drum rooms whats best

D

drum_

New member
maybe this shouldn't be here i'm not sure.
i heard something about a large dry room been best but im not to sure. please share ideas and experience.
 
No doubt, I high-quality studio space will most likely not sound bad by any means...but it's actually somewhat of a mystery what makes for best drum rooms. There have been great drums recorded in huge spaces, small spaces, "wet" and "dry" spaces, rooms with a variety of treatments, and some with minimal.

There's several variables (room, kit, player, music, etc) that come together...sometimes it's magic, sometimes good, and sometimes crap.
 
For something at home, I always look for a larger room with a higher ceiling. I've found, the closer the walls and ceiling are to the drums, the worse it sounds.
 
aaronmcoleman said:
I've found, the closer the walls and ceiling are to the drums, the worse it sounds.
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Not necessarily. It depends on the room & treatment.
All great sounding drums have not been always recorded in large rooms.
With a smaller room, you can get a tighter, compressed sound, and any reflections that do exist will be fast...VS longer delays/reflections of a larger, live room.
Of course, if you want that thunderous live drum sound...then a large/reflective room might be the way to go, but IMO, that kind of drum sound only works well in a narrow style setting.
 
miroslav said:
Not necessarily. It depends on the room & treatment.
All great sounding drums have not been always recorded in large rooms.
With a smaller room, you can get a tighter, compressed sound, and any reflections that do exist will be fast...VS longer delays/reflections of a larger, live room.
Of course, if you want that thunderous live drum sound...then a large/reflective room might be the way to go, but IMO, that kind of drum sound only works well in a narrow style setting.
Click to expand...

True. I should have prefaced that by saying "in a typical untreated home environment, this is what I prefer for my style of music". Thanks for clarifying for all of us.
 
Hey...I'm no drum room expert.. :D ...I'm just relaying from my own experience that smaller rooms can actually work well in many situations, maybe even more so than huge rooms.
Most of the big studios have all kinds of movable/temporary treatment that they can bring into a huge room or take it out as needed to adjust the ambiance, but whenever we see pictures of large studios, they always show these cavernous spaces, though I don't think they record everything with that large ambiance.

I think the trick with smaller spaces is more absorption...which gives the illusion of a larger space since there is less immediate reflection...but...being that the walls are closer in, you get this acoustic compression that can work well.
Many great records back in the day were cut in small, cramped, almost basement-like rooms...and yet, with a touch of added (reverb/delay) ambiance they could still mold the "size/shape" that was appropriate for the song.
If you have a large room that is not treated, it's IMO as tricky as a small room...'cuz you get that longer delay, which can smear everything...but then, stick a solo acoustic guitar or piano or vocalist in there, and the large space makes them shine.

So it's six of one, one half-dozen of the other.... ;)
 
What sounds best is so subjective. It's almost like asking what is better humbuckers or single coils.

I personally like larger rooms with tall ceilings (10' or more) with wood floors.

If there is any treatment in said room, even better.
 
Guitargodgt said:
I personally like larger rooms with tall ceilings (10' or more) with wood floors.
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I'm sure we all would like having those rooms at our disposal. :)

I've got one room at my place that actually sits above my studio space, that has a vaulted 12'-14' ceiling and all wood floors.
I've been wanting to track some acoustic guitars and vocals in there, just haven't gotten around to it, but I don't want to drag my entire drum kit up there. It's a little awkward when I'm working by myself to use any other rooms...the whole remote control of tape deck and DAW and running long liines...etc.
Been wanting to drill some holes for cables through the floor/ceiling, and then I could also run some control cables and KVM stuff from the studio up into that room...but just haven't yet.
 
Yeah my living room is the same deal, vaulted ceilings, wood flooring. I'm gonna do some drums in it in a couple weeds just to give it a go.
 
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