Moses Schneider is a German music producer and recording engineer. He started his career at Hansa Studios in Berlin in 1987, after leaving in ’89 to become a freelance Producer he returned in 1990 with producer Gil Norton to record The Pixies ‘Bossanova’ album. He is known for his work with various artists in the German music scene, particularly in the alternative and indie genres. Schneider has produced and collaborated with bands such as Beatsteaks, Tocotronic and many others.
In the video with Moses we are at Limusic in the South of France where we filmed a Production MasterClass.
Moses Schneider’s Drum recording techniques are legendary for their uniqueness and remarkable sounds. He mentored Gordon Raphael, inspiring the choice of equipment and music interpretation of the Strokes recordings.
Moses’Wurst Mic’, the use of a single mic placed just above the kick drum aimed towards the drummers crotch is used by many engineers! This is a smaller sized mic placed equal distance from the beater of the kick and the snare drum. With small movement changes to the angle of the mic (up or down not side to side) this will adjust the balance of kick and snare. For example; too much kick? Aim the mic angle a bit more up. Too much snare? Aim the mic a bit more down. These adjustments will help balance the bleed.
The ‘Snareo mic’ technique is the placement of a spaced pair of microphones in cardioid or Omni 20cm to 30 cm underneath the bottom of the snare pointed straight up. They are placed in a position so that one of the mics is closer to the high-hat/rack Tom and the other closer to the floor tom. The mics are panned accordingly. This will govern a dead dry character that can be EQ’d to taste for the lows of the kick to get an 808 sound and bring out the high ‘white noise’ of the snare.
The ‘Droom Mic’ technique is a spaced pair placed a few feet from the front of the kit but the mics are facing away from the kit to capture the sound of the room reflection and compressed heavily. The ‘Droom Mic’ gives you a large room sound without an audible pre delay, meaning transients hit harder while still giving you a massive drum sound. If the drums are placed in a corner rather than the middle of the room this will give you the biggest sounding room.
You can also check out the Human Beat Pack Vol. 1 here!
Download the multitracks below!