How do you approach recording drums...?

[The-Zeronaut]

Lately i´ve been thinking about changing my approach when recording drums and i´m in need of advice so...

In your recordings which one of this approaches has been more successful?

1º Record a few takes of the full song and later comp into a "perfect" take

or

2º Record one take as a foundation and punch in the parts that need some work

or maybe you have another approach?


I await for your responses

 

[Melb_shredder]

A bit of both really. Mostly I'll ask for full takes, but get them to put focus on 'problem areas' in certain run throughs. And then if need be, some punch ins if anything really sticks out

 

[mva801]

Completely depends on the band, style and skill of the drummer. Usually with metal drummers it's punching in small parts everywhere because they're usually terrible and can barely play their own songs.

Most other drummers I'll get a whole decent take and maybe punch a few areas.

 

[rapucore]

Usually with metal drummers it's punching in small parts everywhere because they're usually terrible and can barely play their own songs.

+1 Hahaha, so true.

Though, I once got the best results by recording the warm-up round accidentally! The drummer got it almost 99% right.

It was Dream Theater-esque prog metal and the song length was about 13 minutes.
Then we just punched in at a part where he had made a small mistake (nothing drastic) and it was done.

Recording is always easier when the player is under very little to no pressure.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Maybe I'm crazy but I like to start from the beginning and record piece-by-piece. Make sure it's right and move on. I absolutely hate having to listen through entire tracks and picking out mistakes.

 

[anotherpaul]

These approaches can be applied to all other instruments. When I record vocals I ususally ask to do a full "warm-up" take to know where the problem areas are and to write down suggestions and then record part by part.

 

[Nolly]

Maybe I'm crazy but I like to start from the beginning and record piece-by-piece. Make sure it's right and move on. I absolutely hate having to listen through entire tracks and picking out mistakes.

You're not crazy, that's how I work too The drummer can focus entirely on getting the feel right for the section and hitting consistently/hard throughout. I've found drummers need far less editing and I can use next to no samples when they've been tracked this way. You have to be very careful about tuning being consistent through the song though.

 

[JeffTD]

You're not crazy, that's how I work too The drummer can focus entirely on getting the feel right for the section and hitting consistently/hard throughout. I've found drummers need far less editing and I can use next to no samples when they've been tracked this way. You have to be very careful about tuning being consistent through the song though.

Same here. I never got the "record 3 takes and comp them" thing - do it the same way we do gtrs/bass and record the best take possible for each part as it comes.

 

[nialldoran]

Same here. I never got the "record 3 takes and comp them" thing - do it the same way we do gtrs/bass and record the best take possible for each part as it comes.

I tend to do this method when it comes to guitar and bass especially if section changes can be difficult, but for drums i always get maybe three full takes, choose the best one and then do punches, i try not to isolate sections too much to the point of the drummer over thinking them and losing perspective of whats good in the track, very easy to do.

I find that not telling them exactly what part i need them to re-play helps, i'll play them at it and keep the part i needed, punch ins flow better for me when the are played in to.

 

[Machinated]

it really depends on the drummer. most of the time breaking it down into small sections makes more sense but some drummers just get into things way easier playing the whole song. its usually pretty quick to determine which way is working better for the drummer and occasionally it will be a mix of the two.

 

[ze kink]

Several full takes, punching in and continuing from there if the drummer messes up. Maybe punch in some fills later. I mostly do "organic" stuff though.

This thread still got me thinking, since listening to all the takes of all the parts while comping sucks ass. Probably my least favourite part of editing. I think I'll work on optimizing it.

 

[hahallur]

I grew insane tracking each part. I created folders for each run-through and recorded each song 3 times over. After comping the best parts together I punched in the few parts that needed to be played better.

 

[AKoppenheffer]

Start from the top... Play 'til he screws up, punch. If they can't cut it... Then I pull, "Just get your ideas down, and I'll take care of it." No complaints so far. I've lost patience for these unprepared musicians.

 

[Jordon]

5 takes without punching, fairly consistent, but possibly trying different things in each take, ie: hats in the chorus instead of crashes, etc.
1 "victory lap" where the drummer throws in a bunch of off-the-cuff ideas.
A couple takes of problem areas if there are any.

Comp, edit.

Also, seems like a no-brainer, but check the tuning of the kit between each take.

As far as my reasoning behind it: Each section of the song usually calls for a different feel or a subtle dynamic shift in the playing. I've noticed that it's easy for a drummer (or someone playing an acoustic guitar or any other acoustic instrument) to loose sight of the big picture. When they're playing though the whole song, 9 times out of 10, even if they fuck up a part, the overall take is a better fit for the song. I rarely achieve this when working section-by-section with drums. Acoustic guitar is the same thing for me. Bass, electric guitar, vocals, all of that can be done section-by-section most of the time.

 

[AKoppenheffer]

Also, seems like a no-brainer, but check the tuning of the kit between each take.

For sure. Many times you get to the 4th take and the snare is a step or two lower than what it was. Whoops.

 

[ze kink]

For sure. Many times you get to the 4th take and the snare is a step or two lower than what it was. Whoops.

That can work creatively too though. I did a studio live thing once, and the snare broke on the second take of the last song, which dropped the tuning really low on it. I used that take in the ending of the song, which was a really heavy part, and it sounded a lot better than the "right" snare.