Recording Drums?

[grimtraveller]

I think George's contribution was gravely under-estimated. His songs were probably the most in-sightful and had possibly more emotion that any other member. "While my Guitar....", "Taxman" and many others are trademarks as much as, if not more than some of their more popular songs. I love George's tunes.

Well don't even get me started on George and his songs. It has been a constant source of irritation to me that critics for 4 decades have routinely dispatched him like he wasn't there. Yet his songs, even in the early days, are uniquely experimental as well as being great to sing. Look at "Don't bother me". Musically it gave them problems to record, it was so odd for the times and lyrically, he was taking a pissed off, detached tone, long before Dylan, Jagger, Davies etc ~ and the two main writing Beatles. Look at "Think for yourself". Lyrically breaking out of the Beatle mould and experimenting with fuzz bass. His songs from "Love you to" onwards were hugely influential on the other Beatles and pushed their lyrics and music eastward, not to mention colouring the songs with Indian instruments. Ian McDonald said of him "if not the most talented, certainly the most thoughtful of the songwriting Beatles" and I'd go along with that. At a time when they were kind of lost, his interest in all things Indian played a huge part in their collective existence and arguably the fact that he had something stronger to him than the Beatles was one of the main ingredients that led to their break up.

 

[RAMI]

Well don't even get me started on George and his songs. It has been a constant source of irritation to me that critics for 4 decades have routinely dispatched him like he wasn't there. Yet his songs, even in the early days, are uniquely experimental as well as being great to sing. Look at "Don't bother me". Musically it gave them problems to record, it was so odd for the times and lyrically, he was taking a pissed off, detached tone, long before Dylan, Jagger, Davies etc ~ and the two main writing Beatles. Look at "Think for yourself". Lyrically breaking out of the Beatle mould and experimenting with fuzz bass. His songs from "Love you to" onwards were hugely influential on the other Beatles and pushed their lyrics and music eastward, not to mention colouring the songs with Indian instruments. Ian McDonald said of him "if not the most talented, certainly the most thoughtful of the songwriting Beatles" and I'd go along with that. At a time when they were kind of lost, his interest in all things Indian played a huge part in their collective existence and arguably the fact that he had something stronger to him than the Beatles was one of the main ingredients that led to their break up.

Yeah, "I Want to Tell You", "Within You Without You", etc.... I agree 100%. His contribution has always been pushed to the side un-justly.

 

[BentRabbit]

"One of Ringo's great qualities was that he composed very unique and stylistic drum parts for the Beatles songs. Ringo was the first of the English rock drummers of the '60s to define the archetype of the present-day rock drummer." - Steve Smith (Jean Luc Ponty, Journey, Vital Information. Voted 'Best All Around Drummer' 5 years in a row by Modern Drummer Magazine's readers.)

"Faster, and more exciting than 'I Want to Hold Your Hand.' The harmonies, and of course Ringo's drumming, put this song at No. 1." - Marky Ramone (Describing why 'She Loves You' by The Beatles is #1 on his top ten favorite song list)

"Ringo is vastly underrated. The drum fills on A Day In The Life are very complex things. You could take a great drummer today and say, 'I want it like that.' They wouldn't know what to do." - Phil Collins (Genesis, Brand X, Eric Clapton. Seven time Grammy Award winner)

"Ringo comes from a different kind of school, and I find that totally exciting and challenging. How he does what he does…it's so different from what other drummers do. To me, there's something to learn there." - Steve Gadd (Chuck Mangione, Al Dimiola, Frank Zappa, Steely Dan, Eric Clapton. Honorary Doctor of Music Degree from Berklee for Outstanding Contributions to Contemporary Music)

"I consider him one of the greatest innovators of rock drumming and believe that he has been one of the greatest influences on rock drumming today. Ringo has influenced drummers more than they will ever realize or admit. He always served the music." - Kenny Arnoff (John Mellencamp, The Smashing Pumpkins, B. B. King, Santana. Voted #1 Pop/Rock Drummer and the #1 Studio Drummer for five consecutive years by Modern Drummer Magazine readers. Associate Professor of Percussion at Indiana University)

"You can immediately discredit anything that uses Ringo as an example of why it will work. Ringo sucked horribly ...and had little, if anything, to do with any part of the Beatles success." - Greg_L (Author of Greg's general guide to rock drums for NEWBIES! on Home Recording.com)

 

[toprocker22]

Unless your mixer has at least 6 outputs to feed to each track on Cubase, I don't think you can achieve this. A mixer essentially takes multiple inputs, "mixes" them and sends them out either via one or two outputs. To get six separate tracks onto your DAW you'll need an interface with at least 6 inputs.

