Metal drum recording in concrete room

Dores · 11th August 2011

My band is going to record our first stuff with real drums soon. So far we have been using S2.0 with great results, but we want to make something more life-like, and give our drummer more creative control. So here is the deal: Our rehearsal space is a concrete room. About 5 metres wide, 2 metres high and 10 metres long. So far we have been using egg boxes and blankets on the walls and ceiling to tame the high end, but I fear that once we try to record drums, everything will be muddy as hell.

But there are some things to consider. We don't have a decent mic for kick drums, so we will just sample the kick drum, and also the snare and toms if necessary. That leaves us with the high frequencies of the cymbals. Are cymbals going to sound okay in a room with the walls covered in blankets? I was thinking about maybe putting lots of stuff inside the other drums that will be trigged, just to prevent them from spilling all over the place when we're not using those sounds anyway.

I have 0 experience recording drums, so this will be interesting. Does it sound like a plan?

mindcycle · 11th August 2011

I would suggest putting up some broadband absorption instead of flooding the room with blankets and foam as that's only going to tame the high end. Rigid fiberglass panels or even a thick mattresses or two would work, but you want something with a decent amount of mass that will actually absorb the low end. Hell, even a decent sized couch can work to some degree. Otherwise the bass buildup in the room will start muddying up your recorded drum sound like you are afraid of.

If you plan on replacing and editing kicks hits, snare hits, etc.. you will likely want to roll off your OH's as high as 600hz. This will make it much easier to edit since you can bring up the OH tracks and not have to deal with a lot of low end content clouding up your mix, or things sounding off after editing. For most metal mixes the OH's will be quite buried in the mix so having low end content in the OH's isn't going to matter much or be desirable, you're really just looking to make sure your cymbal hits are there and sound natural.

I would look through the following two threads over at ultimatemetal as they have some really great information and will definitely help you with this. Best of luck to you!

Acoustic Drums for Metal: A Guide - Ultimate Metal Forum

Systematic Mixing Series #2: In Soviet Russia, Drums Slam You - Ultimate Metal Forum

11th August 2011	#1
Dores Gear interested Joined: Feb 2011 Posts: 23 Thread Starter	Metal drum recording in concrete room My band is going to record our first stuff with real drums soon. So far we have been using S2.0 with great results, but we want to make something more life-like, and give our drummer more creative control. So here is the deal: Our rehearsal space is a concrete room. About 5 metres wide, 2 metres high and 10 metres long. So far we have been using egg boxes and blankets on the walls and ceiling to tame the high end, but I fear that once we try to record drums, everything will be muddy as hell. But there are some things to consider. We don't have a decent mic for kick drums, so we will just sample the kick drum, and also the snare and toms if necessary. That leaves us with the high frequencies of the cymbals. Are cymbals going to sound okay in a room with the walls covered in blankets? I was thinking about maybe putting lots of stuff inside the other drums that will be trigged, just to prevent them from spilling all over the place when we're not using those sounds anyway. I have 0 experience recording drums, so this will be interesting. Does it sound like a plan?

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11th August 2011	#2
mindcycle Gear interested Joined: Jul 2007 Location: Denver, CO Posts: 23	I would suggest putting up some broadband absorption instead of flooding the room with blankets and foam as that's only going to tame the high end. Rigid fiberglass panels or even a thick mattresses or two would work, but you want something with a decent amount of mass that will actually absorb the low end. Hell, even a decent sized couch can work to some degree. Otherwise the bass buildup in the room will start muddying up your recorded drum sound like you are afraid of. If you plan on replacing and editing kicks hits, snare hits, etc.. you will likely want to roll off your OH's as high as 600hz. This will make it much easier to edit since you can bring up the OH tracks and not have to deal with a lot of low end content clouding up your mix, or things sounding off after editing. For most metal mixes the OH's will be quite buried in the mix so having low end content in the OH's isn't going to matter much or be desirable, you're really just looking to make sure your cymbal hits are there and sound natural. I would look through the following two threads over at ultimatemetal as they have some really great information and will definitely help you with this. Best of luck to you! Acoustic Drums for Metal: A Guide - Ultimate Metal Forum Systematic Mixing Series #2: In Soviet Russia, Drums Slam You - Ultimate Metal Forum