Talking Recording Drums using DIY Gear with Tri-C Students:

A summery of what we talked about with Tri-C Recording Arts & Technology Students during one of their workshops.

The drum as an instrument

There are a variety of techniques for recording drums, and we’ll talk about many of the main factors influencing the sound of of drums in a recording in this article. But first, a word about playing style and the artist.

Drums are by far the most expressive and most varied in sound between players, kits, & cymbals. An acoustic guitar chord might sound pretty close between players, but drum sounds can vary widely due to playing style, tuning, drum-head type, shell type, microphone type, preamp type, and board EQ and dynamics as well as a wide variety of mix techniques. We’ll talk about all those things, but first, lets just recognize that there are so many different styles and infinite ways of tuning the drums, none of which are inherently wrong or right. Different genres of music require different approaches. Understanding the different ways drums can sound, listening to how they interact is crucial to making the right decisions to get the sound you want.

Drum Heads

I’ve heard old-timers say that drum heads are 80% of your tone, and I believe it. The response of the head can affect the players dexterity in things like ghost notes. Drum heads have different attack characteristics, as well as a unique decay and resonances depending on the type and amount of dampening. Drum heads can be described as are dry (flat, no ringing), resonant, colored, or with more overtones. In general, single ply heads will give a more attack heavy & crisp sound, but with a strong resonance. Double-ply heads and other types of coatings, and dampening kill off resonates for a dryer sound. Coated heads, built in dampening ring or pinstripe heads, or even a little oil between the 2 plys (hydraulic heads), these factors all sound. Single ply heads are also the least durable, but with coatings and more layers of mylar adds durability but looses brightness. Open bright tones are usually best achieved with less dampening, where darker more controlled tones are achieved with dampening. Tape, moon gels, paper towels, or even a wallet added to the surface of the drum out of the way of the sticks can add even more dampening to the drum. Great for those fat dry snare tones. There is no right or wrong way to do it, and alot comes down to personal preference, and even drummers within the same genre will have different preference. Also, it goes without saying, you should have new heads for recording. With out new heads your drums will lack punch, clarity, and have less then flattering overtones and rings.

Drum Shells

The shell of the drum can be made out of a variety of materials like wood, metal, plastic, concrete (not joking there is a concrete snare someone makes), carbon fiber, or even hybrids of materials.. The density of the shell material has an effect of making the sound sharper and brighter with higher density materials. Ludwigs “Black Beauty” snare is made of nickel coated brass and produces a unique attack. Birch, Maple, Mahogany, and Bubinga rand from Bright & Attack heavy to Dark & Warm. Synthetic like clear acrylic or polycarbonate have a brighter & very attack heavy sound. Metal is more ringey and resonate that wood, and but often has a sharper attack and can be very loud and bright depending on the type of metal. The shell material doesn’t matter as much as the SIZE and type of head. Even the exact same drum tuned differently can make a ton of difference too!

Drum tuning varies between player and style of music, but a good starting place is having the resonate head tuned a fair bit tighter then the batter head. Having even tension around and pitch all the way around the head is very important to eliminating unwanted rings.

Microphones

Microphone choice is the first stage of recording drums, and choosing the right microphone is important. The venerable Shure SM57 is a great place to start, and that mic has been used on counltess recordings across all genres since the 60s. Dynamic mics such as the SM57 work great on drums, because they offer a slower transient response that lends itself well to capturing the sound of a close mic’d snare or tom. One of our favorite mics for snare is the Beyerdynamic M201, a hypercardiod dynamic mic. This polar pattern is great because you get a little less cymbal bleed. We typically use Sennheiser MD 421 on toms which is also a dynamic mic. A condenser mic will give a brighter, more detailed sound with better transient response; This lends itself well to capturing cymbals, and full picture of the drum kit, which makes it especially great as overhead mics, cymbal spot mics, and room mics. We have Neumann U87s and many other mics, but even a great mic placed in a shitty way will sound bad, so experiment to find out what the best placement is. A certain amount of bleed between mics is ok, and getting the absolute cleanest recording does not always sound the best.

Microphone Preamps

Preamps are a great way to introduce weight and punch to drums. We use CAPI VP26 which is a preamp that can be driven to add harmonics to close mics on drums. We use a cleaner more open sounding preamp on cymbals and overheads. This gives you a nice bright detailed cymbal sound, and a punchy, fatter and slower transient response close mic sound. The DIY API preamps add great color while Hairball Audio Preamps we built sound more big and open.

Room Sound

The drums resonate the room itself, so recording in a good room is essential to getting a good sound. If you’re recording has a nice room, try recording some room mics. Room mics add natural reflections give the kit a more natural sound then hearing a bunch of mics focused in on one part of the kit. Its great for a “grarage rock” type sound. Having a properly treated recording room is essential to getting a great drum sound, that way you doing have built up frequencies, flutter echoes, comb filtering, or unruly reflections into the mics.

Mixing Drums

The mix is the single greatest factor besides the instrument and player’s performance. Good preamps and mics are not going to make much difference if you make the wrong EQ or mix decisions. Its important to note that these are all matters of personal preference, and there’s no right or wrong way to do it, but it definitely makes a big difference to how it sounds. I usually scoop a bit of the mid ringing out of snare drum (especially on an SM57). We have nice EQs and doing a bit of light tweaking when beginning tracking is a great idea to getting a nice result in the end. Try to solve problems at the source. Make a test recording. If the drum sounds funky, go out and adjust it. Maybe add dampening, or check all the lugs for wacky resonances. Listen back to a test recording, and listen to reference material that you like and make adjustments. Talk with the player and listen to the drums in the room. Get a great performance recorded and move on to the mixing phase.

Mixing like everything else can be done a million different ways. The addition of reverb, EQ, distortion, and dynamics adjustments are all possible. And understanding the artistic vision for the style of the project are important. Reverb and room mics are not appropriate for all styles. Talking with whoever is mixing your project about what you want and even showing them a reference to what kind of sound you would like can go a long ways to start by going in the right direction.

Samples Replacement & Augmentation

Samples. Newsflash, samples everywhere in music these days. Recordings can have samples overlaid or replacing the actual recorded drums with samples. Well done layering of samples can be indistinguishable from acoustic drums played by a real person. Whether or not you use samples may be determined by: how much time you have, how happy you are with the performance; access to specific rooms and drums that you might not otherwise have access to in the real world; etc. Using samples doesn’t make you a cheater if you get a sound that you like better. Same with quantizing or snapping drums to a grid, moving things around time wise can be a powerful tool. But none are a requirement for good sound. Decide with whoever is making your music if doing these things is the right choice for your music. Drums will always sound better if recorded well from the start.

DIY Gear

One of the room mics, all of the outboard preamps, and the studio monitors we used to make these decisions about EQ, preamp drive, and mic placement choices; were all from gear we built around here. A hand made piece of gear can sound just as great as a piece of gear that costs many times it’s price. It’s all about knowing your gear and how you use it. The big studio age is coming to an end as more and more tools and recourses are available.

We sometimes define our identities by the art and music we make. Selling the stuff we make with passion doesn’t devalue it, but making stuff you like is important to spending your limited time in a way that you like. What makes the passion of your music translate into value is a thoughtful, meaningful, interpretation in a way that others can understand. Do it with passion.