Tips - Messy Drums

[tee boy]

I know its probably the opposite of what many people here are after, but i have this craving for some super dirty, old funk type breaks. I have plenty off sample CD's like 'Planet of the Breaks' etc, but i fancy recording some. Anyone know what type of gear was used? I hear many of the old groove / funk records were done with really cheap crap gear hence the sound, but what gear was it - i presume valves and tapes... dont sound cheap to me! I also heard that they recorded with as little as 1 mic for the whole kit, or 3 at the most. Anyone thoughts?

PS Im sure i could degrade the sound by mixing in vinyl noise and sampling at 8bit, but Im particularly after the original recording methods rather than any sampling / DSP techniques.

Cheers!

[KBOY]

One mic, a bathroom and someone who just started playing drums but seems to just have that groove but is totally uncontrolable.

KBOY

[djui5]

Sm 57's and api pre amps seem to work well....

Use a 57 for OH's and put one on snare..then put a U67 in front of the kick...
Squash the kit with some old LA-2's or something to that effect, maybe some API 560 EQ's for more grit....
Tracking to tape is defeniatly top on the list, maybe find an old tape that's been used like 400 times...track at 15 ips...

[Beezoboy]

Well you could try putting the drum mix through a Pod or Sansamp. You could also try compressing the crap out of just the snare mic and see if you got enough bleed into it to comprise a nice picture of the whole kit. Lastly, try EQing the drums so that they sound lo-fi.

Beez

[tee boy]

Hey, thanks for the suggestions! I think what i might do use a combination of all these techniques. Like hire a nice analog comp for the day, experiment with some super minimal mic techniques, then wreck it further with guitar pedals, amps etc. Should be full, and Im sure my neighbours wont mind...

Thanks!

[jbuntz]

Stick a mic (a ribbon or something else with not much top) in the next room (assuming all rooms are live) and squash with 1176 all buttons/distressor nuke/shure level loc. May want to mic the kick too. I've tried several things that work there including a speaker and shure sm7b to compliment a trashy DJ Shadow type drum sound.

[Chris Parsons]

Distant room mic ---->LA2a 'til you see the needle bend

[hourglass]

To get that small & dirty, yet in-yer-face 70's drum sound here, we set the drums up in the vocal booth which is partially treated and mostly dead - exactly the opposite of the big room.

Toss up a couple of mics (OH, snare & kick at most) and then bang away.

Instant funk no matter if it's digital or to tape.

ryan

[drundall]

You might want to try an inexpensive tube preamp. I use an old Altec. It'll distort as you crank it up and mine has a output level control. Great distortion and instant "old" sound.

[timtoonz]

And for real trash, experiment with detuning (or not tuning at all) the drums. Try it with totally undamped two headed kick drums and single head toms... Maybe buy some crappy used drums and beat the tar out of'em!

The worst that can happen is that they sound too "good" by mistake, right?

Another method I've read is some guys use crummy built-in tape recorder mics or other "toy level" recording gear to get that super junky lo-fi thing going. Might be worth an extra track.

[Jason Poulin]

compressing EQ's or 3 band comp.

Jason

[Jay Kahrs]

Tune the drums high and dead...old heads are great. The last time I created drum loops I put out a D112 and a PZM...moved 'em around a bit until I found the magic spots for each and summed through an 1176 at 8:1 or 12:1.

[LTA]

Play your tracks at slower tempos than you desire, then speed them up (raising the pitch in the process). Can do wonders with both a "standard" tuned kit and a detuned flubby one.

[tee boy]

Hey, thanks everyone for the great tips!

So far, Iv been using various methods to get the results im after. First up, I cheat and sample hits from records and stuff. Otherwise, i record some drums and process with different lofi, distortion and compression effects. For example, iv found PSP Vintage Warmer to be a godsend. That said, although the sounds im getting a good and very usable, Im not getting that authentic dirty. So now Im trying to record from scratch some old style grooves rather than trying to improvise with plugs and pedals. The old Salsoul type grooves sound heavily compressed and extremely noisy, so I think i might have to rent some vintage type outboard and really pump up the levels! If i can find a place to host, I'll try to post some results.