{"id":418,"date":"2012-01-20T22:22:49","date_gmt":"2012-01-20T22:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mudhutstudiosonline.com\/?p=418"},"modified":"2013-03-11T22:54:40","modified_gmt":"2013-03-12T02:54:40","slug":"recording-drums-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mudhutstudiosonline.com\/?p=418","title":{"rendered":"Recording Drums… Part Three"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DRUMS<\/a>There are hundreds of dissertations on this subject around the web.\u00a0 Many written by people far more qualified than I.\u00a0 However, since I’ve recorded 400+ different kits over the years, and customer satisfaction has generally been high…\u00a0 This is Part Three.<\/p>\n

I Usually… One<\/strong>:\u00a0 Take\u00a0a wide-ish band at 500Hz and\u00a0cut it aggresively on the toms.\u00a0 This is the boxy tone that nobody misses.<\/p>\n

I Usually… Two<\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That pesky energy node you’ll probably get on the toms at 200Hz isn’t going to go away unless you spend a month tuning… forget about it. Set a narrow band on the eq and try to notch it out either while recording or while mixing later.<\/p>\n

I Usually… Three<\/strong>:\u00a0 Cut 100Hz or so on the kick drum.\u00a0 I know…I know… that’s\u00a0the frequency that some\u00a0people will\u00a0tell you to boost, but it pushes to much energy into the compressor.\u00a0\u00a0You don’t have to get crazy, but as you drop this freq, you’ll hear some awesome sub\u00a0tones \"DRUMS<\/a>that\u00a0seem to expand the size of the kick.\u00a0\u00a0You’ll also have to\u00a0make a wide, gentle\u00a0boost some place in the upper midrange to show the slap of the beater.\u00a0 If you hear a weird “clacking”, “beeping”\u00a0or other unnatural sound,\u00a0figure out the frequency and… notch it.\u00a0 I don’t usually<\/em> boost any low frequency on the kick unless genre=metal then I’ll boost 44Hz a tiny bit with a more severe 100Hz cut.<\/p>\n

I Usually… Four:<\/strong>\u00a0 Put\u00a0some level of compression on all\u00a0individual drums.\u00a0 Very light on the toms, a little more on the snare, and quite a bit on the kick.\u00a0 Yes, we’re shaping the tone, but we’re really looking for some level of consistency in volume across the kit.<\/p>\n

Oh Crap!\u00a0 Too\u00a0much cymbal<\/strong>:\u00a0 They’re in everything and if that weren’t bad enough they’re flanging because of the phase differences at each mic making the drums virtually unlistenable.\u00a0 Let’s figure out why.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The room is usually the number one culprit.\u00a0 The cyms just seem to multiply everytime they’re struck.\u00a0 You’ll have to deaden the room or move the kit to a larger space.<\/li>\n
  2. Mic placement is usually the next bad guy.\u00a0 Solo each mic to find the trouble maker(s) and make adjustments in the way they’re placed.\u00a0Crashes eat up tom mics and the ride is almost always facing the capsule of the snare mic.\u00a0 I’ve rubber banded pieces of foam to the sides of mics to help with this.\"DRUM<\/a> but asking the drummer to either move his cymbals or change the way he\/she plays may be the only way out.\u00a0 Depending on your situation, you may have to remove the offending cyms and have the drummer play them as overdubs.\u00a0 I’ve not done this, but it was common back in the day…<\/li>\n
  3. Make sure your overhead mics are in the best possible position to capture a balanced drum vs cymbal performance and as the drummer plays make sure that you sweep from pan to center (mono) to listen for phasing.\u00a0 Correct accordingly.<\/li>\n
  4. I’ve found that almost all drum tracks have too much cymbal in the tom mics.\u00a0 I just mute the tracks in between tom strikes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The Snare:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Don’t over compress!\u00a0 Make sure you can hear enough snare band.\u00a0 Need more snare in the mix and pushing the volume doesn’t really help?\u00a0 Build a reverb that does it.\u00a0 There are\u00a0tons of\u00a0plugins that let you set early reflections, tune the verb, and\u00a0simulate\u00a0natural rooms and environments.\u00a0 These can\/will\"DRUM<\/a> make your snare as big as you want it without sounding too reverb-y.<\/p>\n

    I don’t consider myself an expert, just someone who’s had the remarkable opportunity to mic a lot of drum kits.\u00a0 twenty years from now, there\u00a0may\u00a0not\u00a0be\u00a0many engineers around who will have\u00a0recorded more than 10 kits.\u00a0 Music has changed.\u00a0 Anybody who’s used sample\/replace software\u00a0knows… but if you have a real<\/strong> band and a\u00a0 real<\/strong> drummer, who wants to hear real<\/strong> drums,\u00a0mic’ing\u00a0is easy…\u00a0 Part One.<\/a>\u00a0 or Part Two.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    There are hundreds of dissertations on this subject around the web.\u00a0 Many written by people far more qualified than I.\u00a0 However, since I’ve recorded 400+ different kits over the years, and customer satisfaction has generally been high…\u00a0 This is Part Three. I Usually… One:\u00a0 Take\u00a0a wide-ish band at 500Hz and\u00a0cut it aggresively on the toms.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11,19,31,10,13,12,32,28],"class_list":["post-418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-techniques-and-technologies","tag-audio","tag-diy-media-2","tag-drums","tag-music","tag-music-industry","tag-recording","tag-techniques","tag-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t