the secret to a good drum sound

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foreverain4

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i have seen the light! hallelujah!!! a good sounding kit! last night i had the opportunity to record a client that is sending a demo video to a band of him playing drums. needless to say, he had a set of dw's, and sabian aax and handhammered cymbals. tracking was sssooo easy. hardly any eq on any of the drums! then the light bulb clicked on, "so this is how the world class studios get that awesome drums sound, they are using $10,000 drum sets." i agree that mic placement and selection is also a part of it, but if you have the later without the previous.......... garbage in, garbage out. just thought i would share wich yall! :)




lynn
 
Dont matter what kinda drums you got if you cant tune em!
 
Dont matter what kinda drums you got if you cant tune em!
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...true dat.

I've had some of my best luck with a cheap-o kit that was tuned and setup nicely. I'm sure anybody who has an expensive kit is going to make sure it's setup and tuned nicely.
 
you are definately right about tunning them. i have a pearl export series that i have refinished myself. this kit sounds great live! just cant get it to sound too good in the studio yet. i had been expirimenting with my kit, then last night, when he brought his in, i was just blown away by it. that is, of course, after being extremely frustrated with mine.
 
You have pretty much discovered the secret to recording. It rarely gets any better than the source sound. Garbage in = garbage out.
 
lynn,

youve discovered the secret....a great mic wont make a crappy voice sound good....the best engineer in the world wont pull a good track out of a poorly tuned and intonated guitar.......
 
Someone posted a link a long while back to a HUGE site about tuning drums? Anyone got that handy?

Thanks.
 
i hate to tell ya this...but...."that" ain't the secret....

the secret is....A GREAT DRUMMER !

you can take the BEST drum kit in the world, and have a bad or mediocre drummer on it, and it won't sound great....

BUT...you can take a great drummer, and put him on a crappy drum kit....and your tracks will sound great....

my $.02...

JET
 
good point! i dont consider myself to be the best drummer in the world, but i do beleive i have alot of finesse and creativity compared to most. the drummer i had in the other night was better that i was though, that could have made the difference. :)
 
I'm so proud that soneone has finally discovered this.


Relevant to the topic, I was reading this out of the latest Recording Magazine. It was an interview with Bon Jovi's producer:

"(During tracking) the Ambassador drum heads are changed daily for every new song. 'Heads on the snare drum are replaced for each take. We have multiple snare drums ready to go at all times. As soon as I take one off the stand, my assistant tim Holland is there to grab it an start replacing the heads on it for me.' Tuning on all of the drums is checked before each take."

Now that's the real secret, right there. ;)
 
Damn! the snare heads are changed every take?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I wonder if thats really worth it. I dont think i could tell any difference in a snare head from its first take to its 50th.
 
Axis said:
Damn! the snare heads are changed every take?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I wonder if thats really worth it. I dont think i could tell any difference in a snare head from its first take to its 50th.
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Yeah, I'd say that's overkill.
 
Yea, but if I was a millionare producer working on a new album for a multi-platinum band, I might do it just because I could.
 
they probably spend a $1000+ on snares heads by themselves.


















Waste of money.
 
foreverain4 said:
good point! i dont consider myself to be the best drummer in the world, but i do beleive i have alot of finesse and creativity compared to most. the drummer i had in the other night was better that i was though, that could have made the difference. :)
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A good studio drummer and a good live drummer are oftentimes quite different... A good live drummer can keep up just the same as a studio drummer, play all the parts without fucking up just the same as a studio drummer... However... A good studio drummer can play everything right, and hit all the drums with equal and similar force, giving a consistant sound to record... That way... Not nearly as much need for tweaking the mix or compressing for a really hard snare or crash hit.
 
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