It's a (sort of) because it's just a 57 sitting out front of the bass 2 or so feet. I am going to order my recording equipment this weekend likely (depending on a pending banking issue) but I felt a little antsy and wanted to record something.

Details:

This is in my bedroom, which has like.. 13 foot ceilings or some shit? Possibly a little less, it's a purty big room. So dig that natural 'verb, brah.
The single hi-tom doesn't have a resonant head and IMO, sound like dicks.
The snare is a piccolo.
A lot of the bits of silence are me pulling my bass drum back towards me or moving my kick pedal. Both have been super mobile and non-solid lately.
I like to play things.. that I can't play.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13745148/DRUMZBRO

Is this an mp3 or a zip file or what? I click on the link and it's calling it "untyped binary data" as there's no file extension.

Ah, fuck! It's an M4A! Will change it when I am on a computer, I just remembered.

Sounds like a room mic to me. Sounds like a pretty good room, too!

You have some hi-hat ideas. I like this.

Kick could maybe be punchier here- felt beater, or something harder?

Snare sounds good, incidentally.

Arg, why m4a? Why no file extension? I honestly don't know what to do with this thing.

Yo geoffstrung, just rename the file from .htm to .m4a, then you will be able to open it with quicktime or itunes or whatever bullshit you have. If U no have any of that mac-type bullshit installed, you should be able to convert it to mp3 from m4a with most converter type thingamabobs.

Yeah I'm not sure if I have anything that will play an m4a. Maybe iTunes will but fuck, I don't want to open iTunes.

Cam-ron, sounds pretty ok. A little snare-light for the blasts, but for the rockpace beatz, it sounds good. In fact, i would say that with (maybe) just a little compression, you could do rocktunes with it set up just like this, and be totally fine.

Snare sounds like a good tune, toms seem a bit oot. You should scope some youtube vids for tom tuning tips. Better tuned drums make recordings sound higher quality. It is like black magic.

Overall, it sounds good though. If you lay back(hit lighter) on the cymbals a little in the bits where you are slamming them a bit harder here, you could use this setup to record rockshit right now, IMO. Just continually think of balanced volumes when you play, hit the snare as fucking had as possible, while hitting the cymbals as light as you can get away with. That is pretty much the trick to recording drums with simple mic setups really.

iTunes or Quicktime definitely will. They are the ones responsible for the format, the bastards.

If you really can't play it, i can convert it with my magical converter and upload it someplace.

I am using a felt beater, but only because one of the two plys on the bass drum head has like, sort of a ripped/separated right where the beater hits? Like it's still there, but I could peel off a chunk of the ply if I wished too. I am hoping the felt end is less abusive or something..? I don't know.

And thanks, mang. I dig hi-hat work and wish it was expanded upon more, so I have decided to do so with my own playing.

No no I'll quit complaining and see to listening to it...

That does sound pretty roomy. You actually have a decent sounding room, for what it is, I think. Good right foot there Cameron. Tone of the kick drum could use a bit more definition... what's the tension of it, what's inside it, what manner of reso head? I think we should get a skin on the bottom of your tom...

The blasts seem a bit misplaced?

Thanks, bro.

And I used to really like the way my tom sounded, but the single head sounds superanemicweak to me. I need to replace it before I do any serious recording.

Here ya go, Geoff. Ya big whiner.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13745148/DRUMZAGAIN

Hahaha, I only just realized you snuck this is between my posts.. You sneaky devil.

And the resonant head on the kickdrum is just the stock Pearl one. And I've never really bothered to fuck with the tuning of it? And IIRC there's just a blanket or something in there. I don't think I removed it when I replaced the head.. It was in there when I received the drums.

Oh, and I am sure the blasts seem fairly misplaced. It's sort of an ADHD, "THROW A BLAST IN THERE BECAUSE YOU CAN" compulsive thing.

Sounds like the last drummer I played with.

Single-head toms are generally a bad idea.

I know a guy who makes custom kits who has really shallow tom shells with only a top head (and bizarre shapes and venting; engraves cymbals to match kit finishes too) and he sounds good with those- he used to play in my occasional metal band. Really the only time I've ever heard them sound good. And even then it was more "unique"- odd sounding.

Gotta have the resonant head, IMO. On the kick too. A port is okay and useful, no front head is... er...

Now granted you can get very '70s by pulling your resonant heads, dampening the things, deadening the room... But I have the feeling that's not what we (collectively, as people who like good sounding recordings) like about the '70s. I think the recordings sounded great but the drum sounds were... not the best, by and large. There are exceptions. (I like wide-open '90s drums. The other best decade for rawk record sounds. Give me that kit in its full glory. Don't deaden it, don't make the gated 'verb louder than the drums.)

Getting your kick batter head situation straightened out will toughen up your kick right quick. I like Aquarian Superkick IIs. You can roll with the felt beater- the drummer in Garda does actually, single pedal too!- but I'd take a hard beater of any sort, myself. And yeah, seconded on the tuning thing. As a drummer, IMO your kick and snare-especially the snare, are your signature tones. Tune 'em up good. It makes a difference and makes even fairly cheesy kits sound good if the heads aren't destroyed.

Re: the batter head, just sounds like it's really worn, from your description. There's always the pads that apply where the beater strikes, if wear is an issue.

The snare sound, incidentally, isn't what I'd normally associate with a piccolo. It has a good mid-crack to it versus that high thin "pop!" sound.

Have you read this guy? http://home.earthlink.net/~prof.sound/ Drum Tuning Bible. On the list of "useful informative stuff" floating around the intarwebs.

Peep my kick drum. Actually sounds okay, for what I do? I got the idea from Bill Bruford. He has one hell of a punchy kick. I mean with the port that big, and in the middle of my drum, the head is really there to hold the pillow in and give the hoop on that side something to press against. And also to provide something for me to spray paint.



It still sounds deep. Just there's barely any sustain.

Point taken, also circumstance/genre. My apologies for generalizing.

DM drumming is a different animal than anything else that uses a kick drum. You're running into the laws of physics there re: the length of sound waves, the response of the batter head... DM drumming sorta demands to some extent a drum that doesn't exist because it also demands beastdrummers whose species is thin on the ground.

In that case, I don't think you want sustain most of the time anyhow. I'm actually almost a little surprised at the lack of a move to smaller, punchier drums in that style. Tuned up right, 20" or even 18" kicks and fairly shallow snares combined with bigass toms might be ideal? Lighter or brighter cymbals (largely, save for the ride) too given how they're usually treated at mix time.

Actually 20" kicks are getting some love. In the super drum athlete crowd if you want to be like Derek Roddy or George Kollias you get a pair of 20", apparently they provide the most useful rebound.

For me with the kick, I just want a hard ass transient above all else. Wood beaters, a pillow in there, and I bring my kick mic to gigs and it sits on the pillow inches from the head.

Small cymbals... also a good idea. When I'm doing fast stuff I find my 18" crash a little awkward. It's all swinging aroundand reacting slowly and stuff . A drummer I've recorded recently has three smaller crashes lined up in front of him and he gets all sorts of quick action from them, it's pretty sweet.