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Drum Micing Techniques Part 2

So here is let me just show you the difference between those two kick mikes so here is the classic you know, every time I go into a drum forum when I was kind of like starting trying to you know you have that thirst for knowledge like oh man, how do I recorded kick drum because my kick drum always sounds like, you know, it sounds like I was had a tendency whenever a recording contract it always sounded like like an early metallica record you know? It was always just like super scooped and like clicky but like sub b but nothing was like any real substance there um and I just I was always like just looking how do I get my picture on better? And the one thing that always popped up was some old dude on there just like man of vintage twelve men that's all you need if you can't get a dress sound right with that, then you just suck so I never ended up getting a vintage t twelve because I just never, partly because I thought old people didn't know what they were talking about um and I was just...

like, did I'm not trying to sound like skinner or whatever you're listening tio I'm like listen to cool music so anyways, but there is a lot to learn from those dudes that like spent a lot of time getting drum sounds um and like actually engineering so here is here's the d twelve um miked up with that kit playing this beat here is a four twenty one then uh now here's a sure beta fifty two now a lot of that the big difference between the fifty two in the four twenty one is the fifty two is placed mohr kind of like parallel with the drum the outside front shell. So you're getting a lot more of like that like air and body because with, like low frequency things like kick trump that it's almost like that there's this weird thing that happens the farther away you get from the drum you you let that kind of low frequency developed, which is why sometimes you'll see drum kits that have like the tunnel out front and then they have like, a big condenser, my kind like out far back because it's capturing that kind of that kind of a big body um so that is so I guess what I'm saying is don't let like this version of the fifty two against the four twenty one be the deciding factor of that's exactly how they sound compared to each other because they are in different spots and the four twenty one is mohr inside the kick drum, maybe about maybe six to seven inches off of the front beater head inside pointed at the beater so and that's the same place that the d twelve is placed at but you can hear the difference between going to play the twelve now and now played for twenty one now in my opinion on these speakers the d twelve actually sounds pretty red you know it's got like a good like kind of throaty mid range and it's not too cliquey but depend that's where it goes again like depending on what kind of music you're doing, this is for this beat you know I would say it's probably more of a heavier rock beat and you're going to need that extra attack so I would choose the four twenty one especially when I combine for twenty one and the fifty two then that's kind of where it starts to kind of really happen so that's the four twenty one plus the fifty two compared to the uh twelve now here is a little bit don't get really geeking now because while we were tracking this he actually blew through the beater head of the kick trump it's really hard and so now I want to show you the d twelve on one type of kick head I think it was like an aquarian something and then we swapped it out for uh like a remo power stroke I think um but this goes to show you like same microphone same drum, same everything same placement just a different kick drum head and the difference that it makes so here is before um the first kick head this is the other kick head to me the second head just sounds like miles better than the other one I mean you know I think the first one was the aquarian yeah and the second one was thea I think it was a power strip to it was a coded something I think um and this is I mean and this totally is an example of me not following like my own advice you know, I definitely should have been taking notes on that because then next time you're in a situation you walk into a recording and your drummer shows up like with whatever drum had the first one wass you instantly know ahh bummer you know but if he has the other one you like oh cool like I know what might because and here's a good use of like how to use your my funds of tools because if this kick had if you would have thrown this d twelve on this original kick head it's got that kind of like muffle e vibe um like that would be a perfect instance of you know let's try to four twenty one because I know it's a lot brighter and like a little more cliquey so you're gonna end up on the new head but you get the idea even compared with the uh the twelve on you so that's the d twelve on the new kick head versus the four twenty one you can tell that the four twenty one is much brighter so you can use these microphones like creatively to kind of combat whatever crappy sounds you might be dealing with um and that to me is like a big part of actually engineering you know beyond the scope of you know like man we should really change the kick drum head you know because in my opinion like I mean those two kicked sounds or just night and day difference and to me that's the difference between like having to use a sample and like actually using the real drums so it's pretty it's pretty crazy the difference and especially with snare heads tio just huge difference and then I want to touch on something briefly um this so now I want to go that same beat but I want to talk about a little bit of alex near tuning um and for me I've always had a problem of teeny snares too low because I think they just sounds so cool like just beefy and like when I hear snare drum I wanted to kick me in the chest um but it's not always the best thing in the end they're really hard to get right without throwing in samples and as of lately I've been I hate drum samples so much like I don't mind drum samples but I can't stand it when I hear drum samples on a recording and it's like distracting to me where it's like this cool drum man rocking out right now and then all of a sudden it goes to a drum fill and it's just like machine guns you know? And I'm just like like I get so mad when that happens yeah, I can't stand it just totally takes me out of whatever mood I was in listening to the music and it just makes me feel really dumb um okay so um but that being said there are dudes that like have mastered like drum samples and programming and uh like I think, uh that one did you all he did a class on uh drum programming I thought it was really good so I mean yeah, so we'll learn more about that did you use it by any chance to geo or do you have your my phone? Is he good you get yeah did use the n s ten anywhere for the kick drum? No, I just care. I know I thought about it, but um I showed up to the studio and I