Abby - Retracked Drums (featuring Pete Huttlinger)

[Llarion]

Hey...

I'm getting mixes together for my upcoming CD, and one of the tunes going on is one I wrote in 2003 for my then-almost-born daughter. It's called Abby (as is my daughter). The original recording had my old Roland V-Stage drums on it. But since it's going on CD with a bunch of newly-recorded and acoustic-drummed tunes, it felt out of place sonically, so I re-tracked the drums with real ones (Got a set of Gretsch Renowns a few months ago) to settle it in with its peers more. I'm pretty pleased with the sound overall, but am second guessing myself a bit about getting a little more thunder and resonance from the lower 2 toms. Thought I'd ask you fine folks.

The wonderful nylon and electric guitar solos in the middle and over the outro are world fingerstyle guitar champion Pete Huttlinger; I can't play like that. But I'm doing everything else.

http://www.reverbnation.com/philtraynor

Abby is the 2nd song on the list, click the play button and a player will pop up and start it for you.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Chili]

Hey, I've heard of Pete Huttlinger, so I googled him and now I remember seeing the Supersticion song on YouTube before. So cool you've got him contributing.

New drum tracks work well. I guess if I had to nitpick, I'd say bring the ride up some. Crashes seem a little thin, too. But really, no changes works just as well.

Cool!!

 

[kcearl]

nice tune...

I like the bass, guitar, drums, as well as everything else...very smooooooooth

 

[Llarion]

Thanks guys... I got some other feedback privately that was soundly reasoned and compelling that has caused me to very seriously consider re-trackign the melody (probably on flute)... Chili, I pulled the overheads up a tad to see if your suggestion was merited, and indeed it was.

 

[ido1957]

A real flute would be nice - anybody available for the tune? It would give it a total "acoustic" feel, well except for the electric guitar ... Still a fabulous tune in all regards....

 

[RawDepth]

...am second guessing myself a bit about getting a little more thunder and resonance from the lower 2 toms. Thought I'd ask you fine folks.

Smaller toms naturally have more power and volume than larger ones. As the toms go lower in pitch there is less of a transient peak from the head yet more of the boom from shell resonance. To compensate for this some modern drum designers now make their small tom shells thinner and their larger shells thicker, all within the same drum set.

I think the Gretsch Renowns are all the same thickness. (not sure) If so, this would explain why they tend to have less power at the end of a fill. All you can do is tweak your tracks accordingly or compress the larger toms less accordingly. There is valuable mid and high frequency content in those transient peaks and fast compression can whittle it away making the problem even worse. You could try a bump in the 4000 to 6000 Hz range (on the lower toms only) to see if that wakes them up for you.

Otherwise, you've done a fine job overall. I enjoy both the song and the mix.

 

[Llarion]

Smaller toms naturally have more power and volume than larger ones. As the toms go lower in pitch there is less of a transient peak from the head yet more of the boom from shell resonance. To compensate for this some modern drum designers now make their small tom shells thinner and their larger shells thicker, all within the same drum set.

I think the Gretsch Renowns are all the same thickness. (not sure) If so, this would explain why they tend to have less power at the end of a fill. All you can do is tweak your tracks accordingly or compress the larger toms less accordingly. There is valuable mid and high frequency content in those transient peaks and fast compression can whittle it away making the problem even worse. You could try a bump in the 4000 to 6000 Hz range (on the lower toms only) to see if that wakes them up for you.

Otherwise, you've done a fine job overall. I enjoy both the song and the mix.

Thanks very much. I think they are all the same too. I fattened them up, but I'll repost it when I get the melody retracked. I'll keep your comments in mind when I record them, I think a mic placement tweak on the floor tom might benefit me. I might have had it too edge-biased and too close to the head.

 

[steppingonmars]

Dude this tune is done.

Why do the toms have to be thunderous for this tune?

I think you should sit back and enjoy your work, it's very well done!

 

[Llarion]

Dude this tune is done.

Why do the toms have to be thunderous for this tune?

I think you should sit back and enjoy your work, it's very well done!

They don't so much have to be thunderous, but the floor tom just was sounding like a cardboard box... I think I have it remedied... thanks much for your kind words...