever), BD had a Heil PR40 inside and an sE T2 out. Toms were EV 408s mostly because he had a really tight set up and 421s just didn't fit. We could fully adjust different elements of the drum set without have one of the other sounds get weird.

We tracked 4 or 5 tunes totally without headphones.

It was a really impressive set up, and quite fun.

Gregg Juke · Post by **Gregg Juke** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 4:58 pm

Sound samples? Diagram?

What gives, Antonio?

GJ

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 11:23 pm

I'm in contact with the band and will hopefully be mixing the session. I'll ask around for some pics. I was busy "panlelizing" and being the control room/band Liaison and didn't snap a single shot.

A.David.MacKinnon · Post by **A.David.MacKinnon** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 5:40 am

I have an upcoming session I was planning to use this technique on. Its a heavy blues rock thing. The band have years of playing experience but have never recorded before. My main reason for thinking about this technique is that it would allow them to stay in their comfort zone by setting up the way they do for live shows.

I never thought of it as a Glynn Johns thing, more of a Stooges thing. Nice to have confirmation that it works so well.

Question - How tight together did you have the drums and amps?

David_Kessler · Post by **David_Kessler** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 9:30 am

And another question, what were the volumes of the amps in the room?

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 10:12 am

The amps were as close as one might find them at a small club. The guitar amp was probably 5-6 feet from the BD on the drummer's right. The Bass amp was closer on the left side. The Keyboard amp was further to the left of that.

The amps were as "we're playing live with a drummer" type volume. if you went into the room there was definately some air moving!

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 12:56 pm

I am so going to try this.

Maybe this thread should be renamed "Glyn Johns OTHER cool ass techniques", if you see what I mean.

dfuruta · Post by **dfuruta** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 1:07 pm

I am intrigued but having difficulty visualizing this--would anyone be willing to draw some stick figures?

Snarl 12/8 · Post by **Snarl 12/8** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 1:28 pm

Yeah. Pics or it didn't happen.

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 3:04 pm

dfuruta wrote:I am intrigued but having difficulty visualizing this--would anyone be willing to draw some stick figures?

...|amp|......|kick|...|b-amp|...|keys|...

............(sax)........(conga)...

Gregg Juke · Post by **Gregg Juke** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 3:25 pm

Are those stage directions from your latest play? Or one of those wacky web images? Am I supposed to "unfocus" my eyes while staring at the middle???

GJ

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 4:23 pm

My interp of the description above, with each period equalling a foot of distance.

That said, I suggest a martoonie for to help with yer "unfocus".

I mean, I'm about to have one ...

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 4:54 pm

vvv wrote:
dfuruta wrote:I am intrigued but having difficulty visualizing this--would anyone be willing to draw some stick figures?
...|amp|......|kick|...|b-amp|...|keys|...

............(sax)........(conga)...

That is pretty much it, except it was

............(conga)......(trumpet)

Gregg Juke · Post by **Gregg Juke** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 6:58 pm

>>>>My interp of the description above, with each period equalling a foot of distance.<<<<

So that's to scale?

++++That said, I suggest a martoonie for to help with yer "unfocus".++++

Ah, "martoonies" were made famous by that guy from the Cat Pack, Dern Maertin, right???

GJ

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 7:37 pm

drumsound wrote:
vvv wrote:
dfuruta wrote:I am intrigued but having difficulty visualizing this--would anyone be willing to draw some stick figures?
...|amp|......|kick|...|b-amp|...|keys|...

............(sax)........(conga)...
That is pretty much it, except it was

............(conga)......(trumpet)

Ha! My last choon had sax and conga, so I were confuzzed.

Message Board

Glyn Johns OTHER cool ass technique

Glyn Johns OTHER cool ass technique

Who is online