How to Record Heavy Drums - Part Zero | SpectreSoundStudios TUTORIAL
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 16 окт 2024
- How to Record Heavy Drums - Part Zero
Subscribe for more awesome recording tutorials! bit.ly/2p0CWT8
More "How to Record Heavy Drums" bit.ly/2pOnSMy
First of a mulitpart series covering all aspects of recording live drums in a metal mix.
If you've ever wanted to learn how to record a live drum kit, start here!
Part Zero focuses on my philosophy of why it's important to work with live drums, instead of taking a shortcut with samples.
As a bass player, I really appreciate you saving me from electrocuting myself in the bath! From now on, I'm only making toast in the shower!
I play bass, a little drums and guitar..... I bathe with a toaster, while counting to 1, and looking at my genitals in the mirror.
@@lichkrieg4898
If you have to shave your ass, use a CD, because you will see everything except for the hole itself
@@cursedcliff7562 good idea. If i see that i might go blind because at this point i think it's more bleach than anus.
I actually fired a drummer because he had a HUGE kit and he INSISTED " I'll only record if we can mike every single drum and cymbal individually!" as well as insisting I pay for his studio time!
yep. gtfo.
I miss the drummer from my last band. 4 piece kit, recorded nearly every song in one shot. He was in and out of the studio as quick as the scratch guitar tracks were laid down. AND he paid his share of the bills on time!
He still drooled when he played though...
Nodivision HWM I remember playing in a battle of the bands (a long-ass time ago) where we covered some Rush and Dream Theater songs; our drummer had 2 toms and 2 crashes. He kicked other drummers asses who had kits over twice the size... Yep... Though there's nothing with a big kit, as long as each piece of it is used tastefully! I'm a drummer myself, and while I'd love to have a massive kit (such as Mike Portnoy's) someday, I have no desire to drag around and set up more crap to gigs than I have to. Unless I have a roadie to set all that shit up for me, a basic kit does the job for me!
Complicated sets are gay.
This is a weird complaint... Who are you to tell another musician how to play his instrument? Just hire a more fitting drummer for your needs. Alternatively, you can also just put up a mic and not record on it. They'll never know the difference. I've done it with hats before.
First, this video for my Like less than two minutes in thanks to your "path to the dark side" commentary! Winning.
Second, live drums are absolutely worth the trouble.
Third, I'm stoked for the rest of the series! Cheers
As a drummer looking to record in the studio for the first time I found the whole series incredibly useful, thank you.
You inspire me to work my ass off. I'm in the process of writing, composing, and with the help of a friend, recording my own album, and your videos are certainly going to help a lot in the studio!
The reason us bass players will never understand how to record drums properly is cos we are still trying to understand how to change strings on our basses.
Top of that, trying to understand why you need to change them.
Sakari Kempas Or why we need them in the first place.
ferdinandstrat * Why we need more than one of them
Vort3x Why don't they just make like... one really long string?
As a bass player I can confirm all of the above!
I love it how you sneak in a bass player bash every now and then, but with absolute guile. I never expect it but it's always in place and I always, at least, chuckle quite pleasantly.
Oh, and great tutorials. :)
Drum samples, the path to dark side these are... I want that on a T-SHIRT !
Caloss2 Channel same
I think it's still available in the shop....
Also the only excuse to use drum samples, as far as I am concerned is if you are recording at home for yourself and have no access what so ever to a drum kit or a drummer.
True. They can also be a useful tool for songwriting and demos.
All the gear he listed would cost you 5000 bucks at least. Most of us won't have that lying around. You either need a dead relative or a couple of years of saving up. And i sure as hell won't drop that kind of money on a fucking drummer.
I don't know about $5000...but your point is valid. That's why even broke bands will pay people to record them.
You can make a good album with programmed drums...but you can make that same album MUCH better with a decent drummer and a decent engineer.
ClamsAnonymous Well a quick skim through Thomann, tallying up all the mics and preamps he listed for even a 5 piece kit nudges 4500€ easily, not counting all the cables and a computer that we assume you already have.
As a bedroom guitarist Superior drummer 2 is a great tool for me.
I just got started in the whole idea of recording my drums. It's a really complex topic for someone having only drumming experience and literally zero in recording, so the title fits!
Thanks!
Glenn I’m watching this whole series now, again thanks for giving my song Eisheth your evaluation, I needed to hear your opinion, and the drums are always the hardest part.
4:29 I love how your snare rings with the power of your scream. Nice rant btw. As always, good video.
