how do I fix my head

[keving]

will, your drumming on the song is amazing,
as a more experimental track is outstanding.

since I've been getting into recording a lot more
I must ask,
on the very last section which snare did you use to record the kind of drum and bass fill


I had fantastic results recording with my friends random 14x6.5 Pulse steel snare drum which appeared to be modeled after a supraphonic

and could you give me a compare/contrast of using that beyerdynamic for snare opposed to a 57?

I seem to be on a never ending search for the fattest sounding snare I can get..

[Thrill Kill Will]

hey dude,
thanks!

ok first, on the entire track i used a 5.5x14 ludwig supraphonic. but at the end, along with my normal drum track (which has delay on the overheads), my friend bill jahn played marching percussion. he wrote and performed some amazing stuff. he did a few tracks of snare, a few bass drums, and quads i beleive.

you can check out track 12 for some more of his work. (also at the end of "take it to manhattan")

beyerdynamic 201.
this is a hyper-cardiod mic. as opposed to a 57 which is a cardiod mic. the tighter polar pattern that a mic will have means that the "proximity effect" will be more significant. (proximity effect is when you get closer to the mic, the low end increases). so when close mic'ing a snare, the proximity effect gives you a little more body with the 201. also, i think the response curve for the 201 is a little smoother and fatter in general. if you like fat snare drums, i highly recommend the 201. i think you can usually grab them for under $200.

also you should try to start with a fat snare sound. its always easier to start at the source. i usually think maple and brass snares tend to be pretty fat. if you are looking at wood shell drums, thinner shells tend to emphasize low frequencies. also i think die cast hoops tend to choke drums a little tiny bit, and help with crack and projection, but if you're looking for fatness, try wood hoops or standard triple flanged hoops.

word. try to post some recordings and maybe we can all listen and make suggestions. (oh and when recording compression can help fatten a snare!)

-w

[keving]

www.myspace.com/sailorsandpilots

untitled 04 has some live drum tracking. at the end is that pulse snare I was talking about

the rest was done with FL as a sketch pad before I bought microphones

[Thrill Kill Will]

hey dude,
i just got a chance to check out that track. i like it ALOT! the vibe is awesome. the live snare is pretty fat. sounds like there is a decent amount of compression going on. how'd you record it? mics? program? etc?

-w

[keving]

the kit, or configurations I should say, that I used was a 20x16 Gretsch Catalina birch kick drum, the pulse 14x6.5 snare. I have a pair of Paiste dimmensions hi hats that are nice and dark, and I borrowed a 16" a custom from my friend.

no port on the kick, and a cheap audix mic from a drum package was used just a few inches outside. no snare mic, simply 1 sterling audio ST33 medium condensor played a few feet overhead of the snare and hi hat (I placed it a bit too close to the hi hat though).

we captured with audacity, nice and simple and imported the clip into FL studio, because the rest of the processed instruments and drums were done in there. I used a plugin compressor and a fairly high ratio with a lot of make up gain, and a bass boost around 100 hz I think. both just effects that came with FL, nothing fancy like the fairchild plugins I have axcess to now.

the room was rather interesting, we used warehouse space but they had built some office space in the front where the roof was at a normal level but the walls were quite thin so it still allowed the drums to breath quite a bit. the tracking room was I believe like 10'x20' so it really wasn't expected from such a small room.

glad you liked it, it's rather old, when we were first learning how to record. I'll post toward the new material as soon as we finish it. I'm working on a song that has a drastic tempo change into a shuffle that is a lot of fun. I get to try out using my neighbors yamaha subkick for the track so i'm really excited

[Thrill Kill Will]

sweet, keep us posted!