Craig Blundell, one of Britain¹s most popular drum clinicians, has recently added to his audio arsenal by taking delivery of a selection of Sennheiser microphones. Blundell, an increasingly busy session drummer whose recent credits include playing with Iron Maiden¹s Bruce Dickinson, is famed for his work on the drum clinic and festival circuit, teaching and inspiring musicians around Britain and Europe.

"I've been doing drum clinics for about four years," he explains. "Before I had the Sennheiser mics I would use whatever the hire company had. I was doing all these drum festivals and clinics, doing my thing in front of anything up to a couple of thousand people. And I'd go onto web forums afterwards and they'd all say 'Great playing', 'Superb', 'World class' and that sort of stuff, and then they'd say that the sound wasn't that great. So I thought I'd take the bull by the horns. I've got a great drum set up, so I needed to amplify that through the best mic set up I could get. So far it's working." Blundell doesn't subscribe to the theory, in drum terms anyway, that less is

more. His kit consists of two bass drums, each now mic'ed with one e901 and one e902, six toms, each mic'ed by an e904, three snares with an e935 on the top and bottom of each and two e914s for overheads.

"I did a drum festival at the Royal Festival Hall recently and it was the best drum sound I've ever had," enthuses Blundell. "That was the feedback from punters and my sponsors." In addition to his touring work, Blundell also writes and records original music for his own web site and a forthcoming drum and bass album.

"I've just been in the studio recording the audio for my web site and I've been getting the most ridiculous drum sound," he continues. "I've been recording with the mics and it's unbelievable. Everything's recorded flat and it's the most monstrous sound.