7 Horns 7 Eyes tracking begins!

Alright, here's a little snippet of the raw drums. No post-EQ or gating or anything... Just a high-pass on the SM91 (kick), a low-pass on the NS10 speaker (kick of course), and a touch of the Neve EQ on the toms on the way in (the 421s were flat).

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/519722/7H7E_rawdrums.wav

I'm pretty pleased with how the overhead spread was captured...a good balanced stereo image, and the Paistes sound really nice and smooth (which can also be attributed to the room, the mics, etc).

Cool of you all to check out the videos! And Loren, thank you for the album purchase, although it's HARDLY comparable to the new stuff :) Different drummer/guitarist, different tuning (7-strings), and a different mindset and influence in songwriting. You've probably already heard those three pre-production songs on the Myspace... I feel like the new record is pretty diverse sounding, while still maintaining cohesiveness. There's a bit of obvious Meshuggah djent-ish influence at times, some really great slow parts, a few mellow parts, good chords and key changes, and just an awful lot of atmosphere/bigness to it. The best songs are the ones that I haven't posted anywhere online yet! Obviously you can all judge it for yourself when it's finished, but I'm very excited about every song, which is a great place to be I think when it comes time to actually record. I always hear about bands talking about how in the past they felt like on previous albums they had some filler songs that they aren't so proud of, and I've never wanted to release anything that makes me feel like that...

Ryan (drummer) does all the video editing, so it was his idea to experiment with the goofy music, and I think it's a pretty funny touch! I believe they're actually just from the stock audio library that comes with iMovie :lol:

PS, Loomis is doing a solo on the record! :headbang:
 
Awesome! Sounds full and smooth, with very nice mids, though I don't how much of the mids will be left after processing. I'm not a fan of the snare but that's a matter of preference. Great job :)
 
Yeah these sounds very mix-friendly. This kit was definitely mic'd VERY well (it also helps that your drummer sounds like he's on time like an atomic clock). I'm sure you'll have fun with them.
 
Those are some very cool studio diary vids. The raw kit sound is quite tremendous, as is your drummer's consistency. I'm not sure I've ever been able to get someone to hit so consistently that it sounds like the kick is actually sampled.
 
I would say that there's definitely gonna be some sampling involved to a certain degree, just because I really like sampled drum sounds (when done well, of course). But yeah, Ryan played really well and hit very consistently, so a lot of the real drum sound/vibe should make it in the mixes! The consistency on the kick is a good combination of his feet, and then the consistent clickiness that the SM91 easily provides.
 
good drumming! cant wait to hear everything man

and yeah.. thnx for replying my comments at ur myspace photo section!! i wud like to get that ride sumday \m/
 
Hey Aaron,

i have some questions about the kick:

- does this clicky sound is really just the sm91 with a highpass (no eq added?)

- do you recorded with high / lo pass?

- and how did you got the sm91 and ns10 phase aligned while recording / monitoring? did you timeadjusted the whole kit to the ns10?

Thanks a lot!
 
sgt.pepper said:
Hey Aaron,

i have some questions about the kick:

- does this clicky sound is really just the sm91 with a highpass (no eq added?)

- do you recorded with high / lo pass?

- and how did you got the sm91 and ns10 phase aligned while recording / monitoring? did you timeadjusted the whole kit to the ns10?

Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...

Yes, all the clickiness comes from the SM91 laying inside of the kick drum. The SM91 comes with its own "preamp" as it's called, which is basically just a detached piece of hardware with a 10dB boost switch as well as a high-pass switch, although I'm not sure what frequency the high-pass operates at. For tracking, I had the high-pass engaged on the mic's preamp, as well as a high-pass on an EQ unit that was patched in on the kick channel with the Manley. I can't remember what frequency, I just used my ears, but I think it was in the 1-2kHz range. In my experience, the SM91 actually sounds bad inside a kick drum if you don't high-pass it, just because it picks up so much gunky, destroyed sounding low and mid frequencies. It's kind of hard to describe, but I've found that the high-pass is a must... Unless my SM91 is broken and I just don't know any different, haha!
I didn't do any phase aligning between the SM91 and the NS10, or any phase aligning anywhere else on the kit, actually. We took good care to get it all in phase just by putting mics in the right places, and it sounds good as is...no audible time delays between mics that I can tell that harm the drum sound in any way. I remember reading somewhere on the forums once actually that it's generally not a good idea to perfectly phase align all the mics after the fact, as it can kind of shrink the overall sound field/depth. If this is correct, perhaps someone else can better articulate the reasoning behind this thinking than I can!
 
Aaron Smith said:
I remember reading somewhere on the forums once actually that it's generally not a good idea to perfectly phase align all the mics after the fact, as it can kind of shrink the overall sound field/depth. If this is correct, perhaps someone else can better articulate the reasoning behind this thinking than I can!
Click to expand...

Think of it like when you're aligning bass to kick hits, and then guitars to that. If you line the transients up to grid perfectly on every track, it just sounds louder, not 'fatter' or 'thicker' - the point of layering tracks in the first place.
 
KeithRT99 said:
IMO it sounds like your sm91 might be broken, I've never had any issues with the mids/lows on the ones i've used.
Click to expand...

Well, I've only noticed it inside a kick drum when all that low end energy is being projected... I wouldn't say it sounds distorted, just kind of nasty. I should post a clip.
 
Sorry if I'm misunderstanding something, but wouldn't a hi-pass at around 1-2khz leave you with just the click? Is all the lowend coming from the ns10?
 
I'm thinking there might be something wrong with the 91 you used as well Aaron. I've used that mic a lot over the years and I've never found it to be harsh or nasty in the mids or lows. That said, I've paired it with a subkick a lot myself since the click is what the 91 excels at.
I'm looking forward to the finished product man!

-Sigurd-
 
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