drum recording

Please provide the context and sentence fragment you would like to autocomplete. Drum Recording/Production Techniques – Wider Impact Revision Notes by Mr Horn

1950s

· direct to tape

· minimal mics – 1-2 for whole band – gives general lack of definition

· You can hear ambience on drums as they are farther away from mic

· E.g. Johnny B Goode – Chuck Berry

1960s

· Still Not many mics for whole recording

· May have one above entire drum kit, which means kick drum lacks definition as not pointing towards mic.

· Frequency response of mics may have not been as good (ribbon – lacking highest frequencies) –

· E.g. ‘You Really Got Me’ – The Kinks (1964) – some kick drum but no clarity in mix

· Slight possibility of multiple mics on kit (during later 1960s)- by which we mean 2, perhaps 3 then using reduction mixing to balance them on the fly and record to one track on the 4 track tape - often why in early stereo all drum parts hard panned to one side as they couldn’t be separated from each other stereo field as sub-mixed to one track.

1970s / 1980s (Large-scale analogue tape)

· large scale mixing desks and more tracks available on tape

· = more mics available,

· close mic’ing of each part of drum kit individually, with each element recorded on to its own track.

· Each part of kit can be processed, panned individually.

· Sub-mixing/Bouncing down not required

· Close-micing in use more - gives less natural ambience (reverb added after)

· Impact of artificial reverb - Drums tend to be recorded in less reverberant spaces / much dryer spaces - gives greater control in editing/mixing allowing artificial reverb to be added later.

· Close-micing can also introduce proximity effect

· Kick gives more low frequency due to being mic’d separately

· More ‘drum specific’ microphones available, with their frequency responses tailored to specific types of drum (e.g. kick drum), meaning less use of EQ is needed

· STEREO overhead pairs more common - giving kit good stereo separation

· Condensers on overheads more common as oppose to ribbons - giving greater high frequency detail

· E.g. ‘Squonk’- genesis 1976

1990s (Digital recording)

· Less noise - none of the warm sounding saturation of analogue tape – more clinical

· E.g. ‘Money For Nothing’ – Dire Straits (1985)

2000s (DAW recording/production)

· detailed rhythmic editing - audio quantise and groove quantise = perfect performances.

· Widespread use of compression - limits dynamic range - shapes the transient

· Often recorded to a click track - not at the same time as other instruments / less spill

2010s (Drum Replacement Technology)

· Drum replacement tech ( e.g. Drumagog / Logic Pro Drum Replacement ) used to trigger replacement samples for each part of the drum kit

· often used in modern hard rock & heavy metal recordings.

· Considered to be one of the best ways of getting the clarity required in the drums to cut through the big wall of sound from the distorted guitars

· Lets you replace or layer the acoustic drum sounds with samples

· gives better isolation of parts without spill –

· Hits can be turned to turned to MIDI data allowing easier quantisation techniques

· E.g. ‘Testament ‘- Formation of Damnation

· E.g. ‘Sonic Boom 6’ - Addicted to Bass