Your sound...

[batera]

looks like a real expensive proposition just to mic drums

Yeah, for anything like rock, pop, etc. you really want to have a mic on each drum, and some people do both on the top and bottom of the snare and even the top and bottom of each tom. Mic for the hi-hat, and two overheads as well. The kick drum needs a special mic to grab the bass frequencies and not explode. Mic placement makes a huge difference in what gets picked up, and a full set of good mics and cables is a lot of stuff, plus the console and everything.

Once it's in the software though, there's a ton you can do. You think drums have that deep "duuuuum" sound but it's really more like "boing;" the mixing totally changes the way the ringing frequencies come out, and you actually want the drums to have a lot of ring going in. A lot of people tape up and deaden their drums and in the mix it just gets buried or sounds like a splat. A really good maple kit is going to have a much smoother sound to work with, but as long as you have each drum with its own microphone, you can put a gate on it to get rid of any bleed-through and make it sound like anything you want.

If you want to do something like jazz you don't need much at all. In fact the traditional jazz sound with really high toms was out of necessity; the guys cranked up the drumhead tension so the skins wouldn't dent and would last longer. Now all these people buy really expensive stuff trying to pursue what was originally a junk sound...funny.

batera, you are well on your way to success. guitar is just like drums. good sound = good sound. if you can extract it from what you have, then you have won. it's just as hard to get good sound out of expensive gear as out of cheap stuff. the real sound quality comes from the treatment, which you seem to have a handle on.

Thanks...I play just a bit of guitar but always wanted to try to get into it a little. Just all the talk of pre-amps, tube amps, cabs, half-stacks, and stuff that I don't know anything about scares me, heh.

 

[razoredge]

My biggest issue with drums is the cymbols, sometimes I just feel like taking all the cymbols from my buddys kit and throwing them away... "learn to use the drums" and dont just rely on alot of cymbol bashing (and snare wacking). Hes good enough and all especially for my level of skill but way too much cymbol bashing going on. My buddy growing up was a tenor drum major in a drum and bugle core before ever getting a kit and he knew how to use "drums", cadences all that, he was so good with his tom fills. Those cymbols are just to friggin loud if someone doesnt concentrate on their balance levels and smacks them harder than need be. I assume this is why for rock drumming its always necessary to mic all the drums and boost volumn levels of the drums then consequently the volumn of the band so high. I did sound for a band for a breif spell and same deal, I felt like walking up on stage and removing the cymbols, they just sucked up everything, came through the vocal mics... dah! He was another heavy hitter. I've determined the art of hitting cymbols just right is indeed a art that takes alot of work, thought and taste.

 

[batera]

Cymbals usually get compressed and EQ'd a lot so they get a glassy, shiny sound that floats over the top and not the washy roar that drowns everything out in the crowded mids.

 

[razoredge]

makes sense, I like that brite shiny sound on recordings

 

[guitarguru777]

Guitars:
1988 Ibanez RG 550
1971 Ibanez Les Paul
1990 Fender M80 (Squire)
Custom hand built 7 String

Amps:
1980 Marshall JMP
1967 Marshall 4x12 Cab, Birch with Metal Handles
Peavey Valveking Combo

Effects:
Ibanez TS9 with Keely mod
Boss Super Chorus
Boss DD7 Delay
Dunlop Crybaby 535Q

With this stuff i can go from blues to shred very easily, and the marshall just sounds amazing.

 

[guitarguru777]

Drummer here, not a guitarist, but I have a question. When I record it's usually with not very expensive of a rig. I found that by spending a long time with mic placement and with mixing, I could get quite a good sound out of mediocre drums and recording equipment. Sure, nothing like a professional set-up, but still the difference was huge and I learned a lot about mixing in the process. I don't know anything about guitar, though. It seems like guitars need quite a bit of gear and tweaking to sound good; what's the minimum that one would need to get an ok-sounding guitar track?

honestly, like drums its all about proper mic placement. Finding the "sweet spot" on the speaker you are Micing. I have gotten great guitar tones out of very cheap amps just by taking the time to mic it properly.

Another rule of thumb when recording guitars is LESS DISTORTION = Clarity. I cant tell you how many guitar players I have worked with that just CRANK the gain cause they think its more "METAL". Then when the product is finished blame me for "thin" guitar tones.

What I tell everyone I work with is this ... Let ME produce your album. Tell me the type of tone you want and let me work my magic. Everyone who has listened has been happy. Everyone who did "their thing" complained.

I have a HUGE post on another forum about recording guitar on another forum. if its ok with everyone here I will cross post it.

 

[antonis]

The less gear, the better in my experience.

Guitars -> My amp head have produced my favourite tones. Nothing between them but a TS cable.

this
i currently use an ibanez rg1820x and a laney gh100l. i use a couple of stompboxes sometimes for a change. here's my youtube channel if you wanna hear what my stuff sounds like http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?feature=mhw5 i have a couple of symphony x covers, gonna upload more soon. gonna start posting my songs too when i slap new strings up and probably get a shure sm57

 

[guitarguru777]

Small update ...

My New CD is all 5150 (signature model)