Can't wait for this series to kick in. It will be very handy before heading off to university! As a drummer, I want to know more about the process of recording drums, particularly, the mixing side. Excellent youtube channel!
Just found out about this channel the other night. You're blunt but honest and I'm loving it. Thanks for the awesome content!
GREAT GLENN! Can't wait for the series! Thank you very much for your efforts!
I love that you include the simplicity and budget factor. I've been recording with two overhead mics and beefing them up in the mixing and mastering process,It is not the most ideal but i have actually got some really good sounding drums, at least for my recordings! Great video, cant wait for the series.
New to recording, and really any studio situation...I love your frankness and down to earth approach to recoding! I love the bass player jabs! Lol
Hey Glen, I'm glad that you will share your experience with us! Thank you!
How about a tutorial giving A/B comparisons between recording at 44.1, 48.1, 96k and 192k 16 and 24 bit sample rate? What settings do you use? Is there really that much difference between 44.1 and 96k? Stuff like that would be extremely useful. As always, you have inspired me into getting back to record metal music I so dearly missed! Thanks
+Juan Pizarro I would LOVE to see this as well. Specially for Metal recordings.
+Juan Pizarro Me too
+Juan Pizarro there's barely any differences in all honesty. i dare even say that 96k is more used for live orchestration rather than rock or metal. the best sounding and space-saving sound is 44.1 or 48. 48 is mainly used for video streaming and editing, but for just audio or record producing, you're best bet would be 44.1
I remember the tutorial You made a few years ago, in a metal site, everything u said is true, very good introduction for record great drum tracks...
Thanks a lot!!!
I'm excited for this. Like many I use samples to write and put music up on my channel, but this is something I would love to learn about. My old band did an album with a guy who recorded all of our drummer's parts and then replaced every single hit with samples. He also used a terrible sounding modeler to record all the guitars and bass. If I wanted a bedroom quality album, I would have done it all myself!
This is awesome, in June we are looking to record live drums for the first time as a band (we use programmed drums for demos during the writing stage), so looking forward to some tips/mic placements. Kick ass!
Hey Glenn,
I was wondering if you would ever do a studio tour?
great vid btw :D
Looking forward to the series. You're the man, Glenn!
An episode on how to position a drum in the room would be really nice, it changes a lot the sound of the drums!
Love your videos man, awesome as always!
I love how as Glenn screams you can hear the snare rattling in the background.
That was really helpful. I love how your voice was resonating with the snare drum.
Just watched a video of one of my favorite metal drummers doing a clinic. He said he grew up drumming more in the studio than anywhere else. When he started playing extreme metal and blasting, he realized his blasts were lower volume than his regular hits. He worked to make them louder but to compensate, he lowered the volume of his other hits so he'd stay consistent and even so it would be easier on the engineer. Wondered what your take was
Love it! Thank you so much for starting this. I'll be building my first full home studio in the next few months and I've got a rough idea about how to record drums from going to studios in the past. But having quick access to all of that info will be completely invaluable! You sir are awesome.
Thanks a lot I'm recording the 3rd album of my band and wasn't happy with my guitar sound, your tips really help me to get the big sound I want
Keep on rocking
I respect your approach a lot, because I really like to listen to real drummers performing and you are right about the engineering possibilities.
What I can‘t agree on is that there is no art involved in using samples. That would disqualify electronic music as art. Combining electronic and analogue music can lead to beautiful results. Even from an engineers point there is no shame in using someone elses work and develop it further into something that you created yourself. This is one of the many forces that drive development in art/music, just like intertextuality in writing.
Apart from this I have nothing but love for your work, thanks for all the great tips and inspiration!
I'm talking in the context of metal
SpectreSoundStudios I understand that, and there are a lot of metal bands working electronic elements into their music, which enriches the whole genre. So where draw the line, and why? Art is free. Don‘t get me wrong, I agree with you that real drums can‘t be beat soundwise, but to say there‘s no art in using samples, I would beg to differ. I‘m also fine with agreeing to disagree. Thanks for your reply!
Great intro, can't wait to see the rest of the series!
Looking forward to this series. I got to start actually recording a live drummer for my band's first EP, and while I'm happy with how it all turned out, I'm hoping to pick up some tips to use on our full LP. New subscriber here, and I've already watched most of the back catalog as well!
Also, cheap interface recommendation, for anyone who's reading and looking for such a thing: Focusrite Scarlett 18i20. Eight mic pres, expandable to another 10 inputs with digital inputs (I used an old M-Audio FastTrack Pro for an extra two inputs on my sessions). Super stable drivers, at least on Mac. USB, so you don't have to worry about getting a Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter. Sounds excellent and you'll only pay about $500 brand-new, and even less if you can find a good used or open-box model!
