Drums in the control room (only one room)

Posted on Mar 28, 2008 12:38 pm
CptTripps
Czar of Turd Polish
Member Since: Jun 20, 2006

So I have been having a hard time with drums as I only have one room (untreated) available for all my gear and my DAW which makes placing mics a chore. Place it, hit record, hit some drums, playback, make adjustment, rinse & repeat.

I know they have some nice studio headphones which will block some sound, but they are expensive and I would rather spend my cash elsewhere at the time.

I was reading online at *gasp* another recording site and saw something that I thought might work for me.

That's right, hunting earmuffs :) I used some in ear headphones that I already own, threw these over em, and oh man it worked fantastic.

I had my neighbor come over and hit the drums one at a time and I was able to position my mics while listening. It made things go sooo fast and I captured the best sound I have ever got from my floor tom.

Now I know that the headphones are not ideal, but it still gives me a way better idea of what I am recording vs. not hearing anything at all. Anyway, 20$ (they had a 10$ pair also at walmart) later and I have much more usable drum takes.

I am still on the hunt for some headphones that are cheap, sound good, and can block as much noise as these muffs. They even had a rating chart on the back stating how much of each frequency is reduced. Lows of course pass through more but are still reduced by 15.5db where the higher end are reduced by 40+db.

Direct Sound makes a muff that does this well, but I can find nothing on how they sound and they are $50-90.

Just thought I'd share.

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