Tight drum sound without replacing

[burn4ever]

Hey buddys,
I know my headline is realy global but I´m always looking for the perfect drumssound and doing thinks here and there but never archiev the sound in my head ;-)

I love the drumsound on the Defeater records and in this forum is a post of Jay Maas where he explained some kind of his recording technics he used on it.

Anyway,
back to my headline. What u guys think was the recordchain for the snare on the Defeater records? I like this open but thight sound!
Are there a lot of compression ( distressor, ny-comp.)?

[FONS]

1.tune drums to notes
2. use quality mics
3. MIC PLACEMENT!! IMPORTANT
4. once recorded line up the drum tracks to overheads... otherwise ya mite get phase problems
5. eq then compress

i also like to clone the snare... put a high HPF on it and compress the bejeesus out of it to get a nice snap... trick i got from a buddy who does dance music... works very well...

dont know how complicated ya wanna go... parrallell compression etc...
hope it helps

[thejwoshow]

Get good sounds going in first. Good mic placement,no matter if you have 2 overheads or 20 mics on the kit. Take ALOT of time getting good sounds. After that the work is relativley simple. Compression,panning,eq,choping up,etc. Drums are the one thing I've learned don't come to most engineers (including myself) naturally. It's a learned craft.

Check out the "Mixing drums for beginners" sticky in one of these forums as well. Good (basic) stuff.

[ritelec]

Sell the mics and get Superior Drummer.
Just kidding..lol

No I'm not.

Yes I am!!!

I got Superior. Wanna but my mics?
Just kidding..lol

No I'm not.

Yes I am!!!


Check out, Overheads,placement, xy,glynn john,recorderman.,, the materials the room is made of, combing, phasing .......experiment. HAVE FUN!!!

Rich

[musicjohnny]

The Defeater sound is definitely super room-y. I get a similar sound when I record in my foyer which has stone floors and 20 foot high ceilings so that's definitely got something to do with it. Other than than, make SURE you your drums are tuned well, I don't think they have to be tuned to specific notes/pitches like a previous poster suggested, but the have to be tuned well so there's no annoying resonance or weird decay or anything like that. After that, definitely work in some parallel compression on the kick and snare and maybe even duplicate the snare track and process the crap out of it to make it sound kinda different and then mix it back it to make a bigger sound.

[jimmib]

Sell the mics and get Superior Drummer.
Just kidding..lol

No I'm not.

Yes I am!!!

I got Superior. Wanna but my mics?
Just kidding..lol

No I'm not.

Yes I am!!!

+1!

[jitterybit]

Originally Posted by burn4ever

.... What u guys think was the recordchain for the snare on the Defeater records? I like this open but thight sound!
Are there a lot of compression ( distressor, ny-comp.)?

Sounds like a 57 into a console pre and 3 or 4 samples on top of it. maybe some DBX and 1176, and then maybe more samples.

[darronatkinson]

1. The room and the drummer will make the biggest difference.
2. Then mic placement (not the actually mics themselves). You can get a decent tight drum sound with an Audix drum mic kit whihc aren't expensive.
3. Always try to get the sound your going for before you even press record
4. As for tightening a kit you can try using gates on everything but the overheads (or even just the kick and the snare, so the toms still resonate will the kit)
5. When EQing a low frequency roll of will add a lot of space to the kit sound. especially on the snare.
6. Compress elements if needed or try parallel compression to keep the natural dynamics but at the same time add energy, and a sense of control when played back.

[JeromyReno]

Defeater thumbsup


You cam make samples of hits from the kit and sample over with them if you want them to sound like your kit and sound full, like layering guitars.

[kpbenoit]

Committing what you want the end product to be to tape (er, wav or whatever) is the best way. Tuned drums, perhaps damped heads, mic placement, blah blah blah. I won't repeat it all but it is the best way to go. That said, if you are stuck in the aweful position of having to tighten recorded drum sounds when it comes to mix time...SPL Transient Designer (the hardware!) is the absolute shit.

[JeromyReno]

Originally Posted by kpbenoit

SPL Transient Designer (the hardware!) is the absolute shit.

True story!


Oh also using compression and gaiting you can use the attack times and release times in conjunction to reshape the initial hit, and length of the transient

[joedoc]

Try getting a great sound with as few mics as possible first. As many others have noted above, a great, 'solid' sound starts at the source; well tuned drums, and someone who can play them.

Start by getting the overhead mic choice and placement right. I'd suggest you aim to hear what you're looking for in these mics, then adding in a close kick and snare mic for that extra "impact". If you have the space, and the room sounds decent, add an ambient mic (or two), compress the hell out of it bring up the fader until you get the extra fullness you are looking for.

With a good drummer on a well tuned kit, you may not even need spot mics on the toms if you get your overheads right.

Key is to engineer the drum sound around a great overhead mic sound. If you ain't happy with that, you ain't ever gonna be happy come mix time.