Damn right about the focusrite Scarlett. Another thing worth mentioning is that it has phantom power available so you can use condenser mics with it. I have a smaller version (the 2i2) and it does sound really good when used correctly.
Michael Birch Yes sir! I got the 18i20, a few mics and started my own mobile audio recording business, full time, within a month. Quit my day job. Total investment with the 18i20, 2 - Rode NT1's, Beta 52A and e609, and studio monitors, cables, mic stands, etc all was just at $2000. I already had the laptop and used free software, and started charging $20 an hour for mobile recording and $200 to mix a song after I built a portfolio of 10 songs I did for free.
THE SHOT AT IMAGES AND WORDS BY DREAM THEATER I'M DYING
YES !!! You're back the way I like you. On top of that, I'll actually start recording the drums of my bands album in a few weeks so can't wait to take some good advises :) Our demos where made with samples so we are doing everything from the begining with live, real drums :) Thanks a lot :)
Just to be more precise (and I see that you interact a lot wich is really great and thank you for that), my drummer has a 20 000 kit, signature of Toto's drummer with lots of cymbals that he uses quite a lot and we record in a huge place with a great reverb, dense but short, clean and nice to listen (the drummer is also not bad). I would like to capture that great sound that I hear when we practice. I wouldn't like to use overdub samples, I want the real thing. I would need all kinds of advises that you can give. Once again, thanks for this great channel.
I was spinning a drumstick with my fingers while watching this video. It slipped and fell, and it hit the floor in sync with the beginning of THE EAGLE HAS LANDED.
Just wanted to comment on that.
That was an awesome example you used with the snare, I have been using an electric for laying down rough tracs for my drum parts, I love cymbals there are so many different sounds that can be created on them its amazing and for that reason alone final mixes will be done with my real kit. I am looking forward to watching these vids on recording drums thanks in advance this will help me out large
fantastic start Glen, looking forward to learning something here!
Awesome rant Glenn , absolutely nailed this topic
Great video as always, sir! I always enjoy watching these! You definitely have a good outlook on recording/engineering, and as an aspiring engineer myself, I've gained a lot of knowledge that's really helped me, and given me an edge on my classmates! Looking forward to seeing some new videos! Keep up the awesome work!!
accidentally paused it at 3:52 .. Worth it. Totally stoked for this new series
cant wait for the rest of the series! thanks man!
So pumped to get a massive drum tone for my band
For you 2-input interface users out there, grabbing a small format mixer can be a good alternative. Yes, your output will be a L/R stereo track, but it gives your drums sound a good console sound. A good budget mixer I have used for rock production is a Behringer Xenyx 1204. It only has 4-inputs, but sometimes less is more.
Thank you Glenn! Real drums always, always, always sound best! I'm shocked that anyone would even use samples for a rock or metal record! It's worth the extra work and rehearsal before going to studio to get the best performance for the record, because that's what it is; a performance captured for eternity.
You're enthusiasm is inspiring. About to watch all your videos :)
Awesome videos Glenn! Thanks for your time and effort to put these on.
After seeing your "smarter than your drummer" shirt, I couldn't help but laugh, since my slogan when I taught drums to people back in the day was: "If you can count to 4 I can teach you to play drums"
+Lord Baktor My teacher used to say that
Yeah, I guess originality and cleverness are not my strength.
Dude, this is a great idea. Thank you so much! :) I will be sharing this will all of my students.
Needs more bassist jokes.
Ever since I watched this series, I've been playing rim shots, I've moved my hats over and up a few inches and moved my cymbals away from the toms. Glen you are a fucking legend. Thank you 👍🏻👍🏻
YESSSSSS!!!!!!! AFTER WAITING SO LONG IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Loved the Star Wars reference regarding drum samples
I'm not a drummer, but I am looking forward to this series very much. Hopefully one of the early vids will teach drummers they need to BE the metronome for a band, not just to play to one.
I'm sooo looking forward to this.
It would be cool to hear the samples against an actual drummer WITHOUT knowing which is which, some people may not even tell them apart.
I have been waiting for this for a long time:) Our recording studio engineer insists on only using the front head on the bass drum. I do not like it. I put the back head on for a reason, more resonance. I would like to have this sound on the sounds we are recording, but to me, my bass drum sounds weak. I don't know how to convince him to keep the back head on as you have pointed out, I am just the drummer. Any advice you give would be greatly appreciated.
Both heads. Natural compression. sounds killer.
