I bought myself a nice recording setup for my modern kit. I also bought a head with a port for recording. What's the best way to tune this resonant head? I've never recorded with a ported head before and I'm not sure how to tune it. Higher, lower, same pitch as batter? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Stephen
A reso head with a 6" port or smaller should not affect the tuning at all. Just tune up the drum the way you normally do. You know the deal... tweak it until you get the sound you're looking for. The port shouldn't make a lick of difference tuning-wise.
John
I agree with Purdie.
Mic placement will change the sound a lot however...
Experiment with it. Just because there is a port does not mean you have to stick the mic in there- or not...
Well the hole does slightly kill off that lovely round tone of a nice complete head. But as Purdie said tune it like you would anyway, and let the engineers shove a mic in there and over a P.A, or on studio monitors it will make sense. Don't get hung up on the close up overtones whilst tuning up at home, you should get a great sound anyway, but this is really for the mic's.
I agree. Tune it as you normally would. If you are handling the mic'ing of the kit then a simple hole will suffice. If someone else is doing it and there is going to be a lot of load-ins and load-outs then I would get a reinforcing ring of some sort. This will mute the wad slightly but I know that the two times I have used a head like an Evans EQ3 without any additional support, the heads have been ripped.
If you are doing the mic selection and placement then experiment. I have seen a lot of guys using a PZM style mic inside the drum lying on the pillow and then a large diaphragm mic in the port. The PZM is there to simply add the low end while the standard mic will pick up both the impact and the full range of the drum. How far in or out of the port will effect the sound as well. Other guys use an inverted speaker like the Yamaha Sub-Kick to accentuate the lows. Both the PZM and the Sub-Kick are employed to capture that low end air movement that is often missed with a single mic. As mentioned, you don't have to mic the port at all. Experimentation is key.
Another option is to mic the batter head from the drummers side (for attack) and mic (non ported or holed) reso head out front (for sub). This gives you the luxury of retaining your non ported reso head tuning, but you will get more bleed from other sources than if shielded from inside the kick. Just a thought.
It's nice to be able try different recipes out at home and not on the clock during sessions, if you have some gear available, but leads to whole
other level of GAS.....
Another option is to mic the batter head from the drummers side (for attack) and mic (non ported or holed) reso head out front (for sub). This gives you the luxury of retaining your non ported reso head tuning, but you will get more bleed from other sources than if shielded from inside the kick. Just a thought. It's nice to be able try different recipes out at home and not on the clock during sessions, if you have some gear available, but leads to whole other level of GAS.....
That is a pretty useful technique. Make certain you flip that batter mic out of phase or the results will be far less than spectacular however!
That is a pretty useful technique. Make certain you flip that batter mic out of phase or the results will be far less than spectacular however!
I didn't want to get into flipping phase and delay aligning & whatnot and further myself from the subject at hand, but you are right to point this out. I just figured that mic phase could fill many a thread on it's own.
I've been showing up on live gigs without hole/port recently and getting "that look" from techs. A lot of live guys just have their unquestioned way of doing things. When I want a modern style attack I use the plastic end of modern beaters and with one mic out front it picks up plenty of attack, not the muddy
sound that techs assume will happen. This is on a 22" Premier kick with emad batter and 5" strip of emad foam ring taped to inside of a stock DW reso head, no muffing inside kick. Techs expect it to sound jazzy till they hear it growl.
Thank you all so very much for the replies. This is my first attempt at recording myself for music I've written. I've always used a studio, but my modern kit has gotten pretty large (various snares - modern and vintage, 3 rack toms, 1 floor, 2 crashes, ride, china, splash, Swishknocker) and it's a hassle to move, plus I don't like the lack of control with some 'real' engineers. I already had a set of overhead and kick Earthworks mics, and I'm going to combine them with a Shure PG56 on the toms, and an SM57 on the snare.
Just to establish my vintage cred, I also have a Ludwig '65 BDP Superclassic, and a 1920s outfit, with temple blocks, Chinese toms, and various trap and cymbals brik-a-brak. My snare collection has over 25 vintage collector grade drums, but I play them all, depending on the song.
Feel free to share any recording tips you might have.
Thanks again.
Stephen
We love pics. of vintage gear around here !!
