Drum recording, thoughts?

[yard dawg]

ok, but you didn't provide any feedback on the recording.

My bad... 1st off try panning the drum tracks. Everything is down the middle. Kick stays in the middle. Snare slightly off to right or left (audience or drummer perspective) Toms panned in different locations to get that roll sound.(audience or drummer again) Levels can be adjusted. Criss cross the OH mics close together next time and pan hard left and hard right. If youre not getting the crash sounds you like adjust the height of the OH mics.

The hats can be fixed with a different mic and a bit louder in the mix.My 1st choice would be a new mic. You found the issue with the kick. It will be better when its closer. Snare tone will work for certain songs . You can play that one by ear ..

Create an aux send track with reverb on it and use some verb on OH and snare. Dont go nuts like in the 80s on the snare verb creates distance and room.


To the guy who said zepplin used alot of mics . Youre so wrong. I have met and talked with Chris Huston. He was Zeps engineer back then. He used overheads in ORTF and a 2 D112s. One in the hole and the other 4 ft back. He kept it simple. The secret to big drum sounds is to pan the drums. VOX Bass guitar and kick are the only things that should be down the middle.

Secret to big guitars is doubling the tracks. Either duplicate them or track them twice and then PAN..

The Kick is muddy sounding. Try cutting some of the mud in the 250 hz range. Boost 50-80 hz and find that beater click at 2.5k-3k. These adjustments will change depending on the song and Key its in too.

For the 1st attempt yall got some usable sounds. Not bad at all.

Oh yea the crash and hats wouldnt be hurt of you boosted 8k and 16k..

[Endrik]

To the guy who said zepplin used alot of mics . Youre so wrong. I have met and talked with Chris Huston. He was Zeps engineer back then. He used overheads in ORTF and a 2 D112s. One in the hole and the other 4 ft back. He kept it simple. The secret to big drum sounds is to pan the drums. VOX Bass guitar and kick are the only things that should be down the middle.

so Jimmy Page is a big fat liar?

[yard dawg]

so Jimmy Page is a big fat liar?

Not going to start a pissing match but I have talked with the man who set the mics up and turned on the tape machine himself.. Jimmy Page was high during most of those old recordings and what you read in a guitar rag cant be trusted. Believe what you want but I have it from the engineers mouth.
I met him in 05. I even asked him about the backwards masking stuff that people made a big deal out of. He laughed and said its hard enough to record stuff going forward

When did you meet Page to discuss this in person?

[slash]

The Lorax....
I knew it looked familiar but I couldn't figure it out my 5yr old just walked up and identified your avatar... I know that doesn't help with the drums but I had to share that. Aren't kids great

[Endrik]

Not going to start a pissing match but I have talked with the man who set the mics up and turned on the tape machine himself.. Jimmy Page was high during most of those old recordings and what you read in a guitar rag cant be trusted. Believe what you want but I have it from the engineers mouth.
I met him in 05. I even asked him about the backwards masking stuff that people made a big deal out of. He laughed and said its hard enough to record stuff going forward

When did you meet Page to discuss this in person?

not only from Pagey's interviews but from Eddie Kramer's too

didn't Huston record only a couple of tracks on their second album?

my friend who owns one of the most advanced studios in Czech knows the Johns brothers and has hung out with Terry Manning but maybe they were on drugs too :ROTF: anyway my friend Petr told me about room mics and the first album... I'm not sure about the other ones, I will ask when I see him.

[Endrik]

also I didn't mention that a lot of mics (and room mics) are a must for zep tone as they hade the tone live with very basic mic setup.

also, I agree that panning is important but in "big sounding drums" context it sounds kinda weird because no matter where it's panned... just a single hit on a specific drum can sound big or small or whatever (in wich panning is irrelevant when only one hit is at the time)