The Project Studio

[drumsound]

The biggest reason I advised him against tracking drums for his record is that the room he is in is, like i mentioned above, 8x10 foot and it has roughly 7 foot ceilings. Not at all ideal for getting a good drum sound, especially for the alt country style he does.

Is it possible to track drums outside?

Michael Wagener thinks it is!

[musikman316]

His budget is $10-12,000, and the tracking room is the 8x10, his "control room" is about 14x16 and has a 9' ceiling (guest bed on main floor) so he can really turn it into a nice space to mix his stuff which is why I told him to not worry about spending his money on tracking drums, and just dropping the money on the room and nice gear to overdub and mix with.

Later,
Josh

[vvv]

Is it possible to track drums outside?

You'll probably have better luck tracking deer or rabbits. Drum footprints can be hard to identify.

Yeah, but they tend to be noisy, especially with a cowbell...

[;ivlunsdystf]

How about referring him to this message board? It sounds like he wants to learn the DIY way. Does he know how to use a computer?

It's kind of creepy of us to be talking about him like he'll never read this.

I like that drum tracking pic by the way. I have always wanted to bring a drumset out on a rocky promontory, in a wilderness area (possibly overlooking an alpine cirque), and have at it on a Saturday afternoon. Maximum impact. I guess the difference between me and Yanni is that he does it, I only type TOMB posts about it.

[helmuth]

The biggest reason I advised him against tracking drums for his record is that the room he is in is, like i mentioned above, 8x10 foot and it has roughly 7 foot ceilings. Not at all ideal for getting a good drum sound, especially for the alt country style he does.

Is it possible to track drums outside?

Michael Wagener thinks it is!

Supergrass aswell

[MikeCzech]

OK, if I had to throw out everything I have, and start over with $12,000, here's what I'd get.. Most are based on things I get the most use out of now, some are things I wish I'd have gotten instead..

DAW
-------
PC $1000
MOTU 2408 $1000
CUBASE $ 600
UA Plugin Pak $ 800
iZotope Master Plugin $200

Pre's
---------
Sytek mpx4 $1000

Mic's
---------
2 AKG C414s $1800
1 AKG D112 $ 250
3 SM57's $ 300
1 SM7 $ 350

Comps
---------
UA 2-1176 $2500
2 DBX 160's $ 800

Treatment
---------
A Bunch of Owen's Corning 703 and 705
Rigid Fiberglass and some fabric
to cover it. <$400

Etc..
---------
Patchbay <$ 100
Behringer Headphone Amp $100
4 or 5 of headphones $500

12 space rack
stand at AMS $ 25

Lots of Neutric Connectors and
Mogami Cable $ 275

Grand Total $12,000

Oh crap... Monitors..

Well, better throw in another $1000.... So I know no you're not going to go out and buy everything on my list verbatim, but I had fun thinking this through, and IMHO you couldn't really do it any better on that budget.

[sthslvrcnfsn]

What exactly did the Shins use for "Oh, Inverted World"? I've heard it was recorded "at home", by them. that might be a springboard for ideas.

I love the sound of that album, even though the drums sound like cardboard boxes and there's lots of cheesy and obvious reverb "effects". I absolutely love it. But then again, the recording and mix HAS to work with the material - which in the case of the Shins, it did to a ridiculous degree.

My point: what is this band going for? what do they sound like? if you've heard the band play before, what kind of recorded sound comes to mind? clean and pretty isn't necessarily the best option. (ahem, cough cough, guided by voices, cough).

jim!

[lyman]

What exactly did the Shins use for "Oh, Inverted World"? I've heard it was recorded "at home", by them. that might be a springboard for ideas.

as far as the home recorded stuff goes, some early tracks were recorded onto a HP pavillion pc using a 16 bit soundcard, but later on a 24 bit digital audio labs soundcard was employed. both cool edit pro and protools were used as well. a rode nt-1 mic was used quite a bit i think. drums were recorded onto a roland 6 track digital recorded and manually synced up on the computer. i guess james mercer's house was broken into and he lost a bunch of stuff including his diga001.

[lyman]

and they did go to Avast! in seattle to cut some tracks too.