Ya i just went out and bought a tascam 8 output interface so now i have the interface, and know how to run seperate tracks now its just trial and error figuring out the mic positioning on the kit i was thinking using the two sm 57s for the bass and snare, the condenser for the overhead, and the 3 dynamic mics on the toms! if anyone sees any thing not good about that give me tips but other then that trial and error baby!!!!

 

[RAMI]

if anyone sees any thing not good about that give me tips but other then that trial and error baby!!!!

The best advice you can get is the "trial and error baby". Do something for yourself, like most people had to do to get good at something. Is there something stopping you from experimenting, other than laziness???

 

[Greg_L]

"One of Ringo's great qualities was that he composed very unique and stylistic drum parts for the Beatles songs. Ringo was the first of the English rock drummers of the '60s to define the archetype of the present-day rock drummer." - Steve Smith (Jean Luc Ponty, Journey, Vital Information. Voted 'Best All Around Drummer' 5 years in a row by Modern Drummer Magazine's readers.)

"Faster, and more exciting than 'I Want to Hold Your Hand.' The harmonies, and of course Ringo's drumming, put this song at No. 1." - Marky Ramone (Describing why 'She Loves You' by The Beatles is #1 on his top ten favorite song list)

"Ringo is vastly underrated. The drum fills on A Day In The Life are very complex things. You could take a great drummer today and say, 'I want it like that.' They wouldn't know what to do." - Phil Collins (Genesis, Brand X, Eric Clapton. Seven time Grammy Award winner)

"Ringo comes from a different kind of school, and I find that totally exciting and challenging. How he does what he does…it's so different from what other drummers do. To me, there's something to learn there." - Steve Gadd (Chuck Mangione, Al Dimiola, Frank Zappa, Steely Dan, Eric Clapton. Honorary Doctor of Music Degree from Berklee for Outstanding Contributions to Contemporary Music)

"I consider him one of the greatest innovators of rock drumming and believe that he has been one of the greatest influences on rock drumming today. Ringo has influenced drummers more than they will ever realize or admit. He always served the music." - Kenny Arnoff (John Mellencamp, The Smashing Pumpkins, B. B. King, Santana. Voted #1 Pop/Rock Drummer and the #1 Studio Drummer for five consecutive years by Modern Drummer Magazine readers. Associate Professor of Percussion at Indiana University)

"You can immediately discredit anything that uses Ringo as an example of why it will work. Ringo sucked horribly ...and had little, if anything, to do with any part of the Beatles success." - Greg_L (Author of Greg's general guide to rock drums for NEWBIES! on Home Recording.com)

Pretty good, but I'm still right. Don't let it hurt your feelings. It's just like anything else:

Ringo = best ever to Beatles fans
Ringo = sucked to everyone else.

 

[grimtraveller]

Now its just trial and error figuring out the mic positioning on the kit. I was thinking using the two sm 57s for the bass and snare, the condenser for the overhead, and the 3 dynamic mics on the toms! If anyone sees any thing not good about that give me tips but other then that, trial and error baby!!!!

Trial and error is your first port of call, but in conjunction with doing a bit of reading up. Just look into "Recording drums" {like the link I gave you that inspired all the Ringo talk} and take it from there. There will always be someone that loves and hates your drums, opinions vary on what sounds good, so you need to experiment with placement and sounds and levels so that you can move towards what you like. The drums are a versatile instrument that can be recorded in a number of different ways for lots of different kinds of songs in different genres.

