drumming secrets

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Yes, you are reading this right; these are directions for recording your drums when you are on your own, i.e. you are the drummer and the sound technician/producer at the same time! Is that possible? Can we do that? "Yes we can!!" .....(I love that quote, I really do!)

Anyway, let me guide you through this process and know that all the information I share with you is based on experience in both studio and live recording situations.

The first thing you have to train your self with, is to be able to focus during a multi task situation, which shouldn´t be a big problem if you have learned how to play drums! As you might have noticed, to be able to play drums means that you have to be able to co-ordinate, manage and arrange at the same time, which is multi tasking in the first place!

Because we all know how to organise to set up your drumkit, I will not get into too many details, however it crosses my mind to give you advise about certain important subjects on this matter.

Tips for setting up the drumset for recording:  

The Recording Room:

Find a good sounding room to record in; make sure that the room is at least 3,5 m high and not too dry. It's better to have reflections that you can 'kill' with damping material, than to have a room that has no acoustics! Otherwise your drums will never sound good!

The size of the room should be big enough to have 3 drumkits in, so there is space for the sound and energy to build up and find it's way in the room. This way the drums will have more 'air'  and you will experience more 'body' in sound. I can't tell you anything about details like frequences and stuff that engineers talk about, but what I can tell you as a drummer is very simple: just listen to your drums and judge upon what you are used to hear. If the kit sounds good to you on a certain spot in a room, than it is probably ok to record the set there!

If you find out that the room is still too wet, i.e. there is too much reflection going on, use your drumbags to 'break' those reflections by building little sound break walls or bring in a thick curtain to dampen the room a little bit. I once brought in a door and put it on it's side on the left side of the kit, covered with a thick blanket. It definately improved the acoustic of that room and there for the sound of my kit.

I guess we all experienced the effect of the change of acoustics of a living room when you are in the middle of moving into a different house; once the room where you have lived for several years is empty, you will notice a big change of sound! All because the reflections of the empty walls have space to travel and maintain without being 'killed' by the absorption of a sofa, curtains and carpet on the floor.....

Also it is wise to choose a room where you don't disturb any neighbours or where neighbours can be a disturb you. I remember that once I had set up my drum kit and recording gear and started recording, but after 2 hrs there was this terrible noise next door; a factory started their big machines to work and the DBs they produced added a certain sound effect to my drum playing that wasn't helpfull at all! I had to take a break for 3 hrs and that took me totally out of my creative flow. I ended up to recording till very late at night.....

The Drumset:

Preparation does the job, specially in this situation!  If you put new drum heads on, make sure that the kit sounds great at least 2 days before your recording session! Take your time in tuning the kit at it's best and play on it for at least 2 hours. This way the new drumheads will settle better and the you'll have a solid sound. Also, this way the drums won't lose their pitch during your playing!

In fact you should take care of all those little things before the session, so you can concentrate on your performance when it's needed. On the day of recording you have to concentrate on so many things at the same time, so it's best to 'trouble shoot' the drums before entering the recording room.

And don't forget: bring spare drum heads and sticks in case anything breaks during your performance! It would be a total shame if you have set up everything and then you have to go find a shop to get a pair of sticks or a snare drum head; this will not only eat your precious time, it will also take you out of your performance flow.....

Recording gear:

If you have never recorded in your life before.....make sure that you take some lessons or get some experience by recording a band demo in a rehearsal room first! Just be the engineer and focus on recording the band without playing any instrument! You must get some experience with recording in the first place, otherwise you put might put too much presure on the recording day and I am sure that Murphy's Law will put it's mark on this day, and I don't think that's what we're after!

What do you need for a proper drum recording session? Well let's assume that we are recording a 5 piece kit with a ride cymbal and 3 crashes.