LOL, he just prefers to record with only the beater head on. I am hoping this series will show how to reduce the overring.
Marita De La Pena Well Glenn has said in old posts on the Ultimate Metal forum that he suggested taking the resonant head off the kick drum for recording and using a down pillow to dampen the batter head, so I'm sure he can argue benefits for both methods.
We have recorded three songs in the studio and every song sounds better, but the bass drum sounds weak on all three recordings. I know a lot of drummers who do not put the resonant head on any of the toms or the bass when playing live and I have always hated the way it sounds. I don't know if it is possible to get the sound I am looking for in the studio.
Marita De La Pena Well does he have enough mics to do both heads? Cuz doing both is going to sound much better...he sounds like an idiot to me. If the issue is the mic number, then he should be micing the resonance head, not the beater. Feeling the kick will sound far better with the body from it, as opposed to just the attack from the beater. I think I used the Class_A_R circuit Compressor in Logic 9 for the Kick I recorded and it seriously "kicks" ass.
Just something for those still using samples.
Muhammad Suicmez of Necrophagist used drum sampling, and tracked bass, guitar, and vocals himself for his first album, even he, the one who's entire first album contains drum samples, admits that the first album would be even more brutal with real drums.
Ya just can't beat a real drummer, samples sound like samples, they never sound like a real drummer.
I'm really glad you're doing the drum series! I will watch every episode intently but I'm really interested in the use of compression on drums during tracking and mixing. Heck, it would be nice to see the use of noise gates, too! \m/
Would like to see the importance of the 3:1 rule when micing overheads. Looking forward to this series!
Dude you have changed my thinking about recording live drums. Thanks for this. When are you doing a video on recording snares? This is always the challenging thing and your recordings always have really good snares. Please share your snare secrets and techniques!
Trent Berry It's coming up in a few weeks.
Thanks much!
4:23- i love how the yelling excites the snare wires in the background lmao
Nice... Finally! Can't wait for you to kicking some asses in the next episode.... If you can, it would be nice if you compare diferents stereo techniques for overheads and room and tell us why you choose one or another depending on the situation, etc. Thanks in advance. Cheers! lml,
Chef Ramsey reference was awesome!
Agreed
Oh man!! That's AWESOME!!! Thanks pal!!!
I really want tolearn about it!!!
Glenn Fricker RULES!!!
Easy to record a drummer. I used a pair of circa 1978 Radio shack Nova Pro's over the ear headphones as a Mic mounted on a guitar stand 3 feet behind the drummer who is 2.5 feet from a packing blanket thrown over a couple of chairs in a garage with a 14 ft ceiling plugged into TEAC cassette recorder with one record level slider.
The sound is just like Billy Cobham's on that Powerplay record.
If the drummer can adjust his dynamics, there really isn't a better sound for live drums at any price.
The drums were an old Ludwig Rocker series with black Remo Pinstripes and black Ambassadors on the reso's tuned really well.
I also had good results having my personal drums put through a cheap Behringer tube preamp and DBX compressor in a bedroom with irregular walls.
Experimenting will always get you somewhere.
Man, you just nailed it!
I can't play drums, but I've been setting up kits the way Glenn says, and I've been able to do double kick runs just perfectly. I hope to start drums soon.
1:20-1:39 My exact philosophy on samples. Just be a better engineer and you'll help, not only a drummer improve his technique, but you'll learn how to improve on the musicality of your recordings. Plus mixing becomes more of a treat than a chore.
First Time watching a video by you.. already got a new subscriber :D
Gordon Ramseys foot up my ass got me :D
Lol :)
Great videos learning so much thanx for educating me on this. All the best.
Looking forward to seeing these episodes Glenn :D
Hey man. I'm really exited for this series. I've been waiting a long time for this ever since I discovered your videos. I'm very curious on the mic placement for the overheads and how you can get the perfect stereo effect on them. Thank you and keep up the awesome work \m/
This is a great series. Still waiting on the"how to record snare" video; to my mind that is one of the things you really nail- great snare sounds! Please let us know when it might come down the pike, and thanks again!'
thank you for doing this. I'd really love to hear your take on recording live drums
While I respect your opinions very much and couldn't agree more sometimes it's very hard to get a good room sound where I live without samples. Reverbs just don't cut it for me, so using the actual individual mics and overheads in the mix, but pitch matching the drum samples and just using the room mics is an invaluable tool for me. I can get perfectly good sounding drums on their own, I just cant get the ambience I'm looking without em. I suggest anyone in the same situation try it, it works wonders and still sounds very natural.
