Glyn John's Technique: A Lesson in Drum Recording

All right, so we've recorded the Glyn John's technique here. Let's have a listen to it and see how it compares to the two other recordings we've done with three mics and one mic.

Listening Session

Lyrics Sample:

You got a whole big bag of money, you take it in your stride.
A smile won't cost you nothing, not even for a while.
But I've got love, I've got love on my side.
You live your way out west 'cause you think it's best in your thousand dollar route.
Will you telescope at you?
But I've got love, I've got love on my side.

As you can hear, there's a bit more stereo sound on this recording, and that's obviously because of the overheads. This setup brings out that nice spread in the mix. Additionally, we have the room mic to add more ambience, which makes it a little bit more lively and exciting to listen to.

Benefits of the Glyn John's Technique

• Old School Sound:

  • It doesn't need close mic toms and that kind of techniques. The sound is designed to feel a bit old school.

• Fewer Mic Problems:

  • In many ways, the fewer mics you put on a drum kit, the fewer problems you're going to encounter.
  • More mics can lead to phase issues between different mics and drums.

Drum Sound Characteristics

For this kind of track:

• I don't use the toms as a main beat.
• I don't really need a super punchy tom sound.

The overheads capture the hi-hat sufficiently for my needs, so I don't need to close mic that either.

Future Sessions

In the next session, we will adopt a more rock-focused approach:

• Close mic every drum
• Add a bit more to the room mics
• Use a stereo approach for both the room mics and overheads, changing the mics a little bit.

This current setup gives a pretty good sound for this track. Let's compare it to the previous takes we've done and see if you can hear the difference, noticing how it gradually becomes richer and fits better into the track.

One More Time:

You got a whole big bag of money, you take it in your stride.
A smile won't cost you nothing, not even for a while.
But I've got love, I've got love on my side.
You live in way out west 'cause you think it's best in your thousand dollar route.
Will you telescope at you?
But I've got love, I've got love on my side.

Final Thoughts

You can hear there's quite a big difference. They all work, but I definitely prefer the Glyn John's technique because you get a bigger sound and there's more to work with as well.

• You can widen your stereo image, make it smaller, or add a bit of room mic as needed.

I hope you enjoyed this lesson! Next time, we will do the full-on rock/pop setup with close mics on every single drum and a few room mics as well.

Thanks for looking and listening, and I hope you join me in the next session with the multi mic setup!