More front kick head stuff

  • Thread starter Thread starter Whoopysnorp
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Whoopysnorp

Whoopysnorp

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OK, you people, time to put some money where some mouths are. I've heard a lot of people here say that they only get good results on tape (so to speak) from their kick drums if the front head ain't on there. For the longest time I didn't have a hoop or any hardware for the front of my kick drum, and a drummer friend of mine kept telling me that it wasn't going to sound good until I could get a front head on it. After a while, he gave me a hoop and I bought the necessary hardware, and suddenly I had a sound that was usable in recordings. As an example I have a recording of a tune, first without a front kick head, and then with. The difference is pretty clear:


Any of you who record without a front kick head, I'd like to hear recordings of your mixes (not just samples of the kit by itself). How's about it?
 
Thats cool that the front head works for you. I wish it did for me. I couldnt get anything but a weird "ping" sound with the front head on. Even with lower tunings.
 
I'll put something up in the morning that I did about a week ago where the kick had no front head.
 
OK. If you're still interested, click on my www and check out "Cross Cut Saw". It's a faders up mix of a blues band I just tracked and I'm still working with. It's a Pearl set but I don't recall the kick demensions of but it has no front head. There's a D-112 inside about 1' from the beater, 57 on the snare, C-1000's on the rack toms and floor toms, 4033's spaced overhead and an GT AM-52 about 4' out in front of the kit at about the height of the top of the kick.
 
Whoopy,

What did you use to record that? (mics, recording device, specifics - if you don;t mind sharing your secrets) it sounds alot better than my latest stuff.

Zeke,
yours also sounds better than my latest stuff, overall. Although, i think my kick sound is warmer and fuller. Yours sounds as if theres enough(almost too much) attack- if thats the POP i'm hearing, but almost no tone. The snare and cymbals sound real good. But i can;t tell if the recording sounds good because of the reverb thats on it or if it's the way the drums themselves sound.
again, what did you use to get this sound? I find that my snare is never right, but i don;t know whats wrong with it.

I finally have something for everyone to listen to...but i have to go throught the years of bullshit mental masturbation that comes with getting this song on that site.
 
T-Rat: I'm always interested. However, I'm at work. Once I'm at home with the speakers I know, I'll check your stuff out.

Zeke: I don't know if you saw my comments in some other thread, but I like your drum sound. It's a hell of a lot better than the sound I used to get when I was 15 and messing around with recording. I wouldn't have put the reverb on the snare, and I don't really like the kick sound, but the tone of the snare and cymbals are cool. I'd like to hear it in a full mix.

dcptnsdcvd (if that is your real name): Aw, flattery'll get you nowhere. Seriously, though, I'd be happy to divulge. The guitar and bass tracks are the same on both versions. The bass is simply a Peavey T-40 through a Randall combo amp, and the signal is mostly DI with a hint (perhaps an inaudible hint) of mic'ed sound (with an SM57). The guitar is a Peavey Predator (cheap Strat knock-off) through some effects and into a Kustom combo amp. I think the only effects on it are some compression and slapback echo, and then the reverb is a plugin on the computer. The guitar is mic'ed with an SM57 just in front of the speaker pretty close to the center. I also put an MXL603 on the strings of the guitar to mix a little bit of that crisp snappy sound in. The drums in both instances are mic'ed the same way. It's a sort of crappy old Sonor kit from the early '60s with Zildjian New Beat 14" hi-hats, a Sabian 16" Pro crash, and a 20" unidentifiable crappy old ride. The drums are a 14" snare; 12" and 13" rack toms, a 16" floor tom, and a 20" kick drum. I have Remo Diplomats as resonant heads on all of them (except kick), an Ambassador on the snare, Pinstripes on the toms, and a Powerstroke III on the kick. The front head on the kick, when present, is a Remo Ambassador with a 5" hole cut in it. The overheads are MXL603s (I placed them a little differently between the two recordings, but it didn't affect the sound much). There is a Sennheiser e602 on the kick, an SM57 on the snare, and another 57 between the two rack toms. On the first recording, the kick mic is right up next to where the beater hits the head, and on the second one it's stuck just a couple of inches inside the hole. All of this is going into a Yamaha 12-channel mixer and from there into a Delta 66. If you have any other questions I'd be happy to answer them.
 
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