Tips on acoustic drums

3

32Hertz

New member
Our drummer just came back to the band and I am looking for some advise on getting a good sound for recording or point me in the right direction. I only have 1 condenser mic 1 pzm, and a few dynamic mics. Any tips on tuning, effects, etc. are welcome.

Thanks, I put a short video here so you can see and hear them.

 
Maybe it's just me and my own taste...but those Toms sound awful.
I'm sure it's just a tuning thing. Also...do they just have top heads...?

The Snare and Kick are not that bad.

Of course, it would be better to hear them actually played a bit instead of just doing a couple of hits on each drum.

Mics...you just have to use what you got to work with, and move the mics around until you find the best position...in your room.
A good place to start is a couple of OH mics and then just spot-mic the Snare and Kick.
 
Thank you very much. There are top and bottom heads. I wish I could play them better but I am the guitar player. So you think they need some tuning work? I can look into how to do that.
 
Matt doesn't know how to tune his own drums? Okay, well neither did I until about 15 years ago. And there are plenty of options on how to tune dual head drums.
Check in the drum forum HERE.
Greg is our local ex spurt. He's pretty knowledgeable about such stuff. His guide will get you up and running in no time.
 
32Hertz said:
Thank you very much. There are top and bottom heads. I wish I could play them better but I am the guitar player. So you think they need some tuning work? I can look into how to do that.
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Don't worry about not being able to play. It would give more context, but hitting them the way you did was fine, too. Like others have said, they need tuning, mostly the toms. The link that Broken H provided above is good, but I can't remember if it has anything on tuning the drums. I know it's a great guide for micing and mixing drums, so either way, it's worth a read. There are many Youtube videos on how to tune drums , and probably just as many articles if you Google it.

Good luck, and keep us posted on your progress.
 
Thanks again. I'm sure Matt knows how to tune the drums. I believe that they have been sitting. I will definitely go over it with him when he comes up. My goal is to get a good recorded sound, and to even sample the drums (but I don't want to sample bad sounding or out of tune drums). Matt can't make it too often so it is important to me to know what needs to be done so that we can maximize what time we get. That is why a guitar player is asking drum questions. I'll go read that drum forum now and I'll keep you guys updated.

Have a great day!
Ed
 
The best thing I can think about, is get the best quality overheads and room sound you can get , and use replacor for the rest of the drums
 
Raz Klinghoffer said:
The best thing I can think about, is get the best quality overheads and room sound you can get , and use replacor for the rest of the drums
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As being someone who often uses drum sample enhancement, I would totally disagree with this suggestion.

Tune the friggen drums and get them as good as possible before just going to extremes to make them sound better.

The overheads will still have the 'out of tune' toms in them. You can't fix that.
 
Raz Klinghoffer said:
The best thing I can think about, is get the best quality overheads and room sound you can get , and use replacor for the rest of the drums
Click to expand...

No. I disagree.

(I didn't give hm the red, in case anyone thinks I did.)
 
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Negative rep.

Depending on the reputation level of the member and the reputation level of the one delivering it, it can make that bar under the users name go red.
 
I read that post, very good post but no specific info on tuning. No problem though I'll just talk with the drummer.

That is my point though, trying to get the drums (and everything) to sound the best it can before I record it. Drums are kind of a weak spot for me for some reason. I can't listen to the drums on the video and say they sound bad or out of tune like you guys can. This I want to fix. Maybe you guys can point me to some great reference material? Should I try to get the drums to sound like they do in my cakewalk? I also am familiar with sound fonts, do you think I should try to duplicate the sound of those toms, or use them as reference?
 
One thing I notice about people tuning toms is that they try to tune them too high. If you have a 12" tom don't try to make it sound like a 10" tom. A floor tom should sound like a floor tom not a 12" tom (unless you have a 12" floor tom LOL).

And don't talk to me about replacing real drums with samples, it actually is possible to get a good drum sound from drums, they did it for years before samples can along.

Alan.
 
witzendoz said:
One thing I notice about people tuning toms is that they try to tune them too high. If you have a 12" tom don't try to make it sound like a 10" tom. A floor tom should sound like a floor tom not a 12" tom (unless you have a 12" floor tom LOL).

And don't talk to me about replacing real drums with samples, it actually is possible to get a good drum sound from drums, they did it for years before samples can along.

Alan.
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Agreed 100%

One damn well better get the drums sounding right before even entering the idea of enhancing with samples.

Depending on genre, sometimes it is needed to either sample the actual drums use other samples to enhance... Nevermind. This isn't even worthy of discussing in this threads topic.


Tune those drums and get it sounding the way it should before doing anything to enhance them. :)
 
The drums sounds like its a toy drum. No problem though, if you are a lo-fi crazy kinda guy...

Personally I would tune the drums lower...I really dig a Ringo-ish sound.

For the mics, have you ever heard about the Glyn John's technique? It kicks ass and you'll use few mics to do it. Give it a try!

:guitar::guitar::guitar:
 
Here is an update with Matt the drummer actually playing the drums to see them in a better context. The mic used is just the one on the camera (a sony). I do have a few dynamic mics and I just bought a condenser that should help with the sound but now I am more concerned with the tuning and some squeaks.



You guys think I should talk to him about tuning the drums lower then?

I am not really going for a low fi sound for once in my life lol. I am trying to step it up a little and put more effort into getting good sounds. I have always been more of a songwriter or a live performer. To be honest I never much cared what the drums sounded like until now so I am trying to learn what good drums sound like and everything else really for that matter.

Thanks for your help.
 
They DO sound a lot better tuned. The snare has an odd fizz to it like the snares are a bit loose or the bottom head is not tightened right. Other than that, I like it, I LIKE it! It's not bad for an under $500 set. Good miking is the next step.
 
I still think the toms can come up a bit and sound more musical. The snare doesn't bother me as much as the kik, which I actually thought was a snare when it first started. But I also realize that it's hard to judge something like a bass drum in a recording like this. It might have plenty of bottom end that the mic isn't picking up, so I'll reserve judgement on that. It's definitely better overall, though.
 
I like drums to have some wetness, I don't mean reverb, though the room can make a lot of difference...I mean where they have a bit more of that resonant THUNK-n-THUD, where they ring out some, especially the Toms.

These just sound....for lack of a better description...papery, and dead-dry.
 
RAMI said:
I still think the toms can come up a bit and sound more musical. The snare doesn't bother me as much as the kik, which I actually thought was a snare when it first started. But I also realize that it's hard to judge something like a bass drum in a recording like this. It might have plenty of bottom end that the mic isn't picking up, so I'll reserve judgement on that. It's definitely better overall, though.
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miroslav said:
I like drums to have some wetness, I don't mean reverb, though the room can make a lot of difference...I mean where they have a bit more of that resonant THUNK-n-THUD, where they ring out some, especially the Toms.

These just sound....for lack of a better description...papery, and dead-dry.
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These are why I'm thinking the next step should be a decent mike setup. Recording what's there well might give a better idea of what's going on at this point. I mean, I don't think we'll get a $500 ddrum setup to sound like a $2500 DW setup, but let's see where it's at.
 
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