Drum Science - Part 3

Recording & Mixing

In the third and final part of this series, Rob Toulson focuses on recording drums and talks us through the issue of frequency cancellation in a multiple mic setup, details how to choose the recording sweet spot in a room and explains the various stereo mic technique options that are available.
See the Show Notes for further details.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:52 - Phase Coherence
03:00 - Time Delays
05:10 - Comb Filtering
07:53 - Flipping The Polarity
12:22 - Choosing A Recording Space
14:56 - Mic Choice And Placement
17:43 - Stereo Techniques
18:08 - Spaced Pair Technique
19:02 - Glyn Johns Mic Technique
20:12 - Coincident Pair Technique
21:16 - ORTF Technique
22:20 - Mid-Side Technique
24:30 - Comparing The Techniques
25:22 - Other Mic Techniques

Professor Rob Toulson Biog
Rob is Director of RT60 Ltd, who develop mobile apps for musicians and sound engineers. RT60’s iDrumTune Pro app assists drummers with learning the skills of drum tuning and has been the number one music app in over 100 countries since its launch in 2012. More recently, Rob and RT60 developed Songzap, which simplifies the process of recording and capturing musical ideas, enabling songwriters to focus exclusively on their creativity.

Rob stared his career as a mechanical engineer with a doctorate in digital signal processing, before following his passion and moving into the field of music technology and specialising in percussion acoustics and audio software development. Rob has held a number of academic research roles in his career, including Professor of Creative Industries at University of Westminster and Director of the CoDE Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin University. Rob’s also a successful musician, music producer and sound designer, having worked with many artists including Talvin Singh, Wilfy Williams and Mediaeval Baebes, who have previously topped the UK Classical Music Chart.

Rob is author of a number of music related books and articles, including ‘Drum Sound and Drum Tuning’, published by Routledge in 2021, and co-editor of the ‘Innovation In Music’ book series, which is also published by Routledge. His sound design work has been included in films by BAFTA Winner Shreepali Patel and has been showcased at Glastonbury Festival, The V&A and The Natural History Museum.

https://www.robtoulson.com/
https://www.rt60.uk/