Help me tweak my sound?

  • Thread starter Thread starter sirslurpee
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yeah.. my dad is a drummer so I am very VERY lucky to have some of the equipment that I have. The recording stuff is all mine though! muhuahaha.. I have an entire set of paiste 502s... hats, 16" crash, 18" crash, 12" splash, ride, and china. I love the way they sound. My dad plays Zildjian A series I think he has... not sure, his cymbals sound okay though, but he has like 3 crashes and a splash plus ride and hats and it's not enough variety for me. Don't you have a ton of mics? Maybe you can sell some and save up some money for a better kit or sell the one you have? I heard your recording with the broke snare that definately needs to be fixed or replaced. Although the rest of your kit doesn't sound bad at all... especially for being cheap!
 
its not the mics at all..


its the fucking instrument and the stupid room :(

ordering YEEE alot of THEEE foam by mail stuff.


yep yep

i have $500
im going to save up 500 more just to be on the safe side

I;m getting a job soon so I will be slowly getting money.

The plan was get a Pearl Master's Bass Drum, then a snare, then toms, then cymbs...

so it all works out just fine..
I don't want to wait till February or anything to get a full set..
 
FUCK YEs...completely forgot about that one.

I guess I had the mentality of a non-religious person for a sec :p
 
I just noticed in the JPGs that you posted that you have the Rem-O foam muffler thingy's in your toms. I have one question.

Why???

Those things are horrible! Take them out and your toms will sound much better.

I've said this in many other posts: DON'T MUFFLE!!!
The only drum that should get any muffling is the kick, and even then, watch how much you use! If you have some ringing that is a problem, use a little tape (little) or the gel pads. Try not to deaden the sound.

Every pro drummer I have ever known will tell you exactly the same thing! It is NOT how to get a pro sound out of your drums. No high-end studio in the world would allow you to use them. They are a gimmick to make you think your toms will have that warm, fat sound. The truth is: It's the signal path that does that.

This test track has no muffling. Also has the GLS mic mentioned earlier.

 
Also, here's a track I did about 3 1/2 years ago with the CAD mics. Not too bad except the kick is totally lost. Not a good bass drum mic at all.



Of course, I've learned a lot since then...maybe I should break them out and try again, but I like the mics I have now.

There's still more for me to learn.
 
PhilGood said:
This test track has no muffling. Also has the GLS mic mentioned earlier.

Click to expand...
That sounds immense!

Could you tell me what equipment you're using, and the heads, tuning, size, wood, thickness, muffling, hole size, hole placement, etc. of your bass drum?

I'm currently saving up for some equipment to record my drums with, and I would love to steal that kick sound! :p
 
Gherkin said:
That sounds immense!

Could you tell me what equipment you're using, and the heads, tuning, size, wood, thickness, muffling, hole size, hole placement, etc. of your bass drum?

I'm currently saving up for some equipment to record my drums with, and I would love to steal that kick sound! :p
Click to expand...

The bass drum is a 22" x 18" Tama rockstar. I use a Remo Ambassador for the batter side, and the stock black head for the front. In the reso head, I have a 4" hole cut off center. That's where I stick the mic, just about 2" into that hole, pointed at the beater. The mic is a Superlux FK-2. For muffling I use a shop towel taped to the shell, just touching the batter head. I also compress the signal 2:1 as I'm recording. I augment the low end with a subkick speaker mic, just barely audible to add that roar to the low end. You should hear it through a subwoofer system.
 
