2 drummers/drumsets, 1 song?

[guitarplaya18]

New band of mine has two drummers. One on a normal kit and the other using a few toms and a couple cymbals. For recording purposes we program with superior. So my question is what would be the best way for pan/mix the parts that have both drummers playing? I feel like keeping them both centered would make it seem like one drummer is playing a beat that is impossible. My guess is to pan each drumset to around 50% left and right. Any of you mixed or recorded a song with two drummers before?

 

[nialldoran]

havent done it personally myself although kylesa have two drummers and it just sounds like the kits are spread, one on the right side, one on the left, heres a track so you can hear anyways,

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-islnrxO7c"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-islnrxO7c[/ame]

 

[The Front Studio]

Underoath has done the same on their last record... I think it was Emergency Broadcast: The End Is Near and I think they're panned 100L and 100R

 

[Suicide_As_Alibi]

If there's only kit with a snare/kick, you'd probably want to keep those centred. From there, my instinct would be to have the each drummers toms high to low, centre to left/right, and cymbals mirroring each other as close as possible.

Steve

 

[Jormyn]

Then there's that other band that has two drummers... what were they called... oh right - Slipknot.

And no, I'm not badmouthing either them or the use of two drummers. Just pointing them out as an example to read up on, if you can find anything about how they handle mixing.

 

[abt]

Pan them to sit however they are if you were standing in front of them. If that's 100L 100R then do that.

 

[JayB]

Well Slipknot has a drummer and a percussionist , the other guy is just beating steel drums and shit

 

[guitarplaya18]

thanks for the info guys. Right now I have the main kit centered while it plays and then I pan the main and and 2nd set hard left and right when they are both playing. It sounds good in the beginning, but during the build up part it is sort of weird because the main kit is playing cymbals, kick, and snare while the other kit is doing toms and snare. Sounds funny to me with all the cymbals being panned to one side. I still need to figure out the best way to separate what each drummer is playing between the two kits to give it a more realistic feel.

Here is a clip with all drums panned center, i know it sounds funny and some of the drum programming needs fixing. This is in no way a mix, just bad quality scratch to program drums, try not to laugh too much
I'll try and put up a clip with the drums panned later.
The double drums are at the beginning and just a little past the middle where it sounds like a build up
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7077365/Trials Superior Test 1.mp3

Also, if any of you have double drum ideas and would like to program some, feel free to! I'm using superior and the song is 130 bpm

Thanks

edit: here is another song with double drums, this one has some double drums being programmed over a song with drums already in it, so it sounds a little off at one section. And ignore the fact that the drums for the second half go from 7/4 to 13/4 to 6/4 back to 7/4. That was my attempt to do something cool, and it seems to be failing atm

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7077365/latin superior test 1.mp3

 

[The Front Studio]

thanks for the info guys. Right now I have the main kit centered while it plays and then I pan the main and and 2nd set hard left and right when they are both playing. It sounds good in the beginning, but during the build up part it is sort of weird because the main kit is playing cymbals, kick, and snare while the other kit is doing toms and snare. Sounds funny to me with all the cymbals being panned to one side. I still need to figure out the best way to separate what each drummer is playing between the two kits to give it a more realistic feel.

Here is a clip with all drums panned center, i know it sounds funny and some of the drum programming needs fixing. This is in no way a mix, just bad quality scratch to program drums, try not to laugh too much
I'll try and put up a clip with the drums panned later.
The double drums are at the beginning and just a little past the middle where it sounds like a build up
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7077365/Trials Superior Test 1.mp3

Also, if any of you have double drum ideas and would like to program some, feel free to! I'm using superior and the song is 130 bpm

Thanks

edit: here is another song with double drums, this one has some double drums being programmed over a song with drums already in it, so it sounds a little off at one section. And ignore the fact that the drums for the second half go from 7/4 to 13/4 to 6/4 back to 7/4. That was my attempt to do something cool, and it seems to be failing atm

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7077365/latin superior test 1.mp3

Good ideas though.
On the first song, if you're gonna pan them, maybe you should give the left drum one cymbal as well, just to rule out all of the weirdness.
But, there are several drummers who only play with their cymbals, not hihat, on one side. Especially when they only have 1 cymbal and a ride haha
From your post I understand that you also do a third kit in the middle? Don't do it, you should keep 'm spreaded (if that's spelled incorrect, just tell me)
If I'd do it I'd give each side a full drum kit and let them complement eachother, I might try doing something like that in a song.
Nice guitar work on the first one as well, really love it!

 

[Morgan C]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvjuG_jMF6I&feature=related[/ame]

Both are panned very slightly, like 30L/R, with the obvious flamming showing there's two drummers. And the video, of course. However, with yours there are very different beats on each side, so I dunno. I don't see the point of the second drummer playing some toms and cymbals, it doesn't seem like he's adding anything to the band, he's just making everything more complex and messy. But hey, its not my band.

 

[ze kink]

Enough said.

 

[The Unavoidable]

Well Slipknot has a drummer and a percussionist , the other guy is just beating steel drums and shit

Yeah, they also have a bassist oh wait

 

[The Front Studio]

Yeah, they also have a bassist oh wait

lol

 

[guitarplaya18]

Yeah, they also have a bassist oh wait

haha, damn.

I'm going to keep working on this, hopefully I can get the drummers in here so we can program the stuff how they play. The guessing game is not working out to well for me. I'll keep yall updated

thanks