WEEK 10 - AA1: Drums

I approached this as a test run for the assignment, also considering headphone and talkback requirements. I'd prepared a final(ish!) mic plan, developed from my original proposal and feedback from Stephen Fieldhouse. Sanad, Bradley and I used this, with adjustments, and had a drum sound in no time. Having a couple of mic plans speeds up the process.

I got some 'time' playing from Sanad and also some hits

I prefer headphones over speakers, but remove cans for an overall listen regularly. Donning headphones, I asked Sanad to beat each drum and tweaked the channel gain until just hot. I did this for each mic, then played time again, tweaking back any channels that were peaking from the increased volume of the full kit. It was starting to sound loud and clean, what I was aiming for.

When I had everything as hot as possible with Sanad playing full kit, we rolled.Recorded time. Finally, 4 hits on each drum for my sample library.

( * Note: When I arrived home after this session, I had everything on my hard drive, except the audio files! Sanad has been kind enough to allow me to post a couple of mixes of his drum recording and the rest of the blog will concern the post production of this material.)

FullKitChubMP3.mp3
My first mix, the Chubby Mix - I like the fat bass drum!

I tried several approaches in post but built from kick and snare, then high hats etc. There's a lot of snare and kick in most of the mics and separation wasn't easy. Until I hit on the ringing in the background. 'Tuning' each drum's ring with a high pass filter cleaned things up considerably. One of the room mics and the left rack mic were also creating a strange delay. When I took the ring down, it eased somewhat.

My final mix 'Ringless Almost 1' and plug ins
RinglessAlmost1MP3.mp3

Some mics too close to some drums and changing some angles would relieve some spill. Double hit on high hat at one point seems to monster SPL on that mic.

I enjoy the slacker sound of the first mix for some situations, but for mine, as usual, the take with the superior clarity and definition wins out again, RinglessAlmost1.

References:

Fieldhouse, Stephen. Audio Arts, Week 10 - Drums. EMU, University of Adelaide, South Australia, May 15, 2007, and in correspondence, May

All drumming: Sanadzadeh, Khaled. Drum Recording. EMU Space & Studio 2, University of Adelaide, South Australia, University of Adelaide, South Australia, May 17, 2007.

Leffler, Bradley. Drum Recording. EMU Space & Studio 2, University of Adelaide, South Australia, May 17, 2007.

"Digidesign - Industry Leader in Digital Audio and Live Sound." Digidesign. 2007. http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm? (accessed May 21, 2007).

"ProTools LE & M-Powered Systems." Digidesign. 2007. http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?navid=28&langid=61& (accessed May 4, 2007).