My Drum Sounds

[poeticdrums]

Howdy everyone. I have a few questions that I would like to ask everyone here (oh and yeehaw for eliminating my post virginity). First off, I have been having a hard time getting drum sounds that are remotely good at all. I have been recording some bits and pieces of my playing to some songs so I can post them on youtube or google video and the like, but I just can't get a sound that I like. An unedited / mixed mp3 is posted below of one of my scrap recordings (the kick is the only thing that has a bit of EQ and compression).

I did record in my basement, so you can tell that much. Out of all the drums, I am the most unhappy with my kick sound (as I'm sure the majority of people are). I'll go ahead and list the gear I am using:

Two Presonus Firepods
Shure Beta 52 on Kick
Audio Technica AT3035s on Overheads in a spaced pair
Audix i5 on Snare
Cad 4 Piece Touring kit for toms (I only used 3 microphones for my 5 toms; one in between the two high toms and one in between the two middle toms and one on the lowest tom)

I've heard better recordings than this recorded into a Firepod and I'm just wondering why mine sounds so unprofessional.

Any tips / advice / words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

-poeticdrums

[mikefatom]

you should try to mess around with mic placements.

that's my best guess as to what would improve your sound from where it stands now.

good luck

mike

[sgrocker]

cant really give any advice, i was just wondering what kind of band this is for and if you have a myspace or anything for it.

[hle144]

Originally Posted by poeticdrums

Any tips / advice / words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

-poeticdrums

IMHO

Before we talk about the sonics, your playing could stand to be more solid and your kit does not sound like a good recording kit. That double kick drum is agonizing, use it sparingly. Your snare drum is cranked way too high, loosen it up a little. Hook up with a click track when practicing. Sounds like your drums are in a small room, all the more reason to get a better kit.

Lets not talk about your mic setup, get tighter and think about better recording drums. From there you should have no problems with your existing mics.

All meant to be nothing but constructive.

[poeticdrums]

I know that my playing on this track could be a little more solid, but it was also a scrap track I used while simply trying to get levels (not to mention I could barely hear the song as I was playing it; the actual song I was covering is called "The Man You're Not" by Dagoba). As for my kit, it's a Tama Rockstar from back in 99'.

I appreciate the replies though.

[-silent-sam-]

After having good drums and a good drummer (which someone already pointed out) -> A big part of recording good drum sounds is getting good phase between all your mics. Once you REALLY understand the concept of phase and what having "good phase" between your mics can do ....actually getting good phase and getting decent drum sounds is not THAT hard.

Unfortuntly because of the way my brain works plus my bad grammer im not going to attempt to explain phase and phase tuneing your drum mics however if you can find someone to explain it to you...and you really do understand it then with a few simple steps you can consistantly get atleast decent drum sounds.

I have never heard of the song you are trying to play but I assume its metal/hardcore/metalcore or something like that? Alot of recordings of those types of music although they do have drums that are recorded well they also layer samples into there currently recorded tracks or completely replace some of the tracks with samples. One thing that gets a sample added to it 95% of the time in metal / hardcore recordings is the kick drum.

Work on tuneing your drums so they sound better (your toms need some serious help) then try to explore those 2 things I mentioned and it will help you get much better drum sounds

To be honest with you your toms are pretty much a "0" and they need to be tuned before i can say anything about them... but I don't have any issues with your snare if thats how you like it...i dont think it sounds bad. Your kick drum doesn't sound like its a lost cause either so experiment with pulling the mic out of the kick drum and putting it in the kick drum and find a placement that gives you a good balance between "Punch" and "Bass".....Right now its all "Punch" and no "Bass" . And untill you learn about phase maybe set your overheads up in a X-Y pattern instead of a spaced pair. That alone will help improve your overall phase.

[BLueROom]

tuning, tuning, tuning. I think that is the majority of your problem. Also, how is the room treated? What kind of beater are you using?

[AllAboutTone]

wow, the worse is the overheads,

Im not sure if you mentioned what make of drums but that helps as well, if fact its a must........Ive always had a love for Sonar....... Pearl , Tama never been a love of my life...

