Finally tried the "Songs For The Deaf" drum layering technique

Carl Bahner

New member
Well, a variation of it anyway. From what I've read (correct me if I'm wrong), Dave played most of the drums on that album in two layers - "drums" and "cymbals."

The song I'm working on has some pretty quick drum parts (the song is 163bpm) so I wanted a little more clarity and separation than gating would achieve. So I went the next step and broke each drum part into a separate layer - kick, snare, toms (same layer) and cymbals.

Since I had already programmed a placeholder MIDI drum track to use while tracking guitars & bass, it wasn't too difficult for me to record the individual parts. I would just mute the MIDI kick part while leaving the others in the mix, and recording just the kicks. Then same process for snare, toms, and eventually cymbals.

The cymbals gave me a little trouble at first, due to the syncopation in the parts, but by the 3rd pass i nailed it.

I haven't mixed any of it yet, but I DID edit a short 4-measure section to show you. There were 6 mics per layer (kick, snare top & bottom, floor tom, a crappy dynamic mic placed just above the kick facing the snare, and a mono overhead. I left all mics active for each layer (though i MAY end up muting a couple here and there when I sit down to mix).

So yeah, 24 mics all at ZERO at the moment, but it sounds like one drummer in one room. I'm actually shocked at how smoothly it all came together considering I've never done this before. No replacement or sampling, just the four raw layers. Can't wait to actually mix it!

Have any of you had experience trying this? Have any organizational tips on how to retain the "one drummer in one room" sound, given the number of tracks? i.e. bussing all 4 layers' overheads together to treat them uniformly?

*edit* I forgot to mention - 1960 Ludwig kit with a 70's Acrolite snare, 14" Sabian SR2 hats and a 15" Sabian AA Sound Control Crash (I believe it's from the 80s). The ride (not in the sample below) is a Sabian Memphis Ride.
 

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  • raw drum edit sample 2.mp3
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Haven't listened yet but it sounds like a cool experiment.

Mixing might be tricky but you could always lose the tom or kick mics where they're not relevant. If the mics are all in the same position for every take you shouldn't get any phase problems with the layers on the raw tracks and it should blent - could change if you start layering multiple copies of one mic position and processing them differently. Sounds like a challenge.
 
I gave it a listen. No offense, it doesn't sound bad, but it doesn't sound that spectacular to me...meaning....standard drum tracking techniques can easily get what you got there if you do it right...meaning...there's no need to jump through all those hoops for that drum track....meaning...I sure hope no one thinks you have to piecemeal drum tracks together just to get them sounding average.

IMO, YMMV
 
I liked how the drums turned out. It sounds really natural dude. I'm definately going to try this out next time I record drums!

But explain a little bit more...you recorded first the drums without any cymbals, then you just overdubbed them?

Good job, anyways.
 
The 80s called, they want their drum tracking technique back.

If I never have to record a kit in seperate passes again, it will be too soon. Definitely the worst idea ever put forth, especially for drummers who aren't triple-scale A-List consumate pros. I suffered through numerous sessions in the mid-1980s where some idiot producer insisted we track drums in three passes (#1 Kick + Snare; #2 cymbals; #3 toms) and it never resulted in anything that a talented drummer couldn't have nailed in 30% of the time and made better sounding by doing so.
 
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