Recording great rock drum sounds is tricky.
Well no, actually it isn’t. The recording is the easy part. As you’ve probably gathered by now, this article is not at all aimed towards the recording engineer, but the drummer – and a lot of it can be transferred to other instruments. By far the most important part is the performance and the instrument, the rest is choosing the right mics, outboard gear and preamps. And obviously the room plays a part as well.
Below I’ll be listing a few tips that I find crucial to a great rock sound. Do these right and drum samples might not even be necessary when it’s time for mixing.
CONSISTENCY AND CONTROL
What really separates the great studio drummers from the rest is this: consistency and control. Such simple little things as hitting the drums in the right spot, usually dead center of the head (unless a certain groove requires otherwise) and without huge spikes dynamically speaking where they shouldn’t be. Those spikes often tend to happen when we try to pull off something difficult like a really cool fill while not really being ready for it.
Those are things that can be really cool to add in during a live set when the energy is really going, but you don’t want to do that in a studio. More often than not this results in extra work for the engineer, rushing and/or dragging which again means editing work, and confused/pissed off bandmates. Don’t be that guy. For the record, I was that guy once. 😮
Leave the cool improvisation for jam sessions, at least until you’re at the level where you can get away with and things still sound great. A major tip here that applies to every musician in the studio is: NEVER try recording something right at the edge of your ability that you can’t consistently pull off in a live setting. That is a recipe for disaster – or at best is going to require a lot of editing.
Plan out exactly what you’re going to play, and make sure every hit sounds amazing. The music and people you work with will love you for it.
HIT YOUR TOMS PROPERLY
Seriously. Again, this is something that very often happens during fast, unplanned fills. Toms in general sound like absolute sh*t if you don’t hit them properly in the center and with a good bit of force. If you have some cymbals ringing nearby as well, it’s damn near pointless and a mix engineer will either replace your toms or just get rid of those tracks entirely.
PLAY, DON’T BASH
This is one thing young amateur drummers often do, beat their drums to near death with every hit and then don’t understand why it doesn’t sound good.
When you hit those things as hard as you can, you basically choke the drum and all you get in return is an attack heavy sound with pretty much no resonance. And as odd as it sounds, they struggle to cut through the mix. The tone and resonance of the drums is what actually helps them cut through. This is also why you should keep drum dampening to an absolute minimum. Spend more time tuning the things properly, and less time with gaffa tape and moongel.
A good rule of thumb is playing at about 80% when it comes to force/loudness. Relaxed, but with enough punch to cut through. The rest can always be sorted with compression, transient shapers and similar, and the drums will actually sound better!
While on this subject, STOP BASHING YOUR CYMBALS!!
If you pay close attention to the world class drummers out there almost all of them get this right. What they hit fairly hard is the snare, toms and kick. Snare and kick especially, as in modern rock those are the two most important sounds and will often be very loud in the mix. Pretty much all of them will hit their cymbals quite lightly. Marco Minnemann is an exceptionally great example of this.
A great tip here is setting up one of those handy little recorders out in front of the kit. Record yourself playing, and after a while you should start «mixing yourself» to where you will sound really good with just one microphone. It is an eye opener for sure!
What experienced players will often do as well is raise their cymbals off the toms quite substantially. Again this is something that will save your recording and mixing engineer years of therapy sessions or anger management classes. Takes a while to get used to having them higher, but it absolutely works. Not hard actually, just raise your throne and snare drum and you’ll find you play better as well as your posture is suddenly better. 😉
PRACTICE YOUR RIMSHOTS
If you’re playing rock where you’re fighting with huge walls of electric guitars, rimshots are absolutely crucial. And those who record themselves can attest to it being the absolute best way of minimizing hi-hat bleed in your snare microphone. So logical when you actually think about it, it allows you to lower the snare mic in the mix enough that the spill is far less prominent. And if you get really consistent at them, the snare track needs less compression as well to get the right amount of attack.
It is the one thing in drumming that takes the longest to master though, and height/posture really is crucial to getting it right. And you actually don’t have to hit the snare all that hard to get a great rimshot sound.
GETTING A HUGE THUNDEROUS KICK SOUND
Number one rule for achieving this is DON’T BURY YOUR KICK BEATER in the batter head. Basically what this does is you’re essentially killing the resonance of the drum by leaving your beater in the head, which more or less has the same effect as removing the front head and stuffing the drum full of pillows and other things. Attack and no tone.
Another thing that often will happen if you’re not careful is you get flamming/double hits as the pedal bounces back a tiny bit before it’s again planted in the head. This can be an absolute nightmare later on if you’re planning to use triggers or drum samples.
I really recommend letting the beater swing back and your kick drum breathe, giving you all that lovely low end that you need.
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Anyway, those are a few things that I recommend trying out. Chances are that your drumming should sound a whole lot better after a while of implementing this. That gets you gigs, both live and in the studio. People will almost always pick the one who sounds really good. Play to your strengths! 😉