Funky Jam: Testing 1, 2, 3

WhiteStrat

WhiteStrat

Don't stare at the eye.
I got ahead of myself and posted some drum tracks from my new room the other day--I was just excited to have something (anything!) from the new space. I thought they sounded good, but without a doubt, the true test is how something sounds in a mix. So I wrote and recorded a little jam and wrapped it around the drum snippet that I posted earlier. (drums by themselves are here: https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=310192). I tweaked the drums to fit this mix a bit, but not much. Here's the drums in a mix:



Your comments are appreciated.

WS

EDIT: Revised mix in post #16. Women's lingerie on seven.
 
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Sounds real good.

Two things I'd tweak if it were my kit:

Tune the kick for more lows or try different heads. With a bass gtr in there, I think the kick is a little boxy. Or you can try to EQ some of the low mids out of it - around 350-500.

More tom presence. The kick and snare thump along just fine, in your face, but the toms sound like they're coming from only the overheads. It's an imbalance. You've got a great stereo spread, but get some more close mic'd toms in there.

Excellent work overall.
 
Agree with the toms comment. But overall, it sounded great! Wish I could play badass guitars like that.
 
It does sound good ..... nice playing.

Not sure how that could be called funky though. Sounds like straight up rock and roll to me.
Good rock and roll too!
 
Lt. Bob said:
It does sound good ..... nice playing.

Not sure how that could be called funky though. Sounds like straight up rock and roll to me.
Good rock and roll too!
Click to expand...

Yeah, you're right. The drum beat was fairly funky before I got a hold of it with my guitars!
 
Greg_L said:
Sounds real good.

Two things I'd tweak if it were my kit:

Tune the kick for more lows or try different heads. With a bass gtr in there, I think the kick is a little boxy. Or you can try to EQ some of the low mids out of it - around 350-500.

More tom presence. The kick and snare thump along just fine, in your face, but the toms sound like they're coming from only the overheads. It's an imbalance. You've got a great stereo spread, but get some more close mic'd toms in there.

Excellent work overall.
Click to expand...

Good ears as usual gergle! The bass & electric naturally shared some space with the kick and snare, so the drums didn't rock like the "drums only" clip. So I brought those two up--and didn't do a thing with the tom mics. So now, by comparison, they're getting a bit lost.

I'll tweak that and the kick tonight after I replace my blown up shower fixture and return to the land of running water. :eek:
 
Wow. Wow. Uhh... Yeah.. I've got a new standard by which to measure my drum tracks. That was awesome, Whitestrat. I can see where the tom volume comments come from, but personally, I like the contrast. I can still hear the toms just fine. I wouldn't change a thing.

Wow. Amazing sounds, bro.
 
Revised mix posted. (I can't believe I'm revising a one minute "jam" tune--oh well, good practice for me). I addressed the toms as discussed above--I really do like them to be more prominent as well--and a couple other things that I heard in the mix.

 
dodgeaspen said:
Sorry, I forgot to ask you to take a pic or two of the mic placement. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Sorry for the grainy pics--the ISO settings on my camera were cranked way up and I didn't realize it until after I shot these.

Before we get to the pics: I haven't mentioned this because I assumed it goes without saying, but just in case it doesn't I'll say it now. These drum tracks are in no way raw.

The room is new, but the mics (well most of em), the kit, and even the drummer were all used on a double CD I recorded last year, so I had a serious head start on what each piece of the kit needed. I rely on the overheads for the overall sound and balance of the kit. So my overhead tracks are the least processed: a touch of compression and that's it. Not even any EQ (I like the mics!). But all the close mic tracks are fairly well processed: EQ, compression and gating on all of 'em. In each case the close mic track by itself would sound like crap. But I'm pushing the close mic sound to give the "oomph" and "punch" that the overheads lack. When combined, it works.

First up--a front shot of the whole kit. The overheads are a pair of tube SDC's I got from a group buy a couple years ago. Don't know what well known mic to compare 'em too. I personally find them comparable to my Rode NT5's, but a tad warmer. I use the Rode's on my acoustic and leave these on the kit. You'll notice a third SDC (in the back corner on the right). I used that to pick up the timbales. Josh (drummer Josh, that is) likes to add them to the toms on fills, so I needed some extra pickup to complete the sweeping stereo effect. So I used a third overhead right over the timbales, panned it hard right, and edited out everything where he wasn't hitting the timbales. A couple more close mics would be easier--that'll be next.
 

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Toms and floor tom. All three are mic'd with GLS ES-57s. Thinks Shure SM57 with a bump slightly lower. The mics on these are all placed in much the same way.
 

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Snare. Mic'd with an Audix i5. I've gotten similar results with an SM57, but moved that to an amp. I don't think these pics show it, but there's a mic on the bottom of the snare. I was convinced that having that brighter snare wire sound to mix in would be a good thing. So I tracked these with two snare mics. I tried every damn way to combine 'em and the second mic just never added anything valuable to my ears. Besides, I'm going for more a "pop" than a "smack" and between the overheads and the i5 on the snare top--I'm happy. So I didn't use the snare bottom mic at all. Cool--frees up another channel!
 

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Kick--mic'd with a D112. This pic is pretty crappy, but it's just off center, about 4" away from the batter head.
 

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