miking reggae drumkit

[Fletcher]

Drum tunings in a good room with a great player.

[King Tubby]

What Fletcher's really meant to say was.......
Drum tuning in a so so room with a great big spliff.
That's how they did it...

[Bob Olhsson]

A great player is the whole thing.

[J. M. B.]

I know these things already. I've already got a great drummer, a great room, and a great big spliff. Now let's get down to specifics...

If I'm looking for that classic sound, should I use a 3 mic method described by Fletcher's website? or more of a close mic technique? Perhaps I should have a specific snare mic so I can apply delay and other dub styleee later.


attached is a sample of his playing style.

[unity gain]

quite often i have seen 2 top mics on the snare - one of them set up to just capture the side stick/rim shot. there have no fear of using TONS of eq (as opposed to mic choice & positioning) and also gates everywhere including the high hat. plenty of tape & damping often on the (old) drum heads and in the
good old days MCI 400/500/600 series consoles and mic pres and MCI JH-16 or JH -24 two inch analog machines. i am talking about the 1970's - 1980's period for the most part, although this is a generalization and there are exceptions. the one constant...nuff smoke!
rhythm come forward!

[LittleDogAudio]

Just about every reggae drummer I worked with would take his t-shirt off and lay it on the snare. It gave it the sound that worked.

Oh, and they were usually from Detroit or Cleveland and spoke with a heavy Jamaican accent. I guess the Kind-Bud will do that to you.

Chris

[DaveC]

If you can find a drummer, bouncing up and down his seat;
you got the right one!
Seriously:
Remo Pinstripe head on snare (wood or steel)
Remove bottom heads from the toms (also bottom lugs)
to get THAT tom-sound.
Make sure to have/ or rent an old kit like Slingerland
or Ludwig.
Remo coated ambassadors on toms or pinstripe heads.
During "double-8"breaks, use a lot of tape-delay on the entire
kit.
Make sure your drummer has 'die-cast'-hoops on his snaredrum,or rimshots/clicks will go nowhere...

Good luck!!

[Fletcher]

If the player can play then the sound will be there for you to capture the sound.

One of the more common misconceptions [that seems to be growing] is that sounds can be created in the "engineering"... they can't. We don't do alchemy, we do 'artistic renderings of historical presentations'... in other words, the sound has to be there, then use your tools and your sense of aesthetic to capture the sound and store it somewhere.

The process is a symbiosis of the performer getting the "right" sound for the application and the recordist capturing that sound in proper context to the other sounds that will comprise the performance... in other words... the spliff will make more difference than the blow by blow on somebody's mic setup from 30 years ago in a room long since demolished.

Best of luck with it.

[Samc]

Specifically what kind of reggae sound are you trying to get?

It goes without saying that the general principles of good Mic technique, good tuning and a good drummer are a must. On the other hand, there are some other things which contribute to the very specific sound of reggae in general, and modern reggae (Bob Marley to present) in particular.
There are some subtle differences in the in the sound and feel of the drums in the different styles/genres of reggae, (yes, there are different styles).
Most of this difference of course has to do with how the playing and the tuning of the kit, very little emphasis is placed on using specific Mic-Pre's on the different instruments. However, mic choice and placement are important.

For classic styles (Mento, Ska, Rocksteady, and some very early roots reggae), the engineering techniques and playing style is very similar to Jazz or big band with a big room sound, a lot of stick work and very little if any artificial reverb added. During the Dub era, the "one drop" style (Kick and Rim shot dropping on the same beat) of playing replaced the more jazzy feel of the earlier styles the engineering techniques also changed, (individual instruments were now being miced separately) and the sound became tighter with a more pronounced kick and snare.

Bob Marley's drummer Carlton Barret, redefined the one drop style even more (when the band switched from playing Ska and Rocksteady to Reggae) and set the "tone" for modern reggae drum sound. He played a 14" x 7" wood snare with steel rims, a chamois was placed under the top skin which was tightened almost to point of breaking. The middle of strainer was either loosely taped to the bottom skin or released. He played the rim almost exclusively except during the rolls at which point he would play close to the rim which made it sound almost like he was playing a Timbale. All the toms were tuned and taped to remove as much of the resonance as possible without them sounding like cardboard boxes.

