Drum recording for youtube covers

Z

Zach Frazier

New member
My setup is Pro tools 10, Tascam US-1800, Samson 8 piece mic kit.

I am recording in my bedroom and I know this is not the best place to achieve a great sounding drum kit. I have experimented numerous times when it comes to getting a good quality drum sound and have not been able to achieve what I want. I do understand that a good drum kit and cymbals is very important, because if you have crap sound going into the mics you will have crap sound recorded. I have done my best when it comes to tuning my drums and my cymbals are the best I can afford.

I am going to give a basic rundown of how I record and mix my drums and was hoping if I am doing something terribly wrong in the process that maybe someone can help me.

First off I check my levels on the mics because I hear recording at -3db is a good places for levels to be recorded. Then I will play a couple basic beats to have something to work with. Then I will go through starting with my snare drum using EQ getting the desired snare sound I am looking for and have pretty close to what I am looking for. Then I am unsure of what a compressor is used for, but I have watched a lot of videos where musicians use it to help the quality and sound of the drum.

And if someone could explain compressors to me that would be awesome.

I then would put a gate on my snare track to try and limit bleed from other instruments. I would also use reverb to achieve more desired sounds when it comes to the snare drum. For the toms I have tried using EQ, Compressor, and gate and can get close to the sound I am looking for. Kick drum is the same I use EQ, Compressor, and Noise Gate.

For my high hat and overheads I am very new when it comes to this part of the mixing. I use EQ for my high hats and both overheads. Also with my overheads I use reverb, and when using EQ I will use a low pass filter (not sure if that is right terminology but whatever is used to take out the low end in the EQ band 7) to take away the other sound bleeding from the drum set so I can really capture the cymbals.

I also use compression on both overheads. Then I have a master track with Maxim, and a compressor on there as well. I pan the tracks such as toms, overheads, high hats. Change my levels where I feel they need to be.

I know this is very vague and probably not helping at all, but if a step by step video would help I can do that as well. I also have a picture that shows all my tracks with their plugins.

Also I am only able to use the stock plugins that come with pro tools so I am very limited. I have also uploaded to soundcloud a short recording of what my kit sounds like with all the plugins I have added and used.

(http://soundcloud.com/zach-frazier-2/drum-mix-trial)

Anything at this point would be awesome, since I have been trying to get the Youtube drum cover project up and running for almost 2 years now. So thank you to whomever answers and trys to help.

Thanks IMG_2499.JPG
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I was honestly expecting to hear worse than I did when I clicked your link with the way you typed :D

You're not sounding terrible at all. Way better than my first experience with recording drums.

I'd try to make everything fit with the foundation laid by your kick drum sound. I recommend trying to give the snare some more room in the mix - maybe your gating and compression have choked it off like that, maybe it the way it was mic'd, maybe it's the way it was tuned and/or dampened? I'll have to ask more questions and try to help out a bit later in the day lol.

I can't reply in depth right now because it's 5 am, but in the meantime, maybe this will bump the thread and some other HR folks can help you out!
 
Not even going to ATTEMPT to read that.
Just like to offer, BFD Eco. Good value and sounds ok to me.

But FFS learn to paragraph!!! "They" don't charge by the mm you know!

Dave.
 
Yeah I apologize for the ridiculous length post I just didn't know how else to explain it. If it was any shorter it would have not made any sense. But it was probably still confusing as hell. And thanks for the positive remark. One of my main problems is that I strive for perfection in every aspect of my recording which isn't a bad thing but, I want the best sound I can get. I'll try some different tuning and other things. Thanks
 
It's not the length. You got to break it up into paragraphs. Some people just see a big block of type and move on.
 
Paragraphs. Writing is not to get your thoughts down on paper (computers, etc), it's to get others to understand what you're thinking.
 
-3dB is way high for percussion. Try -12dB or even -18dB. Dont worry about the volume going in. It gets taken care of during mastering.
 
Edited the OP's original post.

Man, just breaking up your points in a thread makes it much easier do read. We are home recordists, not read good doods. :)

Welcome to the forum Zach!
 
Ok so, first off I hope that was just a test sample and not a representation of the drumming that will be recorded. No offense, but it sounded like a guitar player pounding at someones kit...

Anyway, stop trying to do things because you think you need to. No gates, no reverb or compression on overheads.

Find what eq the kit needs as a whole. I would 'not' suggest using eq individually on each mic on the kit unless you have spent time to know the reason to do so. That takes a bunch of time getting used to what works.



Start with the overhead mics. Everything else will support them.

What do they sound like? Post just those tracks alone without any effects and we may be able to give better direction from there.

:)
 
Yeah, my God, lower the input levels (-3db is way too high--someone suggested -18 or so, and that's about right) and strip out all the processing going in. Send the kit in with nothing on it. Especially the compression--don't use it.
 
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