COMPRESSOR FOR KARMA POLICE DRUM SOUND

[MREVOL]

anyone tell me what is the best compressor for that squishy drum sound like radioheads karma police, audioslaves first album, rage against the machines cover album (rick rubin producing). Im looking for that sound. Feel free to check out some of my work at www.myspace.com/proviewstudios for what im doing now.

Im currently trying
C2
SSL G series
Chandler
Vari mu

i must say the chandler is pretty kewl!!!!

[3rd world order]

I'd like to know how they got the sound for that too.. blind guess is the chandler TG-1 or something old and unobtainable.

I also read on rec.audio.pro years ago that a key element of the OK computer drum sound was a mic over the drummer's shoulder smashed thru a tube... so there may be some thermionic culture vulture at work there too.

you wont get it with the C2.. i have one and CRUSH doesnt sound like that at all. it's something else entirely.

[Krubbadoo]

Ain't that a Fairchild 670?

[nlc201]

Tape?

[MREVOL]

Yeah tape---but im looking for that breathing drum compressor

the c2 crush doesn't do it. any clues???????? Can someone ask rick rubin

[mixerguy]

Originally Posted by MREVOL

Yeah tape---but im looking for that breathing drum compressor

the c2 crush doesn't do it. any clues???????? Can someone ask rick rubin

He's too busy .... eating curry.

[allaccess]

That record was done way before the TG-1 and Thermionic stuff was on the market...

Try an 1176 or API 525! Great for smashing stuff. A ribbon mic over the right shoulder of the drummer would certainly do the thing....

Ryan Hewitt

[Saucyjack]

Always thought I heard a bit(or perhaps a lot) of Distressor in that drum sound?

[MJGreene Audio]

Originally Posted by allaccess

That record was done way before the TG-1 and Thermionic stuff was on the market...

Try an 1176 or API 525! Great for smashing stuff. A ribbon mic over the right shoulder of the drummer would certainly do the thing....

Ryan Hewitt

What he said. That album would also probably be either pre Distressor or right at the release of the distressor. The ultra smash is nothing new and my 38 year old 1176 does it very well. Even better than my distressor in most applications.

[3rd world order]

Originally Posted by allaccess

That record was done way before the TG-1 and Thermionic stuff was on the market...

The Phoenix was on the market.. it existed at least in early 99 because I was in London then and one of the guys I was demoing gear from was raving about the bloody thing... they might not have made the Culture Vulture then... The Chiswick Reach compressor (precursor to the Phoenix) existed then... but I doubt it's the Phoenix or the Reach... Alan Moulder has the Reach in his rack and I've never heard that sound on any Curve record...

I think it's gotta be some EMI/Abbey Road monstrosity... cuz it DOES sound like the compression used on old Beatles records taken to an extreme. What did the Beatles use on She Said She Said?? find out that and I bet you have your box.

It might not be one box... its definitely not an 1176 or distressor or we'd be hearing that sound all over the place... everyone has those. It's gotta be something WEIRD like a Fairchild or Abbey Road thing.

doesn't Nigel Goderich read Gearslutz, Jules???

[NathanEldred]

Nigel is the best rock engineer ever IMO (I believe he's tracking AND mixing generally?). I've learned tons from listening to his productions....can't say that about too many engineer's albums on a consistent basis. Very creative, risk taking stuff. Definitely out of the box on that one (pun and no pun intended).

[Matthew Murray]

Originally Posted by 3rd world order

doesn't Nigel Goderich read Gearslutz, Jules???

If he does, Hi Nigel. Eternal thanks.

[blumediaprojekt]

actually beleive it not the digidesign Smack plugin does a really nice job a creating that dragon's breath drum crush

[indie]

Originally Posted by NathanEldred

Nigel is the best rock engineer ever IMO (I believe he's tracking AND mixing generally?). I've learned tons from listening to his productions....can't say that about too many engineer's albums on a consistent basis. Very creative, risk taking stuff. Definitely out of the box on that one (pun and no pun intended).

I couldn't agree more!!

[doorknocker]

Originally Posted by allaccess

That record was done way before the TG-1 and Thermionic stuff was on the market...

From the Chandler website:

The Chandler Limited TG1 is a recreation of the classic EMI TG12413 Limiter used in custom EMI and Abbey Road recording and mastering consoles from the late 60's. The TG Limiter was originally designed to be like the Fairchild 660/670 which was loved by many EMI engineers, including Geoff Emerick, but ended up with a very special sound all its own. These rare pieces were never commercially available and only EMI owned studios had access to them. Our version has been remade from the original design information and circuit board drawings as provided by Abbey Road and EMI to ensure extreme authenticity!