Today, nobody that I know use a chamois under the snare skin or tape the strainer, and drummers are generally not going for that almost dead sound (although the sound is not as resonant as in the earlier days). Everything except the OH's are close miced (including the hi-hat), the usual microphone choices are SM57 on snare top and bottom, MD 421 on toms and EV RE20 or a combination of SM91 and a B52 on kick. It is also not uncommon to use a third Mic on the snare for the rimshot when recording. During mixing all the drums (NOT the hi-hat) are usually gated to control resonance decay, for the the toms, but is used for a slightly different reason for kick and snare.

The gate is used to heighten the impression of attack on the kick and snare, which is an important component in the sound, (therefore tight gate before compressor) it also leaves you with a clean tight track for EQ and effects (snare) that you might use to get where you want to go. The compressor on kick and snare are usually used, more for dynamic control and tone, as opposed to just boosting the level, and although the drums should sound big and phat, don't crush anything, it is important to always maintain the attack and dynamics of the kick and snare in particular, and all the kit in general. a boost in 4k-5k region for the "click" on the kick plus a rediction of the low mid centered at around 200Hz and a wide Q boost at around 63Hz (I've seen this technique credited to Metalica but was already being used in the early 70's in Jamaican Dub), and a boost at 80Hz and 200Hz on the snare (for a big, phat sound) is generally a good starting point. Some light, over-easy drum buss compression is also usually used to tie everything together.

Any good engineer can achieve this sound on any medium, wether analog or digital. Although all the classic stuff was recorded to analog tape, the tape was never hit "hard" or used in any special way to achieve this sound.

This is all very general as each situation is specific and demands specific attention. Don't be afraid to experiment, if you need to re-amp the sound of any piece or the entire kit through a big PA system, do that, (yeah, that's done too). The most important thing above all is the feel (playing) of the drummer, and how well he/she and the bass player "locks it down".

Hope this helps, if you have any questions please feel free to ask.

Best regards,
Sam

[mitgong]

That was an excellent post, Sam. Thanks.

[Vari-Mu]

Great info SamC.

You may also want to post this question in George Massenbergs' forum over on R/E/P. Ryan Moore AKA Twilight Circus posts over there and is likely to have quite a bit of useful info on this topic. He makes excellent, all analogue, HEAVY dub and works with a lot of the older Jamaican players from back in the day.


Cheers


Vari-Mu

[Samc]

Originally posted by Fletcher
If the player can play then the sound will be there for you to capture the sound.

One of the more common misconceptions [that seems to be growing] is that sounds can be created in the "engineering"... they can't. We don't do alchemy, we do 'artistic renderings of historical presentations'... in other words, the sound has to be there, then use your tools and your sense of aesthetic to capture the sound and store it somewhere.

The process is a symbiosis of the performer getting the "right" sound for the application and the recordist capturing that sound in proper context to the other sounds that will comprise the performance... in other words... the spliff will make more difference than the blow by blow on somebody's mic setup from 30 years ago in a room long since demolished.

Best of luck with it.

I read this post after I posted above and would like to say that I totally agree with Fletcher.

My previous post was just to give a very short history of how the Jamaican drum sound of evolved, and also to give a general view of some of the more common pratices.

I should hasten to add that this is by no means a recipe as I don't believe one exist for any "type"' of sound. Although some engineering pratices are more commonly used in certain genre, I'm convinced after 26 years as an engineer, that the musicians are the most important part of the music production puzzle.

[J. M. B.]

I cant upload this mp3. Why not?

[alphajerk]

Originally posted by Fletcher
If the player can play then the sound will be there for you to capture the sound.

