outdoors

[BlackHawk2029]

has anyone tried recording drums outdoors? i'd think it might open the sound up a lot and give a lot of extra headroom, and my drums sound better outside anyways. The only problem is the ambient noises (birds, the road, pissed off neighbors, etc. ) but depending on the feel of what your doing it could be kind of cool to leave that stuff just lying faintly in the background.

[tmix]

I have recorded in a tent before, so it is nearly outside...

You have no reflections (except maybe the floor). so you pretty well have to close mic everything. I tried from a distance and it sounded a bit... smallish.. (if that is a word)

[mikeh]

tmix hit it on the head. Big sounding drums need a big sounding room. Drums often sound good outdoors because most rooms are not ideal for good sounding drums (bad reflections, etc. - which make drums sound bad) so if you are accoustomed to hearing your drums in bad sounding rooms (which most venues are) - then the pure sound of drums outdoors, with no bad sound relections make the drums sound good.

However, if you don't close mic - the drums will sound small - and close mic'ing kind of defeats to whole point of trying to capture big sounding drums.

[drossfile]

if you want to know what a good drummer on a good kit sounds like when recording on a high-end setup outdoors, listen to stone temple pilots' "tiny music" cd. eric kretz did exactly what you're talking about, and when you consider the high budget of the album (stp's career peak), it's a pretty lo-fi sound. not exactly what i'd call "open." if you have no decent room at all to work in, i suppose recording outside would be a way to get a totally flat recording so you could add reverb later and perhaps get a bigger sound...i don't know...seems like a bad idea to me...and a doubly bad idea to your neighbors i'm sure. i'd take my basement over my yard any day.

[ez_willis]

Originally Posted by BlackHawk2029

The only problem is the ambient noises (birds!)

You have pterodactyls nearby, or are you planning on recording drums with straws instead of sticks?