Removing Floor Tom Constant Rumbling

  • Thread starter Thread starter RecordingMaster
  • Start date Start date
Greg_L said:
Right. The high end shells can be ordered to have their own "note". Many keller shells and DW kits come with the note stamped on the inside of the shell. For example, you can have a tom setup that naturally tunes to E, G, A, and D or something like that. I personally think that's taking things a little too far, but whatever floats your boat. To me, I don't care what the drum's natural pitch is. As long as it's tuned to sound good, it'll sound good.
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Yeah...it can sound OK on some stuff, and we've tried that on a few recordings, getting the drums & song in tune...but then it sounds weird on other stuff....too melodic.
So maybe just getting a "generic" but sweet THUMP is probably the better way to go...though I guess if you have a monster kit with lots of toms, it can be cool having a more "musical" sound difference between all of them, which maybe is not as important with a 4-5 piece where you just need the whole kit to sound solid.

A few weeks ago my drummer and I tore down my large, double-kick setup, which was like a 12-piece...and decided to go real old-school and just record a 4-piece kit...just a floor tom and one mounted on the kick.
I actually liked it a lot, so maybe for a few recordings we'll keep it small.
 
Going back to actually recording floor toms, there is often a problem with the floor tom vibrating with the kick drum to some extent. If there is a big problem I will put a thick pad (not too large but multi layer) of tape on the bottom skin as I find that it is often the bottom skin causing the most problems. However if it destroys the drum sound I will reduce the tape. I try not to tape the top skin unless it's an absolute only fix.

I gate floor toms often during mix down as I mix in the analog world, if I have a problem of the gate false triggering I mute the track between hits. You should be able to set the gate to close at a slow enough speed for a floor tom. However what ever you do if the drum was ringing on during the recording the sound will also be in the overheads so you need to watch it during recording.

Alan.
 
I think also if you have the kit on a nice thick carpet, it reduces some of the reflections off the bottom heads.
 
I really would like to post a sample soon! I just haven't had the time this week. :(

To give more detail, I tune my drums so that the bottom head is slightly higher on the bottom (reso), and I know how to tune properly. I actually do it around town for other drummers as a mini side job. $40 flat rate for an hour or so. I have my drums on top of a thin carpet which is placed on top of those interlocking rubber/foam mats like you would see in a gym or garage workstation. It decouples them slightly from the floor and the other mic stands that are NOT on the foam pad. Here's a pic of the clips I'm using and the tom mics which have a supposed shock mount. TSM411.webp Apex Clip.webp

I'm assuming it's not the head that the rumble is mostly caused by, because my rack tom also has wood hoops and is mounted in a RIMS mount, has no dampening whatsoever (as opposed to moon gels on FT's) and is much more resonant. It sings beautifully but there is no constant rumbling undertone, even when not struck. I used a mic stand on the floor and the same sort of mic as on FT's. Will post a sample soon!

Thanks for all comments as of yet. It's become quite the thread imo.
 
I believe the best way is to manually edit out the noise and fade out the tom hits to taste. fade out the toms while listening to the mix as a whole rather than solod.

G
 
I've just made samples of the kit in the past and used trigger for the close mics so I could cut the bleed out on the direct mics.

This takes fore site to do though as you need to do it after you track the kit while the mics are still up.
 
Another thing you can do that may be faster than manually editing is to duplicate the track, gate and EQ it (pulling out a lot of the offending frequency), and then blending the two back together for the mix. You can also automate the EQ.. but that can be even more time consuming than editing..

There used to be these externally mounted drum muffles that clipped to the rim. They were great for allowing the transient and tone of the drum through but dampening a lot of the rumble.

Good tuning is still the best option though.
 
Guitargodgt said:
I've just made samples of the kit in the past and used trigger for the close mics so I could cut the bleed out on the direct mics.

This takes fore site to do though as you need to do it after you track the kit while the mics are still up.
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I tend to use this technique also actually. :)
It works great if you have great tom recordings.

G
 
Cotton balls (or something similar) taped on to the tom skins can really help get rid of too much sustain.

G
 
Try recording in a bigger room.

At a show when the kit has suspended toms I clip to the half-circle suspension thingies rather than the rim of the tom.
 
ecktronic said:
Nope. That's why you use very little amounts. That being said the toms should be tuned and reskinned rather than using dampening.

G
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Lol. Ya think?

Edit - Nevermind. You'll just freak out over what I said.
 
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Just out of curiosity for RecordingMaster -- What are your drums sitting on for a type of floor?
 
Sample attached

You guys are funny! :laughings:

As for cotton balls, or 70's style dial-adjusted tone killers, I've discovered long ago that I don't like to use that stuff (maybe when I was 12 yrs old or so and even then I knew how terrible it was do do that). Sounds a la shit IMO. I even hate using moongels but make exceptions on my floor toms since they're 16 and 18. I actually don't even use a full moon gel. Can't stand the deadness. I use half pieces on fl toms and a quarter piece on my snare to allow 70% of the ring to remain.

Oh and as mentioned, my drums are on a carpet which is placed on top of a foam/rubber mat type of platform. The interlocking mats you'd find maybe in a gym or kids playroom or garage.


ANYWAYS...here's a sample as promised. Sounds terrible without room mics or overheads blended but just focus on the rumble. There's no compression or gating on this so you can hear the issue. If you listen to the part where I am playing 1/8 notes, that's the verse. More dynamic. Then there are the other fills in the rest of the song which are pretty much all harder hits. Makes we wonder ho to gate this thing.


View attachment FIRE FLOOR TOM 1.mp3
 
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