Standard miking techniques, grouping, mixing out of the box, and pre-production!

This week we had a make up class in which we set up 3 different types of overhead mic matrices, ...At the same time!!! We put the AKG D112 on the kick in channel 1. An SM57 on the snare into channel 2. We used the AKG 414's, cardioid setting, for spaced pair miking over the kit (RL), into channels 3 and 4. Spaced pair miking is cool because it aurally splits the kit into a right and left side, creating the opportunity for true stereo mixing with drums. The 3-to-1 rule is a good starting point to position the mics, but if it sounds like crap, it sounds like crap, and you should reposition until you hear what you like. Mid-side miking was the next technique we tried, using the AT 4050's into channels 5 and 8. The mid was set to cardioid, and the side - figure 8. Make sure to get those capsules as close together as possible! We used the Josephson e22's on the third set of overheads into channels 9 and 10, this time using X-Y miking. To explain this technique, from the drummers perspective, the left cardioid mic is pointing across and picking up the right side (approx 0 degrees axis at the ride cymbal). The right side OH picks up the left side (approx 0 degrees axis at the hi hats). I really like how this technique sounds, but the mic stands we used were too short too get the position we wanted. Next time we will use longer mic stands, or simply pick different mics for the job! After patching everything correctly we set up a session to get rockin'. Nadia played a groove while we listened, and recorded. To decode the mid-side, double the side track. Pan one hard R and the other hard L. Put one of the sides out of phase! Grouping tracks is a great idea for making mixing more organized and efficient. We grouped the kick and snare together, and separately grouped each of the miking techinques. This enabled us to A-B between the different overhead choices. The mid-side ended up sounding the fattest, it just picked up a great, full, warm low end sound. I was shown a little bit of mixing out of the box. Finally, no digital fader for a minute! We had to patch the mid-side tracks out of protools into the board, into LINE 1 inputs on the patch bay, channels 38 39 and 40. Now we were able to monitor from the faders right on the console. This week for our labs we decided it would be a good idea to start pre-production for our next song. We set up a couple of 414's as room mics, and put 2 Royer 121's on the piano. Myself on piano, Garret and Jake on guitar, Chris on drums, and Taylor in the studio as engineer. A few of us had brought in some ideas for a song, and a couple chord progressions. We jammed on them for a while and got a good half an hour of tracking in. We spend the rest of our lab time retracking our first efforts, because we had back up issues and performance issues.