recording drums outdoors ?

[roynaufal]

hello

does anyone have any experience or comments on this idea?

i was thinking of recording drums outdoors instead of in a room/studio,
to avoid 'bad room' issues, and get purely the drum sound itself

the room i have already has a relatively low ceiling....it's just some 2 meters high

 

[Massive Master]

Other than needing a perfectly calm day, out in the middle of absolutely nowhere (no birds, insects, vehicles of any kind including aircraft, etc.), it's a wonderful thing.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Absolutely the rest of it, noises, winds, etc. are true, but I'm not sure I completely agree with the "wonderful thing" part of it. Yeah outdoors can be better than an awful room, but not necessarily better than a so-so room; you can be exchanging one set of problems for another, IMHO. It can be like choosing between bird flu and swine flu .

There's a reason why studio live rooms are designed to control reflections but not eliminate them. You rarely find people recording in totally dead anechoic chambers, and the wide outdoors are basically one big anechoic chamber.

You ever really want to suck the energy out of a kick drum, remove the walls around it completely and give the bass frequencies a chance to stretch out without any reflection whatsoever. It may sound just fine fifty or a hundred of feet away, but at miking distances (or even inside the drum) you'll probably tend to find at least some loss of "oomph". And fro the rest of the kit, you can expect to find a "deadness" to the sound that you just won't find in an enclosed space. This would be especially noticeable on overheads or other stereo pair setups you may normally want to use.

Is all this an idea killer? Not necessarily. Much of it is addressable to some degree in post (processing or recording through a nice a nice reverb chamber or plate along with maybe LF EQ processing on the kick or recording the kick through a quality subwoofer can immensely help, for example.)

And the potential negatives of recording outdoors may not be as bad as the negatives of recording in a really bad room. You certainly get rid of the low ceiling problem and avoid bad bass resonances. But it can come with it's own set of issues, and (IMHO, FWTW ) is not necessarily a quality substitute for a good-sounding room. Unless that's the sound you're going for, of course.

YMMV, etc.

G.

 

[roynaufal]

aha i see
thanks for the very valuable feedback

hmm...regarding bass drum, that will be triggered

i am mainly worried about the low ceiling and overheads issue...
is there any workaround for that ?

considering i will be close-micing everything...
would it be possible that i put in the overheads facing the drumset at the cymbals height, in XY position?

this way i could capture mainly the cymbals in somehow stereo...?


what your best suggestion to do in such a case?

 

[Amos McWoods]

The song "They're Red Hot", from the Red Hot Chili Peppers "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" album was recorded outside, drums and all.

A listen to that will give you an idea of one result that can be had from it.

 

[witzendoz]

I remember reading an article about Real World Studios where they where recording on the lawn in the garden.

The problem is keeping the rest of the world quite while recording.

Cheers

Alan

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

i am mainly worried about the low ceiling and overheads issue...
is there any workaround for that ?

Well, a triggered sample on the kick would indeed go a long way to help against any outdoor bass suck you might get. Good idea.

And yeah, low ceiling is a real bane to overheads. If you have te room to get up some ceiling diffusers or "clouds" that can help some. Check out the Studio building forum for more on that.

Otherwise, a spaced pair or even an X/Y stereo pair mounted in front of the kit at or below cymbal level and facing back and slightly down can sometimes work pretty well as a poor-man's substitute for OHs. I like using this config for live drum miking to reduce bleed form the rest of the stage, but it can also cut down a bit on the slap you'd get from the ceiling in a studio recording. Depending upon the content of the rhythm track and the type of music, there are times when I actually prefer this setup for it's simplicity, using just the front-addressed pair augmented with a kick mic. Adjust the up/down angle of the front mics to taste, and depending upon how animal the drummer gets on the cymbals. Even then, though, reducing the ceiling reflection can be pretty important, if possible.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not pooh-poohing the idea of recording outdoors. I was just saying that while it certainly addresses the problems you'd have in too small a room, it can come with it's own unique set of things to watch out for as well.

If nothing else, it's a great excuse to get outside on a nice day before summer disappears on us altogether . Try it! (and also try the front pair with the kick mic combo. See what works out best for you .)

G.