hardcore guy said:
I'm in this little experimental punk band (think along the lines of the band Lightning Bolt). We consist of only a drummer (me), a guy on a juno60 and many bass amps. We sometimes do vocals too. Basically there is an obvious lack of layers in our music and we use overwhelming volume to make up for it. We've been trying to record a few short songs live and I find that the recorded sound it very weak. Do you know of any tips or tricks to get some real heavy, boomy punch out of a bass amp and drums to make up for our lack of layers?
well... i don't know how experimental you consider yourself to be, but I've recorded sa few "experimental" artists (as well as punk bands, but i dont know about both) and am in a band that I personally don't think is very experimental but a lot of people have classified us as such. I'm personally into really big boomy sounds, so I hope i may be of some help.
1. In situations that dont require precise rhythm, try recording the drums twice and layering them. yes, i know everyone else here will tell you that that's the worst idea ever - but try it. it's worked for me and my sound.
2. try and get your room to sound as live as possible when recording drums. put plywood boards up and try to get rid of anything that absorbs sound. Also, after doing this, try putting a mic all the way on the other side of the room to pick up all that room sound you've created. just make sure to steer clear of phase cancellation problems, it'll suck out all that 'life' you just worked to get.
3. try putting the bass drum mic on the edge of, or outside of, the hole in the bass drum. This will give it more boom. Also, experiment with distorting the drums. I personally love running the overhead mics through a tape deck (or several) and compressing them a ton, and sending the bass drum through a tube distortion unit (and not compressing it at all).
4. As for micing that bass amp... make sure you get the mic real close, and if you want boom from the bass amp, even try letting the mic touch the grill of the amp.
5. this is more orthodox than doing the same thing with the drums, but record two tracks of synth and layer it, hard pan each one, maybe even try doing one track with the miced amp and then the other track using direct input. just try new things!
Obviously you can't do some of this stuff recording live, but my main point is just to experiment. put the mic in a bucket and kick it. record a bird singing, the wind blowing, water pouring, then run it through weird pitch shifts and delays. just dont stop experimenting.
