Excerpted paragraphs from an article on MEDESKI MARTIN AND WOOD IN THE SHACK

By Robin Tolleson

Baker used a total of four mics to get Martin's drum sound. "If you've got a drummer that can tune his kit and get a balance in terms of what he plays, then a pair of Earthworks OM1s might be the answer instead of ten zillion mics," he says. "With Billy I used a Gefell UM-70S, that three-pattern Gefell mic, and put that on figure-8. Somehow it sounded nice on figure of 8, and I just backed it up about a foot off the kick, recorded that and mixed it in with the two OM1s, which are left-right omni. And then we spiced up the snare just a hair with a classic [Shure] 57. That mix of four mics is hitting the Dominator on the way out of the subgroups, on the way to the DA-88."

"Those Earthworks mics are incredible," Martin agrees. "I had [Baker] put just those two tracks up at one point [during playback], and the bass drum was perfectly mixed in by those two overhead mics. It's amazing. And I think it has a lot to do with The Shack. The bass drum just vibrates the whole shack, so it's really like you're inside this music box. We had to play The Shack, really listen to the mix in The Shack. It worked out great. It was a different approach to the music, which gave us this unique record."