Noam and Jessica are in the studio tackling another episode of What's That Sound? and today, they're recreating a Foo Fighters favorite—"My Hero"—in all of its overdubbed-toms glory.
These drums were performed by Dave Grohl and produced by Gil Norton. "It's so loud and bombastic," Noam teases, "and they apparently recorded part of it in a parking lot."
The studio set today is our go-to vintage '70s Gretsch kit with a Ludwig Supraphonic snare, a pair of 14-inch Zildjian K-Sweet hi-hats, an 18-inch K Dark Crash, and a 20-inch K Dark Crash.
Laying into the drums is, of course, very Dave Grohl-esque, and so is a must to achieve this drum sound. And as with some of our other recent episodes, the production techniques here aren't overly complicated or uncommon. The tricks, Noam explains above, are in the way the drums are layered and where in space they were recorded.
Though it may feel like single kit on the final recording of "My Hero," the main drums for this track were recorded in the studio and then were overdubbed with a bunch of toms and extra snare shots. This second kit had actually been recorded out in a parking garage, giving it tons of extra length and space that they couldn't have organically gotten in a studio room.
Of course, the mics and how they're position and made to play with one another is important to achieving this sound as well. The go-to Sennheiser 421 served as both our kick-in mic and as our tom mics. We used a Bock Audio iFET on the kick-out and two Shure SM57s pointed at the top and bottom of the snare, both equidistant from the head and positioned at the same angle. Last but not least, the overheads we used were a pair of the small-diaphragm Schoeps V4 Us.
Be sure to check out the full video above to hear more about how all of the mics were placed and how the signals were processed to achieve this loud, bombastic, and incredibly full drum sound.