drum advice for 8-track

B

bedbug

New member
I've been looking for some advice on mono drums (or whether to do them at all). Here's my question.

I've been recording for a while, but have avoided drums for the most part because a lot of the home recorded drums I've heard tend to sound really compressed (not sure if that's the right word) and the cymbals tend to be kinda trashy.

Anyway, I've found myself in a situation where I need to record drums, and I've modeled my technique after a friend of mine's. Mic on the kick, mic on the snare, and two overheads through a four channel mixer (we're not pros, okay?) and onto tracks one and two of an 8-track (panned hard left and right for now).

So, a few nights ago I asked this so-called "friend" (he shall remain nameless) what he thought about getting a drum mix I was happy with, and bouncing those down to one track (I can hear the pro-toolers laughing now). And he said without offering an explanation, that no, you just don't do it that way, it needs to be on two tracks.

My point was that with the equipment we're using (2 Marshall 603s, some 57s, and a Behringer mixer), in all reality, the overall turnout was only going to be so good. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking it, I listen to a lot of so-called lo-fi music and have no beef with it. I'm just not expecting to be the next Nigel Godrich. A little off track, but anyway ...

I tend to do a lot of overdubs and stuff, and on 8-track it can be a bit of a challenge. And now I've had to give up one (two total) of my precious tracks to my idiot drummer (really, he's okay), and I'm just wondering if it's worth it. Is it really so important to have two tracks of pretty good sounding drums? There's lots of talk of turd polishing on this board. Will it be a better turd because there's two of them? Again, not that I'm knocking the turd, I like the turd, but aside from panning purposes (and to be honest, both tracks kinda sound the same), do I really need two tracks of it?

And just for a frame of reference, we're hoping for maybe a little better than the Alien Lanes-era GBV sound, maybe more like an Olivia Tremor Control sound. Our main goal is to produce an album that sounds as good as the 2nd and 3rd Dinosaur Jr. albums. We realize they went into a studio to do those, we just think the technologies caught up that we can accomplish something of that sound quality ourselves.

Thoughts?
 
If you're doing digital recording, I don't see what the problem is with "bouncing tracks", saving them to one master and freeing up your remaining tracks.

I used to do this when I only had a Blaster, and multiple tracks would make my computer puke.
 
Mono drums can be cool. Early Beatles/Beach Boys = cool, mono drums. If you wanna do huge drum sounds with lots of cymbals and tom rolls, then stereo is cool, more dramatic with movement of the sound in a stereo field. I too work with an 8-track, and I know what you mean. I have used mono drums (to great effect), mic'ed with a Studio Projects C1 as overhead directly over the snare, SM57 on snare and Peavey 520i kick mic on kick. The track was old-school soul vibey (well, as close to that as I could get) and the mono drums worked really well. It let me have stereo horns, which were much more important to the overall excitement of the track. I believe some of the drums on Radiohead's OK computer were pretty much mono (this is second hand info, I'm pretty stuck on the Bends), and that record didn't sell very much, did it :rolleyes:

So go for it. Try it out, if it suits the vibe. What would the world be like if Ringo had said "No dammit, I need the listener to hear the ride on one side and the crash on the other! Take your vocal harmonies and shove 'em!". Somehow a lesser place I wager.

Steve
 
mono

A Beatles sound is definitely something I'm going for. (I mean if it was good enough for the Beatles ...)

Thanks for the advice!
 
I used to have an 8 track digital record....I think it was the Fostex DMT8VL....or something like that. Anyway, I'm a drummer first and foremost, a self-taught engineer second. I ended up using 2 tracks, but still in mono. I had everything but the kick drum on one track panned dead center, and the kick on another panned dead center. The reason? I was doing "big production" type stuff with reverbs, delays, 4 part harmonies etc. When I had the drums all on one track and added reverb, my low end lost all its punch. You just don't add reverb to a kick drum (okay, MAYBE a very short tailed gate verb is cool...). So I could now verb away on the overheads/snare, and still keep some balls for the kick drum/bass guitar combo. Anyway, that's what I'd recommend. But if you must get them all on one track, I totally agree that mono drums is a good compromise over cutting out other parts. I wouldn't even worry about stereo drums on an 8 track. The only reason to use that 2nd track is the reason I stated above. As for bouncing down tracks, mathematically on an 8 track, you can have something like 22 separate parts and still have your one channel left for drums. 22!! Of course when you go to mix the CD you're pretty muched screwed....ther's no changing your mind once it's done. But what do ya do? Good luck man.
 
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