70's Drum Sound?

eeldip · Post by **eeldip** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 7:59 pm

so is there a trick with the cymbals as well?

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 8:46 pm

eeldip wrote:so is there a trick with the cymbals as well?

Put on some of those records and tell us what you hear. Seriously. Listen to them and try and figure it out.

Making sound-alikes for a few years was something I really don't want to be doing again, but there were parts of it that were fun. Figuring stuff like that out was part of the fun, as was trying to accomplish it with the gear at hand.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

eeldip · Post by **eeldip** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 10:36 pm

oh no! homework!

my guess has always been putting bright condensers kinda too close to the cymbals and doing some severe hi pass filtering.

but there is usually some sort of glassiness that i have never really been able to figure out. a smeary quality... like a cybil shepherd filter on them.

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 10:42 pm

Tape and EQ?

You know, Aural Exciters were staring to get really popular back then, too. All that Jackson Brown and the late 70s Sunset/Record One stuff... tons of Aphex.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 11:13 pm

cgarges wrote:Tape and EQ?

You know, Aural Exciters were staring to get really popular back then, too. All that Jackson Brown and the late 70s Sunset/Record One stuff... tons of Aphex.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

And those Aphex units had to be rented from Aphex. They would not sell the units to anybody!

Fletcher · Post by **Fletcher** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 8:55 am

Not only should you take the bottom heads off the toms, but you should mic them from the bottom as well... with the mic in the shell [better isolation that way].

Kotex on the snare drum.

No, I'm not joking... that was exceptionally common back in the day. They even have adhesive strips which make them easy to apply [now the only way I'd know that is by having applied them to drums... because no matter how much some people think I'm perennially "on the rag" the fact of the matter is I don't bleed like that].

Small diaphragm condensers like SM-81's were pretty common for overheads... small dead booth can really make it feel like a cross between the Eagles and Funkadelic.

battletapes · Post by **battletapes** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 1:35 pm

i've also found that besides taping or moongelling or toweling your drums (or in addition to that), akg d224e's are very dry sounding. i did a recording in a semi small space with one as an overhead and one on the kick and those were my favorite elements of the whole drum recording. of course, on kick, i had to have it a good foot from the front head (face down at the drum as to isolate it as much as possible). it's kind of one of those "sounds of the 70s" type mics to me... a dual diaphram design that is pretty interesting, too.

as for sea change, joey warnoker says that nigel godrich mostly likes to really get his overheads right in on the drums. i did this recently using a manley reference gold condenser and it sounded fantastic... in the same session, used a d224e as a room mic on top of an iso booth and ended up muting that mic... just not as good when it's not right on the drum.

wiggins · Post by **wiggins** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 3:41 pm

Hydraulic heads!

klute · Post by **klute** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 12:23 am

i met cybil shepard when i was in high school and she looks like that in person! how did she get that?

lyman · Post by **lyman** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 3:01 pm

in addition to what's been suggested so far, i'll add: track to tape.

and i agree with no bottom heads on toms/kick, and forego any ambient mics.

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 9:27 pm

lyman wrote:in addition to what's been suggested so far, i'll add: track to tape.

At 15IPS

Holding Pattern · Post by **Holding Pattern** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 5:51 am

eeldip wrote:so is there a trick with the cymbals as well?

I would try some old cymbals for starters. you're not going to get that sound with a set of new A customs.

New cymbals are much heavier than their vintage counterparts. essentially because drummers have become alot louder in recent years.

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 5:11 pm

Kick= an AKG D12 and an SM57 not a d12e
Snare= SM57 on top and a Neuman 49 on bottom,
OH's= 67's for overheads but closer than you'de use nowdays
sometimes one (67) in front of the kick to.
Toms= SM57's just for low reinforcement
duct tape and cotton on top and bottom of the snare, lousy tuning on the toms no bottom heads, pillow in the kick no front head,
KEPEX gates and 1176 on close mics on toms.
Then buy the original Linn Drum and a Neve board 8068, real plate reverb only, then LA-3A on bass and guitar and then the whole mix and some Pultec EQ,
What? You asked!

drumsound wrote:
cgarges wrote:Tape and EQ?

You know, Aural Exciters were staring to get really popular back then, too. All that Jackson Brown and the late 70s Sunset/Record One stuff... tons of Aphex.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC
And those Aphex units had to be rented from Aphex. They would not sell the units to anybody!

They were also encased in dark epoxy on the electronics so you couldn't figure out how to excite an aura on yer own.

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 5:12 pm

Oh yeah, Ludwigs and Zildjians.

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70's Drum Sound?

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