Studio Blues [update]

You know that feeling you get the first time you comp some masters and the hair stands up on the back of your neck and you get goosebumps? Yeah... makes a month of hell worth it.

Been trying to find drum sound magic in my room; it's 1,700 sq-ft. Reading some old Mix articles (while listening to my five desert-island albums) gave me some ideas. A pair of SDC's out front thirty feet, about 10 feet high and a pair of cheap Chinese ribbons 10 feet behind the drums, about six inches high. Then throw towels over everything but the kick and snare and record the drum track. Then move the towels/dampening to the snare/kick and do another pass for the high end/toms. Sounds like a million bucks.

This project is already two weeks behind and way over budget and we're just now getting to vocal masters but it's gonna be my new business card. I've been making the singer comfortable as well and she says it's been the only good experience she's had tracking vox after trying to record these songs in four(!) different studios...

edit: just for reference, I also have i5 on the snare, 57 on the bottom of the snare pointing towards the beater, a Beta 52 in the front kick port, a homemade subkick, and 421's on the two floor toms and a NT1A on the single rack tom. 12 Gauge Red on the HH and and a 2030 about six feet out in front. Dude has a shit ton of cymbals, I've been going nuts!

edit two: also used the scratch git track to set the side-chain frequency for the gate on the 2030 (doubled) and then through an exciter. I then use that to set the side chain freq for the gate of the comped 4 room mics, which is also doubled, stereo. Somehow I have total control of snare ambulance. Yes, I said ambulance. Phenomenal drummer, but insisted on using his Picallo snare; at least I got him to use a wooden one versus his metal one....