Glyn is/was my old school chum and when we left school he got a job at IBC studios and I had formed a rock band called The Presidents. At weekends Glyn would invite us up to the studio and try out his new skills and the combination got us signed to Decca Records. Here is a link to one of the tracks we recorded with Glyn at the controls which was passed to Decca but somehow got lost BUT was found in LA in 2018 and released that June - so here one hears one of his earliest productions mimed with the original line up which I managed to get together. Please share the link - @

Hey man, I gotta congratulate you, not only on your sound and audio knowledge, but how well produced your videos are. Color correction, editing techniques, tricks and tips to show us more visually all the resources that you're delivering. Kudos man, that whole combination makes it easy and pleasant to understand what you're teaching. :)

This has been my go to drum mic technique since I was a poor twenty- something in the eighties with only four working mics. I used two 1960s Shure Unisphere omnis for the "overheads", a 1970s SM57 on the snare, and a 1950s EV Mercury 911 crystal omni in the kick. I've upgraded my mic locker a bit since then, but still use the same setup, even if I close mic toms, hat, and add a ribbon or the Sylvia Massey garden hose trick for the room. If you don't have a lot of mics, you can bus/send your two overheads to s new track in your DAW, add a 100% wet delay and/or reverb to create a virtual room mic track and compress to your hearts content.

Ryan...I use this technique a lot when recording my personal "Bonham" kit...!...Great ideas here to make it balance better...which is always the challenge...!...I saw something else on this yesterday...the magic distance for that was 40" for both mics from the snare...!!!...Thanks for all you do my friend...!

Plain and simple. Thank you.

I took the floor tom mic a lot more further out behind the drummer, and it worked very well.

Another Glyn Johns style technique is to use the overheads to mic more of the toms. For example: the overhead mic is 24" from the rack tom and the side mic is 24" from the floor toms. Both mics point down at the toms and it keeps them even in the mix. This really only works if you use a snare and kick like you did here.

Hey!! Great video. How high should the OH mic be above the snare? I love this technique but, I'm finding that when I'm using it, it sounds as if my snare and toms are sooooo far away. I'm not using a snare mic 🎤.

thank you ,nice and concise, and just what I was looking for.

I've use it on a "soft track" with brushes instead of a drum stick and i think i sounded pretty good. I went for the sound of the whole kit instead of a more focus sound on every drum

Thanks for the detailed vid as always man. People like to romanticize this technique and it's good to hear some real-life perspective on it

I've used this quite a bit... when I'm running out of inputs or I'm too lazy to set up all the mics :P It's my go-to rehearsal recording setup. This plus a BD mic is really easy to mix and sounds good to me, but everything you said is true. It has a lot of issues and if I have the choice I'd much rather have good cymbal separation and add everything else with close mics.

Mix options is what makes more mics the better option. I have got great two mic kit recordings when you solo the kit, sure, but bring it into a mix and your forced to possibly compromise mix decisions you might not make with more potential selections to choose from and or level. If you can get more with 3 as opposed to 6 lets say, then keep experimenting and learning.until you get more with more.

can u post the link u mentioned that improves on the sound of the floor tom? thanks.

I "Glyn Johns" using dynamic omni mics over the snare and pointing at the HH from across the top of the floor tom. Both mics are of equal distance from the center of the snare. (Like exact equal distance.) I mic the kick, and add a mic (sometimes) on the snare itself. Try the omnis, you'll thank me later.

Hey Ryan, another great video. I have an upcoming project that by necessity requires the Glyn Johns method. Your earlier video on the technique was VERY enlightening, it will definitely save me some frustration. I have the good fortune of recording in an old chapel, very big room, very high ceiling. I'm a little worried that the sound will be too ambient and boomy. Should I attempt any isolation on the drums or just concentrate on mic placement?

Hello Ryan! Great channel man! Could you suggest me some idea to use this technique with the followings mics: - AKG 414 Xls - 2 Beyerdynamic M201 - 1 Beyerdynamic M88 - 1 Shure Sm91 - 1 Zoom H6 How do you recommend use just three of these mics? I'm get started to record my jazz trio (piano/DB) in a small room (4mt x 3.5mt) Not tried yet but I think that is very nice tech for jazz drums recordings... Thanks for your time! Cheers!

Not sure if it's just my ears but it sounds like the kick is somewhat left in your stereo field. This would probably be fixed by also keeping equal distance to both the snare and kick in the overheads.

Based on the audio sample in this video the floor tom was noticeably louder than the rack tom contrary to your closing remarks. Did you tweak something to bring out the floor tom? Thanks for all of the highly valuable and extremely informative and detailed work.

I like to use a front of kit mic with this setup. About 18 inches away from the kick. Gives the whole kit a little more low end, particularly the floor tom

Sounds like British Steel. Although that was Tom Allom. So many variables. Gotta do what you gotta do in every situation to get what you want.

To make this work in the end is proper panning!!!! Some guides say pan the over the snare mic right and the floor tom mic left, but that does not work - pan the OH snare mic right 9 and floor tom left....3

I think a lot of the problems with this can be solved with the bassdrum mic. If you keep it the same distance from the snare as the overheads, and by this more way from the bassdrum than usual, you can record the whole low end of the kit with it. this than allows, to cut more body from the overhead. „Transfering“ this to the bd mic if you will. Not only will the bd sound more natural, it is dead center, and so will be the lowest part of the snare and toms. A lot of engeneers in the past miced the bassdrum with more distance. and allthough they were forced a lot of the times, it really has a lot of potential. It is one of the most overlooked things in drum recording these day. Everboy is scared of bleed on their Bassdrum, because it is harder to get that industry standart omph with bleed. but i think it kills the character of the drum most of the times, like i really feel the personality of drum sound is completly lost on 90% of contemporery records.

HQ pdf. thanks

Even just the two overheads and a kick mic is really good, but kick, snare, two overheads is my go-to, and doing it like this would just be a matter of position (and later panning) the two overheads differently. I like it though.

Is there a particular Reason you're using Large Diapraghms?

Hi Ryan. I love the less-is-more mindset, but personally I find it hard to "hear" the sound without other instruments playing. I've done shootouts myself and sometimes the "best" sounding mic/setup isn't the one who's working the best in the mix. I guess it might be the same with this technique: maybe the issues aren't so big when you look at the whole "painting"? Thanx for sharing your knowledge! All the best, Nils (Sweden)

I actually thought it sounded very good! Not bothered by the floor Tom at all.

add a bottom mic to floor tom.

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this problem could easily be solved if you would switch the position of the ride and your second crash.