Acoustic Drums for Metal: A Guide

the overall feel of this mix reminds of me older testament...i was listening to practice what you preach at work tonite
 
cobrahead1030 said:
practice what you preach is one of the most underrated guitar albums ever!
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I love the honky bass tone on that album. Back in the day, many dude's hated that sound, but in those days you could barely hear bass on the majority thrash albums (e.g. And Justice For All) with the exception of Cliff, Dave Ellefson and Greg from Testament.
 
Got a month long layoff coming up in the new year.... Meaning I'll finally have the time to wrap this thread up. New methods, conclusions, & a few other tidbits. Stay tuned.
 
I stopped playing drums for 15 years after being in metal bands for years in the 80s when i finally got back into it 1 yr ago all had changed i have now just joined a metal band which id call retro 80s metal with a modern edge just wanting to know what you consider a good metal sounding drum im currently playing a sonor kit with paiste cymbols which i consider to be just above entry level as i didnt have intesion of joining a band when i got them i want a good sound for live gigs and studio
thanks Nitemare
 
It shouldn't die, Oz is a badass and has made everything about picking up drums a hell of a lot easier. It's not like the endless Trivium-bashing that just makes people want to die, there's enough stuff in here to make anything feel accessible. I'm going to start recording drums myself before too long (as soon as I can bloody play them and afford the mics I'm up) and it's really good to have this kind of thing around.

Nitemare, Carey and McBrain can make Sonor drums sound like everything I'd ever want to hear in drums, so although I'm far from an expert on this I think you're safe - I do know, however, that having them tuned, using good skins, and beating the fuck out of them with big sticks will help you out.

Jeff
 
I still can't get an ideal kick sound down. I've read Oz' drum guide extensively, but having the mic on-axis with the beater point inside the drum, around 10 inches back just gives me a really thin sound. No body, none of the nice metal click either.

Sure I don't have access to a D6 at this point and have mainly been using a D112 and Beta52, but I just can't do it.

My best results were using a Sennheiser e901, which doesn't involve mic placement in the traditional sense.

If anybody could put up some samples of an unedited/unmixed bass drum, I'd be mucho grateful. All I seem to be able to get is a dull thud, which I then need to EQ into something remotely useful.
 
nerogtr said:
It sounds like your primary reason for using side-chaining (to a compressor, correct?) is to reduce the influence of the snare in the kick and overhead tracks. Can you please explain why? From my experience (which is infinitely less than yours :loco: ), the snare isn't a problem in the kick mic. I also thought the snare in the overheads was a GOOD thing. What if the snare and kick are hitting at the same time (faster double bass parts)? Sorry, I don't doubt that you are doing a good thing, I just have no experience with this mix technique and am looking for a few dots to be connected so I understand whats going on.

ps- I just spent like 2 hours reading through the whole thread. Thanks for all the great info! Is there a way to make a new (locked and sticky) thread with only your posts (sorry if there already is, I'm new here)? Some of the replies were extremely valuable (i know you and your new spaced pair for OH's agree), but now that I've read it all it would be nice to have just your posts as a reference. :headbang:
Click to expand...

Well if the snare sounds like crap, and you replace it and leave the original in the OHs. It'll still sound like crap. you'll have to duck the snare hit in the oh's to hear the replaced snare properly. It's a bitch because of hard hitting drummers. kickass tool, a bit of a pain if you use Nuendo or Cubase though.
 
About the sidechaining issue:

I'm using it primarily to control the amount of snare in the OH's, mainly to fine tune things. One of the best snares I've ever got (according to a client, NOT me) was by stomping pretty goddamn hard on the overheads & mainly getting that close head/stick sound on the snare. Then again, it really depends on the band/song. Sometimes I really like a lot of snare in the Overheads. "It depends" is the best answer I can give.


As for sidechaining in the kick mic: I compress the living snot out of my kicks. I mean, really, really, compressed. This brings the snare bleed up to an unacceptable level, to the point where it really effects the mix in a bad way by interfering with the snare mic. I find that by sidechaining the kick mic using the snare mic as the key input, it'll keep that bleed under control, & then I can compress the kick with a plugin & be happy with things. As for double bass runs, yeah, it steps on the kick a bit, but so what? It gets the kick out of the way so you can hear the snare.

-0z-
 
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