Singing Drummers

D

daveparker

Member
Hi

I'm mixing a session with a drummer singing backing vocals. The trouble I have now is all the snare and cymbals in his vocal mic. Because the vocals need to be high in the mix the drum bleed is actually overpowering the proper overheads and is making all the high end sound a bit unpleasant. I can't gate it either because there is then a noticeable difference whenever he starts singing. Is there anything I can do to rescue this? Could I have done something better during tracking?

Thanks in advance for any advise.

Dave
 
daveparker said:
Yes thats the obvious solution, but they wanted to record live in one take so thats what I did.
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That is not even practical. Who does a recording in a single take. No errors, everything perfect. That will be the first unless it is a Live performance at a concert or show.
 
Greg_L said:
As "producer" you need to put your foot down, tell them how what they're doing is shit, and have them do it a better way.
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I agree with Greg here. If they insisted on doing it an awkward way, well then you'll have to explain to them that they either need to do it again, or to put up with the sound of overpowering-drummers-backing-vocal-mic-drum-sound... There's no other way around it, you can't subtract the drums from the vocal.
 
daveparker said:
... Is there anything I can do to rescue this?
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Is there any way you can throw away the drummer's vocal track and get him to come back in and do his vocal parts over?

Maybe if you showed the band what the problem is they'd see that it was the best thing to do.
 
Stupid amateur band nonsensical shit like this is why I'll never, ever, record anything for anyone but myself.
 
Greg_L said:
Stupid amateur band nonsensical shit like this is why I'll never, ever, record anything for anyone but myself.
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yeah, i have a friend's kid on his way over right now to talk about this. dude is 21. i haven't heard the band yet. he called last week and hit me up and i explained that my space is too small to record the whole band at once. he said it wouldn't be a problem for me to lug my computer and all the rest of this shit down to chino to record them there, but it could only be done M-F after work because he's getting married in a month and his weekends are booked. :laughings:

there's no way anything good will come of this. it will only annoy the fucking shit out of me. why did i even hint at doing this? :laughings:
 
ez_willis said:
yeah, i have a friend's kid on his way over right now to talk about this. dude is 21. i haven't heard the band yet. he called last week and hit me up and i explained that my space is too small to record the whole band at once. he said it wouldn't be a problem for me to lug my computer and all the rest of this shit down to chino to record them there, but it could only be done M-F after work because he's getting married in a month and his weekends are booked. :laughings:

there's no way anything good will come of this. it will only annoy the fucking shit out of me. why did i even hint at doing this? :laughings:
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Tell them to go to hell. You know you want to.
 
Greg_L said:
Tell them to go to hell. You know you want to.
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dude just left. he's a cool kid and his dad is a good friend. and i'm curious about this recording other people thing. i told him how i'd do it, like, have guit guy throw down a scratch to a click, then have drummer come in, then bass and vocals. it might scare the band off so i wouldn't be the bad guy. if they want to do it this way, at least it's in my garage.
 
EZDrummerVocalRemover... !

Tell me there ain't a market for it...

So Dave, as everyone pointed out, it's just not a great way to track in the first instance. Not much you can do... mebbe shutting off the higher frequencies might make it more palatable, and it might just ruin the vocal as well, but give it a go.

I thought it was a "given" in the industry that you don't let drummers near microphones anyway... :D
 
yeah... there may be nothing worse in our world than a singing drummer.

i would play them the tracks without the vocal mic included, and compare them to the tracks with the vocal. let them hear the difference. if they don't get it, then give them the garbage and wash your hands clean of it.
 
Greg_L said:
As "producer" you need to put your foot down, tell them how what they're doing is shit, and have them do it a better way.
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I gotta agree with this also.In the end your name and reputation is at stake.No doubt if they're not happy with the end results they'll almost always blame it on the engineer and not themselves.
 
OK so we won't talk about Don Henley, and before you say we are talking about Studio not live, have a look at the DVD "When Hell Freezes Over".

The secret, can sing loud and into the Mic, can drum at a sensible volume. I used to really dislike singing drummers when out live, but on occasions a really good singing drummer would turn up and guess what, it all works.

In the studio, avoid unless it's only a quick demo but point out the short falls before they start and say there will be a compromise. The compromise may be to turn off/down the overheads.

Cheers
Alan.
 

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tlennon1 said:
That is not even practical. Who does a recording in a single take. No errors, everything perfect. That will be the first unless it is a Live performance at a concert or show.
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It's unusual . . . but it can be done. The various soundclips I've posted in relation to microphones all came from a recording session with the Matthew Ives Quintent where each track was recorded live and in one take.

However, they didn't have a drumming vocalist.

I wouldn't insist on a band recording in any particular way, but I would show them what they are going to end up with if they aren't prepared to compromise.
 
tlennon1 said:
That is not even practical. Who does a recording in a single take. No errors, everything perfect. That will be the first unless it is a Live performance at a concert or show.
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Set the mic so it's right on his mouth. Use a noisegate, set the threshold really high, tell him to belt out his vocal loudly. tweak the settings so the gate hardly triggers when he just plays drums, only 'opens' when he sings close up in the mic. The gate will cut out anything but when he sings...problem solved.
 
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