samples from my first engineer gig

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Bane of All Existence
Member Since: Mar 27, 2003

finally finished tracking drums for this 4-song demo that i'm doing for $125. i know the band personally, and they're pretty cool anyway. i just wanted to get some experience doing the full on recording thing, and get a condenser mic in the process.

here's a sample of me playing drums while taking a break:
64.147.14.11:801/mejam.mp3

the drummer has his set flat, and he's taller than i am, so you'll hear me click the rim when going for rimshots.

drumset is a nice gretsch with stock heads.

mic setup:
(1) shiny new oktava mk-319 ($99 on sale at guitar center) in front of the drumset left of center, and tried to get it to face the 1st tom. that one is panned 100% left.
(1) SM57 pointing at the wood of the snare, panned 50% left.
(1) Beta 52 peeking halfway inside one of the outside drumhead holes, pointing at the beater. that's panned 50% right.
(1) SM57 pointing downward to "hear" the two floor toms. panned 100% right.

i EQ'd the tracks accordingly in the mixer (behringer MX802A), and sent the signal to my audiophile 2496. i recorded each channel in a separate track, and only panned each track 50% to keep the stereo field small (i want to put the rhythm guitars "outside" the drums). some light EQ, -15db 3:1 compression, and some hall reverb is added.

just wanted to see if anyone had some words of wisdom on how to make these drums sound better.

thanks!

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a.k.a. Porp & Mr. Muffins
Member
Since: Oct 09, 2002


Apr 27, 2003 10:41 am

Sounds really good in general. You should keep the bass drum and snare drum in the center of the stereo field, though. The snare sounds really good and tight. The bass drum is a little weak. Some EQ would do the trick, and if you have any reverb on the bass drum itself, I would take that off. The reverb on everything else sounds sweet. The cymbals and toms sound great to me!

Bane of All Existence
Member
Since: Mar 27, 2003


Apr 27, 2003 11:03 am

i wish i could play with each mic as its own track, but the drum tracks are just a stereo track coming from a mixer. thanks!

a.k.a. Porp & Mr. Muffins
Member
Since: Oct 09, 2002


Apr 27, 2003 11:11 am

Hmmm... What mixer and what sound card are you using to record?

Chief Cook and Bottle Washer
Member
Since: May 10, 2002


Apr 27, 2003 12:36 pm

You've got some really clean sound there. My critique is a little limited today as I am on the laptop and the speakers are poor obviously. The improtant thing to me is that I hear each "voice" clearly and not muddied with each other. How you "spice" with fx and such is a matter of taste, but you have done a nice job of capturing the raw material to work with. A few more pay jobs and you can get a mixer and soundcard with more more more seperate channels and next thing you know you'll be complaing about your clients, frustrated with the last minute changes, comtemplating becoming a free lance photographer. LOL

Nice job!

Bane of All Existence
Member
Since: Mar 27, 2003


Apr 27, 2003 01:30 pm

Porpoise...i took special care to include the gear i use in the first post. the appropriate paragraph starts with "i EQ'd".

Walt...thanks! you're right - i hope to get a 1010 or something like that. i'm not particularly preoccupied with becoming a pro engineer. i just want to have control over my band's demos, my own demos, and the demos of whatever friends don't want to go pay enormous sums of money for someone to put mics up and press record.

i have to admit that i'm kind of frustrated with this one. i spent 7 hours from start to finish on the drums with far longer to go on the other instruments, and i'm only getting paid $125. i care a lot how this comes out, but it's such effort for peanuts. in addition, these individual guys could have been more ready to record. i'd rather them learn that fact from $125 me rather than $3,000 "let's get a good EP" guy.

Chief Cook and Bottle Washer
Member
Since: May 10, 2002


Apr 27, 2003 10:29 pm

Yeh, Some of us do it for free for the oppurtunity to learn, some pay college tuition. You're getting some positive cash flow. Maybe only a buck an hour but still, a buck an hour. That's cool in my books!

Contributor
Since: Sep 09, 2002


Apr 28, 2003 07:05 am

sounds great. both the playing and the recording. $125 is nothing compared to the experience.

a.k.a. Porp & Mr. Muffins
Member
Since: Oct 09, 2002


Apr 28, 2003 02:20 pm

Oh gee, you're right, Minkus. Stupid, stupid, stupid me... I guess we all forget to read thoroughly now and then. I thought I checked your post for the info before I did that last post. Well, I guess I didn't look carefully enough. Anyways, good luck with the recording. It is nice to be able to fool around with the EQ and effects after they're tracked, but you should be fine. I'd like to hear some of the stuff you get recorded. And yeah, so far I've done all my stuff for free. It's fun (depending on who you work with), and some times they might surprise you and offer you some cash afterwards :-)

Contributor
Since: Dec 30, 2002


Apr 28, 2003 07:23 pm

I usually charge about £160 for demos that I do for bands now - I've done 3 bands so far and I'm starting to get a bit of a (positive!) reputation.

But, as mentioned earlier, it's the experience which is the main benefit - the cash mearly covers the headaches.

jues.

Bane of All Existence
Member
Since: Mar 27, 2003


May 04, 2003 09:27 pm

hey just to update on this, i've got the bass and most of the two guitarists down. it's a scratch mix, but it's pretty interesting. got some more guitars to do along with vocals.

64.147.14.11:801/BSROCKS

for the guitars, i did the SM57/condenser mic combo. we used a fender 40 watt combo, an ashdown combo (both tube), and sometimes used a boss distortion pedal and an old morley distortion pedal. i'm freaking exhausted!

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