Well, it depends on your definition of "real drums", I guess...lol. The drums track was performed on a real kit by a real drummer, and I use kind of a hybrid Recorderman/Glen Johns 4 mic technique to record the dry tracks. So, they start out real enough - but, as I've mentioned in a few of my other posts - I'm not shy about using flex time editing to correct timing issues, and then I also replace/blend the kick, snare, and toms with Steven Slate samples from Trigger. So, at that point, I've drifted pretty far from the spirit of "real"
I would love to have a better room, better mics, better preamps, better kit, heck...better drummer (ahem!), but I'm working with what I've got. I was debating awhile ago about whether I should save up and drop a few thousand dollars on new mics, preamps, etc, but then I ended up spending $99 on Trigger EX instead, and honestly, I think that's one of the best decisions I've ever made. I still have issues with the overheads, particularly the cymbal artifacts that result from f*ing around with the timing, but the timing is the priority for me, so I'm telling myself the artifacts are a necessary evil. You guys have great ears, and you pick up on all the nuances, but I'm thinking that most of the people in my target audience are not drummers, and they aren't recordists (is that a word?), so they probably won't notice. Hopefully I'm not sounding too defensive on this, but I've given it a lot of thought I guess...lol.
Something I didn't mention at the beginning of this thread is that I'm working with Jan Ohlhorst (aka karumba) to finish up my album, and he actually created this mix. We've been going back and forth a little bit about the bass track, so I really appreciate the comments on that. I would have to defer to Jan for specifics about the drum processing for this particular mix, because all I sent to Jan was the individual "raw" tracks, although they were timing-corrected and sample triggered when I sent them over. He definitely worked some magic on them though, because the drums in Jan's mix sound significantly better than the ones in my mix of the same song. Jan was also handicapped by the issues with the overheads, but I think overall he did a great job. If we can just get the bass levels up a little, I think this will be about as good as the mix can get with me playing and singing it
Ah, Greg...you wound me! Ha ha...in my defense...the song has a different chord progression in the chorus than the verses, and there is a ton of buildup that peaks and then falls off again to the end. I'm thinking the extra long beginning didn't sit well with you, which is surely repetitive, but damnit man, I layered crap in there for all it's worth as the song/dynamics build up, and I tried to sing my ass off during the last chorus...lol. Anyway, thanks for listening, and providing feedback, even if you don't appreciate my genius songwriting and arranging
Best,
Dave