Have you ever... like...CONSIDERED....the possibility that somebody might actually use ...like.... an ORIGINAL piece of gear? Isn't there a secret connection between Radiohead and Abbey Road studios? I think the place actually exists, but wait, we're not even that we sent a man on the moon after all......

[Ricky]

Love thos O;d TG limiters 301 mastering in sydney has the origenals in the mastering consoles installed at the same time they were installed in abbey rd when emi owned the studios's. I know that when Nigel Godritch was tracking OK computer in a old mansion in the english countery side he had a wait for it Joe Meek, the first model. Almost all the vocals are the first model rode valve classic. It is a wild drum sound on Karma, very slow and spongy like the track itself.

[Wiggy Neve Slut]

im thinking it was 1176's... the envelope is SOOOOO UREI like its a no brainer...

Plus he had 2 blackfaces in his rack as well as a 33609 tooo...

He is GOD for a reason... and that was just the beggining!

Eternal praise..
Wiggy

[Kardoso]

Maybe its not that expensive. Think of Shure LevelLok and SansAmps.Tchad Blake in TapeOp

[tommymakestapes]

i popped in my ok computer cd to give karma police a good listen and something struck me.... the depth of field on this entire record is incredible. thumbsup thumbsup thumbsup thumbsup

[Darius van H]

Originally Posted by MREVOL

anyone tell me what is the best compressor for that squishy drum sound like radioheads karma police

I just texted Nigel about that drum sound....Here's his reply (from somewhere in LA):

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You been on Gearslutz again?

The squash is the big ballroom at Jane Seymour's mansion mic'd with a pair of

cheap octava's x y straight into an mta desk with Smart over channel inserts...

Nothing special....Second half of the song is a loop sampled into S1000 taken

from the verse kik sn ambience triggered by midi note......how we used to do it pre

DAW. Many people ask about that!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How the hell he remember all that?!

[six_wax]

nice! I guess the ears and the vision go a long way...


Nigel Godrich for Guest Moderator!!!!!

Any chance you might be willing to suggest it to him, Darius?

[Alexi]

honk honk honk.........................that would be unbelievable............(which oktavas...any info?)

[Ottomo]

Definately Nigel Godrich for guest moderator!!!!!!!!

[u b k]

it's funny to me, because the drum sound on that tune is one of those illusions that works so well in context, but fails completely on its own.

first, those drums are not THAT hammered, there's still a decent transient in there. second, there's all that room, which may be jane seymour's ballroom but for the life of me it sounds like a lex thru a gate.

listen close to the end, there's maybe one or two bars where the drums are nearly naked and the squealy delay is spiraling down around them... they don't sound so good on their own.

so i tell you this: it is THE MIX AROUND THE DRUMS, and the arrangement it conveys, that makes them sound so huge. because if i actually focus in on just the drums, they don't sound nearly as big to me. this record was the first to really teach me that lesson, context is everything.

my crazy .02, fwiw.


gregoire
del ubik

[gregor z]

On a project i programmed and co-produced some time ago, Alan Moulder used Boss Compression Sustainer for drum overhead track recorded with Shure 58 (he removed the cover) , positioned 5 cm over drummers head, the sound was very cool-dirty-punchy and was sitting in the mix with the other drum tracks perfectly. He had a whole bag of various pedals and cheap effect boxes and he was using them on every track he mixed. I bought the boss pedal the next day and i still use it.....after that session i started collecting fx pedals....they do wonders sometimes....

[six_wax]

Originally Posted by u b i k

context is everything.

[bmanic]

Ubik, you pretty much nailed it right there. Everybody asking the "what machine gets me this sound!!" should read what you just said.

- bManic

[3rd world order]

Originally Posted by Darius van H

"You been on Gearslutz again?
The squash is the big ballroom at Jane Seymour's mansion mic'd with a pair of
cheap octava's x y straight into an mta desk with Smart over channel inserts...
Nothing special....Second half of the song is a loop sampled into S1000 taken
from the verse kik sn ambience triggered by midi note......how we used to do it pre
DAW. Many people ask about that!"

this is what I get for saying it's NOT the Smart.. hahaha. I was thinking of the pumping sound at the end of exit music anyhow, serves me right for posting before I've had my coffee, which is prolly also the Smart. one thing that might help here is a trick i found digging around GS: there's a "super-crush" mode on the Smart if you put the ratio knob between settings.. the way the hat pushes thru kinda sounds like this..

I guess I gotta start trying an XY setup on drums...