Glyn Johns Mic Setup

[Tadpui]

I've taken quite a liking to a Glyn Johns setup for drums lately. I'm using 4 mics (stereo overheads, spot mics on the kick and snare). In my limited experience, I've come across a couple of great pluses, and a couple of pretty deal-breaking minuses. I'm hoping that the resident drum Illuminati can help me make this a better experience overall.

As a note, I'll add some actual photos and sound samples of where I'm at later this week when I have the house to myself. For now, I'll just have to use my words.

In the "plus" column, the main things that I really like about this mic setup:
- the snare. It sounds huge and natural, and it covers the whole stereo field without being too overbearing. The wider the overheads are panned, the bigger it sounds, and I absolutely love that.
- the cohesive capture of the entire kit. It really sounds (to me) how a drum kit should sound: like one instrument, instead of a collection of instruments.
- the simplicity. 4 mics are something that I can plug into my MOTU M4 and record anywhere in the house. Setup, dialing it in, and tear-down are a snap compared to an 8 or 10 mic setup. Same goes for mixing.

In the "minus" column, the two biggest drawbacks that I've run into:
- the kick. It leans over to the right on me every time. I've tried several mic placements of that right-hand mic by the floor tom, but the "smack" of the kick seems to always be picked up by this mic substantially more than the overhead mic.
- the rack tom vs. floor tom balance. The right-hand overhead is so much closer to the floor tom than the others that the balance is always off for me. The rack toms come out a little weak and thin, and the floor tom is just booming loud.

Any of you that have played around with this mic arrangement, how was your experience? And are these same benefits and detriments familiar to you? Or did you have other problems (or no problems) with this setup?

I recently read one of the many biographies on Jimmy Page, so I've been listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin lately. Since Glyn Johns was involved on some of those albums, I've actually noticed the kick smack leaning a little to the right in some of the recordings, but nowhere nearly as bad as mine does. That made me feel a little better, that maybe it's just an inherent part of the technique. I don't mind it if it's subtle, but damn...

[Greg_L]

Rami used to use a hybrid Glyn Johns/Recorderman setup...if I remember correctly. His overheads were always awesome.

My kick leans to the right in the overheads all the time. I use spaced pair. It's not drastic, but it does happen. I don't care for my sounds. My kick sound is mostly close mic anyway so it's not even noticeable.

I wouldn't worry too much about the kick leaning a little. You can keep playing with that floor tom side mic and see what you get. The uneven toms would bug me more than the kick.

[Tadpui]

Rami used to use a hybrid Glyn Johns/Recorderman setup...if I remember correctly. His overheads were always awesome.

My kick leans to the right in the overheads all the time. I use spaced pair. It's not drastic, but it does happen. I don't care for my sounds. My kick sound is mostly close mic anyway so it's not even noticeable.

I wouldn't worry too much about the kick leaning a little. You can keep playing with that floor tom side mic and see what you get. The uneven toms would bug me more than the kick.

Agreed, Rami's drum sounds were great. And there's just something about the snare that I'm getting with Glyn Johns that I wasn't getting with spaced pair or XY. I don't know how to explain it, but there's something there that's worth developing farther.

The kick was seriously leaning right...like, majorly. Plus it's too loud in the overheads. So I've got some experimenting to do! I'll report back, with some sound clips, once I have the time and energy to set things back up.