80's BUTT ROCK DRUMS?

[Brett Siler]

OKay I am recording and mixing a song for this punk/hardcore band. At the end of this song they have part inspired by 80's cockrock (Poisen, Whitesnake, Def Lepard ect...). The tempo slpws down and the drummer wants it to have that 80's drum sound, you know, kinda big and epic but cheesy.

I was wondering if anyone had any experience doing this? Also any suggestions for it.

I know in they 80's it was a big trend to heavily gate the drums and lots of reverb. What are some other things? Delays? Reverbs?..

I just mic the drums pretty tradtionanly for rock. Mic in side the kick, close mic the snare and toms, and spaced omni overheads. Recorded on a Digi 001..

[logancircle]

Gated snare reverb, and lots of it. Arena the shit out of it.

[coniferouspine]

Arena's good, so is "stadium." Look for delay/effects presets with names like "Stadium Rocker" -- they're usually pretty good for this

[scott anthony]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... eName=WDVW

on snare

[Rodgre]

If it's an 80's slower tempo rock thing, don't rely on gated reverb, but just a big digital reverb, and yes, the Alesis XTC will do that. Anything will, really.

Another trick, which is easy if you're using PT, is to trigger pitched-down drum samples to blend with the drums. Back then, they would often record drum tracks with the tape running fast, then bring the pitch/tempo down and voila! Heavy drums.

Roger

[wing]

hopefully this can help too: http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopic.php?t=15305

[cgarges]

Another trick, which is easy if you're using PT, is to trigger pitched-down drum samples to blend with the drums. Back then, they would often record drum tracks with the tape running fast, then bring the pitch/tempo down and voila! Heavy drums.

Or use a harmonizer to drop the pitch on the room mics.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[nacho459]

Excessive amounts of SPX 900, or Quadreverb on the snare.

[Professor]

Individual mics on all the toms (he does have more than 2, right?) and if possible, make them 57s or 421s. U87s as overheads, or C-414s, just something that is an LDC with a transformer. Big, resonant sound from the kick - take out the pillow.
Pan the whole image very wide. Omni overheads are OK, but I might go cardioid to get less room and use more artificial 'verb. Space them far apart though, like one of the high tom / hihat side and one over the low tom / ride side with about 5' between them. Pan the tom mics really wide as well.

I don't like using gates as they are too heavy-handed. Since you're in ProTools, go through each tom track and cut everywhere that the tom isn't played. It's not that hard, and maybe takes 20-30 minutes for a whole song. Give a short fade in and out around each place where each tom is played. This will really clean up the tracks and give them that overly 'clean' sound. For the snare, a gate ain't so bad, but I agree with the above poster that the gate isn't absolutely necessary on the snare - at least not if the toms are treated.

For reverb, all those suggestions are cool, but I really like brighter plate settings for those kinds of projects. Dial through a few EMT plate settings on your processor of choice and feed varying amounts from each drum mic into the plate. Sure the 80s saw the introduction of the digital 'verbs like the SPX mentioned above, but the big studios also had plates, and they used them.

Oh yeah, and it wouldn't hurt if the snare drum were like 8" deep, and the toms had Pinstripe heads. And for the cymbal sounds, don't add tape, just shelf down the overheads from about 6k up to simulate the loss of highs from rewinding and replaying the tape for take after take of bass, guitar and vocal overdubs.

-Jeremy

[jspartz]

Back in the day of doing 80's live sound I would gate all the drums to clean up the sound. You want body and attack for each drum. Without a doubt you will want reverb. I tend to have more reverb tails on the snare and toms. The tom stop with the gate but the reverb will hang on for a bit. Gated snare for the snare will be good. That way they all don't wash together. For the overheads, high-hat and ride I would add just a touch of a smooth reverb and maybe a high frequency eq boost for a little more sizzle. Let your ears be the judge. I will say, I love big sounding drums. They are really fun to play!

Jason

[vvv]

And for the cymbal sounds, don't add tape, just shelf down the overheads from about 6k up to simulate the loss of highs from rewinding and replaying the tape for take after take of bass, guitar and vocal overdubs.

-Jeremy

Ha! Take after take!

LMAO

[Brett Siler]

This message board is amazing! Thanks for all the great tips!

[fillmoresound]

or, a quicker way to "gate" in pro tools is using strip silence. beware on how you use it b/c it can chop off too much transient. also, it eats a lot of dsp power b/c each strip is a new audio region.

[twitchmonitor]

So, just to be clear, most of those cheesy drums were gated snares sent to reverbs, which were also gated? Or was the reverb itself the only thing that was gated?

[Professor]

Nope, the drum tracks were gated so they were on and off quickly, but the reverb would be left as is. The short burst of drum sound would hit the mix and be gone, but it would also hit the reverb, and the reverb would ring through.
Within reason though. Obviously for a big tom sound with some resonance, you have to leave that gate open long enough for it to sound like a tom, just not so long that the next note on the cymbals or snare start to creep in.

-J