Sorry dude, I use the Rem-O's because I cannot stand an open tom. Seriously they ring for days and it drives me insane. I don't know maybe professional studios don't use them but I do becuase I know it helps me achieve the sound I want. I've used tape before or the plastic rings and whatnot but it just does not give me the kind of "umpf" I like. Plus, on both of the kits we own, the toms wide open are SO INCREDIBLY LOUD. BTW, I did take the Rem-O out of the bass drum and I'm using a towel layed at the bottom of the shell. It sounds really good in the recording, but is borderline gross in the room.
 
sirslurpee said:
Sorry dude, I use the Rem-O's because I cannot stand an open tom. Seriously they ring for days and it drives me insane. I don't know maybe professional studios don't use them but I do becuase I know it helps me achieve the sound I want. I've used tape before or the plastic rings and whatnot but it just does not give me the kind of "umpf" I like. Plus, on both of the kits we own, the toms wide open are SO INCREDIBLY LOUD. BTW, I did take the Rem-O out of the bass drum and I'm using a towel layed at the bottom of the shell. It sounds really good in the recording, but is borderline gross in the room.
Click to expand...

Well, that's kind of the caviat. A drum should sound like a drum. Most pros WANT the sustain out of a drum and mics tend to ignore the sustain the way our ears hear it. If that is the sound you want, then good luck. It will always show up in a recording and you will fight it until you realize that's not the way its done. I used to use them many years ago myself until I went to a show at the Whisky A Go-Go to see a friend play. His drums sounded amazing. I asked him how he muffled his drums and he looked at me puzzled and said "muffle?".

The same thing goes after getting to know guys like Simon Phillips, Dave Weckl, Gregg Bisonette and many others. I go to their studios and there is nothing on the drum but the head. I have been to a huge variety of sessions and guess what? No muffling!

If that's the sound you are looking for, I can't fault you. I guarantee though, your favorite drummer on your favorite recording doesn't do it that way.

Good luck!
 
Thanks.. I never see any drummers muffle thier drums but for some reason I can not get mine to sound that way. I don't know if it is because I am sitting behind the kit and because of the way the sound projects out the front, but I just can't get my kits to sound right. Maybe it's the way I tune?
Thank you though. I will definately experiment with recording without muffling but I have the tracks I need for now for my bands project. The drums sound amazing and I don't really have much more time to change everything around, tweak the sound, and re-record the 8 songs we are putting down. However, when I do have the final product, I will definately post a link to some samples here. You might be surprized as to how it sounds. :)
 
sirslurpee said:
Thanks.. I never see any drummers muffle thier drums but for some reason I can not get mine to sound that way. I don't know if it is because I am sitting behind the kit and because of the way the sound projects out the front, but I just can't get my kits to sound right. Maybe it's the way I tune?
Thank you though. I will definately experiment with recording without muffling but I have the tracks I need for now for my bands project. The drums sound amazing and I don't really have much more time to change everything around, tweak the sound, and re-record the 8 songs we are putting down. However, when I do have the final product, I will definately post a link to some samples here. You might be surprized as to how it sounds. :)
Click to expand...

Believe me, you are on your way to a larger world!

Tuning is the absolute most important part of making the drums sound right. Study as much as you can! Learn to tune them correctly. That will have the biggest yield! Get some other mics for close micing if you can. I recommend the GLS ES-57's, found on ebay.

When we listen to our favorite recordings, we want to make our kits sound just like what we hear on the CD, (to our ears). Unfortunately, mics don't work the way our ears do! Mics have a different sensitivity to sound and dynamics. They don't hear the ringing and sustain (or articulation) the same as when you are seated behind the kit. It took me a long time to figure that out! What we hear on the finished track is the result of the signal chain and the mics. There rarely is any muting, unless its a drum that won't behave.

The kit needs to be at its most natural state. Just the heads and the shells working in concert with each other. Natural! It may sound odd to you and even abrasive at first, but once you know what a raw drum sounds like, especially when it is tuned well, the track just explodes with the full acoustic properties of the drum. Don't get me wrong, sometimes a little muffling is necassary. Watch how much you use, though.

Big sounds come from big sounding drums, not from processed muted instruments.
 
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=O phil what kind of cymbals were you using on that first clip you posted?

wow o_o
 
A variety of Paiste's. Signature, 2002, 505, and 802 hats, which I really like. They are very controlled.
 
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