dodgeaspen
New member
Drummers perspective is the way I record. I have had some good results using the Recorderman Method.
I guess I usually mix them. Hihat on the left and ride on the right, but floor tom on the left. I dont know if thats a physically possible arrangement but thats how I would set my drums if I were a drummer.
I just put the song within the "song's" perspective. Also, I'd guess that 99% of the listeners don't give a rats-ass about audience or drummer perspective.
Drum rolls ar always rolling/panning high to low away from the hi hats.
Drummers perspective. I play several instruments, and I listen to lots of music. I just prefer it from the drummer's perspective. Noone that doesn't know the difference gives a shit or even notices, so I might as well do it they way I like it.
The latter two paragraphs sort of contradict the first, which for me is the essential reality of recording. However you mix a song at the end of the day, it's an artificial soundscape. I've read so much about the audiences perspective and mixing that way. But until I began reading about it, I never even thought about it. When recording first began, the object of the excercise was to faithfully capture a performance that was acoustically unaltered. Very nice. But IMO human beings are created with and possessed of imagination and a certain restlessness to push boundaries and limitations......so by the late 50s that initial recording view was already on the way out. As creativity bloomed and technology helped drive it, the artificial soundscape became the norm and it's doubtful we'll ever go back. So, given that there isn't an intrinsic right way for drums to sound and be mixed, pretty much anything goes. It may be more popular for rookies to multi-mic but tons of pros do too. It's just one of a number of ways of getting the drums in there. Some try it and pass on it, others stick with it. But as ever, when all is said and done, there's alot more said than done !Seriously though, it's the song that counts. When one is flying down the motorway or washing up or making love or riding the train or simply relaxing, and listening to music, who honestly notices how the drums are mixed or more to the point, who focuses on it ? We might. My mum wouldn't !!Most recordings do not do drummer's perspective OR audience perspective. Most recordings build an artificial soundscape.
For those genres and mixes where multi-miking is desired (I still find it amusing that it's far more popular in the rookie ranks than it is in the pro ranks), then the point to perspective is kind of lost altogether. What's the point of doing all that seperate miking if you're just going to re-create a natural stereo image? Stick to the overheads if that's what you want to do.
(And before someone says that multi-miking gives better control over the individual drum hits, everybody already knows what my reply is: learn how to play the damn things first, and you wouldn't have to worry about "re-playing them in the CR" via editing every damn skin hit. Spend the time practicing instead of editing. It's a lot cheaper )
G.