ronDRUMS
Just as in most cases, the recording should start with focusing on the drums. This is the backbone of every death/black record, much more so than the average rock or metal recording. they must be unrelenting and in your face. Half the time, the drummers will play to a click track, though some drummers prefer the band to be playing. I always recommend using a click track if the drummer is good enough to play to one. At breakneck tempos of 230 BPM and up, I find this is the only way to truly keep the tempo from drifting. Odds are you won't be using Beat
Detective, as most of the songs will have numerous tempo changes, as well as time changes. Starting with a tempo map is a must. Build a tempo map by having the guitar player play the riffs to the click, and at the point of the change stop recording, set the new tempo and/or time change and then continue recording the next part of the song. Edit this map together, and the drummer will have a rough guitar track that he can record to, in addition to a click track. Mic'ing the drum kit presents unique challenges. Drummers of this genre often come in with very large kits: tons of cymbals, double rides, hi-hats and (usually) two kick drums. I've even seen snare drums on the floor, placed with the intent to be played with an extra kick pedal.
KICK DRUM
I like to mic the inside of each kick, up close to the beater for a sharp attack. Any kick mic will do, such as an AKG D112, Audix D6 or a Shure Beta 91. This helps out tremendously for the sound replacement or triggering after the fact. Be sure to cover the kick with a blanket, or such, on the outside to stop as much leakage into the rest of the mics as possible. This is a must if you need to rebuild some of the fast double bass parts. You didn't think all those ridiculously fast kicks were real, did you? Okay, they may be real in some cases, but in this genre a lot of what you hear is built or manipulated. If the drummer is good enough, we will want to blend some of the real kick drum sound with samples later on. If there's a lot of building of kick drums going on, you may not want to mic the kick and just trigger to tape.
TRIGGERS
I like to use the ddrum's basic Trigger or Pintech's Trigger Perfect kick triggers, if I'm going with a mount- style trigger. An Axis pedal with the EKIT trigger mounted on it is by far the best. Any drum sample brain module I have lying around with a decent sounding kick will do. Odds are I'll be replacing them later on or stacking the samples up for kick layers. The problem with triggers in general is that at these speeds, misfires often occur due to slap backs or sloppy playing, so you may have to spend some time tweaking the sampler unit to stop this from happening by setting higher thresholds and lower crosstalk.
SNARE
The snare drum can be mic'ed top and bottom. Remember to place the bottom mic as far from the rim of the kick drum as possible, in case "kick building" has to happen. Otherwise, you will have to do some serious gating on the bottom head.
TOMS
For tom drums, mic'ing them on the top with a standard Sennheiser 421 will do. I usually do 2" off the head, pointing towards the center for better attack. In death metal, often drummers play with very loose drum heads. This gives a ton of low end, as well as a very thuddy sound without an overabundance of ring. Be sure to make the heads in tune with themselves.
HATS AND CYMBALS
As usual with the high-hats, mic them straight down and point them away from the snare drum. When mic'ing the ride cymbal, I try to always make sure I get half the bell and half the cymbal. The double ride cymbal configuration is becoming more widely used — I make it a point to use two different mics for each ride in order to make them more distinguishable from each other.
OVERHEADS AND ROOM
On the drum overheads, I will often use a three or four mic set up instead of the standard two. With such wide kits, and so many splashes, crashes and cymbals to take into account, this is often necessary. I usually go to AKG 414s, but any decent condenser will do. I close mic the cymbals, about two feet away, due to the speed of the music and clarity that needs to come through. If I need a more roomy sound, I will add a couple of room mics, however these rarely get turned up too much. The drums aren't "pop" drums. Usually the "bigger" the sound, the more muddy it can become with layered guitars and growling vocals. Don't be afraid to carefully compress things hard, even to tape. If the drummer is truly not up to par, tell him not to play the kick drums on the fast parts — then you will be sure not to have any out-of-time kick playing bleed when you build. If you do incur a ton of bleed and try to build over it, the sound turns into popcorn with kick hits everywhere.
BASS GUITAR
