How *do* you get that Led Zeppelin sound??
- Thread starter Prism
- Start date
Boredom Kills
New member
John Bonham has been argued to be the hardest hitting drummer
of rock-n-roll...
I believe the sound of zep's drums to be due in large part to the
physical force Bonham was able to weild and direct toward his kit.
If u hit it Hard, it goes BANG! or so i'm told.
A story of Bill Ward from Black Sabbath had him refusing
John Bonham's request to play w/ the sabbath group one
afternoon. Bill told Tony Iommi (Sab's guitarist), "don't let
him on there, he'll break them!" ...and Tony closes the story
saying, "and Bill was right, he did break them!"
Bonham is one of my favs.... when I find a drummer that
gives me that sound. WHoooEEEEE! hehehe
of rock-n-roll...
I believe the sound of zep's drums to be due in large part to the
physical force Bonham was able to weild and direct toward his kit.
If u hit it Hard, it goes BANG! or so i'm told.
A story of Bill Ward from Black Sabbath had him refusing
John Bonham's request to play w/ the sabbath group one
afternoon. Bill told Tony Iommi (Sab's guitarist), "don't let
him on there, he'll break them!" ...and Tony closes the story
saying, "and Bill was right, he did break them!"
Bonham is one of my favs.... when I find a drummer that
gives me that sound. WHoooEEEEE! hehehe
dr.colossus
New member
along with hitting hard, big sticks, 2B's or something... i am a really hard hitter but i use 7A's most of the time because they are lighter, and i'm pissweak.... but the bigger heavier stick gives a much fuller sound
apart from that get yourself a nice old ludwig and eddie kramer
apart from that get yourself a nice old ludwig and eddie kramer
There are lots of stories and lore around the Led Zep drum sound. Certainly the power of John Bonham is no small part. The one I heared, is that the drums were recorded fully open i.e. without discrete mics on an empty floor of an office block though I'm not sure if i believe it
They used to mic his kit off normal, then they would use overheads at about 5 feet away from the kit, then another set 10 feet away, and another set 20 feet away, gives you kind of a natural ambience, and makes it sound much bigger, but the fact that bonham was probably the hardest hitting drummer in rock helps too.Prism said:
dcptnsdcvd
New member
god only knows if it's true, but i've heard that at one time he put a signle mic right behind his right ass-cheeck, pointed at the bass drum. dunno why or even if it works, never tried it
gbondo9
p3n
Ohh...stories... I LOVE stories.......
1. I heard that when other drummers tried to play his kit it sounded like crap cause he had the heads tuned so low. But when he played the kit and hit it as hard as he hit it, it sounded great
2. For live gigs he used to tape a silver dollar to his bass drum head where the beater hit to give it more crack, and then he'd line the inside of the bass drum with alluminum foil for volume.
3. In an interview once, Robert Plant said that Bohnam used to go buy double bass drums, and that the band would take them and throw them away when he was drunk or asleep becuase he got "way to crazy" when he had 2 bass drums.
4. The drums on when the levee breaks were recorded at the top of a spiral staircase in Alistar Crowleys castle in England.
5. He sold his soul to the devil to get that sound.
1. I heard that when other drummers tried to play his kit it sounded like crap cause he had the heads tuned so low. But when he played the kit and hit it as hard as he hit it, it sounded great
2. For live gigs he used to tape a silver dollar to his bass drum head where the beater hit to give it more crack, and then he'd line the inside of the bass drum with alluminum foil for volume.
3. In an interview once, Robert Plant said that Bohnam used to go buy double bass drums, and that the band would take them and throw them away when he was drunk or asleep becuase he got "way to crazy" when he had 2 bass drums.
4. The drums on when the levee breaks were recorded at the top of a spiral staircase in Alistar Crowleys castle in England.
5. He sold his soul to the devil to get that sound.
zbert
In the swamps of Jersey
Don't forget that big 26" bass drum filled with ripped newspaper and the great sound of the Surpaphonic 400 snare. That too had a lot to do with the sound. Keep in mind that the vintage Ludwig drums were maple but the outer shell was made of mahogany. It was cheaper for them to do this as the outer shell usualy had a wrap glued to it. Still the combo of wood help define the sound.