Hahahaha another GREAT video from the ever-effervescent Sir Glen. I freakin' LOVE when he gets really mad (around 4:20) about some drummer's massive drum kits when they only use the extra stuff "ONCE! ON AN ENTIRE ALBUM! UGHHHH!" and when he yells, you can hear the snare ringing from the volume of his irritated exclamations. So fuckin' funny. Good schtuff, as usual.
Excellent! Looking forward to this.
Cool, I used to think otherwise but now I'm on your side. After dealing with samples for a long time I just started to record the real thing. The funny thing is - at least for me, samples were a slower workflow. There are so many kits / drums and mics, to choose from when you are using samples. My drummer has only one kit, so I have to work with what I've got and I know it won't be perfect anyway so I'm less concerned with the hi-fi results. I still use samples when writing for my band though and that won't change unless I will marry a drummer.
Looking so much forward to this :) Can you show how to mic hi-hat and ride cymbal and how to put them in a mix :) Would also be nice if you could go though various variations on overheads and what different setups does best :)
Can't wait for this series! I have been recording live drums for a while now, but can't stand the way my overheads/room mics sound. Can't wait to definitely learn. Also, I hate snare samples too, but do you ever use samples for kick drum? I've found that blending trigger and real kick sound works best for me using steven slate trigger.
very well presented , lots of great info. only one thing I AM A BASS PLAYER LOL , and a knowlageable bass player { music degree } that plays drums ,guitar ,keys . untill recently iv used eletronic drums for my songs that iv recorded. which isall i really need. after joining a band that heard my recordings wants me to do the recording of our original matteral , i had to educate myself on recording real drums & i found this on youtube & glad i did . love the hummor that goes along with the valuable information ,THANX MUCH
I have a big kit but I actually do use the whole thing. One big way I've decided to try and combat Tom and snare bleed is by using coated heads on the reso side
He has true respect for true musicians.
That moment when the drummer misses their rim shots... Literally, there are drummers out there that try to rimshot, but keep on whacking the rim without coming close to the head.
It would be awesome to see how you EQ a kick to get the perfect snap to oomf ratio! can't wait to see these video's!!!
I totally agree with you. Nothing can beat the real thing.
SpectreSoundStudios Quick question: Say I'm broke, I don't sell my music, the few metal drummers within a 10 mile radius of me are all taken, and the number of mics around are limited, leaving little if any room to record drums. How would you get it done without samples if you were in my shoes? Like for example, how would you record on the go with as few mics as possible, if you had to travel to another town if need be to record? Or how would you record in a space that isn't acoustically treated?
P.S. Can't wait for the next vids!
You have a very funny clever way of putting things Love your videos!
I don't really like heavy music and I'm stoked as fuck for this series! Hell yeah!
I love that you can hear the drum ringing when Glenn yells @4:22 lol
At 4:28 you can hear Glenn's frustration reverberating within the soul of the snare drum. LOL.
starts with part zero, love it. it would also make sense to any computer programmer that way :D
I'm going to record original samples for the next project so I can mic things that I don't currently have enough equipment for at the moment. For example I'm going to sample the bottom of the snare drum and only use that if it improves the sound. :)
"It takes time to learn to record live drums!" I'm a drummer with years of engineering experience and I will tell you, this is TRUTH! But worth it!
Say what you want about a drummer's I.Q., having one that knows what he's doing when it comes to micing and recording is a fucking Godsend. The effort that they put into it to make it sound great, at least drummers like my grandad anyway, is possibly only matched by child birth.
Thank you so much, Glenn! I've been waiting to learn how to record drums properly. I've got recording guitars and bass down, and after this series, I'll have drums down too! My only question however isn't about drums. I would like to ask if you would be doing an episode or two to explain how to record proper vocals? I've been trying really hard lately with recording vocals, but they always sound either to distant or overpowering. Any tips to fix this?
Looking forward to part 1! :)
come to think about it, having 5 or even 4 piece kit means less compromises on the mix because the floor tom's tuning is still higher than the kick drum and you won't have any rack tom that interferes with the snare. And ofc, the obvious factor that is the kit placement, not to mention just having single crash each on the left and right side and zero on the center.
I don't even play drums or record. why do I find this so damn interesting??
Glenn is a trip. Nice to hear someone speaking truth. He is fearless !
'Cause it's interesting. I'm not even into metal much, still I'm a subscriber.
Ha! At 3:06 I thought it said "Statement not to be taken seriously! Always keep electrical appliances away from your bass player." Had to rewind it...
damn, I totally should have said that!