new wave drums/vocals - any tips

[paulneedles]

i'm doing a session for a band that wants to sound new-wavey(joy division et al) and i was wandering if anyone had any tips on how to get those peculiar drum sounds and to a lesser extent vocal sounds. we're using a real kit, and i use a reel-to-reel rather than a computer. i don't have any gates and i only have a couple of compressors, but i've got a spring reverb, a space echo, a pod xt and a lexicon MPX110 for effects.

[mitchell]

Don't know if there's a "secret" to new wave drum soudns with a live kit... I guess I would just make sure the drummer doesn't have a really ringy snare, because the last thing you want is a Red Hot Chili Peppers "ping". You want more of a Cars kinda white noise, lo snare, so tune low. You can dial out some of the overtones in the 500-600 Hz range, and maybe beef it up in the 100-200 range.

I do lots of new wave-ish stuff, and the real secret is to not use live drums. New Order was known for their use of Oberheim DMX drum machines (Blue Monday). And much other new wave used Linndrum. I load up Logic's EXS24 sampler with these samples, and use a separate instance for each drum so I can treat them just like a real kit. Since the snares are pretty dull, I compress, EQ and verb 'em just like the real thing.

You can check out the link below if you want to hear my Linndrum samples in action!

mitchell
www.myspace.com/celebutantemusic

[toolskid]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Hannett

http://www.spikemagazine.com/0505-to...ry-records.php - scroll down...

http://www.martinhannett.co.uk/frame.htm