Would this work?

[buryher17]

I don't know anything about power amps... well not "anything" but when your at a live professional show, the toms always sound so thick and so... "right" What i get from that is obviously they have the toms tunned right, the levels right but it's the power amps.

I want my toms recorded to sound similar to that. Listening to any cd years ago (live cds) like billy joel, led zeplin, jimmy buffet, whatever the toms sound so GOOD. I don't know if this would even be possible though... I typically have 3-4 toms i'm micing. (it's metal or pop punk)

if anyone has any other ideas please tell me. I want my toms to be very noticable in my recordings. the drums is what i always stress the most in my recordings.

I as of now have a samson 5 kit for toms but i will be investing in 3-4 sennhieser e604's (or 3-4 more sm57's). It's all running thourgh a multimix 16 usb 2.0 alesis mixer. Eventually i'll have a 4 channel pre for the toms but until then it's runnig off of the mixer pre's


thanks

 

[avieth]

Adding some big reverb to the drums might help.

 

[M10K]

Try automating the volume of the tom tracks down about -20db and only bring up the volume when they hit. Make sure and leave the decay of the drum. Then add somewhat heavy compression.

This is of course assuming that you are using some sort of recording device where it is easy to automate tracks.

 

[petermiller]

its mostly tuning and mic placement and how you hit them. If you don't hit them right you are most likely choking the life out of the drum to begin with, and secondly you have to find space with the other instruments being played for them to live. compression as mentioned is always helpfull as well as gates and most of all technique.

 

[Elton Bear]

Try automating the volume of the tom tracks down about -20db and only bring up the volume when they hit. Make sure and leave the decay of the drum. Then add somewhat heavy compression.

This is of course assuming that you are using some sort of recording device where it is easy to automate tracks.

OR just gate your drums. Bear in mind I am not talking about anything heavy, you still want cymbals and things coming through in the ambience, and make sure you leave the ENTIRE hit, not cut any ring or resonance out.