Sir Needs To Mixalot

The version everyone knows goes like this. December 1970, Headley Grange, John Bonham’s brand new Ludwig kit set up at the bottom of the stairwell, and engineer Andy Johns hanging two Beyerdynamic M160s a couple of floors up. All true, but it leaves out the part Johns himself kept bringing up.

He ran the two mics through a pair of limiters (Vintage King’s write-up says they were Helios F760s in the Rolling Stones’ mobile truck) and then sent the drums through Jimmy Page’s Binson Echorec. In his MusicRadar interview he’s pretty blunt about where that lurching “ga-gack” comes from: “It was the Binson that made him sound like that.”

The song was also recorded at a different speed and slowed down afterwards, which goes a long way toward explaining why the whole track feels like it’s wading through mud. Rick Beato made a video a while back arguing the stairwell gets more credit than it deserves. His comments section did not take it well.

Why the M160? It’s a double-ribbon hypercardioid that’s been in production since 1952. The tight pattern means a pair hung high picks up the kit and the space without turning to mush, and it’s dark enough that the cymbals don’t get nasty once you start leaning on a limiter.

Trying it at home

You don’t need a stairwell. Put one mic well away from the kit (a hallway works), hit a limiter hard enough that you can hear it breathe, and print a short tape-style echo underneath. Then play slower and heavier than feels right. Johns said it himself: for the rest of it, you really need Bonzo.

Watch and read

• MusicRadar: Andy Johns on the Levee drum sound
• MusicRadar: Andy Johns on recording Led Zeppelin IV
• Vintage King: Recreating the Levee drums, with video
• Diffuser: Chad Smith and Roger Taylor play the Headley Grange stairwell
• Wikipedia: Beyerdynamic M 160

The 4038 started out as a BBC design in the 1950s. STC built it first, and Coles has made it since the mid ’70s with the same specs. It looks a bit like a small waffle iron and it sounds dark, wide and very natural, especially on loud things.

At Abbey Road, Norman Smith used a pair as overheads on Ringo Starr’s kit, and Geoff Emerick kept experimenting with them. Ken Scott told Sound On Sound he used one on Paul McCartney’s bass cab and on the Hammond during the Sgt. Pepper and White Album sessions. Glyn Johns’ well-known drum setup often used two of them, and they’re on Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn too.

A Glyn Johns-style setup

Excuse the drawing.

One mic three or four feet above the snare, pointing down. A second just past the floor tom, low, looking across the kit toward the snare. Use a mic cable as a tape measure to get both the same distance from the center of the snare, then add a kick mic. It’s simple and very hard to make sound bad. With 4038s you’ll want a preamp with plenty of clean gain.

Watch and read

• Abbey Road Institute: The Coles 4038 at Abbey Road
• Vintage King: Coles 4038 history
• Wikipedia: Coles 4038