17/11/2023
Glyn Johns Technique
💀 Recording Huge Drums with 4 Mics 💀 The Glyn Johns Method
💀 GLYN JOHNS TECHNIQUE
Glyn Johns developed a unique approach to the recording drums, often referred to as the “Glyn Johns Method.” This technique usually employs three or four microphones:
* one hoisted several feet overhead for natural perspective;
* one-off near the floor tom-tom;
* and another near bass drum
* additional mic on the snare
The key is to keep both side mic and overhead mic equally distance from the snare drum to form a triangular pattern with points being snare, side mic, and overhead.
This simple drum recording technique is great if you don’t have many mics at your disposal. Most of the sound comes from overheads, while close-mics can beef up kick and snare drum pieces!
Johns doesn’t like to close-mic each of his drums and only sometimes spots mics them when he needs more control over what comes through on tape.
Johns uses the ambient side mic to hear both the drums and kit as a whole. So while he’ll make subtle balance changes during the take, Johns rarely will move the overhead (or distant) mic.
After recording drums, Johns will listen back to each drum in isolation and make his final tweaks using EQ or compression.
💀 MICS
For overheads, you can use ribbon microphones if you’ve got them. The Beyerdynamic M160 works very nicely.
In this case we used a couple of t.bone RB 500.
If you don’t have ribbons, though, your favorite large-diaphragm condensers work great as well, and can typically be had much more affordably if you don’t have a pair already. For the kick mic you can go for either a dynamic or a condenser. Most of us don’t have a 47, so going for a standard dynamic like the AKG D112 or Shure 52 is no problem. For the snare, you can always count on the SM57 to do the job.
Now Enjoy 💀💀💀
