La Bête Blooms Bass Recording Techniques

As previously stated, the bass guitar was originally recorded directly through a Sansamp bass driver DI. The intention of this was to A; create a ghost track and B; ensure the performance of the drummer seemed as natural as possible, essentially guiding the drummers performance.

It was agreed that the bass would be re-recorded as the Sansamp added too much colouration to the D.I. signal.

I again referred to the techniques employed by Steve Albini (Tingen, 2005) to inform my microphone choices when recording bass guitar.

Albini states that his preferred microphone choices for recording bass are;

• EV RE20
• Josephson C42
• Audio-Technica Pro 37R
• AKG 451
• Altec 165/175

Out of the above choices, the only two microphones currently available to me are the EV RE20 and the AKG 451. It is evident why both of the microphones are particularly effective when recording the bass guitar when one again refers to their frequency responses. 

EV RE20 (Electro Voice, 2016) 

AKG c451 (AKG, 2016) 

When placed at 0 degrees to the sound source, the EV RE20 has a very balanced low end response from 70-150 Hz, ideal for recording the fundamental frequencies omitted by the bass guitar. The high end response is especially uneven in comparison, this is where the AKG c451 is of particular use, the mid and high end is much more balanced, with a smooth curve and boost beginning at 5kHz and rolling off around 15kHz. This will allow the AKG c451 to pick up the finer details such as string noise/rattle adding more depth to the overall sound of the bass guitar.   

La Bête Blooms Drum Microphone Techniques (Kick)

As for recording drums, I have based my techniques on the practices of Steve Albini. In order to do this, I have decided that it will be beneficial to research what microphones he uses, as well as any specific techniques and try to faithfully recreate the techniques using microphones available to me at Hull College.

In the aforementioned Sound on Sound  article (Tingen, 2005) is a brief run-down of his favourite drum microphones. I have also found the following article (Stackpole, 2013) which briefly discusses some of the approaches he takes to drum recording; http://www.drummagazine.com/plugged-in/post/studio-tip-drum-miking-top-to-bottom/ 

In the Sound on Sound microphone breakdown, his favourite kick drum microphones are listed as the AKG D112, EV RE20 and the Beyer M380. Out of these three choices I have either the AKG D112 or the EV RE20 available to me. I have used the D112 numerous times on a kick drum so I decided to research the EV RE20s applications when recording the kick drum, which lead me to another useful Sound on Sound article (Senior, 2008) on Kick and Snare drum recording http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun08/articles/kickandsnare.htm.

After reading the article, it is evident the EV RE20 has been used by several producers such as Glen Kolotkin according to Buskin (2000) http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun00/articles/glen.htm  (section 'Mic Matters' paragraph two), and Jim Scott, according to Tingen (1999) http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec99/articles/jim.htm (section 'Get it Whilst it's Hot' paragraph two) as a kick drum microphone. Senior (2008) also suggests that some producers opt for using a combination of the EV RE20 and AKG D112 when recording kick drums as the RE-20. Tony Visconti used this technique on the recording of David Bowie's 'Reality' according to Buskin (2003) http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct03/articles/reality.htm. He states;

There was a D12 on the kick, together with an RE20 placed just inside the skin near the beater for more attack, and I routed both of these to one channel and mixed them together... I hate microphone stands because they just get in the way and reflect sound, and so I try to avoid them as much as possible. In fact, I even put the D12 inside the kick, resting on a pillow, whereas I did have to put the RE20 on a stand so that I could aim it directly at the beater. Visconti Cited in Buskin (2003)

Based on this research, I will mike up the kick drum using both the D112 and the RE20. As both the microphones are favoured by Steve Albini and have been used together by producers such as Tony Visconti to capture both the low end and the attack of the beater of the bass drum.