Recording Drums with Marcel van Limbeek
Marcel shares his brilliant multi-microphone drum recording technique, all based on getting the phase relationships right.
Marcel has more than 25 years of experience in the pro audio industry and works in both live and studio sound. Marcel has been the Studio and Monitor Engineer for the artist Tori Amos since 1994 and during this period has recorded, mixed and mastered 15 albums / DVD releases- 4 of which were Grammy nominated. The 2011 album ‘Night of Hunters’ received a prestigious German Echo classical music award.
As Tori’s Monitor Engineer, he has been on 14 world tours. In 1999 he was awarded the Monitor Engineer of the Year Award by the readers of Live! Magazine.
In 1997 Marcel did the acoustic design for Martian Engineering- Tori’s recording studio in Cornwall, England. He is also Tori’s live Broadcast Engineer, having done live broadcast sound on many TV and radio shows across the globe. Through his association with Tori he has worked with some of the world’s best musicians in many of the world’s best studios. Because of Tori’s wide musical scope he is experienced with many different styles of music production.
Marcel has also worked on various other artist’s recordings and shows. He has his own studio space in London which houses an extensive collection of high quality analogue audio equipment.
Marcel is an extremely popular freelance Audio Lecturer and was also an important part of the development of the Alchemea Live Sound Diploma. His deep theoretical understanding of sound engineering combined with his expert ability to pass this knowledge to others has made him very popular with all the students that have passed through his lectures over the years.
Marcel shares his brilliant multi-microphone drum recording technique, all based on getting the phase relationships right.
Marcel chooses a position for the Floor Tom mic by listening carefully while he scans the surface of the drum.
Showing how an accidental setting on a HPF filter can damage the recording, Marcel chooses the best position for the Rack Tom mics.
Marcel shows us how he decides on a position for the hi-hat mic, and how to avoid wind noise.
Under discussion is Jonathan Espinosa’s “Blender” method of using multiple compressors on a single sound source and other vocal compression techniques.
How have your microphone choices changed when working with Tori in the studio and live?
When recording vocals, what is your suggested position for the mic, how far would the singer be from it and how might that vary?
What is your favourite creative effect to use in production besides EQ and compression?
What is the most challenging thing when sound engineering for Tori Amos?
How can I make live drum recordings sound more vintage and aged?. This simple question has a simple answer: Use vintage equipment and recording techniques. Easy? Of course not.
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Are compressed audio files acceptable?
Marcel’s answer is clear. “If you love music, then compressed files are no good. That is the end of it.”
Marcel van Limbeek tells us why being a sound engineer is such a great career choice.