Weird drum style / drum tuning

Posted on

grrrrrrr
Member Since: Mar 29, 2004

I have decided on how to record drums for my project. Its kind of a weird approach but I'm going to give it a shot. Basically I will let my bass player define the rythm once I have put down the acoustic guitar in tempo. He makes really nice tunes that fit in well with my guitar playing.

Since I have only been playing drums for a few months I do not really feel up to the task of click-tracking from the beginning. Also since I only have 2-ins on the sound card I am going for a really crazy approach: recording one piece of the set at a time.

I am going to start off with the bass drum mic'd with a AKG D112 close up and maybe another mic done in some weird way to give a cool sound. Then I will repeat the process for hi-hat, snare and a bit of toms and ride. What do you guys think about this approach?

One thing I have no competence with is drum tuning. Its already going to take me so long to do 15 songs with this style that I would like to skip this process and do it digitally. Does anyone know how I can tweak the tuning of my drums? I would like to do some funky things to vary them with the music (e.g. kick drum which follows bass also in tonality).

[ Back to Top ]


...bringing sexy back
Member
Since: Jul 01, 2002


Jun 01, 2004 03:58 am

how about recording a drum sound then using something like fruity to make it double up the bassline?

grrrrrrr
Member
Since: Mar 29, 2004


Jun 01, 2004 10:31 am

I want to do it with live drums and track the whole tune. Can I change individual notes with fruity?

Dub head
Member
Since: May 03, 2004


Jun 01, 2004 11:36 am

I don't know Fruit Loops too well but for what I have done I've EQ'd the High Hat for example differently at different times. For example: A live drumer never hits the high hat with the same force, he(or she) will hit harder at different times to create depth and feeling in the percussive sound of the High hat. Sooo... in Fruity Loops, what I've done is create 2-3 tracks for the high hat and using each track as different pitches of my sampled sound (of a high hat). Also, what I've done is doubled up the sampled high hat at say the beginining of each measure or phrase where I wanted more "oumph" behind the high hat. By using 2 tracks (one EQ's with one pitch and other EQ'd at another), it gives the sense of depth. This has worked pretty damn well for me (even though I prefer live drums, but I'm a terrible drummer so what are you going to do?). Unless you have amazing time, recording each drum seperatly at different times may sound very un-connected and fake. Using Fruity Loops will save you alot of time and effort, i promise. I hoped this helped and Goodluck!

Cheers! -Al

punk rock @$$hole
Member
Since: Feb 29, 2004


Jun 01, 2004 12:10 pm

if its a rock song (or not) try it in 2 takes

one take for the kick and snare

one take with a pair of overheads

do the overheads first to get the whole drum sound down enough to play to again just try to get the toms and cymbals to sound good then go back and mic the kick and snare to get those to cut through your OH mix

or mic the whole set and submix it to 2 tracks just do a lot of test recordings so you know the mix is decent for the actual take

hmm quick tuning:

snare: high pop/crack- tighten the hell out of both heads bottom slightly tighter as tight as you can go do same to top and then pull back a 1/4 turn on every lug tighten snares

mellow boom with good cracking definition- dampen top head to taste(tissue,duct tape,bandana)

old phat rock sound- loosen from above tuning 1-3 turns ont top and bottom, bottom being slightly tighter again loosen snares a little again dampen to taste

toms are a pain in the ***.

more resonance tighten bottom i like fairly loose bottoms for an ambient boominess
top heads at about 2/3rds as tight as the snare..enough so its not flopping but not enough so the sticks are bouncing back at you

i try to never dampen haeds on tome unless i need to or am looking for a new sound. bad drums/heads i cant avoid dampening sometimes

with a trained ear i would suggest reading about tuning to the shell and or key of the song....works well for toms

kick drum.

i use way to many kick drum tunings so i dont know where to begin........if all else fails take off the front head. always use a blanket or something if micing from inside or it usualy sounds like poo. place mic 3" outside the hole and you might not need the pillow i like my front head loose my kick side gets played with alot


i play metal so i stick to the tight crack boom sounding snare(the second one in mentioned) fairly loose bass drum with a deep solid punch
and i tune my toms medium loose on bottom and slighty tighter on top

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Jun 02, 2004 07:03 pm

Mauz, if you have a sampler application you can load the kick and whatever drum sound into that. Then you will be able to play it back as whatever note you would like. I have done that kind of thing with many samples and it can add some really kool feel to the music.

grrrrrrr
Member
Since: Mar 29, 2004


Jun 03, 2004 08:27 am

I was hoping to find a program that I could just tweak the drums in. Will probably do Josh's style to get the 4 tracks. But I dont feel like re-tuning the kick and snare every time so I was wondering if there is some program I can use to do this. Maybe fruity loops. Also heard good thigs about LIVE.

Member
Since: Apr 24, 2003


Jun 03, 2004 01:02 pm

mauz, it's really quite hard to record one drum pattern in two completely seperate takes. not impossible, and a fairly left field idea, but not easy!!

i use reason 2.5, because with the drum machine you can alter the volume, pitch, tone, length and velocity for each time you program a hit. it takes a little while, but not too long.

also, you can record you r kit as little wavs and then put them into the drum module in it.

not what you're asking i know, but it's what i'd do fella!

Related Forum Topics:



If you would like to participate in the forum discussions, feel free to register for your free membership.