‏The Let It Be album is in an era all of its own. Technically recorded before ‘Abbey Road’ it features recordings made at Apple Studios (3 Savile Row), Twickenham Sound Studios and EMI. The album sees Glyn Johns returning to an almost 1963-1964 style minimal drum microphone placement, with his now famous ‘Glyn Johns’ technique, which is fitting as Let It Be was The Beatles attempting to re-engage as a band and “get as funky as we were in The Cavern” (George Harrison).

‏Engineer: Glyn Johns

‏Snare: Neumann KM56 (small diaphragm condenser)

‏Placement: On top of the snare, pointing to the centre.

‏Kick: Sony C38A (condenser), AKG D20 (cardioid dynamic), or D12 (cardioid dynamic) 

‏Placement: 12 o’clock position, front head removed.

‏OH: Neumann U67 (large diaphragm valve microphone)

‏Placement: *See Glyn Johns Technique

‏Floor Tom (bottom head removed): Neumann U67 (large diaphragm valve microphone)

‏Placement: *See Glyn Johns Technique

‏*Glyn Johns Technique

‏*The Floor Tom and OH microphones are usually thought of as two OH microphones, but I have called them OH and Floor Tom to clearly distinguish between them. 

‏OH directly over the snare drum, around 40” high, and pointed the centre of the drum. Pan to about the 1:30 position.

‏Floor Tom, the same distance from the centre of the snare drum as the OH, to keep phase issues to a minimum. Panned hard left.

‏Pan the kick and snare mics so they match the kick and snare positions in the stereo image created by the OH & Floor Tom mics.

Here is a fantastic video of Glyn Johns explaining this technique. Take note of how casual he is about it, sometimes it can be tempting to over think!