My drum sounds

[Destination Jake]

How does this track sound (only drums).

Your feedback is always appreciated

Click here for high quality (9mb) mp3

Most of the mics I'm working with are all pretty entry level mics

SM57 On the snare
Audix F12 on the kick
SM57 on the hi tom
Audix F10 on the floor tom
Audix F15 x2 for overheads
M-Audio Nova (Large Capsule) for a room mic

Some minor multiband on kick/snare/toms, minor EQ on all tracks, parallel compression, and a little plate verb

[Gons Deejay]

Try another place for you Mic Audix for your Kick, I use one Blue! for that kick, 8 ball for only 99 and you gonna get a very good kick! your snare sound! but maybe you need little close your SM 57, but that mic is not for in Box session, im sure your mic it's for live app! try replace that two SM57 for other two Studio Mics!

Cheers!

[Naagzh]

Gons is right on: the kick sounds a bit thin, but eveything else is rockin'. How'd you tune the bass drum, and how did you muffle it? Do you plan to use any samples to enhance or replace the kick? You said you used multiband compression on the kick -- I can't help but wonder if that was a good idea or not. You might want to remove it and listen again to make sure.

Also, I hear the floor tom sympathetically ringing out whenever the bass drum is hit (no doubt this is exacerbated by the parallel compression). You can of course softly gate the floor tom to subdue the ringing.

If I may be so bold... your drummer sounds good, he has balanced dynamics while hitting like he means it. I noticed that when he plays the snare with the bass drum, the two notes aren't exactly together -- they flam. If you're thinking "hey, it's only rock and roll" then read no further. If you plan to "correct" and/or "enhance", though, be aware that kick/snare "flams" like these are a pain to edit and really never sound as great as they can.

As a future consideration, tell your drummer that some dude on the internet (a working drummer who also teaches) thinks he should seek out the best instructor in the area for a handful of lessons on playing to a metronome and executing the most common subdivisions (quarters, eighths, triplets, 16ths, 16th triplets, 32nds). Have him bring that recording to the teacher. Hopefully he's not like most drummers, who think they're already SOOOO awesome....

[Destination Jake]

Hehehe, I'm the drummer :P and I love to hear your feedback. This is really exciting for me. For one, I'm so happy you think it's "rockin'". I've been working on my drum sounds/quality for a while.

I did this in 1 take without warming up, (to a 1/4 165bmp click). I definitely agree it can be much tighter .

I'm aware of the floor tom ring. Luckily there is not too much bleed from anything else on that track.

Believe it or not, these tracks were mixed in adobe audition, and I'm going over to our band house to mix them in Pro Tools today. (I keep my MBOX over there).

Audition has a weak selection for gates, and dynamics processing. Actually it doesn't even give you a gain reduction bridge/meter.

After listening to the kick with the headphones, I cut a little bit of mids out (around 400-500) with a nice Q, which made it a little less boxy.

I'll have the Pro Tools verson today, which, I'm confident will be much better, because Pro Tools rocks 100000x more than audition haha...


I learned this trick about tuning the kick when I recorded some drum tracks in Pendlewood studios in Nashville, TN. He tuned the kick really low. To the point where the head had minor wrinkles, definitely no tone. It sounded soo weird. I asked him why he does that and he said it gives off more natural low frequencies. Probably a few more things to it. Either way, my kick is tuned quite low, to the point where when I kick it, it actually sounds like a sub or something really low in person.

I have that egg carton foam type stuff around the inside of the kick shell. I put the mic about half way in, facing about 35 degrees up, and 20 degrees left (away from the snare). It's pointing towards the area about half way between the side of the batter head, and where the beater hits. Vertically it faces about the same hight as where the beater hits.

Sorry if that didn't make any sense .




What mics would you recommend for me to use. I have more Audix F10's, but I think the SM57 gets a better sound. I don't really have the best selection for mics..

I have an audix drum mic kit, 2 sm57's, and the m audio nova that came with my m-box.

However, I do plan on getting some new mics.

If you're interested I can describe my other placement, but for now, time to go to practice!!

[Naagzh]

Ya know, I thought about you being the drummer...about 2 seconds after I posted! If you're interested, I have some great practice tips for conquering the click!

A mic designed for kick will have a more scooped midrange. I think the Beta 52, Audix D6, and D112 are all great mics.

But if forced to choose between the 57 and the F10, just by looking at specs, I'd say the 57, because of it's extended lower range. But because of it's upper freq. response, I'd say don't point it directly at the point of beater contact, maybe begin by aiming it somewhere halfway between center and shell.

Tuning the batter head quite loose is common practice when going for a really punchy sound. Since the head doesn't continue to vibrate as much, it produces less sustain and lots of "thwack". And yes, there's more low-lows (60 Hz) relative to lows (1-200 Hz) with such tuning.

Just for frame of reference, I've read that Joey Jordison uses loose heads with large feather pillows inside, kick patches, and wooden beaters.

[IntelDoc]

Audix D6 for kick - works so well

Senn 421 is another go to.

D112 to me sucks as i is just a beast and picks up EVERYTHING. Requires a kick tunnel usually to work well.

Get good transients so you can "enhance" with a good sample or two later. Nothing wrong with that.

SM 57 Top and Bottom for snare is pretty standard.

421's on Toms are my choice

Hat mic - Octava 012 or another SD mic off axis to avoid wash.

Overheads - tricky. I like the Apex 435's as I usually hammer overheads later. They are decent enough, but also go to a TLM 103 Nuemann pair too. C414's would be my preferred pick of the litter.

Hit your pres when it comes to a snare. You can really get a goodsaturated sound if done properly and NOT clip.

That is just the tip....

Best,
Doc