“Nowadays you can’t be LOUD enough!” That’s a quote by John Bonham. And with that sage wisdom here is an excerpt on getting killer drum sounds from my upcoming recording course.
Here’s a knowledge bomb I learned years ago: if it doesn’t sound good in the room it will never sound good when recorded. Plus you will probably have a difficult time “fixing it in the mix”. Fixing it in the mix is a philosophy you don’t want to depend on. To get the killer tones you want, for starters you’ll want to put on fresh heads, polish the cymbals, and hunt down any rattles or buzzes. While you’re at it pick up some “Moon Gels” and gaffer tape. Moon Gels are little blue gobs of goo that stick non-permanently to the drum heads. You can get them at a drum shop or through Amazon. They are great for cutting down the ring on a drum. How much ring you want is somewhat of a stylistic choice. Too much ring can become a problem though. Especially when the drum gets compressed in mixing.
If a drum has weird resonances you’ll definitely want to hunt that down. Generally this can be cured by moon gels and/or lug nut adjustments. If the tuning is conflicting between drums they can start interacting with each other. One drum’s weird resonance/hum can make the snares rattle for instance.
As far as heads go, I like the white coated Remo Emperors for recording. They don’t last as long as a head you might use in a live situation but they can help get that punchy, powerful tone. I love the clean and rich tone that these heads bring. While we’re on the topic of drum kits sometimes it’s easier to borrow, buy, or rent a really good kit for recording. If the drum kit is just not happening you can drive yourself crazy trying to get a useable sound. This advice goes for any instrument. Cheap instruments rarely produce world class tones. To a point, there is a reason an instrument costs more. Often it’s just less trouble.
I will say there is a diminishing point of returns when you spend more and more cash. the improvements start becoming smaller and smaller the more money an instrument costs. Having said that, if you’re pulling your hair out trying to get a good sound out of an instrument it’s quite possible that the instrument is the problem. Whether you are a drummer or not I highly recommend learning to tune drums. I suggest checking out a dvd available on Amazon called Drum Tuning: Sound and Design by Bob Gatzen. The video is probably 30 years old but the concepts are still the same. A kit that sounds awesome in the room will save you so much time and effort later that it is well worth the effort to get it right from the start.
If you are not on already on my email list, I suggest signing up because I will have a special offer for subscribers only when my recording course is released. You can do that at rockmixingengineer.com
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Also, in case you didn’t know, I mix singles, EPs, and Albums for Rock and Metal bands. You can check out my work and get more info at mattclarkmixer.com/secdir/ as well as get prices, etc.