tracking cybols after rest of drums

broken81

broken81

Used by Protools
Dec 26, 2005
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Detroit, MI
i was thinking of tracking all the drums and cymbals at once and then I'm gonna be replacing all the drums with samples after we track.

Our drummers cymbals are garbage right now and getting new ones for Christmas but we wanted to start tracking before then. I was thinking since were replacing all the drums with samples no overhead bleed would be in toms and stuff.

Were just gonna have drummer play the cymbals and hi hats to the pre recorded drums and not play snare or anything just give him a pad to beat on like a snare.

You guys think this would work out good or see any problems with my plan??

I think we could get some good separation with this idea its kinda like lamb of god and eighteen visions did but with a little twist :loco:
 
errr well you better have a damn good drummer..like really good

and a good ear so u know hes playing the stuff right

good luck!
 
Make sure you use a click and that the drummer buries it about 95% of the time. It's really hard to play drums like that if you're not used to it.
 
Ive replaced individual hits before if something doesnt sound right... but for an entire song? Its weird... kind of insults even playing drums. Might as well just hit something once and loop it, etc etc...
 
yea we did program for our first song we recorded but drummer feels real left out on playing drums and feels like he is not a part of it. So this time around we wanna involve him and let him do it this time, he is a great drummer so i see no problems on playing end but only reason we programed was due to lack of equipment at the time Mic's, pre's ect...............

I planned to sample the drums anyway and figured this way we could get recording sooner and also would give more separation to things.

I mean besides stupid things is there anything that would really not be good sound wise to do this?? When we programed drums last time i did the same thing i used ezdrummer and overheads had no other drums in it and everything turned out fine and i sampled rest of drums with drumagog from ezdrummer.
 
Honestly, I'd doubt he'd be tight enough to do it. I've only heard a few guys make it not sound really weird/unnatural feeling.

If he wants to be such a big part of the band, he needs to have his equipment and shit together. You shouldn't have to wait on him to record.
 
yea its tough though man being a musician i know what its like to be broke fuck I am right now. For him its like hundreds between skins and cymbals and stuff and Christmas coming up and our practice spot we gotta rent and shit we all make minimum wage around here so a little break please.

Believe me i wish i had money cause i would buy the stuff just so we could record right!!

I'm trying to make due with what we can and get the best sound we can. I just wanted to start tracking early to get a jump on things and thought this idea might work out.
 
I'm not going to make a stupid assumption that your drummer isn't going to be able to do it because I have never even heard/seen him play. But, it is hard in my opinion.


It does suck not being able to afford decent stuff though - I'm sure at least a few people on here feel ya there!


If you end up doing this though, let us know how it goes! :headbang:
 
my band just did a recording, and there were a few parts we tried to do that way because my drummer would nail the part except for one or 2 cymbal crashes

it was VERY difficult and cumbersome just do this for a 4 measure section, i couldn't imagine doing a full tune or more this way...even with a freakishly good drummer, it's bound to be an up-hill battle

my thoughts...if you want a real drum feel, use real drums
 
My band is recording a "pre-prod" for our upcoming Ep right now. We'd love to doit the real way and use the studio we have access to, but time and money is an issue right now. so we've decided to prgram the drums because 90% of everyone who listen to it won't be able to tell the difference.
We need our demo finished before christmas in order to be able to deliver it to the booking agencies who handle all the summer festivals. The booking starts in january.
 
I've done entire albums this way. If you are patient, and have an excellent drummer it can work. It makes mixing the drums easier in some respects, because there's no cymbal bleed - but it's really hard to make the drums sound like a "set".

I've decided that I'll record the whole setup, unless the drummer really wants to do it in two steps.
 
It is all up to the drummer. A lot of people have recorded this way. Most any production the MACHINE does was recorded this way and we all know how great his drums sound.
 
chadsxe said:
It is all up to the drummer. A lot of people have recorded this way. Most any production the MACHINE does was recorded this way and we all know how great his drums sound.
Click to expand...

It's not really "all up to the drummer" - if you have a real producer/engineer especially. It's not true that "a lot of people" do this, either. It's very uncommon, actually. I think that the Machine productions sound horrid, unnatural and extremely disjointed, and very far from great.
 
metalkingdom said:
It's not really "all up to the drummer" - if you have a real producer/engineer especially. It's not true that "a lot of people" do this, either. It's very uncommon, actually. I think that the Machine productions sound horrid, unnatural and extremely disjointed, and very far from great.
Click to expand...

I am not even going to get in this argument about producer/engineer/common or not. Yes it is not the most ideal way but it can be done with success. Many people love MACHINE's drum sound and many people don't. All a matter of opinion.
 
i mean i guess the worst thing could be we just retrack drums all together if for some reason its not gonna work out.

Like i said our drummer is getting new cymbals for Christmas so at least we could get started laying all the other tracks. I almost thought of micing everything and using like a dfhs or something via midi and just use his cymbals and everything but just use Mic's on all and then trigger into midi with like drumagog or something.

I know a lot of people hate the cymbals and hats in dfhs but i really don't mind to much so i think that could be an option too....

What ya think guys???
 
I just read an article about the latest Billy Talent recording. They actually did record their cymbals that way. They said that Dave Grohl does so as well. Drums on these sound good and natural imo.
 
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