How do keep drummer sane?!?

[bryan_kilco]

We all know that trying to get the perfect takes can be tedious and frustrating at times.

Our band is recording our first full-length now and I always run into some stressful situations while tracking drums. Maybe our drummer is just more hot-headed than your average person, but goddamn.....

We'll hit a rough part of a track and he starts to get frustrated and really pissed off, saying things like "This is the best you'll get out of me. I can't do it any better, just program the drums", etc. Sometimes sticks will get thrown or cymbals will get smashed extremely hard.

It seriously hurts the progress and it puts me in a totally horrible mood and I feel like just walking out. If I say "Let's take 5, get outside, have a toke" etc, most of the time the reaction is "that won't help me here, we need to keep at this"....but at that point it's like beating a dead horse.

Anyone have any tips on how to keep a drummer positive, motivated, and in overall good spirits?

 

[Wishx]

Drummer jokes will set you free:zombie:

 

[juarez]

That's a tough one. Recording in small sections can help. More editing, but its worth it if it keeps him from burning out. Also, is there a chance he is trying to play above his ability? There's nothing wrong with writing super technical parts and everything if it fits the song, but if he can't do it consistently and reliably then maybe he needs to simplify his parts a little. I'd rather hear a really tight groovy drummer over a technical but sloppy drummer.

He might not want to hear this advice at first, but once he realizes how liberating it can be to play within one's means it could change the way he approaches writing his parts.

Or you need to tell him to quit bitching and do his job

 

[bryan_kilco]

We've been doing the songs in small sections to get the best possible takes. I hate editing drums and I can't seem to slip edit an entire song without getting all sorts of noticeable crossfade points. He doesn't exactly play out of his means, but I think that during regular band practice, he doesn't notice himself screwing up and we don't practice to a click so he thinks he's playing correctly.

Example of yesterdays session:

Tempo is 140 for a big chunk of the song, then it enters a fast blast part. He prefers the click to be at 280 to keep the feel better. Which was ridiculous. Ok, so the tempo is too fast for this part, so we slow it down to 260 (really it's 130, I guess) and we struggled through the part and didn't even finish it.

But yes - LOTS of bitching and complaining and I can't throw stones because I can't play drums like he can. It just makes the process unsettling and awkward, kind of.

 

[BLUElightCory]

I think the best way to handle this is just preparation. Lots of pre-production practices, let the drummer know what to expect (i.e. it's not always easy and you'll get frustrated, but work through it). The running joke at my studio is "it's not easy winning Grammys." For some reason it puts things in perspective and keeps things fun. Keep things light and relaxed, take plenty of breaks, etc. Sometimes a 10 minute break can be a thousand times more productive than 10 minutes of a frustrated musician banging his head against the wall.

If all else fails, one thing that has helped me in the past is to track without the kick drum and then program it. It's easier to sell to a drummer, since it has practical implications (ease of editing, flexibility with changing kick accents if needed, etc.) and still allows the sound of real drums on the recording. Just something to consider.

 

[bryan_kilco]

I know what you mean about a 10 minute break. Usually helps a lot!

I brought up recording just his hands and no feet but he didn't like that idea.

Just hate weird stupid little things. We've played this one song for probably 2 years now. This is our very first time recording it. Didn't really do any pre-pro. Come to a breakdown part, and he is adding extra kick hits in between chugs which makes it sound sloppy and sort of undefined. You'd think it was the end of the world when I told him to try to play single hits instead of doubles. Because "This is how I've always played it, your scratch guitars must be wrong."...... GGRRRRRR!!!

We do end up working through it, but it grinds my gears knowing we can't finish 1 full song of drums in about 4 hours.

 

[lanky noob]

Do a ross robinson and throw potted plants at him, then when he stops fucking up and gets it right, tell him it's shit, he's shit, and make him do it again

Same frustrating and annoying procedure, absolutely awesome results

 

[UncleBob]

How good is your drummer?

 

[bryan_kilco]

How good is your drummer?

