View Single Post
Old 15th March 2006   #10
absrec
Lives for gear
 
absrec's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Posts: 1,138

Quote:
Originally Posted by RockNashville
Not just knowing how to tune a drum, but being in the game enough to keep the drum in tune for the whole session. Then hitting the drum in the same place all the time is really going to matter. Also let's not forget that it's really the drummer's responsibility to "mix" the kit first. If he beats the hell out of the hi hat with his dominant right hand and wusses out on the snare drum, you're going to have a problem.
Agreed.

Quote:
Originally Posted by RockNashville
Here's what sucks. Sometimes to keep a client, you've got to let them try out their lousy ass drummer. I f'king hate that. I feel like if I tell the client up front that there's no way in hell we're using their sucky drummer, then I'll lose the gig. So I waste three days cutting bad drums, two days editing them, then a half hour or so re - recording it with myself or another drummer. Oh, how much time is wasted in trying to keep the client happy. The older I get, the less I try to play that game, but it's still a problem.
Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt.

Quote:
Originally Posted by RockNashville
So whether you're a drummer or not, it's okay for you as an engineer or producer to tell the drummer to hit the drum in the same place all the time, and to balance out the kit. And it's also okay for you to tune drums and turn knobs on guitar amps.
Here the problem. Every time I tell one of these lousy drummers to hit consistently, it almost makes them worse. One time, I told this drummer to hit his cymbals softer because he was riding crashes the whole song. So he started hitting not only his cymbals softer, but his drums softer as well. When I told him to hit his drums harder, well.... you get the picture. It's like suggesting that a singer change their style or (god forbid) practice some mic control. You usually end up wishing you'd never said a thing.

Those be my 2 pennies, dog.
__________________
If you don't spank it, you can't crank it!
absrec is offline   Reply With Quote