mixed and match drum recording

[stiffo]

hey! this is my first post!

just wanted to talk about my drum recording technique, i guess.

i can only record two tracks at a time cuz i only have two inputs on my Tascam US-144 running in to Cubase


so...I record the drums without any cymbals. i only play the bass drum, snare, rack tom, and floor tom simultaneously. when recording i...

1.) i put an sm57 between the rack tom and floor tom
2.) i mic the kick drum with a proper kick drum mic

now, i've used up my only two tracks. so...

3.) i put an sm57 on the snare----> run in to a loop station---->loop station in to -----> guitar amp. the loop station saves the snare recording.
4.) i turn on my iphone's voice recorder, put it under a pillow. this acts as a room mic.
5.) i push record on iphone, loop station, and cubase.
6.) after the song is played and recorded on drums, i go and mic my guitar amp that is playing the saved loop station snare drum track. i sync that track up with the tascam us-144 tracks.
6.) i do the same for the iphone room track.
7.) i record all the cymbals separately afterward. it's easy, you just have to stop playing for all your fills and stuff. usually takes about three or four tries.

legit drum recording. arguably better than most 8 mic or whatever setup. almost as easy as using a drum machine. sorry if this was stupid!

[drumsound]

I'm not sure if this is a joke or not, but I love this post on many levels.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

arguably better than most 8 mic or whatever setup.

i like to argue. let's hear it.

[Theo_Karon]

hey! this is my first post!

4.) i turn on my iphone's voice recorder, put it under a pillow. this acts as a room mic.

This is one of the secrets that the pros use to get radio-ready sounds, but you HAVE TO MAKE SURE that the pillow is arranged over the iphone in such a way that the longer dimension of the pillow is PERFECTLY perpendicular to the longer dimension of the iphone. Otherwise you risk cross-dialectic inverse phasing, which is a total pain in the ass to sort out at mix, unless of course you're planning on implementing upside-mid mic decoding later on in the process.

On a sidenote, have you considered making use of parallel-peripheral harmonics? This is another secret technique that requires a set of UAD plug-ins (but you have to turn the computer on its side, so as to preserve phase coherence with the pillow-iphone matrix) and an analog-digital high resolution multi-disk tape recorder set to 'repro' and 'steve-o' at the same time. If you do this correctly, you can actually get your drum takes 'in the pocket' and 'in the bag,' as well as 'in the can' before you even take the throne.

Good luck!

[clayworx]

hey! this is my first post!

just wanted to talk about my drum recording technique, i guess.


legit drum recording. arguably better than most 8 mic or whatever setup. almost as easy as using a drum machine. sorry if this was stupid!

I invented the 'whatever' drum setup thing-y. I have two words for you sir, Patent Pending.

If this post was real,
Another fine example of a creative way to approach your limitations. (2 trks)

[Nick Sevilla]

"so...I record the drums without any cymbals"

I already LOVE YOU MAN!!!

Keep up the inventiveness!!!

Cheers

[JGriffin]

"so...I record the drums without any cymbals"

I already LOVE YOU MAN!!!

Keep up the inventiveness!!!

Cheers

I've heard of a few drummers who do this.




So: question. Is there a pillowcase on the pillow? Does the material make a difference? Is it a feather pillow or does it have some hypoallergenic synthetic filling? Is it a twin-size pillow or larger?

[MoreSpaceEcho]

i thought the pillow over the iphone was a good idea actually. surely you guys made boombox recordings of your shitty bands when you were younger and discovered that they came out better (by better i mean "not just a wash of incredibly distorted hi mids") with a blanket over the boombox, right?

RIGHT?

[jgimbel]

When I want to record a quick drum idea on my Macbook Pro I throw open Audacity and put a pair of socks on top of the built-in microphone. Without it it's distorted and way, way too trebly. Not that bad at all with the socks on it, I've considered using it as a "crushed room mic"/effect sound.

[lysander]

I would be tempted to just use the two mics myself -- a lot less hassle! 57 over right shoulder or front of kit, and the kick. But I would be interested in hearing the iPhone room mic. Does the pillow work like a -10db pad or something? I imagine it would probably tame the cymbals substantially as well.

[stiffo]

drumsound- this post is soooo really real.

morespaceecho- look, all im saying is that ive spent years recording with the the two room mic and mic on each drum setup and it isn't always that great. this is mostly due to me not having more than two tracks and having to bug someone to do a half ass job on recording me. random bro friend with an 8-track+getting paid $20/pizza=just an ok drum recording. this "method"=slightly better drum recording than previous equation and you don't have to bother anyone.

theo-totally did all that. nah, just kidding. it's just an iphone. seriously though, it gets a good room sound. it's at least as good as those $79 handheld tascam things that used to cost a million dollars.

again, this is really about getting creative with what you have. i know a lot of this stuff nothing new, but everytime i hear some musician bro talk about his shitty midi controller drums he's laying down for a demo, i just wanna bring this stuff up.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

personally if i only had two inputs i'd just do a kick mic and an overhead/room mic. you can get AMAZING drum sounds like that. my upstairs neighbor always records his drums like that and they always sound awesome. your way seems like a lotta extra work to me, but it's certainly creative and that's totally cool.

so let's hear it.

[drumsound]

hey! this is my first post!

4.) i turn on my iphone's voice recorder, put it under a pillow. this acts as a room mic.

This is one of the secrets that the pros use to get radio-ready sounds, but you HAVE TO MAKE SURE that the pillow is arranged over the iphone in such a way that the longer dimension of the pillow is PERFECTLY perpendicular to the longer dimension of the iphone. Otherwise you risk cross-dialectic inverse phasing, which is a total pain in the ass to sort out at mix, unless of course you're planning on implementing upside-mid mic decoding later on in the process.

On a sidenote, have you considered making use of parallel-peripheral harmonics? This is another secret technique that requires a set of UAD plug-ins (but you have to turn the computer on its side, so as to preserve phase coherence with the pillow-iphone matrix) and an analog-digital high resolution multi-disk tape recorder set to 'repro' and 'steve-o' at the same time. If you do this correctly, you can actually get your drum takes 'in the pocket' and 'in the bag,' as well as 'in the can' before you even take the throne.

Good luck!

Do you work for Funk Logic?

[cgarges]

Do you work for Funk Logic?

Nice.

CG

[EggyToast]

If I was a drummer and only had two mics/channels for recording, I'd probably try to tune my kit to sound good to myself, and then set up the mics right by my ears/shoulders so they'd pick up roughly what I hear, and get a good stereo image at that. But I'm not a drummer :D