Volume Cut on Cymbal Choke

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Andy,

do you sometimes (or all the time maybe) completely cut the drums' track (or maybe just the overheads) after a cymbal choke to remove all the resonance and make it a "perfect silence" ?

Thanks in advance.

Brett

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Any answer ? Maybe my question was not very clear ?

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Still no answer ? Come on, don't be shy people

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

i don't know if you listen to fear factory, but sometimes they cut everything and it sounds like there is something missing...

once again I am no expert but I think the answer is "sometimes". Think about it--if you do it at the beginning of a song then probably it's best to cut everything because the listener is not used to the song yet... but if you do the choke in the middle or end of a song then maybe you should not cut out the room ambience (example: cut at end of davidian by machine head--good room noise)...

bottom line--does the lack of room noise distract the listener? you don't usually want it to. dont know if this helps but at least its a good question...i'm confused why more people haven't responded

 

[egan.]

You basically have to do it to taste. Some times it sounds cool to just cut any amp noise and 'dirt' on the tracks so the the break is super clean. Alot of times for that type of stuff i'll also cut any guitar fx I'm running or maybe even the drum reverb. It really depends on the desired effect, but I tend to try to get things to sound super clean w/o being disconcerting. No matter what I always edit guitars at stops so all the rhythms end tightly together and with the drums.

 

[Cooperman]

I personally don't like cutting everything... just doesn't sound right to my ears... but then I hate guitar hum or little accidental guitar noises that can sometimes sneak their way into a performance. So I like to mute these out as much as possible.

So what I'll do is sometimes clean up the part in question AFTER I've mixed. I'll mute the quiet part... do a very quick fade out on the part just before the quiet part... then roll back a few tenths of a second and apply a subtle reverb through to where the music kicks back in. That way you don't have the unnatural silence and you don't have any hum or noises.

This method is VERY dependent on the part and so can't be used for every situation... but I've used it a couple of times on stops in music of less than say half a second.

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Thank you, this all makes sense. I knew there was a lot to say about this subject ;-)

 

[tgs]

What I do to make the best out of the sound when I play myself is to use cymbals that are virtually silent when I choke them. This is one of the things I CAREFULLY check when I buy them.
When it comes to other artists recording in my studio, they usually bring some crap that the found in the rehearsal room, something that 10 years ago could be called "cymbals". In this case, there's not much to do. I try to recommend people to rent cymbals, it's often not expensive at all for a full set.
When it comes to muting chock noises: I've never done it.