Drum Overheads - The Weathervane Method

PDF Guides by Weathervane: http://www.weathervanemusic.org/store

Instead of using two microphones for drum overheads, have you ever tried using three mics in the shape of a triangle?

This technique was developed by a really cool organization called Weathervane Music. They record bands and incubate new music with the help of high end gear and video documentaries. All of it's super well done.

But one technique that I have never seen before is their drum overhead technique. It uses three microphones, and in the shape of a triangle.

Brian McTear, featured in Tape Op Magazine, and Executive Director of Weathervane, has been looking over this episode during our testing and editing to make sure we get the technique right. We sent many emails back and fourth, and I used their PDF Reference as my guide.

To date, Brian says we are the first outside source to replicate the technique that they developed.

It's almost like a Decca Tree (Used in orchestral recordings) but for drum set.

I had my doubts about how well this would work, but I was really surprised. None of the mics are equidistant to the snare, and yet somehow the phase of the snare is still really strong between the mics.

I show in the video how flipping the polarity completely destroys the sound of the snare, and proves how well it works as a system for overhead drum recording.

This episode was a big one. It took me two weeks to test, film, and edit this one together.