Punchy/Powerful Drum Recording Help Needed

Capt. Snazzy

Capt. Snazzy

New member
Please post suggestions for deadening room accoustics (I'm recording drums in a stinkin' garage and would really like the finished product to not sound like I'm recording in a
"Stinkin' Garage".
I have quite a few good mics condenser and dynamic but need help with drum/mic choice, mic placement, accoustic damping eq settings, gating. As you can see, I'm new to recording drums, I usually use an sr-16 and D-4 or the sounds on my sound canvas keyboard.But I'm now working on a CD for a punk band i play in, including my brother as drummer.
We (actually just the drummer) don't want to use sequenced drum parts so we can get more dynamic energy from the drums.
I'll be recording a Pearl-Forum set with two zildjan crash's if it matters. Please Post Lots.......
Thanks a bundle!!..... -Aaron
 
Try hanging blankets from the ceiling around his kit I had the same problem in a club once and we bought one of those thick furniture pads from U-Haul and hung it behind me (covering a mirrored wall) it helped with the mics bleeding and my monitors feeding back too!
 
see 5 threads down

check out the encyclopedia i just sent to ffmada...its about four or five threads down on this catagory page.
hitman.
 
I would suggest building a little "cage" for the drums out of plywood sheets (or make gobos). Place them non parallel to each other of course, and treat them with a few sound absorbers and/or diffusers as needed (little foam pieces). Then you can move these "walls" around to get the sound that you want. If a tight punchy sound is what you're looking for, you need your "walls" to be as close to the drum kit as possible.

A concrete floor is usually OK if you put a thin piece of carpet over it. You may need to hang blankets from the ceiling directly over the kit, although treating with acoustic foam is better.

Remember that too much "deadening" material such as blankets or carpet will kill the high end and cause nasties to appear in the low end. That's why I approach drum sound not with the idea of "deadening the room" but simply building a small structure of a natural sounding material (like wood) and bringing it close in to the kit so the reverberations are very short. If it's still too live at that point, try putting blankets, carpet, fabric or acoustic foam over one sheet only or part of a sheet. Add more until you get what you want.

--Lee
 
Thanx, I'll get to work one these suggestions

But just one more thing.....
i have a crate compressor module that's hooked up in a
different system than the one i'm using to record drums
and i leaving me just an alesis 3630 for all the drums(which i'm trying to record into cakewalk on seperate
channels), should i try to compress everything leaving my board (fostex 812) or should i just worry about maybe the kick and snare, seeing as how those are the ones that tend
to overload frequently, or should i set levels low and not compress at all, then use compression on the seperate tracks in cakewalk? i don't really know if this even belongs in this forum, but i need some help.
thanx for the excellent help thus far.......Aaron
 
I'd use a bit of compression on the kick and snare. No need to use it on overheads - you can add it later if you really want it. I'd just set the compressor to limit the peaks so you don't get overload.

BTW I don't think I was very clear when I said you might need to hang blankets from the ceiling; my suggestion is a bit different from Wumpsey's. When I say hang them from the ceiling they should be hanging parallel with the ceiling, NOT hanging down in front of or behind the kit, but attached the ceiling at all four corners to keep reverberations from bouncing off the ceiling itself. As I mentioned, I don't believe in using too much deadening material AROUND the kit unless it is specifically designed to be an acoustical absorber. Just using blankets, carpet, etc. does not deaden all frequencies; it deadens only the highs and it amplifies the lows in a very nasty sounding way. So be sparing with it!

--Lee
 
All good suggestions - another - lay a blanket over the kick drum that encloses the kick mike and dampens the body of the kit - it helps if you want to tighten your sound.

Cheers
John :)
 
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