ABOUT US

At Live Room Audio our aim is to deliver high fidelity, detailed and flexible products that stand out from the crowd.

As audio professionals we understand this is a vibrant and competitive market and we believe we have something special to add; our products combine user-led inspiration with real-world practicality.

It is easy to fall into the trap of sounding like everyone else using popular audio tools, so Live Room Audio offers an extremely wide palette with which to express your individuality and craft your next masterpiece.

OUR PRODUCTS

THE RECORDING PROCESS

Before committing to a structured and repeatable recording process, we conducted a series of experimental sessions where different mics and mic positions were tested and appraised. As is often the case when recording in a familiar room, it’s tempting to stick to tried-and-true approaches. However, refusing to settle for the norm, we aimed for a truly unique and special capture of the wonderful space and the drum collection within.

Initially, we focused on close mics and overheads, testing a wide range of celebrated mics. From that session, we settled on an early Shure Beta 57, a standard SM57, an Austrian Audio OC7, and the Neumann KSM105 for close-mic options, along with a pair of JZ V67s for overheads. There were a few variations where we tried a Revox M3500 or an Audix i5 on specific drums, but these were our primary choices. A few sessions in, we introduced a new mic that quickly became our go-to dynamic mic moving forward: the SE VX7. We found it to have a flattering softness to its capture and noted that it lacked the nasal qualities of the Shure mics. For the bottom of the snares, we stuck with an SM57 for consistency.

Care was taken to keep the top and bottom mics at a consistent distance from the snares. However, due to the varying drum sizes and the nature of the recording process, there are occasional, very slight variations.

•Dyn 1: Most often the VX7, occasionally the Beta 57 (Slightly brighter with more snare wire capture).

•Dyn 2: Most often the SM57, occasionally the Revox (Slightly drier and less upper mids).

•Con 1 + 2: Most often the KSM105 (the brighter of the two) and the OC7, occasionally an AKG C414.

The close mics were captured with a UTA MP-4 mic preamp, with minimal processing applied on the way in.

For kick drums, we went through a similar process of experimentation. Below is a list of consistent mic positions:

•Beater: The fantastic ‘Alien 8’ mic was positioned facing the batter head. This mic, built from a pair of headphone drivers in a figure-8 pattern, gave an idiosyncratic punch and ambience.

•PZM: We used a Shure Beta 91a internally for its modern attack and excellent isolation.

•In: Most often, we used either an Audio-Technica ATM25 or a UA SD-5 positioned just inside the sound hole.

•Out: A consistent choice was the Audix D6, positioned facing the resonant head, close to the sound hole. While a condenser mic is often used here, the D6’s distinct low-end voicing worked exceptionally well for our purposes.

•Sub: A Yamaha Subkick.

The toms were captured with 2 close mics on top, 1 Dynamic and one condenser, a condenser underneath and then the same room configuration as the kicks and snares.

•Dyn: For all but the O Special kit, Audio Technica ATM25s were used. For the steel kit Sennheiser MD421s were preferred. 

•Con: Josephson E22s were the obvious choice after a very short shootout!

Capturing the room was a wonderful challenge. By design, the room is drier at one end than the other, meaning mic positions yielded quite different voicings depending on their location and distance. While not every sample pack features exactly the same articulations, the following consistent options were used:

•Behind Room: For most sessions, this was a pair of AKG C414s in an X/Y configuration placed about a meter behind the drummer’s position.

•Close Room: In the majority of sessions, we used an AEA R88 placed a few meters in front of the drummer. In early sessions, it was blended with a ‘Periscope’ mic, which has a built-in hard compressor. Often, we mixed in Standard Audio ‘Stretch’ compressors on these mics to open up the top end slightly.

•Wide Room: One of the more unusual mic positions we discovered during our experiments. Two mics were placed facing and close to the walls on either side of the room. Initially, we used Coles 4038s for this, but later switched to a pair of SM7s for a more aggressive midrange.

•Far Room: A pair of small-diaphragm SE/Neve RN17s on the studio mezzanine, facing away from the drummer. In earlier sessions, these were phase-aligned and blended with the wide room mics.

•Mono Ribbon: A Cloud JRS-34a positioned at the back of the room. This was processed with a small amount of reverb to enhance the room’s tail.

•Stereo Ribbon: The R88 repositioned at the back of the room. In this setup, the close room mics would have been the Coles, while the wide room mics were the SM7s.

•Chamber: The chamber is a narrow passageway that leads from the live room to the courtyard. It has a highly explosive nature and can add a unique tail to a recording. However, it is subject to external noise, and because of its distance from the drummer, the signal-to-noise ratio can sometimes be problematic. As such, there are sample packs where the chamber channel has been audibly processed and gated. It’s best considered as an effect that might not suit every scenario. A range of mics were used on different sessions, including U89s, U87s, and an old B&O stereo ribbon. This variability makes the chamber the least consistent channel across sessions but also gives it the widest variety of character.

•Blend Room: This is a post-processed balance of all the room channels, bounced for a ‘go-to’ setting.

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