my drums sound live as hell - when i want them to sound studio

  • Thread starter Thread starter shackrock
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shackrock

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2 overheads - mxl 603s
sm57 on snare
at pro 25 on kick
delta44


when its all together, everything just sounds like its really live, and really open. of course, the room doesnt help at all (crappy basement)....but when i recorded with my SM57's as overheads, it defaintely didn't sound as "open" i guess.

any suggestions? try moving the mics in closer?
 
Live can be a great thing. What style of music are you doing? You have tried the current recordings in the context of the mix?

'Making them sound studio' can mean a lot of things. What constitutes a 'studio' sound, in your definition? What sound do you want, I guess would be the real question.

Moving the mics in closer won't help much. Your kick and snare are the only close miced elements in this, your overheads may be giving you the most grief.

If the room is very reflective/echo sounding, you could try treating the area around the kit. Mattresses, blankets tacked to the walls, whatever. To reduce the reflections. If your drums are not tuned for the style, than that can also add to the liveliness.

You can make baffles fairly cheaply that will allow you to somewhat control the acoustics in your recording area. 2x4 frames stuffed with fibre glass insulation, held in with some porous covering like speaker cloth, or light canvas, placed around the kit. Treat the ceiling however is possible, or necessary.

It all depends on the sound you are after. Your not close micing the toms. If toms are a very integral part of your style of music, perhaps you need to? Delta 44 only has 4 inputs, and your using them all, submixing is no big deal though depending on what mixer your using.

Anyway, provide some more info as to the sound your after, style of music etc., and I'm sure someone can give advice.
 
Are they on carpet?
1st thing I would do is bring the overheads in closer by starting with the technique I have posted in the drum clinic (Fat drums fast, etc)... then hang a double thick blanket on the ceiling above them where the rear of the cardioid pattern may be picking up reflections, adding that "live" sound to it. Deaden the area as much as necc if it sounds like crap anyway.
I would almost guarantee this solves most of your problem.
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=39030&highlight=fat+drums
 
Try time aligning your tracks. Make the snare transient on the overheads the same as on the snare track. Same with the kick. You will find a MUCH more focused sound.

Creepy
 
live drums

Yes..certainly the closer you move the overheads to the sound source the less "room" sound you will get. Instead of a spaced pair, which I assume you are using, try an XY coincident pair technique and move the pair as close as you can get to the source. If you are unfamiliar with this technique there numerous tutorials on the web that deal with it...Essentially two mics are placed almost touching facing 90 degrees at one another. This will allow you to get it closer to the source perhaps.
Another idea would be to try the overheads behind the kit pointing down to alleviate rear reflection. Lastly, what will get rid of the problem the easiest is to treat the room in some way. Even if you just get old carpet scraps and hang them up on the walls you will get less reflection. A concrete basement is a very reflective environment and the soundwaves will bounce all over the place...Hope I was some help.
Doug
 
thanks guys....
defiantely need to be retuned, i got carpet all over the place (back and 1 side of set, and underneath).

however, the mics are right below my air duct for my A.C....which could definately be a relfection problem, maybe i'll just move the kit.

thanks though.
 
i've actually never used a noise gate...anyone wanna clue me in? direct me to a free one to try out? lol
 
Nothing in this hobby is free. but behringer has a 4 channel for 129.00
 
stupid question, but.............
What is a noise gate?
 
Basically, only lets sounds above a certain threshhold come through, and mutes the rest. Pretty good for getting the snare out of the kick track, and pretty good to keep toms from being wide open all the time. But it can have audible side effects... like going in and out of phase when it opens if your mics werent set up right.
 
well, im looking for a DX plugin - how does Sonic Foundry's do? i got that i just found...lol
 
when you say you want them to sound studio, do you mean less room sound?

if so, you're going to need to focus on the room to eliminate the problem properly. as tubedude said, hanging certain materials can dampen the room sound

maybe try using less of the overheads as you usually do, and using more of the close mic'd tracks. i dont know what kind of track / kit you are dealing with so this may or may not be helpful.

gates can help, but if you've got a live sound in your OH's, a noise gate is not going to correct your OH sound. as well as the advantages mentioned earlier, noise gates can be helpfull if you're sorting out reverb for say, the snare drum. a gate can cut out any hi-hat spill which may excite the reverb.

good luck!
 
just do random dynamics processing on the thing....you will have a nice original "basement" indie rock sound

hehe...
 
when i use sonic foundrys noise gate on the tracks, it delays them masssssssss....WAY off from the rest of the song...any ideas? i've played with all the knobs, no luck.
 
The key to "studio" drums is a noise gate on all of the drums....WHAT!!!!!!!!

BAD Darrin, BAD!
 
shackrock, if you've got such problems with the room, i would seriously give a try to using less overhead sound and seeing what can be done with the close mics.when you do bring your overheads in, try not panning them hard left and right, make it pretty narrow. this *may* help you out. but to be honest, work on the room, then your mixing session should be pretty painless.
 
There is really no definitive answer to "how do I make my drums sound like they were recorded in a professional studio." There are a few things to consider though such as a good drummer, a well tuned kit and a decent room. Beyond that it really depends on the ears behind the console (high-quality gear to go with those ears doesn't hurt either.) :) Assuming you are a pretty good drummer and know how to tune your kit, I would start looking at your room. I'm not sure what your basement walls are made of (concrete probably) I would start treating them with something besides carpet. Don't get me wrong, carpet helps but it is no cure-all! I wasn't saying at all that noise gates don't help (and yes, sometimes they don't) with some drum problems. I was simply saying that strapping noise gates across your drum tracks was not going to answer your question!

BTW-Being a good drummer and tuning your kit properly has almost nothing to do with the drums sounding live as hell...BUT, it is a good step to getting a "pro studio"drum sound.
 
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