Check out my drums!

[WhiteStrat]

God, that's an overdone thread title, huh? Anyway, it's been a while since I posted anything, but today we had some family over for a barbecue, and that means my son in law the drummer came over. We snuck away into the studio and I got a chance to try out some new and (hopefully) improved mic placements. (The mics were sitting there for a month, waiting for him to come by and play). I'm just trying to nail a big rock n roll drum sound. Let me know if I'm getting close:

 

[mrhotapples]

Sounds good to me! I really dig the kick. The mix in general is pretty boss.

 

[Greg_L]

God, that's an overdone thread title, huh? Anyway, it's been a while since I posted anything, but today we had some family over for a barbecue, and that means my son in law the drummer came over. We snuck away into the studio and I got a chance to try out some new and (hopefully) improved mic placements. (The mics were sitting there for a month, waiting for him to come by and play). I'm just trying to nail a big rock n roll drum sound. Let me know if I'm getting close:

Not bad at all. I'm hearing a little bit of phasiness in the snare. Did the drummer move around a lot? It sometimes sounds like my overhead tracks when I move too much and block one of the mics. You can hear the snare jump left and right a little. Overall it sounds pretty good though. Great drumming. I think the kick is a little midrangey. Maybe scoop some low mids to get it a little deeper sounding. If you close mic'd the toms, bring em in a little more to get more boom out of them.

 

[Xeries]

Sounds very good to my ears. I don't have Greg's expertise about mic placement but I think the kick is nice and meaty and nothing screams out at me for being out of place. Guitar tone and playing is outstanding as usual.

Wig

 

[WhiteStrat]

Sounds good to me! I really dig the kick. The mix in general is pretty boss.

Thanks, man! I appreciate the listen and the comments.

Not bad at all. I'm hearing a little bit of phasiness in the snare. Did the drummer move around a lot? It sometimes sounds like my overhead tracks when I move too much and block one of the mics. You can hear the snare jump left and right a little. Overall it sounds pretty good though. Great drumming. I think the kick is a little midrangey. Maybe scoop some low mids to get it a little deeper sounding. If you close mic'd the toms, bring em in a little more to get more boom out of them.

Thanks Greg. He didn't move around much, but I went back and just listened to the drum tracks without the guitars and I'm hearing it too. I've never never gotten down to level of phase alignment on the various mics--but maybe it would be worth playing with. And thanks for the comments on the toms--I was wondering if they weren't a bit dry too. The boom is there, I just had a real short release on a gate. I loosened that up some and now they ring more.

Sounds very good to my ears. I don't have Greg's expertise about mic placement but I think the kick is nice and meaty and nothing screams out at me for being out of place. Guitar tone and playing is outstanding as usual.

Wig

Thanks Wig! That means a lot!

Great little Jam piece there StratCat!

Drums sounding good. My ears don't pick up phasing well I guess.

What kind of drums are they? What mics and placements did you use?



Oh..and the axe grinding was great too!

Thanks True! The drums are Pearl Exports. I'm not a drummer, but I bought a "house kit" (knowing they weren't anything extravagant!) just to have a full setup--and to get good at recording 'em. Lemme tell 'ya--even as a non drummer I'm now a disciple of the "replace the heads and/or tune 'em" teachers around here. Did so a couple weeks ago and I love the way they sound!

The mics are (I use a ton, so get ready...)

Kick D112
Snare Audix i5
Timbable Audix i5 (not in this mix I don't believe)
The three toms are those GLS 57 knockoffs
OHs are Rode NT5s
Room mics are a pair of tube condensers from the last group buy.

With all those individual mics, room mics might seem like overkill, but I'd used these before for a live capture and loved 'em, so I set em up. In the end, what we'd call the "Overhead sound" is actually about 60% room mics and 40% overheads. From where I'm sitting, it just seemed to open up the kit and make it more lively.

 

[joeym]

Sounds great Bob!
Nice drumming and sound. Great guitar as usual. Bass seemed a little too loud to me but anyway this was just a test for the drum sound. I would say it worked pretty well! Time to record a whole song, don't you think?

Joe

 

[rayc]

You vertainly have your own guitar sound.
Drums - um, yeah - more ring on the toms & stuff.
I'm glad Greg covered all bases so I don't have to pretend. he certainly has a good ear for detail.

 

[WhiteStrat]

You vertainly have your own guitar sound.

Is that a good sound or a bad sound?

Drums - um, yeah - more ring on the toms & stuff.
I'm glad Greg covered all bases so I don't have to pretend. he certainly has a good ear for detail.

Yeah, and either all the input or a weeks worth of listening (or both) has opened my ears to that stuff as well.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

Awesome jam, for one.

The drums sound pretty good, too. There's something a little... IT almost osunds like a stereo widener or something was used on the overheads? It sounds a little exaggerated to me. Aside from that, based mostly on personal taste (and the fact I tend to listen to harder stuff) I'd like to hear the snare come up a little and the overheads/brass a touch lower.

The dude can play though, and you're no slouch on the guitar.

 

[rayc]

GOOD sound - in part it reminds me of Beck from his Wired era but more than that as it is your own.

 

[Bulls Hit]

Nice jam!

Drums sound good here. One thing I often forget to do is flip the phase on the snare track just to check. Sometimes it does nothing, other times makes the snare really punch through