distorted/compressed drums

[Rodgre]

Sounds like you're going for the "Soft Bulletin" drum sound

Try a mono mic over the drums, or more specifically, try it between the kick and cymbals, (I put it where the "second tom" goes) and compress the shit out of it, or else a room mic, some ten to fifteen feet away.

I compress it with a nasty, attitudey compressor. First choice is an 1176 or a Distressor, but I will often end up with an old Alesis Microlimiter.

By the way, if you're using the BF 1176 plug in, my favorite settings for this is with the attack set all the way counter clockwise, and the release all the way clockwise, the ratio either set for 20:1 or all buttons in, and you adjust the input level control until it's just right.

Roger

[stuntbutt]

Here's one to try:

Playback drums on headphones that are hanging on vocal mic. Record and blend to taste. Bam! Lo-fi.

[jca83]

throw up any regular drum mics to get a good clean sound. around those, throw up four crappy mics (OHL, OHR, kick and snare. or whatever really. a "good" drum sound with a couple crappy mics) and plug those straight into the worst mixer you can find. peak that mixer out so it's really nasty sounding, compress the output of that and mix into your nice drums.

[djgout]

i totally second rodgre on this one. my favorite mic to do this with is a 635a then all buttons in on an 1176 with the input all the way up and the attack and release times superfast. instant killer drums.

[tiger vomitt]

yeah an 1176 would sound cool. but when does it not sound cool?

if you've got a trim pot on the line ins of your mixer, you can crank those coming off tape/disk and maybe get something similar. depends on what your mixer sounds like tho on the board im using now it's a nice effect. on the last mixer i had it wasnt so nice.

you could also reamp the drums with a guitar amp..

[radmike]

two stereo 57's for the whole kit- hitting a tascam four track so hard it give you that tape compression thing, throw a tube in to that mix somewhere and you've got gold baby!

[penrithmatt]

a 57 or better yet a shure green bullet mic.somewhere between the kick and snare (i've even put it between the drummers legs,like a kinda dick mic!!!!).then a stomp box compressor.an MXR Dynacomp,a Boss CS3 something like that.stomp boxes are usually pretty savage compressors when used in this way,and you can get them to overload easily too,i mean,you can get all sorts of weird impedance mismatching,inputs crapping out distortion from these things just by giving them a line level signal.
blend in this chaos with yer regular kit and off you go.
or.....
take a sub mix of your nice sounding,well balanced kit and patch that into a pair of mic pres.it works best with ones where you can adjust the output without having to adjust the pre's gain.crank the pre and mix it in underneath the regular kit.......
or......
do the above but just use the room mics,or just the kick and snare...
or.....
put the stomp box on the insert of the room mics....
or....
re amp the kit through a guitar amp....or pod...or sans amp...
or.....

cheers
matthew
www.allairestudios.com

[perhapsthemoon]

Look around for a Shure Level-Loc. Man I tell ya- those things are gold on drums. Trashy, aggressive, and really cool.

[@?,*???&?]

Accepting that the biggest drum sound ever recorded is Led Zeppelin's "D'yer M'ker" and the most overrated Zep drum sound is "When the levee breaks" note that-

Neither use distortion. Both were a function of fantastic room ambiance and a great console.

Things you should seek to obtain the sound in your head:

A Sansamp rack mount distortion box

A Urei 1176 or the Purple Audio knock-off of the same box

A distressor

In lieu of any of them, the GRM Tools bandpass filter plugin is essential for creating these types of effects.

Best of luck in your search.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

the most overrated Zep drum sound is "When the levee breaks"

ooooookkkaaaayyyy. what don't you like about it jeff?

anyway, i second the green bullet mic for instant lofi fun. positioned right it'll actually pick up a pretty good blend of the whole kit. and the mxr limiter is even more fun than the compressor, IMO.

[inverseroom]

Try a mono mic over the drums, or more specifically, try it between the kick and cymbals, (I put it where the "second tom" goes) and compress the shit out of it, or else a room mic, some ten to fifteen feet away.

Anybody ever try this with a Fostex MN-30 (or whatever the number is, the little mixer with the compressor in it)? I picked one up for $25 but haven't tried it yet...

[rhythm ranch]

Anybody ever try this with a Fostex MN-30 (or whatever the number is, the little mixer with the compressor in it)? I picked one up for $25 but haven't tried it yet...

MN-50. You'll love it! It's an amazing little squisher.