Drum It With Brummet

  With the home studio being the most likely place where you are going to be recording your own projects and demos, here are some things I have learned to keep in mind when recording percussion. I developed a vital technique from studio work regarding recording shaker and tambourine tracks. Our first instinct is to stand in front of a microphone facing it (like a vocalist) and playing away as normal. Not such a good idea with what I call the swinging instruments like shakers and tambourines. When you face the mic head-on, any back swing of a shaker carries it further away from the microphone making it notably quieter then the forward swings, resulting in an un-natural feel.  Now if you take a step to the side of the mic swinging the instrument “across”  the path of the microphone you get a much more balanced, musical sound. Additionally,  you can visually determine if you are 4 or 12 inches away from the mic and consistently retain that distance. In the case of a tam...