Drum mic setup - drummer being awkward!

[Where She Wept]

If he keeps compaining ask him how his skirt doesn't get caught in his bass drum pedal.

Seriously though, tell him you trying to make him sound good, if he doesn't listen mic him as best you can and go with that. THEN when he starts crying 'cuz his drums sound like shit. Tell him he should've listened. You're lucky, my buddies drummer doesn't even own the drumset and hasn't changed the drum heads in 4 years, The bassist even went out a bought a pair of Iron Cobras for him to use, and the drummer won't even spen $5 for a cheap pair of sticks. They buy sticks for him too.

Then he has the balls to say "the band is nothing without him"!

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Of course, one thing to consider would be that perhaps your drummer is playing a little bit of "crybaby subterfuge" in a sad attempt to cover his inadequacies behind the kit. Just a thought.

A good session drummer is willing to work with the engineer to achive the best balance of sound/performance. One that thows up roadblocks isn't worth the grief. Give him a kick mic, two overheads, and say "Ok smart guy...there you go. Nothing is in your way, now make the kit sound great. If John Bonham could do it, why couldn't a player of your obviously limitless talents do it?"

-0z-

 

[dreamcatcher]

Give him a kick mic, two overheads, and say "Ok smart guy...there you go. Nothing is in your way, now make the kit sound great. If John Bonham could do it, why couldn't a player of your obviously limitless talents do it?"

-0z-

then he says "But these aren't EarthWorks!"

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

as far as stick marks go, he's a ridiculously heavy hitter, always has been - he cracks cymbals constantly and in the last month has gone through a kick skin and a tom skin.

Then he needs lessons because cymbols don't break when you hit them correctly and they aren't meant to go any louder than they are designed to. Plus it's just plain fucking exspensive to break them, and cracked cymbols sound like shit. As far as going through heads again hit the drum right and they don't break that often. I replace drum heads when they are worn, not when they are broken. And I have never broken a cymbol because I bothered to learn how to hit them.

BTW trigger the cym, thats amazing....

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Our drummer hits hard also, and he is imature. But he at least has sense enough to listen to the engineer (not me) when it comes to tuning etc...

 

[006]

To sort of elaborate on Oz's post, a good session drummer knows that the engineer is the engineer for a reason. If your drummer knows so fucking much, let him run the whole show on the drums. Let him mic them up, let him do whatever it is he wants. Let him record them, let him mix them. When it turns out like utter fucking crapola on a silver platter, then you can say "now let me show you what I wanted to do", when that sounds 100x better, he'll shut his fucking mouth. Well, hopefully anyway.

It sounds like this guy hangs on lingo and buzz words way too fucking much without knowing the slightest bit of info behind any of it. Honestly I know that I personally would be seeking a new drummer if the entire ordeal never gets resolved, I wouldn't put up with that bullshit for very long.

~e.a

 

[006]

And to answer your request for info on why mic'ing from the inside only is a bad idea - here's a though: the attack from the stick hitting the skin. Yes it can be heard from inside the drum...but it's not the same as mic'ing from the outside and getting it. That transient has to pass through the drum head, and to the mic when it's from the inside...when mic'ed properly you get the attack immediately to the mic, with nothing but air to travel through.

~e.a

 

[cobrahead1030]

it would be an un-needed trouble (but sometimes these things are necessary to shut someone up) but you could do an a/b test with miking the drums from above like normal, and then from inside with the bottom skins off

most people with half a brain and half an ear aren't gonna say the mics inside sound better