My Best Natural Drum Sound... So Far

[cfh11]

I absolutely suck at drums so I had a buddy of mine play some random beats when he was over. Then I improvised some sloppy guitar and bass over it. Thoughts on the mix (esp the drums)??



edit: better mix posted

 

[bryan_kilco]

Mix is....ehh...muddy to say the least. Drums don't sound bad from what I can tell, but a tighter performance and better mix is needed to really judge a mix.

 

[cfh11]

i was originally going to use that guitar tone for a mastodon-esque song so i dont think it is the best fit. well aware that the playing sucks.... i only spent about 15 minutes total on tracking guitar, bass, and throwing a quick mix together and riffs were made up on the spot. just thought i would throw it out there since it seems like all anyone posts these days is superior/SSD drums.

 

[cfh11]

playing is not much better on this one but i think the guitar tone fits a little better

 

[cfh11]

bump... any input on the drum sound? i am trying to work on getting it as good as i can without resorting to samples.

 

[Charles J]

OH's are severaly out of phase as well as any spot mics you have on the cymbals. kick / snr sound fine phase wise.... but the overheads turn essentially mono and very nasty and smeary...messy, ya know?

 

[jarrysopa1984]

It would help if you can upload the drums without the guitars, which are very distracting to say the least.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Yeah, agreed with the above posts. The source tones don't sound bad (drums) but work on that mic placement. And ..... for the love of god, play the parts tighter! it's almost impossible to judge a mix with playing that is sloppy.

 

[cfh11]

thanks guys i appreciate it. will upload the solo'd drums. i know the bass/guitar is awful i just posted that to show how the drums sound in the mix.

OH's are severaly out of phase as well as any spot mics you have on the cymbals.

no spot mics used... just 2 OH and a room mic. i thought i time aligned everything but maybe i missed something...

 

[cfh11]

here is the drum stem



the room is not great, but i feel like i should be getting way better results with the equipment i have. the thing that kills me the most is the kick... i can hear what i want it to sound like in my head but i cant get the mix right.

 

[MartijnPaauwe]

The drumsounds do sound quite allright to my ears, a bit dull but allright. OH's do sound like they are placed wrong, it sounds like they are cancelling each other out because of the phase issues

 

[cfh11]

just realized i used a template from a different session and the phase switch was on one of the OH tracks (doh!)... i think it sounds much better now:

 

[AllanD]

The kick sounds pretty sweet to me, and so do the toms! The snare is just dull, which is possibly due to not micing the bottom. What did you mic the kick with? The overheads sound mono for some reason.

 

[RedDog]

If you don't have a top snare mic, just mic the bottom. You'll get plenty of snare in the overheads. Those toms could use work tuning-wise to my ears. what are the shell dimensions?

 

[cfh11]

The kick sounds pretty sweet to me, and so do the toms! The snare is just dull, which is possibly due to not micing the bottom. What did you mic the kick with? The overheads sound mono for some reason.

thanks man! kick is the trusty audix d6. i think the mono room mic is messing up the stereo image... next time i will definitely add stereo room mics and a bottom snare mic.

Those toms could use work tuning-wise to my ears. what are the shell dimensions?

toms are 12/13/16 i think. i didnt have time to tune them before this recording so im sure that could use some work. waiting for my next paycheck so i can pick up a drumbot

any other ideas on how to improve the drums?

 

[cfh11]

bump.. any other thoughts on the drum stem in post 12?

 

[Death and the Lament]

Sounds fine for raw tracks. Come on, cut out some fuckin low end!

So if you want that kick to sound tighter in its own range you might wanna low cut FQs below at least 30-40hz. Cut out any snare frequencies under 80hz let's say to start with then work your way higher and see how much you can take out while leaving the snare punch and body there.

If you wanna use room/OH tracks you're gonna have to learn where the right hi and lo passes can be made to keep the sound of the kit glued together with your spot mics, while not sounding like they were recorded in some guy's garage. Great for rock n roll, not for intricate metal parts.

Don't over compress your overheads if those are your only source of recorded cymbals, as these will be important and if you crush them down with the entire kit in the track, all your high end will get lost in the lack of headroom you built yourself.

Most raw drum tracks sound like dogshit these days.
We are wizards, not engineers

 

[cfh11]

Sounds fine for raw tracks. Come on, cut out some fuckin low end!

So if you want that kick to sound tighter in its own range you might wanna low cut FQs below at least 30-40hz. Cut out any snare frequencies under 80hz let's say to start with then work your way higher and see how much you can take out while leaving the snare punch and body there.

HP on the kick is at 50hz and at almost 200hz on the snare so i dont know what to tell you there. what are you listening on?

If you wanna use room/OH tracks you're gonna have to learn where the right hi and lo passes can be made to keep the sound of the kit glued together with your spot mics, while not sounding like they were recorded in some guy's garage. Great for rock n roll, not for intricate metal parts.

i didnt use any spot mics. HP/LP on the room track is around 500 and 4khz and around 200/12khz on the OH tracks with some of the resonant frequencies cut out... any specific suggestions on the "right" HP and LP?

Don't over compress your overheads if those are your only source of recorded cymbals, as these will be important and if you crush them down with the entire kit in the track, all your high end will get lost in the lack of headroom you built yourself.

OHs are very lightly compressed, room track is smashed. i have A/B'd the OH tracks with and without compression and the difference is minimal.

Most raw drum tracks sound like dogshit these days.
We are wizards, not engineers

huh?

 

[Nadler]

that's really sad...
In the 80s drum machines killed the drums.
in 2010's drum replacements killed the drums.

STOP killing drums!!

learn to record it right or spend some money on a studio.
+ if everyone is replacing original audio tracks and quantizing everything why even use real drums? use electronic.

 

[AllanD]

i think the mono room mic is messing up the stereo image... next time i will definitely add stereo room mics and a bottom snare mic.

I've also had extremely bad results with the single room mic; it destroys the stereo width indeed.