How Hard Should I Hit My Drums???

[thesilentdrummer]

For as long as I have been a member on these forums, Brandon has stressed how he insists on his drummers beating the crap out of the drums, especially on rock songs. The purpose of this shootout was to see if Brandon's suggestion really makes a difference.


The Materials and Methods of Procedure:

A single four-bar guitar track was recorded by a Nady RSM-5 =>Presonus FireStudio Project and used on all sound clips. The instrument was a Fender Squire into a Fender Squier Champ 15. It was not eq'd, doubled, panned, destroyed, mutilated, or spat on in any way. This was done to maintain the terribleness of my guitar playing abilities. This guitar track was added in to demonstrate the drum tracks in a "real" environment. I don't own a bass or any decent sounding bass faking things, so there is no bass track.

Four Different four-bar drum tracks were recorded. One was played by me crushing the drums, another by me not crushing the drums, another crushing and not crushing (but not necessarily in that order... I recorded one first, then another, then test two of the first, then second... you know what I mean). I only intended to play at two different levels: wuss and atomic bomb. So there are two takes of wuss-level drumming and two takes of atomic bomb-level drumming. Wuss level isn't exactly the softest possible

The drums in this test are Yamaha Stage Custom. Snare has Remo Ambassadors on batter and res. 12" and 13" toms (used in this test) have Remo Pinstripe Batter heads and Ambassador res heads. The Kick has Remo Powerstroke III Batter head with the defaul yamaha res head. I have spent a considerable amount of time tuning my drums to get the best possible sound out of them. Zildjian ZBT Crash and HiHats were featured as the cymbals in this test. The signal chain the drums was as follows:

• Snare Top: Shure SM-57 => Presonus FireStudio Project
• Snare Bottom: Radio Shack Craptastica => Presonus FireStudio Project
• Kick: Audix D6 => Presonus FireStudio Project
• Tom 1 and 2: Shure PG 57 => Presonus FireStudio Project
• Overhead: Nady RSM-5 => Presonus FireStudio Project

These tracks were not eq'd, doubled, panned, destroyed, mutilated, or spat on in any way EXCEPT TO CORRECT PHASE ON THE BOTTOM SNARE. This was to preserve the scientificness of the test. In reality, I would have eq'd and compressed a considerable amount, any eqing and compression would have had to be done in a subjective way that would have compromised the test.

The only mixing that was done was adjustment of levels so that there was a somewhat normalized sound.


The Data, Results, and Conclusion:

[brandondrury]

Cool shootout, dude! I'm actually surprised the difference was so subtle.

My experience with this has been dramatically different. I suspect it's because you know what you are doing as a drummer and even when you play soft, you still sound pretty solid. So maybe the issue is the "solid" part and not exactly how hard you hit the drums. Then again, on these clips you aren't bashing the hell out of the crashes and you kit is balanced.

With that said, the snare is WAY better and (as you said) certainly easier to mix. The toms really come alive on the hard drums as well.

BTW, nice names (Wuss and Atomic Bomb).

Excellent job!

[thesilentdrummer]

Thanks for the comments. I also thought it would be much more pronounced than the results demonstrate. In any regards, I could see the worser one negatively impacting a recording. Things such as mic choice are usually only different sounds. I would go so far as to classify the one that I think is worse as a wrong way of recording drums.

I added comments to results so that I don't allude to which one I think is better too much in this thread.

[Audio~Geek]

You say you're crushing the drums, but none of them sound like you are.
In all examples you aren't hitting half as hard as I'd like to see.

Watch Dave Grohl or Travis Barker for examples of hard hitting drummers.

YouTube - Travis Barker Remix Soulja Boy "Crank That"

[thesilentdrummer]

Originally Posted by Audio~Geek

You say you're crushing the drums, but none of them sound like you are.

In my defense: in my experiences, most of the "crushed drum" sound comes from big rooms and room mics (neither of which were employed in this test). Good compression also helps, and as we know, that wasn't applied either.

In all examples you aren't hitting half as hard as I'd like to see.

Watch Dave Grohl or Travis Barker for examples of hard hitting drummers.

Crushing is relative. I am not Travis Barker, and I know I didn't hit nearly as hard as he does. I was comparing a softer hit sound to a harder hit sound (atomic Bomb and wuss were just more interesting words than hard and soft).

Neil Peart doesn't exactly crush his drums like Travis Barker (YouTube - Neil Peart - Tom Sawyer), but I would absolutely thrilled to sound like him (Peart). Now, I am not Neil Peart, but I was playing around Neil Peart Level. Is he hitting half as hard as you would like?

Just some food for thought.

[Briza]

Cool idea for a shootout. I thought the results were a little more than subtle. To me the velocity of which the drums are hit can really make or break the vibe of a song.

It's all about dynamics really, I mean both styles would have a place in music, it's just how they are used in context to the music which is important.

For me in this case, it was definitely the harder hits which were better sounding. It drives the guitar riff more, where the softer hits sounded a bit wimpy in my opinion.

[magno]

I find that it's way harder to process drum tracks when they're played softer.
It's about increasing the noise floor and eliminating bleed.
Most of my problems are with the toms, the soft hit ones will have more cymbal bleed.

[Audio~Geek]

Good point, I was thinking about this test last night. There are technical reasons why you should play harder as well. Less gain on the mics, higher signal levels = lower background noise. More dynamics gives you more to work with later. Louder drums influence the room more which can sound great.

After you normalized each take to the same level, was there a difference in noise level?

[thesilentdrummer]

Thanks for all the comments. Though not obviously apparent to me while I conducted this test, looking back, all of these things mentioned were contributing factors to the ease/difficulty of the test. Those "technical" reasons make a lot of sense.

As far noise levels/bleed, I need to go back and check. It's an interesting thought.

[Bob Mack]

How hard the drums are played can be compensated for by the recording chain. The only exception I have found is with Cymbals. When cymbals are hit too hard they start
to sound really bad. They can overwhelm the upper frequncies of the entire kit.
Careful not to confuse "Loudness" with "accuracy." Absolutely critical that the drum sounds be dead on the beat. Like Rice Krispies " Snap, Crackle, and pop" thats
where the sound comes from. Also there is no substitute for a high quality Tube microphone or 2 on overhead drums. You can get 90% of your sound from the overhead mics
Bob Mack.