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I definitely agree with the folks who say to get the right sounds going in. I find that some things are just not quite the same when sending tracks back out after recording. If you know, for example, that you need some EQ on kick and snare simply by listening to the dry drums, then by all means get ...

It's way cooler when the band pulls it off live! I saw a couple guitarists in a local metal band start off with a really high-pitched sh***y guitar tone and then stomp over to full blown thick metal ....kinda neat to hear it in that context.

Drumagog makes finding the right kick/snare pretty easy. That and having a decent selection of snares around the studio.

try screaming "inward" and put some bit distortion on it. yikes!

I set up each drum in the room by itself to get the sample as clean as possible. Toms are more difficult because you have to tune them to each other ...so I get them in the room, tune them to each other, then do one at a time by itself while the others wait outside.

I kind of echo what someone else said ...it made me realize how important the player and the playing really is. I can record a guitarist thru the same rig I play thru and it will end up mushy and hard to mix. I could play the exact same part and it will be articulate and easy to mix. Same with bass ...

Your on the right track man. 2 OHs, snare and kick will most likely be your best option. If you want more toms, you might be able to sub mix them with the OHs ...but be careful...just bring them up in the mix until they a slightly more present and a little drier ...don't push them up until they are ...

it's the UAD Fairchild/LA3A combo for me ....sometimes I'll go the Sonalksis 315 route as well. Sonalksis for singers, UAD combo for singers.

Joel, great info man!

pro will get you what you want, the basic leaves out some key features.

I'd say 75% of a drum track sounding good IS the drummer. I've recorded local bands in my studio that sounded like arse until I talked to them about exactly what they have to do ...then I still have to replace half the time. Then again, I've worked with top notch drummers that really make my job eas...

or, if you have the feature, do a strip silence (program finds all hits and cuts them), dial in the front of the wave then use a group fade tool to fade the ends of the hits. you can have each tom perfectly cut so there is no noise, faded so it sounds natural enough and it can all be done in a few m...