People dont tend to post about real drums much here, at least not for the questions im asking. Im wondering if anyone scoops room mics? I always try to get my drums to sound as close to slate drums as i can, they are so polished. And when people scoop, what frequencies do they aim for and do they do this individually, or on the drum bus?
Live Drums, Scooping What and Where
- Thread starter jackobme
- Start date
It's a case-to-case basis.
Kick: I pull a lot of 500-800hz
Snare: I notch out 400 and 700hz, generally (tuning-dependent).
Toms: It's really based on the tuning and the actual shells. I pull a lot of mid and low-mid. For rock, I leave some body; for metal, it's all about attack (4.5k-8k).
Overheads: Totally dependent on the room and music style.
Hats: Just get them to sit with the overheads
Ride: Same
China: Same
Rooms: all about the vibe. I can't really give specifics here, it's really source and song dependent.
Hope that helps a bit.
Kick: I pull a lot of 500-800hz
Snare: I notch out 400 and 700hz, generally (tuning-dependent).
Toms: It's really based on the tuning and the actual shells. I pull a lot of mid and low-mid. For rock, I leave some body; for metal, it's all about attack (4.5k-8k).
Overheads: Totally dependent on the room and music style.
Hats: Just get them to sit with the overheads
Ride: Same
China: Same
Rooms: all about the vibe. I can't really give specifics here, it's really source and song dependent.
Hope that helps a bit.
Don't be afraid to get weird with the room mics. Sometimes they just don't fit the production, even if they room sounds amazing.
Here's an example of the rooms working really well with a kit. The rooms were hit with an 1176, a bit of a HP filter, and a 10K shelf down 2-3 db. No reverb on this kit:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/42828743/WORK%20SAMPLES/JANUS/JORDON%20DRUM%20EDIT%201.wav
The room mics were a close pair of U47's and the far mic was an AKG C24. Drums were tracked at Groovemaster in Chicago. You can listen to those drums in-the-mix on the track "In Flames" by Janus off of their second record Nox Aeris.
Here's an example of the rooms working really well with a kit. The rooms were hit with an 1176, a bit of a HP filter, and a 10K shelf down 2-3 db. No reverb on this kit:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/42828743/WORK%20SAMPLES/JANUS/JORDON%20DRUM%20EDIT%201.wav
The room mics were a close pair of U47's and the far mic was an AKG C24. Drums were tracked at Groovemaster in Chicago. You can listen to those drums in-the-mix on the track "In Flames" by Janus off of their second record Nox Aeris.
I always EQ room mics with the rest of the drum mix going. Bring the room track you want to EQ up in volume quite a bit, and you should find it's quite obvious where it might be sounding boxy/muddy or harsh in relation to the rest of the kit. Doing it that way usually stops me over-EQing and preserves more of the character of the space.
blg84
New Metal Member
It's been a few years, but from what I can remember, I augmented the snare with a couple crack hits we took of that Tama Bell Brass that was used to track, basically to use as a gate trigger and as a blend to deal with some of the hat bleed in the top mic.
There was definitely a one-shot on the kick, but damned if I remember what it was.
There was definitely a one-shot on the kick, but damned if I remember what it was.
bryan_kilco
Member
Fluffbot
I like beef jerky.
With metal I always do a decent rolloff on the overheads/room. Usually around ~500Hz, maybe higher. Boost some tasty areas after sweeping around and getting a feel for the tracked source.
For toms just use a narrowish Q and sweep it around until your ears become happy, sometimes the boxy low-mid frequencies need pretty aggressive EQ.
Snare I usually do a 24db/oct harsh rolloff around 75-100Hz. Boost some high-mids or highs for air sometimes, totally dependent on the source sound.
The kick is a damn free for all as far as I'm concerned, I usually have the natural kick handling the area between 30-300hz and the sampled one on a separate track for 400hz+ (kind of like splitting the bass in two). I find this is much more versatile when balancing thump and attack as you can use different compression, RBass on the low track, different EQs, etc. Pretty easy to coax a great sound out of kicks IMO, they handle EQ wonderfully.
Freq analyzers can help a lot with identifying problem frequencies if your listening environment is not perfect, but always use your ears in the end.
EDIT: Didn't see you were referring to room mics specifically haha, sorry!
Room mics - when i actually use one in metal - are ran through "all buttons in" mode on the BF1176, EQ'd similar to overheads, and run to a drum reverb BUS if i want them to be more spacey!
For toms just use a narrowish Q and sweep it around until your ears become happy, sometimes the boxy low-mid frequencies need pretty aggressive EQ.
Snare I usually do a 24db/oct harsh rolloff around 75-100Hz. Boost some high-mids or highs for air sometimes, totally dependent on the source sound.
The kick is a damn free for all as far as I'm concerned, I usually have the natural kick handling the area between 30-300hz and the sampled one on a separate track for 400hz+ (kind of like splitting the bass in two). I find this is much more versatile when balancing thump and attack as you can use different compression, RBass on the low track, different EQs, etc. Pretty easy to coax a great sound out of kicks IMO, they handle EQ wonderfully.
Freq analyzers can help a lot with identifying problem frequencies if your listening environment is not perfect, but always use your ears in the end.
EDIT: Didn't see you were referring to room mics specifically haha, sorry!
Room mics - when i actually use one in metal - are ran through "all buttons in" mode on the BF1176, EQ'd similar to overheads, and run to a drum reverb BUS if i want them to be more spacey!
