What's Your Favorite Way to Make Drum Tracks "Pop?"

[Theo Verelst]

As far as I make real songs or mixes (analog drums has been a long time ago), there's the hit-'n-miss strategy of playing tracks and getting a consistent rhythm sound with feel and proper sounding drums, or the step entry correct-by-design drum track and drum sounds.

 

Most tracks I hear, I've said it many times, sound waaaayyy too digitally flawed to me to really appeal to my sense of esthetics, of course drums are no exception. It is nice to have at least some samples to play, or programs, with that sound round, proper drum like, with variation and well sounding on a stereo system, but unless I make them myself, nothing much is really out there.

 

So after playing with digitally (pre-) corrected sounds and even having some dynamic drum behavior without digital distortion messing the main parts up, it's fun to "play" (on the keyboard) and hear a sound that's actually ok, a bit like an analog mix of well miked drum set through analog mixing and good (also analog) monitoring. That's so far away from those boxy, wrong loud, sharp, wrong sizzling drums I hear all the time, that that difference alone is more interesting to me than most of all the (also very digitally distorting) processing tricks happening to drums in the digital domain.

 

T

[techristian]

I hate to admit it, but after more than 50 years of drumming and recording, I haven't found a sound that I'm 100% happy with. In the 80's GATED REVERB was easy to pull off. I have also tried LOTS OF COMPRESSION, which also keeps the drums in the mix. As I can no longer hear anything above 12 khz ,  I sometimes try to roll off at 12 khz so as not to pierce my wife's ears. I have tried CLOSE MICROPHONE placement, and not so close microphone placement. I have tried mixing e-drums with real drums. On one recording I used 2 snare drums. If it is a real techno song , I might use e-drums or put my drums through flangers, or distortion effects, but getting that pure acoustic sound still eludes me. My 4 inch riser also added some unwanted acoustics in the mix so I put 1 inch thick rubber on top to deaden the resonance.

 

The bottom line is this. The drum sound YOU make will be partly governed by the type of music. For some music, drums should be tuned high and ringy,  others such as rock metal , a more dead lower tone and everything in between.

Anyway here is a drum solo I recorded some months ago......A little reverb helps too sometimes, but I wouldn't do this in context of a REAL SONG. 

 

BTW , The thing behind me is a BOX SPRING from many years ago. It was from my daughter's single bed when she was a kid before she moved out. It was covered in plastic the whole time she used it, and thus perfectly clean. I am also facing one (behind the camera). They soak up some of the reverb of this room. There is circa 60's acoustic tile on the ceiling and ,unfortunately, ceramic tile on the floor. (because we get water down here occasionally) .

 

 

[harmonizer]

There seems to be some kind of sustained low noise, which sounds a bit like a rumble, and might be some sort of echo or reverb. I am not sure where it originates in your kit. But watching 3:51-3:55 makes me think that your kick drums are at least one of the sources of this, because this time frame your sticks are only hitting the snare and one of the cymbals, and I do hear the rumble. I am guessing you were playing at least one of the kick drums with your feet during this time.

 

Also watch and listen to 3:41-3:49. There are some moments where the sticks are only hitting the cymbal and snare and the rumble briefly disappears, and then you can tell you start playing a kick drum and the rumble re-appears.

 

It is possible that the kick drum might not be the only source of this rumble (some of the low toms might also do this?), but the kick drums are definitely a major cause of this.

 

What I am calling a rumble is interfering with the clarity of everything else you are capturing from your kit.

 

In case it matters, I was using my Grado SR80e headphones while listening to your video.

[techristian]

I am playing double bass drums. That is the source of the "rumble". On earlier recordings , when I put up videos on youtube, the bass drums were almost inaudible so I have boosted them for listening on the 2 most popular devices today...phone speakers and laptop speakers. I have tried many different ways of recording them. Perhaps a bit more on the high end would help. One of the"rumbles" you hear is a 4 stroke roll, with my feet.

 

Thanks for your listening, and suggestions,  harmonizer.

Most of my "songs" have only single bass drum work because,YES it does muddy things up.

 

I have also found that placing microphones on the BEATER side of the drum makes a cleaner bass drum sound, but I haven't figured out how to get the microphones located there with this new set of drums. They take up LOTS of space and there is no place to put little stands. I may need to design some special clamps to clamp on the RIM of the bass drum on the beater side, much like the clamps on the other drums.Some time ago, I paid $100 for a thing called a "Kelly Shu" which has bungy like cords suspending the microphone in the center of the bass drum, but it was an expensive disappointment. The bungy cords create their own harmonics. I'm still using the Shu on my RIGHT bass drum.

Below is a video I made 16 years ago, where the bass drum sounds clearer...in the context of music.

 

 

 

Dan

 

[harmonizer]

techristian, have you ever checked how much of the kick sound is getting into your other mics? I'll bet you are getting some in each of those other mics. Those other mics will be receiving sound from the back of your kick drum, so the kick drum noise they pick up will have reversed phase from what your kick drum mics pick up from in front of your kick drums. Have you tried reversing the phase of the tracks which capture the signal from your kick drum mics?

[techristian]

Now that is something I never thought about!! Phase shift! I heard about it when the microphones are real close together but from the floor to the toms? Ok . I will try that next time.

 

Dan

[Anderton]

On 6/30/2023 at 9:35 AM, ProfD said:

Mixing should be the icing on the cake.  Not the flour. 

 

Granted, excellent recording and mix engineers are worth their weight in gold.  But, it *helps* to provide them with great source material. 😎

 

I agree 100%, tracking is the most important part of the music. With good tracks, the music almost mixes itself.

 

The proof for what you say is all the "classic" music from yesteryear with substandard sound quality by today's standards. But people don't care because they listen to music, not sound. (And no radio station ever said to me "we were going to play your CD, but...you used a solid-state mic preamp!!)

 

I bought a Miles Davis concert CD (that I'm pretty sure was unauthorized, sorry) in the Amsterdam airport. It sounded like it was recorded on a Radio Shack cassette recording, and what's worse, with Radio Shack cassette tape. But the performance is off the hook. That makes it a great CD, AFAIC.

[Anderton]

Back to drums...I think a common mistake is using too much compression. I often use compression below a threshold, not above. This brings up room sound that can make the drums come alive, while leaving the peaks alone. If I really need to open up headroom, I'll use a limiter.

 

Another trick is what people call "New York"-style compression, but I still don't like the sound of compressed peaks. So, I came up with an alternate approach I call Beyond New York Style Compression. The link is to an article that I just posted in the Signal Processing section of the Library at craiganderton.org. Check out the audio examples, I think they're pretty convincing.

[harmonizer]

techristian, you wrote earlier: "I have also found that placing microphones on the BEATER side of the drum makes a cleaner bass drum sound"

 

Maybe this contributes to a better bass drum sound in your mix because then your kick mic is picking up noise from the back of the kick drum, like any of the other mics you have picking up sound from your kit. So in this scenario, you don't have a need to reverse the phase of the mic you have on the kick drum.

 

If you have a kick mic out front, it's picking up noise made by a skin getting pushed out, but any mic picking up noise from the back of your kick drum is picking up noise from a skin getting pushed in.