One of the more common misconceptions [that seems to be growing] is that sounds can be created in the "engineering"... they can't.

shhhhh.... dont tell scratch perry that.

dont be afriad of delays and ring modulators, and phasers... man, reggae is definately the one place to bring out all the trip toys most other music shys away from.

ring modulator on snare with a delay.... oh yeah. but gate it, or dont....

if he just plays kick, snare, and hat. i would mic all three close mic'd and them have a mono overhead. most times it isnt about spread L/R [except for FX, which do make their way into the drums]

i like dynamics mostly. if not fully... or a single LDC for OH doobies. rest being dynamics [even high hat] or better yet, ribbon on the kick [still dynamic mic], 57 on snare, 57 on hat [or anything really. a lot of times you want to be able to really isolate the hat for a phaser effect at times during the song.

what else? my brain is not working tonight.

[unity gain]

Hey Samc, thanks for the great post. It is a small point, but I bring it up to illuminate the idiosyncratic techniques of the Jamaican engineers, specifically
Steven Stanley who I have worked with, and much to my surprise he would actually, without doubt, gate the high hat to "tighten up the sound".
They have little regard for any "rules", and that helped evolve their unique sonics. Now days they will happily push their 02R's into full on mix buss
digital clipping to attain a "HARD" sound for modern Dance Hall & Bashment.
Back in the day I actually saw a Jamaican engineer use 2'' Master tapes to place under his NS-10 monitors to raise them up a bit....
ahhh,the reckless path to innovation!

UG.

[Farmer]

First rule of reggae is, there are no rules!

I have worked with plenty of Jamaican musicians (lynn Taitt, winston Grennan, Phylis Dillon, Vernon Maytone to name a few) but only one great drummer, Winston Grennan, who has since passed away. I was a young engineer then but I learned from Winston that it's all about the man and not the machine and it's a poor workman that blames his tools. I know this sounds trite, but it's so true.

Often times "getting" the jamaican sound is a fools errand, unless you're in jamaica. just get the best players and above all the best material (songs).

If pressed I would have to say that my only 'essential' for a reggae drum sound is the speaker-as-mic technique. But then again I do this for all styles since the mid 90's when bass freqs became all the rage in modern music. Don;t forget the well tuned timbale!

Winston never put a towel over his snare but I saw the wailers drummer do it live.


good luck

FB

[Samc]

Actually I prefer the phrase "whatever works" to, "there are no rules". The there are no rules phrase gives the impression I think, that serious care and dedication are not applied by all involved when making a record or performing live. Good recording/mix rooms, equipment and well trained musicians and engineers are a big part of the equation, the idea that all yo need is a spliff is of course............Well I don't think I need to say it.

Unfortunately, I don't think enough credit is given to the vast contribution to modern music of all genres made by the musicians and technicians from this little Island.

Regards,
Sam

[Slider]

Originally posted by Fletcher
If the player can play then the sound will be there for you to capture the sound.

One of the more common misconceptions [that seems to be growing] is that sounds can be created in the "engineering"... they can't. We don't do alchemy, we do 'artistic renderings of historical presentations'... in other words, the sound has to be there, then use your tools and your sense of aesthetic to capture the sound and store it somewhere.

The process is a symbiosis of the performer getting the "right" sound for the application and the recordist capturing that sound in proper context to the other sounds that will comprise the performance... in other words... the spliff will make more difference than the blow by blow on somebody's mic setup from 30 years ago in a room long since demolished.

Best of luck with it.

Not all great recordings have amazing sources that are played by great musicians.
Engineers (in dub maybe more than any other style)
have created amazing sounds from questionable sources.
Sure the music has to come from the players, but the recording can take the result to the next level whether it's what's thought of as "good" engineering or not.

Would John Lennon have sung the same way on "day in the life" without Geoff Emerick putting echo in his phones to play off?
That's an example of engineering enhancing a performance.

I've heard questionable sounds in the room come together in a beautiful way many times.
Many times much of the charm of a sound is created by how it's captured or altered.
Trying to copy the exact techniques will usually be futile in getting the same result,
but don't be afraid to learn from trying this.
I've learned boatloads watching other engineers, listening, reading, and trying new techniques, or even straight out copying.

Sure it's about song and performance.
I think everyone knows that.
But don't overlook everything else in spite of that.

[syncro]

Greetings SamC, thanks for the great info. Big Up.

Alexandr