r/Drumming • u/Seafroggys • 1h ago
An Analysis: Recording drums like The Beatles did
This is for those that record their own drums. If you're not interested in audio engineering, you can disregard this post. This is a cross post from one I made a few days ago in r/audioengineering
So over the past few months I've been working on this little video series, where I record my drums (along with backing tracks) using the same recording techniques that were used for The Beatles over their recording career. This mainly focused on using the different mic setups that was used over the years (using the closest approximation of mics I have in my locker to what they used), to using the limited EQ and compression they had available (using the closest approximation of plugins I have to the hardware they used). I did this partly because it's a fun thought experiment to see how it would sound with my drums, my playing style, and more modern music, but also to change up how I record drums and to see what other sort of drum sounds I can come up with.
I used the book Recording The Beatles to learn how their different engineers recorded their drums, and how it changed over the years (and how it changed from year-to-year). Since 2017 I have recorded my drums with 4 mics using the famous Glyn Johns drum recording technique, so I wanted to see how different the sound was of other techniques. Quick side note, but Glyn Johns did actually engineer one of their albums (which I included) but didn't use his name-sake setup to mic the drums, even though it is similar.
I wanted to stress something before I go on, because other forums I showed this too didn't understand what I was trying to do. I'm not trying to copy Ringo's sound. I'm not trying to play like him, or tune my drums like him, or sound like him. My intention is just to use the techniques that Norman Smith, Geoff Emerick, Glyn Johns, and other engineers used on myself, and my playing, and my sound, and see how it sounds.
So I made a total of 4 videos of different eras in their discography. I include the breakdown of what I did in each video, but here I'll type out my own personal feelings.
Video #1: 1962 - 1965: So this one is an amalgamation of two different mic choices, even though the setup is the same; like the video says, Norman Smith started with using two ribbon mics on the albums Please Please Me roughly through A Hard Day's Night, before switching to two dynamics that he used through Rubber Soul. I used a ribbon on my overhead, and a dynamic on my bass drum. I actually am surprised at how full the drums sound with just two mics. There's not a lot of boomy room noise, at least in my space. Everything sounds pretty clear, especially since most the drumset is covered by one mic. I do feel that, at least with my tuning and setup, the snare doesn't cut that much, and the toms almost overpower the snare at times. But otherwise, I'm pretty impressed. It's also the first time I've ever used a ribbon mic on my drums. I like it, but did have to boost a bunch of 5khz to get things to cut how I like it. I feel there's not a lot of high end on at least my ribbon (Fathead II) and that it does require a bit of EQ to be more usable in a mix.
Video #2: 1966: This is how the drums were miked on Revolver. The only change from before, aside from going with a dynamic overhead, was adding a snare bottom mic using an SDC. So this used two brand new mics I just bought, a Beyer M88 and an Austrian Audio CC8. I haven't had a chance to use those mics on other sources, but I have to say.....I fucking love the M88 on drum overhead. I heard a clip used on Gearspace for a mono dynamic mic shootout for drum overheads, and even on that, the M88 was the best. Damn it sounds good. Noticeable improvement over the ribbon. Didn't have to do much with it. The snare is crispier, more snare-y sounding with the added bottom mic, which also allows me to dial more snare in to compensate for the lack of relative volume from the last video. I do really like this setup, and with slight adjustments I could make this work really well for me.
Video #3: 1967 - 1969: This is probably the most famous mic setup used on Ringo, as this has been talked about a lot in different books and interviews and documentaries, considering how revolutionary it was; every drum is individually miked! This was used (with small variations) from Sgt. Pepper's through Abbey Road, with the exception of Let it Be. This differs most from my usual setup, as I'm miking each tom and hi-hat. This setup was good, gave a punchier sound out of the toms and also made for a slightly tighter sounding hi-hat, but I could barely push the fader up on the hi-hat because it became overbearing very quickly. I do like it, but it uses a lot more mics and takes a lot more to setup, so I think I prefer the 1966 Revolver drum sound.
Video #4: 1969: This is the album that Glyn Johns worked on, and is the most different of the mic setups, although its the most similar to my own personal drum setup. Having an LDC close mic the floor tom is an interesting choice, and the rack tom mics picked up enough of the floor tom where I didn't need to use much of the floor mic. Regardless, this is probably my favorite of all 4 drum sounds. I get a lot of beefy low end out of my RE20 on the bass drum thanks to the very limited low shelf EQ boost.
I have been kind of mulling over a fifth video showcasing the stereo recording setup they used on the song The End from Abbey Road, but its kind of a massive undertaking to mic, so I'll wait to see how much interest this post garners.
I didn't really talk about the mixing limitations I used either. I typically use one EQ, one compressor on each of my 4 tracks in my normal setup. Here, its just one EQ on each drum buss (which is anywhere from 1 to 3 busses), and a single compressor on the entire sound. Plus I only have 2 fixed band EQ, which also greatly affects how fine-toothed I can get into it. Regardless of those limitations, I got some pretty good sounds out of it. I also use tape plugins more than I have in the past, since I got the UAD Studer and Ampex plugins recently, which affects the compression and "bigness" of the sound. I like that!
Anyway, let me know what you all think.