Can you review this drum sound?

[thesilentdrummer]

In preparation for recording my next project, I am trying to find a good sound for my drums. I have attached a ~30 sound clip of me playing my set. I am going for something of a rock drum sound. I miced the snare, kick, and had two overheads.


I put some reverb, EQ, and adjusted levels to get it about where I liked it. I had to mess around with the kick the most, and I am not sure if I completely like even where it is. If you have comments/suggestions for making this sound better, I am all ears. Oh, please excuse the sloppy playing.

[brandondrury]

It doesn't have much crack in the snare. That may kill you at mix time or it may not be an issue at all.

There is some boominess in the snare that could be mistaken for "meat". I've got a feeling that this "meat" may end up sounding like a dull thud in the wrong mix.

It's hard to say what is going to happen when the other tracks get added. However, I must say that I always make drums a little too thin on purpose. When the other tracks get added, it turns out okay.

Actually, you may be okay if you put a high end shelf boost on the entire drum bus and I'd cut quite a bit at 530Hz.

On the TV right now there is a Rolling Stones song and your drums sound pretty damn dull in comparision.

It also sounds like you may be playing with a broken arm or something. KILL THOSE DRUMS!! You should be hitting the drums so hard that you feel ridiculous hitting the drums that hard. This is standard in modern country, metal, and just about everything in between.

Brandon

[samccart]

I agree with Brandon about the snare. You want a 30-06 crack and it sounds a bit like a 22 to me. Also, your second or third tom sounds awesome! It has a great tone and seems to be tuned up real nice. The other toms in comparison seem a bit flat to me compared to that tom. Maybe this was mic placement but I believe its in the tuning. Bass sounds good! Not sure I can advise you on the sound engineering part of this but as far as the acoustics, check your tuning and KILL THE SNARE DRUM! Then again, perhaps this is the sound your were looking for, just another drummers opinion. Hope it helps!

Scott

[thesilentdrummer]

Thanks you for the comments. I tried to kill them, but I just had my wisdom teeth pulled on Friday (when I don't have my codine, it hurts to walk), so I guess what I thought was killing the drums wasn't cutting it. I will work on beating the crap out of the drums more. Also, for the crack, would a mic under the snare help? And samccart, thanks for the tom tuning compliments (God knows I spent enough time on that). I don't think my mic arrangement was ideal for the toms, first tom especially, but I will play around either the tunning or mic placement a little more.

[samccart]

You are welcome.

I posted this in another place but felt it need mentioning. When I tune I use a soft mallet also to check for tone between top and bottom head as well as the tension rods. The nice thing about the mallet is that it lets you hear the tone of the drum more than the attack. You can actually get a more realistic idea of what the drum sounds like. Try it and let me know!

Scott

[DT Chris]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

It also sounds like you may be playing with a broken arm or something. KILL THOSE DRUMS!! You should be hitting the drums so hard that you feel ridiculous hitting the drums that hard. This is standard in modern country, metal, and just about everything in between.

Yes, the energy is not there. He should be hitting the drums so hard, his arms will break, lol

[thesilentdrummer]

Thanks for the hints samccart. And DTChris, I will play to the point where my arms fall off

[brandondrury]

I tried to kill them, but I just had my wisdom teeth pulled on Friday (when I don't have my codine, it hurts to walk), so I guess what I thought was killing the drums wasn't cutting it.

Ah ha! I new you suffering from some ailment.

Are you using rimshots? If not, why not?

Also, for the crack, would a mic under the snare help?

Good question....there is a very complex question that I should probably write an article on.

The short answer: No. Trying to make up for snare boominess with a fizz mic isn't exactly the right approach. (This actually is one audio engineering fundamental) but I wouldn't do it in this case.

You'd be way better off aggressively cutting the 450-600Hz region...I mean AGGRESSIVELY!

I do like to track with snare bottom mic'd up quite often, but it's ONLY used as a reverb send. (I like the bottom way better than the top for sending to reverb).

Brandon

[thesilentdrummer]

OK, thanks Brandon. I wasn't using rimshots, but I will try that. On a different note, what about Limiting and/or Compression? Is that recommended for this? If so, what's the process of doing that?

[brandondrury]

what about Limiting and/or Compression?

Well damn it. You had to go and open pandora's box. Here we go.

With out a doubt, I ALWAYS end up compressing drums in one way or another. I'm not sure how to go about getting a modern (or vintage) drum sound without compression.

Compression is great for two things on drums.
#1 Making the attack way more aggressive
#2 Removing the attack

These may sound like contradictions (and they really are), but the combination of the two can be very powerful if done right.

There are no rules and I really don't have a process for this. Let's just say I have a snare that needs to pop a lot harder. Well, a lot of tinkering has to be done. I'll probably let a lot of the initial attack through, but really smack the snare after that initial attack gets through. Set the release to something like 150ms. If you do this right, you can almost hear the suction after the drum is hit. (It takes some practice to get used to listening to compression).

Of course, if you do this too much, you'll end up with nothing but attack. If you have nothing but attack, your peak levels will be too high and you'll end up with a mix where the overall volume is too low.

I'm a big fan of parallel compression.

It's really tough to explain compression on a forum. It's even tougher because I never do the same thing twice.

Brandon