Real drums for a real drummer

[aletheian-alex]

I agree that real drums are best, but samples can save your life in a tough situation, so it is good to learn how to do it in case the situation arises, because there is an art to it. if you have heard anyone just 'plug in and go' with sound replacer when they don't know what they are doing, it just sounds like a bad DR5 arrangement.

Here is an example of where they really saved my BUTT. I got these tracks which were tracked by another engineer for a project that i was mixing. The drums were pretty unusable: the snare sounded like a coffee can and the kick sounded like hitting a tent with a sausage, plus there was so much bad room bleed and phase issues between the mics that I didn't think I could salvage anything. I really thought that my only option was to throw out the tracks and re-record the drummer myself... but I mixed some samples in with the acoustic tracks and did some real hard EQ and gating and they came out decent... at least usable, whereas if i had just tried to EQ the acoustic drums: I would have been sunk.

For comparison here you hear the raw tracks that i got for about 10 seconds, THEN it switches to the cleaned-up tracks with the samples:
Listen HERE
Not the best, but you can see how much more usable it got.

Granted, the tracks would have been 100x better if the drums were recorded right in the first place, but if I had not known how to properly use samples i would have been a dead man! plus if you ever DO get a grindcore or really fast death metal band in to record, you CAN'T get the popular kick and snare sound that is what they want using strictly acoustic mic's drums... gravity blasts at 280BPM with just a mic on the snare: unless you are recording Derrek Roddy you can forget about it.


BTW... this is a gravity blast/roll for those who have not heard it: sorry the explaination is in swedish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2Z7eksx4ck

[ponytrack]

I realize I'm getting a little off topic here, but what kind of heads are you using? I've used Remo's for many years, but after hearing a kit recently outfitted with Aquarians, I'm considering ordering some the next time I re-head my kit. Don't forget how variable the sound can be simply by changing head styles. A simple change from Ambassador to Diplomat on a snare top, for example, can make it sound like a whole new drum. Also I got some Yamaha stainless steel snares for my Ludwig hand hammered snare drum...awesome combination!

Phil

Phil, you are so right. I must be too much in the habit of going to the local music shops & just getting whatever heads they happen to have in stock.
I will make better decisions in my choice of heads in the future & maybe go so far as to have extras in the studio at all times.
I do love my Drumdial for tuning everything

[ponytrack]

I would persevere with the drum booth and the real drums mate.

I know it's a ball ache but not compared to triggering. There are so many compromises with triggering that by the time you finished you've lost all the feel. Give me a baggy old REAL kit any day.

Yeah, the one thing I don't want is a lull in productivity

Oh and the drummer? Give me Mr Accurate and Consistent over Mr Flash Harry EVERYTIME.

YES, YES, YES!

Check out youtube for tuning drums.

http://www.ten21.biz

I would love to check this out if I didn't have such a pathetic online connection speed.