Acoustic Drums for Metal: A Guide

A true guitarist (especially in metal for fuck sake) should be able to lock in with a metronome and play along with a simple 4/4 time signature all day long. But same goes for drummers. I just think it is convienient to pass of the responsibility of "time keeper" to the drummer and bassist when in truth as a band it is everyones responsibility to not suck.
 
Reminds me of something I read once:

Robert Fripp was rehearsing for a tour with the Sylvian/Fripp project and the drummer Jerry Marotta started keeping time on his hi-hat during a solo guitar section of a song where everyone else drops out. Fripp then asked him what the hell he was doing, and Marotta said he was keeping time for everyone so they'd know when to come back in. Fripp then said that if anyone can't keep their own time, they've got no business playing with him. Dictator-like, but appropriate....
 
GuitarGodgt said:
A true guitarist (especially in metal for fuck sake) should be able to lock in with a metronome and play along with a simple 4/4 time signature all day long. But same goes for drummers. I just think it is convienient to pass of the responsibility of "time keeper" to the drummer
Click to expand...

I don't agree with that at all. The drummer plays the beat, and the rest of the band play to that beat. If you're in an orchestra, you play to the tempo the conductor dictates, not a metronome - and that changes with every performance. In a studio fair enough, a drummer should use a click track (though largely because it makes editing easier), but the rest of the band should play to the drums and not the click People are more likely to notice if a band is tight than whether it's perfectly in time. Everything in the metalcore scene, no matter how well recorded, sounds lifeless to me because all the bands are more interested in being precise than in actually feeling the music they're playing. Very few of the really classic metal records are perfectly in time - but the bands are so tight it doesn't matter in the slightest. Music is an art, art is a way of expressing emotion - and emotions aren't precise.

Besides, time is only a relative measurement - if you move when you're listening to the CD, even the most accurate recording is out of time relative to you :p

Steve
 
sparkyness said:
Reminds me of something I read once:

Robert Fripp was rehearsing for a tour with the Sylvian/Fripp project and the drummer Jerry Marotta started keeping time on his hi-hat during a solo guitar section of a song where everyone else drops out. Fripp then asked him what the hell he was doing, and Marotta said he was keeping time for everyone so they'd know when to come back in. Fripp then said that if anyone can't keep their own time, they've got no business playing with him. Dictator-like, but appropriate....
Click to expand...
That reminds me the best thought about a band I ever got
" A band is a democracy with a dictator"

On the timekeeping side of things, what I've found is surprising, drummers and bass players are the worst guys in front of a click track, drummers, with time and practice, end up getting it, but bass players are so used to play to a drummer's nuances in playing that makes it harder than any other to keep tight.
Singers have some problems tho.
 
Exactly. Thanks for reinstating my point - The drums ultimately command the time whether done to a click or not.

Reminds me a quote Glenn said to me once: "Music is art, if you want perfection then take up mathematics"
 
For what it's worth, the last project I worked on was to a click... and it made life very, very easy. The band spent a month practising to a metronome before they came in & it really paid off. I think clicks are going to be mandatory around here from now on. Even with a click, the drummer will push & pull the beat slightly, which is fine by me.
 
KeithRT99 said:
i saw robert fripp live with porcupine tree, my god was it boring. he had cool tone though.
Click to expand...

I think he does mostly ambient/soundscape stuff when he plays on his own, doesn't he?

He shreds like a motherfucker in King Crimson, though...
 
is a mxl990 good for OH? a friend of mine has one and he uses it as OH mic but he got only one and i'm intending on buying a condenser mic to record vocals at home and i could use it on his studio doing a stereo OH ...
 
KeithRT99 said:
i've used the mxl 2000 as a mono overhead, and used it on vocals and acoustic guitar. it's a really good mic for the money.
Click to expand...

I have a pair of 603 but they're a bit harsh. I didn't like them for overheads (use c414 XL matched pair) but they sound decent for ride, bell etc.

I'm waiting to next session to try them as room mics.
 
the mxl seems be quite good for the price and it sounds decent for some ppl, ill try it as matched stereo pair for OH. My friend uses it as mono and it sounds quite decent but his drumkit sux tho. I liked it the way the rack tons sounded in the last record i did there (follow the link below and hear to it), fat, good botton end and smooth sound! I think in stereo will be much better...

I also have looked at a behringer B1 but is it a good idea to use different mics for stereo OH?

Where She Wept is the behringer C2 any good?
 
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