Drum Sound

carlosguardia

carlosguardia

New member
I'm tracking some drums for a pop/rock album and this is the sound that I'm getting so far... I was just wondering what you people thought of the sound of these drums, the room and mics etc. I can go into detail of mics used, preamps et al but these are the raw tracks with only gate on the kick and toms.

www.myspace.com/carlosguardia

first track

Thanks in advance for comments and suggestions,

Carlos
 
Two words...
1. Compression.
2. EQ

Sounds really good for some raw tracks though. And I mean, really good.
Tell us about your mics etc.

Peace!

~Shawn
 
As I said, the tracks are raw. Only thing I did was gate the toms and kick. Mic's used were:
Shure KSM 32 for the kick
Shure SM 57 (x2) on the Snare and Tom 1
Shure 52 on the Floor Tom
AKG Perception 100 as OH's
Cheapo Samson 58 looking mic on the HH.
 
I don't know, maybe I'm a fan of unprocessed drumming. I don't like the tom sounds, they don't sound very balanced with the rest of the set. Also sound really flabby and flat. That probably has more to do with tuning than mic choice though.
 
this track sounds a lot like what my drum tracks used to sound like before i upgraded pretty much everything (drums, mics, pres, and room). it doesn't sound terrible, but there's a lot of room for improvement.

i could say, "the kick seems a bit undefined" or "the cymbals are a bit washy." but what i hear that i don't like is more basic than that--it's a general ambient funkiness. based on my own experience and what i hear in the track, i'd say your room is the weakest link.

i do like the snare sound--you've captured a nice midrange punch. i also like the sound of the dry ride.

but keep in mind that what the drum kit sounds like solo is going to be far different from how it sounds in a mix. that flabby tom may sound perfect with guitars sucking up some of the low end, your kick may disappear entirely, and the snare may get thin (i doubt that last one, though). it's impossible to say.

i used to try to get the drum sound where i wanted it all by itself too, and while it's a decent starting point, it usually ends up being fairly useless in the end.

you're pointed in the right direction though! good luck! :)
 
drossfile,
Thank you for listening. I agree with you in that the room is the weakest link. I recently rebuilt my tracking room from a 3,5m X 2,35m room to a 3,5mX4,75m room and moved up the ceiling about 20cm. Next on my list is acoustic treatment, more treatment and more treatment. I'm not thrilled about the sound of the room so far, but the bigger the room the easier it is for me to track drums in. I also need to get a couple of gobo's, I'll probably make them myself, so I can modify the room depending on the needs.
I would love to have better preamps but the better ones are way too expensive and hard to get in Costa Rica. right now what I have is a UA Solo 610, a Presonus BlueTube and a MOTU 8pre.
For these drums I tracked the kick with my KSM 32 through the 610, the snare through the Presonus and the rest straight into the 8pre.
I suppose once I start tracking and adding components to the project, like bass, guitars etc, I can try to reduce the funkiness of the drum sound by lowering the OH level a tad.
 
carlosguardia said:
drossfile,
Thank you for listening. I agree with you in that the room is the weakest link. I recently rebuilt my tracking room from a 3,5m X 2,35m room to a 3,5mX4,75m room and moved up the ceiling about 20cm. Next on my list is acoustic treatment, more treatment and more treatment. I'm not thrilled about the sound of the room so far, but the bigger the room the easier it is for me to track drums in. I also need to get a couple of gobo's, I'll probably make them myself, so I can modify the room depending on the needs.
I would love to have better preamps but the better ones are way too expensive and hard to get in Costa Rica. right now what I have is a UA Solo 610, a Presonus BlueTube and a MOTU 8pre.
For these drums I tracked the kick with my KSM 32 through the 610, the snare through the Presonus and the rest straight into the 8pre.
I suppose once I start tracking and adding components to the project, like bass, guitars etc, I can try to reduce the funkiness of the drum sound by lowering the OH level a tad.
Click to expand...


no problem, man--that's what we're here for! :)

it's been said a million times, but you may want to look into the recorderman method. it works well for bad rooms, and requires fewer mics. i use it even with my room treated, and i supplement it with a snare mic. i'm still experimenting, but i started tracking my drums that way before i treated my room, and the improvement was tremendous.
 
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