Warehouse drum recordings

[RobDrmz]

I work in a location that has a large wherehouse. I am on good terms with the management and could track drums there after hours.

My question is, do you think it would be worth it?

I wouldn't really have time to treat the walls much, or add diffusion. The room is about 50'X200' with a 30 foot ceiling.

The floor and walls are concrete with stuff laying around.

Would it be beneficial to run in with a macbook & commando a few drum tracks?

[LX3]

I've done this before (although that was a story in itself). It depends what sound you're going for and whether that huge room is going to be appropriate (you're not going to manage a tight 70's disco drum sound ). But many studios would kill to have a space that size. I say go for it. You'll probably get people asking how you got that amazing drum sound.

Well-tuned and maintained drums speak beautifully in big indoor spaces.

Concrete floor? If so, it's worth taking a large piece of carpet, if only to stop the kick drum sliding around and make the environment feel a little less harsh.

[audiovisceral]

use it as an echo chamber for verbs!

best warehouse i ever heard was an insulation co's. full of roxul/oc. i'd have killed to record in there. tight bass, great echo, sharp all over..

[dangoudie]

Peter Miles did a session like this and loved it.

[Remoteness]

Rob,

I love capturing drum tracks in large warehouse spaces.
You can control the effect with a combination of close mics and room mics.

Mic placement is everything.
I would have one of your associates walk around the space with a active mic while the drummer is banging away on the kit. This is a great way to find the room tone you're looking for. Spike the floor with some gaffer's tape when you find a Timbre you like.

I wouldn't worry about treating the room.
Maybe a few baffles around the drums to control what you want to throw out into the room. Listen to the room and see if it will work for you.

[LX3]

A long long time ago, in a city far away, I spent a weekend recording drums in a print factory. Ceiling height where we set up was about 30ft, with a big pitched roof. We spent most of Saturday afternoon setting up and getting the sound together. Absolutely glorious. Then we broke for the day, knowing we could sleep and be fresh to start going for takes on Sunday morning.

Sunday arrived. The drummer warmed up, got himself in the pocket and by 1pm tape was rolling. All went great for about an hour... at which point I became aware of this "rattle-clunk-plop" sound. It only happened while we were recording.

Eventually I figured out where it was coming from. The roof. It was as if the noise of the drums was making stuff fall off the ridge and roll down the corrugated asbestos and plastic roof.

But what could possibly collect up there, loose enough to fall off, but heavy enough to make that much noise?... I mean, it couldn't be moss...!

THEN we worked it out. It was a nice summer's day, and the residents of one of the houses nearby was throwing stones at the factory roof whenever the drummer started playing, thereby ruining every take.

So we took a break to figure out what to do. I mean, the place is a print works, with massive noisy print and finishing machines. Throwing stones seems a bit unreasonable, because if the factory owners were working overtime - which they're perfectly entitled to do, any day of the week - those machines would be making a much louder and less musical racket than we were.

Why didn't the neighbours just come round and say something if they had a problem?

Before we could decide what to do, there's some hammering on the steel loading doors. Aha, this must be them. Nope. It's the police. "Do you mind if we come in and have a look around?"

"What? Well, if you insist."

So they come in, and find a drum set, and a large amount of recording gear.

"We were told someone had broken in and was having a party in here" say the cops. While one asks questions, the other carefully examines the place, then comes back looking a bit disappointed.

"No, there's just the two of us. We're recording."

"Well, you have to stop because you're causing a breach of the peace. If we have to come back you will be placed under arrest. Have a nice day."


So, we had a quick conference and decided that, if we were going to salvage anything out of our weekend's work, we'd have to sort this out. We started knocking on doors and asking each of the houses in the vicinity if they had a problem with the noise. All the residences were either empty, or the occupants hadn't heard anything, or they had heard us while they were in their garden and said they quite enjoyed it!

Two hours later, we still hadn't found the complainants. Then just as we were about to give up, a car pulled up and the driver got out to go into one of the houses.

"Ah, hi, we're the people that were playing drums in the factory down the road..."

"Oh yes, I heard you."

"Well, we're sorry if it disturbed you..."

"Not really, I called the police, but we've been out all afternoon. And we're leaving again in a moment, so carry on."



By now it was 7pm. A bit worn out and deflated, we elected to pack up and head home. The two completed drum tracks we had sounded great. But wow, if you want to ruin a session vibe, having to negotiate with the police and then go door-to-door is a good way to do it.

Let's just say that in many ways, recording studios have a lot going for them.

PS But don't let that put you off :-)

[Audio Hombre]

little mountain sound was famous for it's drum sounds and had acts like jimmy page, ac/dc,bon jovi etc going there because of it. all it was was an untreated loading bay. nothing special or fancy.