I think nowadays there are a lot of brands that produce low budget or middle class series microphones that sound good. It gives us drummers the possibility to step into recording easily. Make sure you have a special bass drum- and a snare mike. For every drum a seperate mike would be best! Than a pair of 'overhead' microphones would be great. Bare in mind that the mikes for drums are most of the time dynamic microphones and the overheads are condenser types; condenser mikes need 48v of phantom power feed!

Most of the microphone sets come with clamps, so you don't need stands. I wouldn't use the clamps for a snare though; it may be wiser to invest in a low mike stand with boom for the kick, a small one for miking the snare and two big mike stands for the overheads and maybe one medium stand for miking the hi-hat. So for a five piece drum kit I am always counting 8 microphones:

1 x bassdrum mic. (dynamic) AKG D12 or D112 or Shure SM91, PG52

1x snare mic (dynamic)  Shure SM57 or Sennheiser MD421

3 x tom mics (dynamic) Sennheiser 421 or Shure SM57, PG 56 or Beta 56A,

1 x hihat mic. (condensor)  AKG 451 or Shure PG81

2 x Over head mics (condensor) The AKG C1000 or SE Electronics SE 1A

Having said that,  you probably can do the math easily: 8 xlr cables and a 8 input pre amp. for recording on a recorder or a computer. I would always prefer to record on a 'stand alone machine' rather than a computer; I hate the moments where I was spending more time troubleshooting on a PC than playing drums on my recording! That's another thing you don't want to worry about to be able to stay in a creative flow.... You can always bounce your recorded tracks into a PC to edit it later on.

As a producer I am always aiming for a good pre-production, so once I start recording I can get easily in flow and remain there for a long time. That's why I advise any drummer to take care of a lot of preparations, so you can have your head and mind free and clear to be creative when it comes down to it! So for getting into a stage like that, just make sure that the recorder works and you know how to work with it!

Also you need to hear what you play against and more important: what your drum set sounds like when you record it. Bring your best pair of headphones and if possible a proper set of audio monitors! I would suggest to invest in a pair of good quality headphones, for example the Sennheizer HD25 I can recommend to any musicians, but specially drummers. It is a closed system where you hardly can hear the surrounding sound from outside. In this way your ears are not distracted by the sound of your drums in the room so much. If you are able to mix the music and the drums you are recording properly, you can create the most playable and comfortable recording situation for yourself. I alway notice that I play 10 times better!

After recording a test or try out track, make sure you check it during it's playback through a good pair of studio monitors. I always bring my Fostex PM-2 MKII Active Speaker on the road for sound reference; once you track it you have to work with it. I just want to make sure that I have placed the mikes right and have a great natural result on track! Things you simply can't hear on just a head set....

Don't forget to prepare a clicktrack (metronome) that also runs sync with the music you work against while you play your tracks! It wil certainly help you to keep time during tracking. It is also much easier to edit later on once everything is recorded and ready to be mixed.

Placing microphones is a subject that I would like you to dive into by studying the information that the SEA (School of Audio Engineering) offers. They are great to give a lot of free information about any subject regarding recording and mixing. Go to www.sae.edu/reference_material/audio/pages/placement.htm and find out about several tips about drum miking technique.

So putting it all together it comes down to preparation, managing and focus while you are doing your multi tasking job. Work in little steps and plan a few breaks between all different jobs your doing; it will make it possible to have easier control and focus!

Oh, and don't forget to provide your own catering; do some shopping a day before your session and bring food, fruit and drinks and snacks, so you don't have to work and fight against a "low sugar feeling"; that will certainly wear you out and you won't feel any kicks during recording. Also make sure to switch off your phone; don't get distracted by anything that doesn't help you to stay in a working flow....I know, I have mentioned that quite a few times now, but trust me, it really helps you to get a best performance done. Alltogether it is a lot of work and it makes sense to get something worthwhile out of your recording session... Go for an A (or 10) and nothing less!

Once you go through all of this and you're able to stay focussed, I am sure you will have a lot of fun recording your own drums!!

Have fun and good luck!!