Punk Rock Engineer Mass Giorgini, Part 2: Dynamite Drums

A classic file photo of Mass Giorgini in the 1990s. For pictures of Mass today—plus images of his drum setup—see part I of this interview.

Tips for tracking dynamite drums await in Part II of Brian Speaker’s interview with musician, producer, engineer, and punk rock legend Massimiliano “Mass” Giorgini.

Read on, as Mass [Screeching Weasel, Squirt Gun, Anti-Flag, Rise Against, Alkaline Trio] will make your drunk tracking and mixing skills mas better! (And don’t miss Part I, here.)

B.S.: Take me through your recording process when it comes to drums.

M.G.: My preference has built up over time, including what you see in the design of this place. I did lots of work in lots of studios and I heard things that I liked sonically and I wanted to imitate, and things that I didn’t like. So I kind of aimed things that way when I started building this place.

One of the things I really like is a good live room. I didn’t like fake reverbs and I’m still not a big fan, where I do love the sound of a real reverberating room. I wanted that room to be live, but I wanted it to be sonically correct with no parallel surfaces.

I think drums sound fantastic in that kind of room. It’s the one instrument that if you put it in a dry room, you always can tell it’s in a dry room, even if you add fake reverb, it just doesn’t sound real. That’s why I wanted a reflective room. That was a priority in building the room.

Kick Drum

I think the overall kit meant something. When I look at individual things, I love a very attacky kick drum. I like a big low end, but I like the body of it to be somewhere in the middle. I don’t want it to be all click like some of the Speed Metal acts.

My favorite mic is the AKG D112. I don’t like to add a lot of fake click, so my preferred beater is the wood beater and where it’s hitting the head, I like to tape a quarter to the head using strapping tape, because any other tape will fall off. Because you get a real click that reverberates through the room. If the low end reverberates, it gets muddy, but if the click reverberates, you’ve got an actual reverberation on the kick drum that is always in time with the kit. It’s not occupying all the low frequencies and eating up your bass guitar or the low end of the guitars. So I love that and I don’t have to add a lot of 1k or 2k or 3k to make the kick drum stand out, it’s already got it.

I mic it from the front, in the hole with a small, coffee can size opening. I like that sound. I put the mic inside the hole, pointed towards the beater but from across. And of course you’ve gotta tune the drum head. I might throw a little muffling in there but I don’t like to overdo that. I’ll put a piece of foam that touches the head on each side to dampen a little bit, but not kill the tone of drum.

I’ve been using the SSL (XLogic Alpha Channel). I try to do a little tiny bit of low-mid cut going to tape. I’ll never go lower than 250, but I’ll never go as high as 400. I never make it wider than an octave, and usually never more than 6 or 7 db. Depending on the tuning of the drum and the way its sounding. No compression or limiting. If the drummer is halfway decent, they’ll have enough of a balance in their playing that I can always compress and limit in the mix if I need to.

Snares

For snare drum, I traditionally use a Shure Beta SM57 on the upper head. I like the way it sounds, it seems a little bit more natural and real. And even though it’s on the top head, it helps bring out a little bit more of the snares on the bottom head. And my philosophy has been to keep the actual diaphragm on the inside of the rim, aimed at the point of attack. So wherever the stick is hitting, I want it to point towards that. If it’s too low to the rim, I feel like it’s gongy so I put it 3 or 4 fingers above the head.

On the bottom I’ve usually just used a regular SM57. I try to make the bottom mic look like the mirror reflection and then I flip the phase. No compression on the snare either. I’m compressing the (drum) mix only. I try not to EQ anything on the bottom mic. On the top mic, if I’m really liking the color of a certain tone and I know that I want it, I’ll EQ a bit of that to tape.

List of snares at Sonic Iguana:
14″ x 8″ deep Pearl cherry wood, maple finish
14″ x 6.5″ Ludwig Black Beauty, hand hammered brass
14″ x 5″ CNC Custom (designed and made for Ringo Starr who turned it down)

Toms

On the tom heads, I love Remo Pinstripe clears. I think they’re the best tone for me. I get picky about that. I use the MD421’s on the toms. I love the sound of that Sennheiser on the toms. It’s my favorite tom mic.

Overheads

I have three different sets of small diaphragm condensers and the ones I’m going to list here are by far my favorites. I’ve tried (AKG C)414’s and even (Neumann) U87s but I really like the small diaphragm condenser sound for the cymbals. To me the overhead mics, even though they are there to capture the room and the feel, they are also the main source of the cymbals sound. I want them to be crisp and sizzley on the overheads.

I’ve been going with anyone of these three sets depending on the mood I’m going for:

AKG 481s with the cardiod capsule in it
AKG 451s with the cardiod capsule in them
Neumann KM184s

The KM 184s are very warm and the problem with that is that room, because of how reverberant it is, it’s already kind of warm sounding, therefor it can quickly get too warm. But when you’re doing an acoustic thing, it can be really nice because it gives a thickness to the overall percussion that goes in nicely with the guitars that have a lot of highs. So it’s nice to have the warmth for that.

But when it’s a big punk band with a thick wall of guitars, the crisp 481s work well. I do low cut the overheads, definitely anything below 80 Hz. I’ve done 150 Hz sometimes but I feel like that’s losing a lot of information that you might want in the mixing.

Room Mics

I use a mixture of small diaphragm condensers and large diaphragm condensers for the room (AKG 414, 451, 481 or Neumann U87, u147, km184).

I find that if I get too far from the drum kit, I better have a very spacious recording. If I have space in the songs, I’ll use some of that drum ambience to fill in the sound. But I use drummer perspective overhead mics for tighter rock or faster band like Rise Against. With them it’s nice to get the rooms tighter to the overheads, and even the overheads tighter to the cymbals.

Hi-hat & Ride

I always mic the hi-hat and I always mic the ride. Mic choice tends to be chosen from remaining small diaphragm condensers, as they are the lower-import mics to me. I may use very little hi-hat and I might use a lot of ride. To bring out the ping in the ride takes a little more amplification than with the hi-hat which tends to cut more.

I always put them there, but I may use them very minimally. Just to bring in a little detail. I try to reflect what I think the drum sounds like in the room but make up for what lacks, for example a weaker ride that a lot of people have. A lot of time it’s the fault of the cymbal.

Coming Up – Part III (The Final Chapter): Recording bass, guitar, digital formats, and the essence of attaining the Mass sound.

Brian Speaker is a music producer, engineer and studio owner of SpeakerSonic Studio in Brooklyn, NY. He works with rock, punk, folk and singer/songwriter acts from all around the world. http://www.brianspeaker.com

Listen to a few of Giorgini’s favorite productions below:

Come on Back by Rattail Grenadier (1994)

“That’s a Rattail Grenadier song early in the history of the studio.”

Midnight Passenger by Common Rider (2002)

“That’s one that really shows off the current Sonic Iguana live room.”

Silvertooth by Big in Japan (2004)

“That is one of my favorite recordings”

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