just wanted to use whatever they had um so no, I didn't I didn't use it, but honestly that the n s ten is I end up tracking with the innocents sometimes and personally I would say it's sometimes it's one of those nice words like sometimes it gets used to bhumi yeah it's well because there's so much sub to it and it's cool if you have a really small like kind of like thin kick trump but a lot of the times I'm getting guys that are coming and bringing like twenty four inch kick drums you know and it's like it's like man ok, well, maybe I should throw like but you know I like a team was eighteen twenty five I think. And it's like it's just sounds awesome similar to like for twenty one kind of mike and for like, a really huge kick drum like that it just sounds great, but a lot of times when you're so like I said like using mike's creatively if you have like, a smaller kick then it's gonna be awesome but not so much for a kick that already has a ton of that. Um okay, um so that yeah, yeah drums for life situations. I liked my kick really wide open the front head tighter than the batter head but I find when I go into the studio um I get a lot of overtones if I leave the front head on and I leave my kick wide open so sometimes what I do in the studio is I take the front head off and take a blanket and lead over the kick and have the mic inside of the blanket and you get a lot drier the restroom sound if you if you're struggling with overtones yeah kick sound I think yeah and you're exactly right when you when you get rid of like the extra head resonating yeah instantly it's like so dry and it gets really up front to you know then you just get like that nice attack and it's real quick, you know? I mean, um something to think about too I mean, granted, this is one of those things where if you're recording your record yourself you know and if it's like a really release or um if it's something where it's like ok, this is a serious recording I'm going to put it out there and I want to be good I would definitely recommend um, having a friend who you think tunes drums really well, come over into in your kit or spending the money and hiring like a professional drug tech to come in, I use I either use jared or this other guy mike cassano and he's I mean he's done it's just stupid the records they've done is like green day, you know, and mike dave matthews a huge dudes and it's it's seriously such a huge difference that you khun bowling ball microphones of like like those tracks there, they're all know e que no compression or anything, you know, and I don't know what I mean my experience in the past, before I had people that could actually tuned drums to the way I wanted them to be tuned. Um my experience was always like, all right, kick trump, man tons of better reach for, like, scoop out everything you know, and you have this weird overtones um and it's just great to be able to have someone that knows what they're doing because you may have exact what you're saying, the way you have your kid in the studio is different than the way you have it in a live situation. And there you it's really important to learn how to get that compromise of, like, the life for instance, snare drum like I don't know if you like playing a loose or a tight snare drum, but whichever way you like to play if you were forced to play on the other, so if you like playing tight on your force, playing loose their drum, I would totally mess you up, you know? I mean, years like man, the rebound coming back just feels totally different this is just stupid, I hate this, you know, so finding that level of you know and I don't know if you've been a studio with someone where they've made you tune your drums to away that like you just hate playing them but it sounds better when it's being played back um and there is a compromise of getting it to a point where it feels good to you while you're playing and still sounds great in the studio unfortunately like theirs is kind of like a black art and like the dudes that know how to do it like that's why they get paid a lot of money to like come in and like tuna kid and like it's like you have been coming into in your kit it's like oh my gosh this is like the best feeling and sounding kit that I've ever heard it sounds great the engineer bowling balls microphones up to it and it just sounds fantastic and you're like this is awesome um so um be a kind of tangent but yes you're totally right like, you know, doing things like that um definitely just depends on your situation yeah and what kind of sound you're going for because some guys were going for vintage trump tone like ringo starr? Yeah, but the the stuff that we're looking at today is a lot more modern rock kind of sounding stuff and I'm also just a big fan of experimentation and trying to get different drum sounds for each song like a it kind of bothers me when you listen to a record and the drum tracks all sound the exact same the whole time, right? And I think that also goes in line with you know, uh really letting the song dictate like how the tones are you know, sad song like it's totally fine to have, like, sad, crummy sounding sounds, you know, I think all that adds to the overall production and I think maybe we'll stop there we've got one question in this kind of leads us into what we're gonna be talking about in the next segment from chris what kinds of mike preys were used in that studio? How much of a difference do you think the fbi type mike preys make during the tracking versus like a stock? Did you go to, uh, what kind of defense? A p I might leave me? Yeah, that's what he said, okay, um, we're like assuming that any yeah like yeah, um, I think that I'm going to actually do on exact touch on that later on, I have I have an a p I you know, a bunch of the three, twelve priests here, okay? And we'll compare it tio either like the internal mike pre or maybe one of these mackey's well, I think that if you know how to utilize the more expensive mike priest, it will make a difference. Um, but if you don't know what you're doing, um well, if you don't know, you're doing, you're totally setting yourself up for disaster, but, um they do make a difference. However, um, the sound of the actual drum and the mic placement make a way bigger difference. Um, like, like I said, like a well tuned kit you can bowling ball microphones up to it with, like, a barren jer console and it's going to sound brad, you know, but like I e can sit in front of that need counsel with, like, a guy that has a new tune kid that hasn't changed his head's in a year and it's like, I'm never going to be able to make it sound the way that did you know, it's just it's just not gonna happen, but prams do make a difference, but not to the point of like, if you're unhappy with your drum sound, then you need to get new mike cramps and you have to buy, you know, like you should be able to get a pretty great drum sound with just like, you know, just like minimal mike's, you know, like kick snare overheads and, you know, just tuning your drums properly.