When is a drum room...

[ExecutiveRob]

...too big?

I know it depends on the type of music, but I've just found a parish church hall that looks pretty cool.

Unfortunately I don't have a room big enough to record drums in at the moment so I usually move my studio to a decent sounding room for the drum tracking (massive pain in the ass, but the only option currently). I've been doing it around friends houses livingrooms - they've got old vicotrian houses, high ceilings, wooden floors, sound great...

so yeah, this church hall is in a modern building, sort of a very large bungalow with a room for hire - looks to be 30ft length by 30ft wide, 12 maybe 13ft high. Wooden floors, hard walls and big heavy curtains that can be pulled around half of the room's walls.


The band I'm thinking of recording the drums there with are a black/death metal band - but they want good production so can't be that cult... I'm just worried that the overheads will pick up too much room as it's fairly large (well... for me...). I don't really want the drums to end up sounding like "In the nightside eclipse" by Emperor!

Thoughts/advice?

Cheers

 

[JeffTD]

I know this isn't helpful, but I absolutely LOVE the fact that you're thinking about recording a black/deathmetal band in a church!

 

[006]

Haha, yeah, that's definitely pure evil right there.

One thing I can suggest is to try and close mic the OH's as much as possible. For a project that involves that kind of room I would do whatever I had to in order to get as many mics as possible for the cymbals so that I can close mic them all. The closer they are to the source, the less room you will get. Also bring blankets to hang on the rest of the walls...just a thought. The size of the room will still be present in the drums, but you want to deaden it a little bit, yanno? That's just my preference.

~006

 

[C_F_H_13]

You can totally do this. My suggestions would be.....:

1. Use all those hanging curtains and cover as much of the walls as possible. The few times I've been in churches (not recording) I couldn't believe how "thick" the reverb was, and how badly it could muddy up anything played in it!

2. Got extra mic stands? what about some coat/hat hangers (some churches have them!) ? I'd take 5-6 stands, and make a T shape out of the booms, then hang sleeping bags or blankets on them, and make an octagon shape around the kit. Then move them closer or further away till you get the right amount of ambience.

3. While ALOT harder to do, you could also try and make a tent over the drums. It's pretty tricky to do without those big heavy duty mic stands, but if you can, hang some blankets ABOVE your OH's. That'll clamp down on the reflections off the roof and also make it easier to tame the room from getting into them too much.
4. Regardless of the fact that it is death/black metal, I'd put a room mic WAY OUT in the room...who knows...might sound cool.

 

[JeffTD]

Devin Townsend did this (below) for both the Synchestra and Alien albums.

 

[Metaltastic]

I THOUGHT it was a 5150 on Synchestra - really had more of the smooth character compared with the Recto sound on SYL, for example

 

[Keessi]

that's not too big at all... I've recorded drums in an almost 200 squaremeter big room and it sounds fucking GREAT.

 

[fatalforce]

If I can remember in an interview, ihsahn said they recorded that first album in an auditorium hall. It maybe just what you need.

 

[Zack Uidl]

Should be fine, I have done drums in a room like that before and they sounded really good

 

[JeffTD]

I THOUGHT it was a 5150 on Synchestra - really had more of the smooth character compared with the Recto sound on SYL, for example

They only used that for the jams while recording drums - Synchestra was tracked with a Dual Recto w/EL34's on the orange channel with an OD808 infront.

 

[KeithRT99]

i find that i get less room in my overheads in a big room. Probably because the walls take longer to reflect the sound. If you're really worried about it, close mic the cymbals.

 

[Metaltastic]

They only used that for the jams while recording drums - Synchestra was tracked with a Dual Recto w/EL34's on the orange channel with an OD808 infront.

Hot damn - amazing how different it sounds than SYL, which to me is like the definitive Recto sound...talk about a versatile amp

 

[Sloan]

If you set the church on fire, it will sound much warmer and the drummer will probably play with more intensity. Sacrifice some shit in there too (virgins, goats, mother in laws, etc..).

 

[Nebulous]

Yeah, I'd try some subtle tenting/ gobo's to get some reflections down if need be, but would also get some room mics set up for some nice ambiance and mix options.

 

[GuitarHack]

I have seen some pics of drum recording in this room:
http://www.avatarstudios.net/rooms/studio_a_photo.html

360 degree view of room
http://www.avatarstudios.net/rooms/studio_a_ipix.html

Your room should be fine.

 

[RKelly]

Definitely make gobo's! If you gobo the kit off well enough you'll be fine but keep in mind you'll be getting a lot of cymbal wash back off the walls and ceiling. Pay a lot of attention to your monitoring setup and make sure you can hear everything clearly so you can have an idea of how much reverb you're getting.

Did I mention Gobo's?

 

[ExecutiveRob]

cheers for the replies guys! definitely feel a lot more confident about it now...

incidently there's loads of large tables on wheels in the room used for conferences - they're hinged so that they're perpendicular to the floor for storage purposes - so I could use them to arch around the kit and throw a load of duvets over, very much like the devin townsend pic from above.

quite excited about this now!


Just have to make sure when I book it to say that they're a "rock" band... Probably go down a lot better that tyring to explain the black metal concept!

 

[Nebulous]

Just as long as he can play to a click without a guide track. You wouldn't want anyone hearing more than they have to haha.