You need proper mics
Tunning
Preamps/hardware please
Your OH mics are really bad are the cymbals one.
Better eq setting
maybe room treatment
Beater maybe

[poeticdrums]

I did definitely notice a phase problem with my overheads. I'll probably change them around to an ortf pair because I still like getting a wider sound, well at least wider than xy. Yes my toms are out of tune, but that's the least of my concerns, simply because I know I can do something about that and make some decent headway.

Thanks a lot for the replies guys, it means a lot.

[-silent-sam-]

Originally Posted by poeticdrums

I did definitely notice a phase problem with my overheads. I'll probably change them around to an ortf pair because I still like getting a wider sound, well at least wider than xy. Yes my toms are out of tune, but that's the least of my concerns, simply because I know I can do something about that and make some decent headway.

Thanks a lot for the replies guys, it means a lot.

If you have ALL your mics placed in bad places and not in "sweet spots" but they are all in phase ..... your drums will sound better then if you have all your mics placed in sweet spots but they are all out of phase.

Phase is more important then mic placement. It is important to have good placement but what good is placement going to do you if your mics are out of phase? your drums will sound thin and panned all ass-backwards if they are out of phase no matter how good or how wide your placement is. Ideally what you would want to do is have a ortf that is in phase....but if you dont know how to do that then your better off with the xy


Keep that in mind when your choose to use a ortf over an xy. If you dont know how to phase tune your mics you should just use an xy. What good is wide sounding overheads going to do you when they are out of phase? Out of phase overheads will make your drums sound like crap. If your overheads are in phase those overheads alone could sound better then all your out your mics being out of phase.

[Tom Hakala]

Just try to get a decent drumsound with a single overhead and a kick drum mic. Make that work. And then you add the snare and then the toms. Remember checking the phase all the time. You don't need the best gear around to have a decent sound!

Speaking of cheap gear... I was testing my MXL mic last week with a drummer and i thin it sounds pretty decent for it's price (I like th way snare and hihats sound)...cymbals are a bit... something :P http://koti.welho.com/thakala3/MXL-oh%20SM7-bd.mp3

so MXL 603 OH and SM7 kick.

[Tibbon]

+1 on tuning. The kick sounds too loose for this style. Maybe a different beater too. Are these new heads? They don't sound like it.

Agreed that the overheads dont' sound that good either.

[poeticdrums]

Pretty much I think now one of the biggest things for me to work on is simply just practicing my placement and training my ear to get better. This was the first time that I recorded my own overheads. I used to just use cheapy close mikes because I couldn't afford condensers.

[poeticdrums]

Okay I re-recorded this song again today, this time eliminating my yucky cad microphones and placing my at3035s in an xy over the front of my kit (I couldn't reach the middle because my booms aren't long enough). And I know my toms are out of tune, I just don't have 150 bucks to replace them right now cause I'm getting ready to head back to college (I'm actually in the audio engineering program at Belmont University in Nashville)

I placed a little reverb on my snare, as well as a bit of EQing. On the kick, I compressed it a tiny bit, added some EQ, and blended in a sample I had (it's blended in at about 29 - 32%).

Oh and the ACTUAL song is mixed into the background so you can kinda hear what it sounds like and sometimes there is discrepancy between my playing and the original song I think because I was playing along to my cd player that was low on batteries

And yes, I do make a goof or two in the middle of the song (my china cymbal little disintegrated while I was playing it so pieces were flying everywhere).

purevolume™ | We don't really have a name yet!\?!

it's the only song on there. Sorry to use pure volume, the attachments uploader for gearslutz was being odd for me today.

[WATYF]

A few things that might help...


Tune your toms.

Treat your room. Even hanging some dampening at the sides of the kit (and above it) will help.

Gate your toms and snare. All that bleed from the toms and snare really add to the "in my basement" sound of the tracks.

Cover the back of your kick with some dampening (so there's not a lot of bleed in that mic), and then gate that.



WATYF