1. Regarding II and IV, what techniques were used in recording and mixing/producing and what were they recorded on? They are honestly my favorite sound drums for anything not metal.

Tape!!!
Page who produced their albums was famous for incorporating multiple "ambient" mics. Open the studio door, and put one in the hallway, down the stairs!!! It added a full sound, inclusing natural reverb, and delay.

I know it was tape, haha. Hmm, I never thought of ambient micing for delay and reverb. Also, since I am using for a time delay effect, I need not worry about phase? I guess that is the reason that I never used too much ambient micing with my direct is because this fear of phase shifting was instilled in me.

Does anybody know how the direct micing was done on the drums? What kinds of mics and where, for example?

Here's a link to Glyn Johns' drum micing method. His brother, Andy Johns, co-produced or engineered a bunch of the Zep stuff back in the day...

http://www.danalexanderaudio.com/glynjohns.htm

Great minimalist drum micing, although for modern metal, probably not the way to go. Just putting it out there! Andy

Regarding Zeppelin and recording. (my personal favs are I and Physical Graphiti). Both Zep I and Physical Graphiti are classic examples of ambient micing. I believe PG was recorded at Alistaire Crowley's mansion. Wasn't one of the tracks on Zep I recorded with an amp in the hallway?

Here's a link to Glyn Johns' drum micing method. His brother, Andy Johns, co-produced or engineered a bunch of the Zep stuff back in the day...

So did Eddie Kramer, but Jimmy Page never used the same engineer twice, so the public would not equate their sound to the engineer. Page was very very hands on, and the sound was his.

Yeah, I've heard all sorts of stories about Page getting in the engineer's face. I was just pointing that out in reference to the original question of how to get a Zep type drum sound. Well, that was part of the question anyway. And this is part of the answer, maybe! Andy

Acrylic drums for starters. That's what Bonso used.

JesterMasque wrote: 2. Regarding the albums: How does [AD] get such a full guitar guitar sound?

The End of Heartache is one of my all-time favorites, too, JesterMasque. I don't know about specific techniques but Adam's great ear for production is backed up by his training at Berklee and great equipment: he's got a wide range of top-shelf guitars and amps (Framus, Caparison, Mesa Boogie) and I'm sure he insists his clients use that same caliber.

His work on the newest Underoath album also portrays him as a really laid-back and easy guy to work with. Maybe it's the level of comfort he brings that makes the performers play more comfortably on the recordings.

IF you like TEoH, you really need to get their new album 'As daylight dies', and check out another band Adam D produced called 'as I lay dying'. He produced their newest album 'An ocean between us'.
Patience, a good budget, a good education and good musicians usually ends up with a good recording. But being a little more well off than most of us definately helps him produce bands a little better.

MediaMurder wrote: IF you like TEoH, you really need to get their new album 'As daylight dies', and check out another band Adam D produced called 'as I lay dying'. He produced their newest album 'An ocean between us'.
Patience, a good budget, a good education and good musicians usually ends up with a good recording. But being a little more well off than most of us definately helps him produce bands a little better.

I have ADD and I LOVE the past two As I Lay Dying albums. Adam did Frail Words Collapse (which I personally did not like anything about it except 96 Hours) and then the latest album, but not Shadows are Security. The new album is absolutely incredible though, music wise. Prodution wise, the guitar sound a bit more raw, very similar to ADD. It sounds great, but I personally like The Oncoming Storm's and TEoH's more polished (compressed?) sound.

I too have a great assortment of equipment and about thirteen years of guitar under my belt. I matured a lot of my skills through recording over the past five years. I am just 'generally' unhappy with how my guitar sounds in my recordings by comparison to these albums. When compared to other local studios my tracks sound monster. But I know that my guitar equipment and playing can equate to a sound at least similar to those examples if I could just figure out my weak link in the audio chain.

Also, perhaps some of you may be a bit mislead from my post. I am interested in the micing techniques for the Zep drums for non-metal applications. So, anything else you guys know about how they were done would be great!

Aw-ite.

Using these search words [micing john bonham drums] @Google, select "A Thunder of drums."

This excerpt from the book yields tons of information that I suspected was already known.

Like the acrylic drums he used AND the fact that the bottom heads were not removed as was the norm at the time [and is still used even though many have no idea why they may be doing it] in respect to r-n-r drum recording/playing.

This causes a drum to ring but with the use of large rooms and ambient micing, specific tuning of those acrylic undamped drums, John Bonham was able to get the sound that >he< knew was there and generations still lust after.

This at a time when close micing damped drums was the hottest thing going.