Should I use real drums or Superior?

[kylendm]

My drummer went out to this guys space and they recorded his kit. I'm not getting very good results with what they recorded.

How do these OH's sound?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3602793/Audio 16.04_01.wav
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3602793/Audio 15.04_01.wav

The kick is pretty rough too.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3602793/Audio 8.04_01.wav

My question is should we use these or just continue using Superior? My drummer isn't cool with using Superior at all.

I can get pretty good results using Superior (example)

I understand that my drummer wants his drumming and kit recorded but idk If i can get the sound we are hoping for from what he did in this guy's studio

 

[rapucore]

Sloppy playing

OHs picked up a lot of the kit but that can be solved by hipassing them.
And the bass drum is pretty shapeable, what's stopping you?

 

[Fredrik-Ablaze]

Always real drums. Always!

 

[rapucore]

Always real drums. Always!

+1

 

[JeffTD]

OHs picked up a lot of the kit but that can be solved by hipassing them.

We need to stop acting like overheads picking up shells is a bad thing. They're overhead mics - what are you expecting?

Always real drums. Always!

This.

 

[Studdy]

We need to stop acting like overheads picking up shells is a bad thing. They're overhead mics - what are you expecting?



This.

Hey Jeff, little off topic but i really respect your drum editing talents. How often are you dragging the overheads back to line up the close mics? Also are you doing any shifting with other mics (room etc.)

Sorry to thread steal.

 

[rapucore]

We need to stop acting like overheads picking up shells is a bad thing. They're overhead mics - what are you expecting?



This.

I'm not saying that overheads picking up the kit is a bad thing, I've done several projects with just the OHs.
I just assumed he wants to use only most of the cymbals from the OHs.

I don't see (hear) a lot of wrongs in the tracks posted, but I assumed he's used to software drum separation of the cymbals vs the rest od the kit.
Thus saying, that hipassing them would get him more "familiar" results.

 

[kylendm]

You guys think the tracks are doable then? Idk, I just dont want to waste too much time on something that sounds like crap. This is my first time mixing a real kit.

 

[Studdy]

anything is doable , i would be replacing that kick.

 

[rapucore]

You guys think the tracks are doable then? Idk, I just dont want to waste too much time on something that sounds like crap. This is my first time mixing a real kit.

Absolutely doable. Look up everything about mixing real drums on the forum if you haven't got much info.
Valuable info even if they're familiar stuff, but I'm guessing you haven't read into it much.

Great time to start gaining experience on actually recording drums too.

 

[JeffTD]

Hey Jeff, little off topic but i really respect your drum editing talents. How often are you dragging the overheads back to line up the close mics? Also are you doing any shifting with other mics (room etc.)

Sorry to thread steal.

Never. Literally never. I think that's weird. Get the phase right while micing and then leave the tracks alone.

I'm not saying that overheads picking up the kit is a bad thing, I've done several projects with just the OHs.
I just assumed he wants to use only most of the cymbals from the OHs.

I don't see (hear) a lot of wrongs in the tracks posted, but I assumed he's used to software drum separation of the cymbals vs the rest od the kit.
Thus saying, that hipassing them would get him more "familiar" results.

For sure, I'm not specifically ragging on you. It's just a general trend in the scene to use the OH mics as cymbal mics and then rely on parallel compression, room mics, and samples for depth and girth when you could get a lot of that by positioning things a little differently and treating the overhead mics like "kit picture" mics instead of cymbal spots. You know, as overhead mics.

 

[Vice//Versa]

Always real drums. Always!

If the playing is sloppy, the drums don't sound good, and kylendm isin't experienced dealing with those factors I don't understand why he shoulnd't just sample replace

 

[JeffTD]

If the playing is sloppy, the drums don't sound good, and kylendm isin't experienced dealing with those factors I don't understand why he shoulnd't just sample replace

Sloppy playing can/should be edited. Sample replacement =/= programming.

 

[Vice//Versa]

Ohhh... so he means programming the entire thing with superior. I guess he could keep the overheads and transform the shell's waves into midi information... or just edit like and use samples as a complement.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Yeah I thought both of those clips were a bit rough.

 

[kylendm]

I think I'm going to salvage the OHs and program the kick and snare this time around. I got the snare kinda decent and maybe with a different sample mixed it would be alright. The kick isn't salvageable though, in my opinion.

 

[FrankTheSmith]

Use this 0:20

 

[The StabbinCabin]

I don't understand what sounds bad about these takes. Edit the tracks and highpass them a little more than you might to maybe mask the kick during the parts where the little groove part comes in. Boost the highs and you're done. I've had way worse tracks to work with and made them more than decent. These should be no problem.

 

[Jordon]

We need to stop acting like overheads picking up shells is a bad thing. They're overhead mics - what are you expecting?



This.

All of this. Get your overheads sounding awesome first. Room and close-mics should be an accompaniment to the OH's.

Also, Jeff: You have an email, good sir.

 

[rapucore]

I don't understand what sounds bad about these takes. Edit the tracks and highpass them a little more than you might to maybe mask the kick during the parts where the little groove part comes in. Boost the highs and you're done. I've had way worse tracks to work with and made them more than decent. These should be no problem.

Exactly.