Bass Master "K"
New member
In "The Musician's Guide To Home Recording" by McIan and Wichman (older recording book) they state in "The Art Of Listening" ....
"For example, highly reflective environments were used to great effect in creating the huge drum sounds Led Zeppelin became famous for. In at least one case, this was achieved by recording the drums in a castle that had hard stone walls and by allowing the environment to interact with the instrument so that it became a component of the sound"
I listened to CODA for the first time in years not too long ago and I don't know if it was them playing too much with effects that were picking up popularity with other bands or what, but the overall recording sounds kinda crappy compared to their other albums.
"For example, highly reflective environments were used to great effect in creating the huge drum sounds Led Zeppelin became famous for. In at least one case, this was achieved by recording the drums in a castle that had hard stone walls and by allowing the environment to interact with the instrument so that it became a component of the sound"
I listened to CODA for the first time in years not too long ago and I don't know if it was them playing too much with effects that were picking up popularity with other bands or what, but the overall recording sounds kinda crappy compared to their other albums.
darrin_h2000
Banned
Try to reconstruct the stone wall thing in your tracking room using about 100 2x4 cut at different lengths from 1" to 4" glued to a peice of plywood 2'x2' and placed close to room mics. I made them small like that because of the weight of the thing and the need to remove it from time to time.
esactun
New member
Bass Master "K" said:
I think CODA was a bunch of outtakes and practice sessions, which can account for the sound. Like "I Can't Quit You Baby". Overall I think it's a neat collection of tracks from across their whole career (almost). "Ozone Baby" is a perfect pop song, "Walter's Walk" has that "Presence" sound (NOT massive 4khz spikes, the record!!
).... kewl stuff!! LZ was my first fave band after Van Halen (though nowadays I still like LZ...
).I noticed that "Physical Graffiti," while a killer record, is lacking in some sonic departments. To my untrained ears it sounds like they did the drums in a lousy room with very few mics... but "PG" was done by a remote rig, right? (Which would explain that, and the airplane---'Nah, leave it!')
Tim Brown
New member
I've posted this before.
The Key to Bonzo's drumsound is an extremely well tuned kit.
His drums were tuned really tight. The Resonant (bottom) Head is tuned quite a bit tighter than the Batter (top) Head, which yields a "tympani" type of tom sound. No muffling is used.
Room Mic's. YOu can get a very Bonhamish sound with 3 microphones.
One on the kick (No real muffling), one on the snare, and a condenser placed DIRECTLY over the drummers head, and pointed straight down at their head. This overhead will give you a good balanced sound, BECAUSE the drummer is going to adjust their playing according to what they hear.
I had posted some audio files quite a long time ago, and some people loved the tom sound I was getting (which was extremely "Bonham-ish"...considering the fact that my kit is based on Bonzo's Stainless Steel kit (28" Kick, 15" mounted, 18" & 20" diameter floors). I've been recordinbg some demo's with one of the bands I play with (I'm in 3 bands) and another of the bands is preparing to record a CD, so I'm "tweeking" my kit trying to get it just right. Once We get some material recorded, I'm going to put some of the songs on MP3.com...then you guys can judge for yourselves.
Tim
The Key to Bonzo's drumsound is an extremely well tuned kit.
His drums were tuned really tight. The Resonant (bottom) Head is tuned quite a bit tighter than the Batter (top) Head, which yields a "tympani" type of tom sound. No muffling is used.
Room Mic's. YOu can get a very Bonhamish sound with 3 microphones.
One on the kick (No real muffling), one on the snare, and a condenser placed DIRECTLY over the drummers head, and pointed straight down at their head. This overhead will give you a good balanced sound, BECAUSE the drummer is going to adjust their playing according to what they hear.
I had posted some audio files quite a long time ago, and some people loved the tom sound I was getting (which was extremely "Bonham-ish"...considering the fact that my kit is based on Bonzo's Stainless Steel kit (28" Kick, 15" mounted, 18" & 20" diameter floors). I've been recordinbg some demo's with one of the bands I play with (I'm in 3 bands) and another of the bands is preparing to record a CD, so I'm "tweeking" my kit trying to get it just right. Once We get some material recorded, I'm going to put some of the songs on MP3.com...then you guys can judge for yourselves.
Tim