Live drum recording (raw tracks inside) - plz give me some help, opinions, tips etc.

[Zool2107]

Our drummer just got his new drumset, and we've started to record one of our song to try out his new drums. I have a little experience in drum recording (about 12 bands' demo projects), and I always feel that I'm doing something wrong in the recordings. I'm feeling that I have to much bleeding in the mics - especially on the toms, and I'm having hard time to "make" a good tom sound.

Can you please listen to the raw tracks of this little demo recording, and give advice, tips, opinions? Is the bleed level in the mics are normal, or should I try to mic differently? Is the toms sounding good or awful - what processing do they need?

The drum is a Tama Superstar with new skins not the stock ones - those were awful (coated skins, I think they're Remo, but not sure). The mics are:
- Audix D6 on the kick
- Audix i5 on the snare
- Sennheiser e604's on the toms (2 rack and 1 floor tom)
- Shure SM57 on the 2nd floor tom
- Beyerdynamic Opus 83's as overheads
- Studio Projects B1 as room mic (about 4 meters (13 feet) away from the kit)

The song is in 132 bpm and 3/4 time signature, there are 9 consolidated 24 bit wav files in the zip file. You can download it here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1293643/corrodal-drums.zip

Thanks in advance for any help and/or advice you can give!

 

[Zool2107]

Come on, about 60 views and no one has any opinion?
Maybe I should try the magic little guy: how do get some attention here? ¯\(°_o)/¯

 

[arv_foh]

post a mixed version

 

[Zool2107]

post a mixed version

Here is a quick mix of it:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1293643/corrodal-drum-mix.zip

 

[lolzgreg]

Why don't you just dropbox the mp3 sample?

Anyhow,

The drums sound pretty punch. Not bad at all.

I think the decay of the verb on the snare is way too long, but that may be because it's solo'd.

I think this is a good start. I would retune the toms; they don't sound too great to me.

 

[zackpennington]

Turn the overheads down, they sound great though.

 

[Morgan C]

Drums sound really nice.
Overheads could use less drums in them, more cymbals, but they're not too bad.
Snare is a little thin.
Kick sounds great.
Toms :/ tuning is a big problem here.
Room is good.

 

[Zool2107]

Thanks for the tips!
So it's not mainly the micing tech the problem on the toms, but we should retune the them. I don't know too much about drum tuning. Once I viewed a movie about drum tuning, it was like 1.5 hours long, but I cannot understand a lot of things from it, because english is not my native language, and I'm not a drummer Our drummer knows more about tuning than me, I will tell him, that he should retune the toms.
After the tuning (I hope that our drummer can do it right) I will re-record this song, and after that I will refine the drum mix and the reverb.
Thanks again for all your advice!

 

[scorpio01169]

Thanks for the tips!
So it's not mainly the micing tech the problem on the toms, but we should retune the them. I don't know too much about drum tuning. Once I viewed a movie about drum tuning, it was like 1.5 hours long, but I cannot understand a lot of things from it, because english is not my native language, and I'm not a drummer Our drummer knows more about tuning than me, I will tell him, that he should retune the toms.
After the tuning (I hope that our drummer can do it right) I will re-record this song, and after that I will refine the drum mix and the reverb.
Thanks again for all your advice!

I don't know how music stores over seas works but if your drummer doesn't know how to tune his drums he should take them to the nearest store that sells drums and see if they have a drum tech. I know Guitar Center and Sam Ash charges $20 for that.

 

[Zool2107]

I don't know how music stores over seas works but if your drummer doesn't know how to tune his drums he should take them to the nearest store that sells drums and see if they have a drum tech. I know Guitar Center and Sam Ash charges $20 for that.

Unfortunately the nearest music store with drum tech is about 100 miles away from here. I told the drummer to check if he can lend or buy a drum tuner (that tension meter stuff), and I will force him to watch that movie about drum tuning I mentioned in my previous post

 

[ahjteam]

Check Bob Gatzen tuning videos from youtube, they're pretty nice



more at http://www.youtube.com/user/prodrumtips

 

[Zool2107]

Check Bob Gatzen tuning videos from youtube, they're pretty nice

more at http://www.youtube.com/user/prodrumtips

Thank you!

 

[Morgan C]

Here are some raw tom samples I did with a 57. The toms were tuned very well, with new heads, but the mics were just thrown up and I sampled, so they're not perfect.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/324723/T1---1.mp3
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/324723/T2---1.mp3
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/324723/T3---1.mp3


I'm surprised you can tune snare and kick fine but struggle with toms. Toms are the easiest to tune! Kick is so low you can barely hear the tone and snare just has so many variables.