 

[toprocker22]

Didnt say anything about not doing it myself, we arent recording anything till this saturday, just asking for tips and personal opinions rather go into it with a couple words of advice then completely blank on it. Nothing to do with laziness buddy

 

[toprocker22]

thanks Grim that site did help give me some light to shine on the subject

 

[RAMI]

just asking for tips and personal opinions rather go into it with a couple words of advice then completely blank on it. Nothing to do with laziness buddy

So let me get this straight. You're not actually going to try anything until Saturday, when it's time to record. Until then, you want "opinions" and "tips", rather then spending the time you had between when you first started this thread and Saturday to experiment and figure out what works for you.....Doesn't only sound lazy. Sounds pretty foolish too.

I realize that I sound like an asshole to you, but I'm trying to help you, believe it or not. You're not going to get any recording "secrets" or revelations here. The best advice you can get really is "trial and error", and you'll be much better off going through that process BEFORE you're actually laying down tracks.

Good luck.

 

[toprocker22]

I dont wanna sound like a asshole either, the thing was i had to order a new interface and didnt get it till yesterday so i didnt have all the inputs i needed to do trial and error before saturday. i spent all last night on that thing and wanted to rip all my hair out, then today got on it and started getting a better feel for it. and by all means me and my band all know that saturday we arent gonna be laying down tracks out the ass, we will be lucky to maybe even get one solid drum track down. This is a first for all 4 of us and we all dont excpect excellence of the bat

 

[Supercreep]

Welcome to HR, toprocker22.

-SC

 

[grimtraveller]

Part of the reason that it's 'trial and error' is that if you're doing it yourself, even with mic placement experimentation, you have to do alot placing, playing, recording, listening, evaluating, decision making. That in itself takes time. Then you have the added burden of hearing all that in isolation ~ it becomes a different ball game when the other instruments and voices are added into all that.
I remember when I first started jamming with my mate on drums, I was learning bass and we used to play continually for 90 minutes {basically till the C90 tape ran out} and record it. We used to record on his ghetto blaster (this is 29 years ago; we used to, in those days, call it a box) and it wasn't great but it picked up both instruments OK. The drums used to sound fantastic, the bass drum was loud and clear as a bell. I still have those tapes now and I'm struck by how clearly the drums are picked up. So a decade later when I began recording with a multitracker, I thought it would be like that. And it wasn't ! I used to record on just one track, literally mono drums, and I'd use a little mixer with 4 inputs and one output. But I was never satisfied with the sound of the drums, for years. Even getting to the multitracking point of using anything from three to nine mics hasn't guaranteed by itself better quality sounding drums.
I like most of the drums I get now but it's been a continual process of learning and experimenting. Even simple things like not letting the drums distort in a DAW have made such a difference.
So take your time, enjoy what you can and be confident that no matter how frustrating it gets, you will amass the knowledge you require as time goes by. By reading, asking questions.....and doing.

 

[toprocker22]

Drums sound pretty fucking good!!!!!! after a good couple hours of fucking around with it we got some solid tracks down and now ive started to even throw some guitar tracks down and its sounding good. I was listening to some of it last night and could hear some deffects on some of the takes but thats what all this is for we will go back and get it to sound good! thanks everyone that helped me with this HR is deffinitly the best place for a starter like me!

 

[grimtraveller]

HR is deffinitly the best place for a starter like me!

I'm glad you feel that way. And you got a taste of our infamous sidetracks free of charge ! Glad your tracks are turning out good too. Keep at it !

 

[moresound]

I'm glad you feel that way. And you got a taste of our infamous sidetracks free of charge ! Glad your tracks are turning out good too. Keep at it !

SIDE TRACKED! We can fit the Beatles in to any thread and talk all day!

 

[itaughttremonti]

I lol'd at the list of drummer quotes about Ringo....

 

[grimtraveller]

SIDE TRACKED! We can fit the Beatles in to any thread and talk all day!

Yeah, they're so ubiquitous that even Greg can't resist bringing them into threads.......repeatedly !

 

[Greg_L]

Yeah, they're so ubiquitous that even Greg can't resist bringing them into threads.......repeatedly !

That doesn't even make sense. Consult your nearest dictionary and try again.

 

[grimtraveller]

Ubiquitous ~ "Being or seeming to be everywhere at once".
Makes perfect sense.