I consider him pretty good. He's just more of a robotic player rather than loose and groovy.

But he hates recording with a passion more and more each time we do it. I think he gets it in his head that it's gonna suck and he psych's himself out or something.

 

[BLUElightCory]

How good is your drummer?

It honestly sounds like it's less a question of technical skill and more a question of maturity. He's not looking at the big picture.

 

[Max Morton]

Man, that sounds bad. Yeah, I've met such drummers (and such musicians in general). But I always SINCERELY told them that by behaving like that, they ruin the workflow. And it's never a good thing to do. He is not the only one person trying to be creative over there.
What I'm always trying to explain in such situations, is that we're working on the RESULT. Neither we're comparing our egos, nor we're proving who's right here and who's wrong. It's too late for that. Right now we're a team and we have one aim. "So please be constructive in anything you do or say, man".

Quite honestly, that's why I record electronic kick with live drumset in like 80 percent cases. Fixing hands then just literally re-editing kick completely.

He's the band member. He should not HARM the band! Tell it to him. He acts like he just does not know what he's doing. That's wrong and it won't lead anywhere.

 

[Studdy]

to: Bormoleos Van Drill

What is generally your setup to achieve programmed kicks with real hands?
Roland kick drum? If so do drummers complain that the kick feels "unnatural"?. Im triggering my real kick with a roland kick trigger but the kick still bleeds into the overheads and other mics.

Thanks.

 

[Max Morton]

to: Bormoleos Van Drill

What is generally your setup to achieve programmed kicks with real hands?
Roland kick drum? If so do drummers complain that the kick feels "unnatural"?. Im triggering my real kick with a roland kick trigger but the kick still bleeds into the overheads and other mics.

Thanks.

Ah, I just use Roland KD-8. It needs some 20 minutes for the drummer to get used to and in many cases - to love it. It's not audible in the overheads, I just put an instance of Centipeak Protrig on the track, turn on the monitoring and send the midi signal from Protrig to Kontakt with selection of nice kick sample libraries. Handy as hell.

 

[Terminus]

Hahah. Oh man that totally reminds me of tracking the drummer i used to jam with. I pushed the guy so hard he quit the band and now doesnt have a kit. We're still friends but I feel slightly guilty for that.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Hahah. Oh man that totally reminds me of tracking the drummer i used to jam with. I pushed the guy so hard he quit the band and now doesnt have a kit. We're still friends but I feel slightly guilty for that.

He "threatens" to sell his kit on Craigslist just about every session. Jokingly, of course.

I don't push him extremely hard. I try to take a relaxed approach and give him the time he needs between takes to recover. We're tracking in a shit room and obviously don't want to be running a fan down there on him.

I have his big fan set up on me at my station.

 

[mstone564]

I just want to say I HATE drummers that can't play what they write. I would much rather them play something that fit the song rather than stumbling through a ridiculous part.

 

[Trevoire520]

Being honest he just needs to chill the fuck out and practice to pre-recorded click & scratch guitar ahead of recording. But mainly chill out and stop making it so stressful for himself.

 

[anotherpaul]

drummers that can't play what they write

Yeah. And bass players that can't hear themselves when they play so they turn shit up.

I guess that's beginners' problems. I write stuff that I can't sing sometimes too, and I get attached to it so it's hard to simplify the parts and I usually end up spending an hour to get the perfect take. But I record myself alone so at least I don't piss off my bandmates and waste money.

 

[smy1]

The real question is actually: why are you recording with him if he can't do it? If your band (which includes the drummer) is not at the level where you guys can record, why record? If everyone else is at a good level, either kick out the drummer or make him practice more. Your description of him (robotic, doesn't practice to click, etc.) does not sound like he's especially awesome to start with.

 

[MotherEel]

Threaten that you'll get Bostaph.

We've had a drummer that would often say the "but that's how it's always been played". We basically let him get his part the way he thought it would be and re-wrote the guitar parts to fit. We could spend more time rehearsing etc. Also made those riffs that little more special because they are oddly timed etc.