Eagles Style Drums/ No Air?

[twonky]

Hi Fellers,

I am getting ready to record a song w/ my band this week, and I really want to try and get that super dry, airtight drum sound that the Eagles seemed to get a lot. Also think of "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac and you'll know what I am talking about.

There is not a lot of toms being used in this song, it is mostly kick snare HH.

Anybody got any tips for accomplishing that type of sound.

I will be tracking the drums to a Tascam 388 and then dumping them to pc to do overdubs.

Any tips are appreciated, thanks

 

[Abbott]

ok, first you need to find the right room. Find a really small room, carpeted and you could also use treatment on the walls to kill the sound. Second, you need to muffle all the drums. Then you should have a pretty dead sound for you drumset, which in my opinion sucks, but whatever...

 

[chessrock]

Yea, it sucks! lol. Just kidding. I recently worked with someone and we had some success getting a sound close to "The Band" and/or Neil Young, which is what he wanted. Very close to what you're after.

Anyway, I would add a few suggestions:

1) Make sure you close-mic everything. Cardiod and hypercard. patterns only. No omnis, so if you have a couple of those Behringers you got for $35, now is not the time to use them.

For overhead, I would go for a neutral-sounding mic - If you are used to using two overheads, then you might consider cutting that down to one (Do not use a bright-sounding mic - I know those are hard to find). And bring it in close to the kit. Use some creative panning of the different pieces of the kit to create the stereo image while mixing, instead.

2) If you're not used to micing each piece of your kit, well now is the time to start pulling out the 57's and micing each tom individually. The idea is to rely much less on the overhead mic/mics and just get in close to each piece of the kit.

3) Lightly gate. No, we're not talking 80's stuff here, just some moderate gating to tame some of the room noise and/or any phasing issues.

Other ideas: Good tube preamp if you can afford one. Track drums to 1/4" analog reel, then dump to hard disk. If you ART Tube MP doesn't suck, then now might be a good time to pull it out and insert this in to your signal chain between the reel and your recorder. Many believe it to be a good way of "deadening" your tracks. You can always record each R/L channel separately if you have to and line them up later.

 

[twonky]

Excellent! Thanks Chess. I guess the Earthworks TC30Ks will not be used, I have an ADK A51 and a CAD e200, I guess I'll try one of those for over heads to capture what little cymbals I need.

Thanks again

 

[chessrock]

I've noticed the CAD seems to have a little bit of a swooshing dip around 7 khz - more like a gouge.

That could be a good thing. It could mean you wouldn't have to worry about bright-sounding cybals with that one. I have no experience with it, but from it's response curve it looks like it would do nicely for what you're after.

Just as long as it's cardiod and not bright-sounding. I'll never forget what a pain it was eq-ing after using an NT2 as an overhead. GREAT mic, but very annoyingly bright on drums. Like it just loved to take cymbals and make them as irritatingly bright as possible. Aaaaarggghhh ! ! !

Man, I'd bet it would hurt to have to set aside the earthworks. The neutral sound of them would be nice for what you're doing. I'd love to have a pair myself. I just can't say they'd be of any use in this situation, though. Omnis always seem to record the room no matter what positioning you try. And room sound is not what you're after.

 

[twonky]

The Earthworks are pretty brilliant, but the are a little boomy on toms...but they are really amazing. I got a really good deal from Eric Blackmer at Earthworks, I dont know if he is the President or what, but I got a refurb matched pair w/ a box for $700! They have been amazing on just about everything.

I really like the CAD above the drums, but the TC30ks really took over once I got them