recording some metal today

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elicantu

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i ordered a beta 52 and it should come today but i just want to get an opinion from some of you guys on how do ya'll get that best kick sound out of this?
preferably an "as i lay dying" sound
 
place it inside the kick drum maybe an inch away from the head where the beater is hitting. this will give you the "click" that bands like as i lay dying often employ for their kick drums. i would also suggest placing another dynamic mic (if available) in front of the outside of the drum. have fun! :o
 
I record metal also and after years of trying to get that metal kick sound it struck me that I wasn't getting nearly enough click, to match what I heard on my favorite recordings. I tried plastic beaters and metal washers on the head but it sucked all the low end out.

Anyways, Mic placement and tuning are key. With Beta52, I found the best sound inside the drum about 4 or 5 inches from the batter head pointed between the shell and the beaters. If you can use a second mic like an sm57 on the outside pointed right at the beater impact point to pick up the click, you can usually then move the 52 back away from the batter head farther to pick up more low end.

Good luck and have fun :)
 
dang.. i read the replies too late.. but i'll put them to use next monday because im recording another metal band..

this is a rought mix of todays recording session with the beta 52 which by limited timing we didnt get to mess with mic positioning so it was just barely sitting inside the sound hole..

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=764608

its a little 20 sec clip called
"song mix in pro tools"
 
just cut the mids and give it a big ole boost at about 5 khz and a little boost at 250 hz and work from there.
 
the kick. boost between 5-8 khz and around 220-250 hz and cut just about everything else. should give you your click and your low end thump.
 
That kick won't have much power like that. If you want to rock the kick, especially with a lot of the metal that uses detuned and + string guitars, you might want to try a nice narrow large bump at 60hz. This will give you depth, and not compete with your other instruments. Make a nice wide cut centered around 500 or 600 hz., add a little 3k and a lot of 8k.

I guess 220-250 hz could be considered thump, but most rock bands will prefere some power and depth. Even with snare drum, it is very common to have the fundamental low frequency to be centered at about 200hz. Kick needs to be much below this.
 
xstatic said:
That kick won't have much power like that. If you want to rock the kick, especially with a lot of the metal that uses detuned and + string guitars, you might want to try a nice narrow large bump at 60hz. This will give you depth, and not compete with your other instruments. Make a nice wide cut centered around 500 or 600 hz., add a little 3k and a lot of 8k.

I guess 220-250 hz could be considered thump, but most rock bands will prefere some power and depth. Even with snare drum, it is very common to have the fundamental low frequency to be centered at about 200hz. Kick needs to be much below this.
Click to expand...

yeah 250hz is usually a bit high for the low end in the kick, I'm usually boosting between 100 and 180 depending on the drum and the mic.
 
xstatic said:
That kick won't have much power like that. If you want to rock the kick, especially with a lot of the metal that uses detuned and + string guitars, you might want to try a nice narrow large bump at 60hz. This will give you depth, and not compete with your other instruments. Make a nice wide cut centered around 500 or 600 hz., add a little 3k and a lot of 8k.
Click to expand...

yes, but I'm dubious you'll ever be happy. use or mix in samples and you'll be happy.

post a short clip of the kick as tracked... or maybe the whole track
 
elicantu said:
dang.. i read the replies too late.. but i'll put them to use next monday because im recording another metal band..

this is a rought mix of todays recording session with the beta 52 which by limited timing we didnt get to mess with mic positioning so it was just barely sitting inside the sound hole..

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=764608

its a little 20 sec clip called
"song mix in pro tools"
Click to expand...

The mix sounds like a bad live recording.
The kick drum is muffled, I'm guessing you used a cotton beater head rather than a plastic or wooden beater head? Use wood for a really clicky metal music and plastic for a more slappy hard rock sound. Dont add any washers or coins to the beater head please!!

Sounds like the drum was maybe not tuned very well or the kick drum is not a very good kick drum.
Try out plastic and wood to see the diffference. Do small test recordingsw of just the kick drum and compare all 3 head types to find the one that fits best for the style of music you are recording.

Eck
 
I listened to the three examplkes you had posted. Listening in the studio revealed quite a few things to me. First, the kick sounds very papery. A lot of this probably has to do with head selection and tuning, mostly tuning I suspect. Of the three clips, I thought by far that the kick sounded better in the "pro tools" version. Personally, I would get the drum retuned, and if you are just using one mic (which is what I would try first if I were in your shoes) put the mic right in the port of the ported head. You can really get away with a lot when adding highs to the kick during mixdown, but if you don't get the lows captured they will never happen. Without the lows the band will probably never be pleased either.

On a side note, I had a hard time listening to the samples. The guitars sounded distant and hollow, but mostly it seemed like I was hearing some crazy and distraction misuse of compression that made it hard for me to try and focus on just the kick drum.
 
i agree with the whole sound mumbo jumbo but the drummer sounds great. he probaly drank a little bit too much coke before he played. i like his beard though!
 
The "new bass drum " clip is getting closer to what you want and almost spot on. Maybe it could come up a tad as the guitars seem a tad too over powering. I like it though, reminds me of that bostaph kick sound on god Hates us All.
 
Seems like a step back to me overall. That kick needs to come up in the mix if we are talking hard metal. Also, EQ the shit out of those toms. they sound boxy and flat and need more power. The snare is loud though... which makes me wonder, how many mics? Contact Greg on this forum, he had a kick as drum tone.
 
Here's how I've had the best luck getting a sweet kick sound for metal:

1 - Get a good drummer. One who hits consistently hard and accurately, on tempo.

2 - Start with a 20" or 22" kick drum with an Aquarian Superkick II on the beater head, and no front head. Learn how to tune it from a guy at a drum shop, or maybe get a drum tuning video.

2 - With one mic, place it a little over 1/2 way into the drum, slightly off-center, pointing near where the beaters hit. With two mics, put one inside the kick a couple of inches away from where the beaters hit, and put the other a foot or so away from the front of the kick to get the most low-end you can (as lower frequencies have longer waves and thus take longer to develop!

3 - Once tracked, get a nice narrow bump between 55 and 70hz, take out a lot between 350/400hz and 550/600hz, and make nice notch bumps at around 4-4.5k and 8-9k. If you're using Pro Tools (which I assume you are by your previous post), the built-in gat plug-in and compressor plug-in have great starter settings for kick drum: start with that and adjust as your ears guide you to.

4 - Drink a bunch of beer!
 
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