Sharp Practise
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9/18/2008 9:20:07 AM
Getting the drums down
At last the talking is over and the recording has begun!
And don’t you just love drummers? They may be the butt of an easy joke (they always turn up on time but never in time etc) but I’m always in awe of how they remember exactly what fill they put in the song at point X last time and execute it again exactly at the same point this time.
Anyway, I took my AW2400 down to our rehearsal room for this week during the daytime, when it’s quiet, and set up. Seven mics – dedicated ones for snare, hi-hats and bass drum, two overheads and two ambient.
First problem – the bass drum sounded very boomy but after some trial and error I got it tamed. The rehearsal room is a bit of a box (this affected the ambient mics too) and in the end I did have to break my golden rule about recording with the EQ flat and apply just a little cut to the deep bass frequencies.
The good news is that the drums I’ve been recording are very well maintained and that makes getting good snare and tom sounds very easy. The rehearsal complex has drums available for hire and we often use them to practice with, not only saving wear and tear on the ‘real’ kit but also the hassle of transporting lots of drums on practice days. Also, judicious use of practice heads (not least to keep your neighbours happy) does wonders for the life of your skins.
So the drum parts are down (all in one take per song, I always feel drop-ins on drum tracks are really obvious and sound unnatural).
I’ve taken the recording equipment back to my own place and it’ll be rhythm guitar and bass parts next – the anchors and chord structures of the songs need to be established.
More about this next time.
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