Recording drums well is a challenge. Plus everyone has their own idea of what “good” drums sound like. To help us better understand the art of recording drums I asked my good friend and fellow home studio guy, Travis Whitmore, to talk to us about tracking drums.
This Guy Knows Drums
Travis is a professional drummer (both touring and in the studio) and now runs his own custom drum tracking service out of his own SilverLake Studio in VA. If you haven’t already checked out his site go there after you watch the interview (www.SilverLakeStudio.com) and listen to some of his samples. The guy is a phenomenal musician and tracks some great drums for people.
In this interview Travis covers the following:
- Affordable ways to get a great drum sound in your studio
- Mic placement and technique
- Drum loops and virtual drummers
- Keeping things sounding “organic”
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As a guitarist, I rely exclusively on Drum loops (EZDrummer). However, the idea of sending an MP3 file to a pro for adding live drums to a song is very intriguing. After listening to Travis I may give it a whirl. Enjoyed the recommendations on Mic placement, always helpful to note should I ever get a chance to record a drummer.
I noticed that you lost your necklace 30 seconds into the interview; It must have been bugging you! Why I noticed this will always remain a mystery even to me. Have a great day and thanks to you and Travis for doing this interview.
Marc – You should definitely check out Travis’ service. Dude, the necklace didn’t go anywhere, but now that you mention it, it totally seems like it disappears! Bizarre!
Hey guys. No one should forget that there are no rules. As far as miking drums goes… every style of music has it’s own sound preference so there is no optimal position… every kit (same kit with other drum heads) has it’s own sound and projection. Then we get to tuning as a part of production… in pitch of the song or not? more musical or more dead sounding drums? Are you tracking Metal, Rock, POP, jazz,…???
Talking about best sounding drums? What is the best sound? Who’s good drummer? Come on… Every production needs it’s own sound… “the sound” for the song… mics for the song… drum heads for the song… it’s all about the final product…
PreProduce… get demos… go to practice… hear the VOX & GTR’s… tune drums accordingly… if it’s possible tune them in register of the song or 1/3 of an octave up or down… make the song work… not just drums…
Luka – No one disagrees with you my man. Like Travis was saying even HE changes up mic placement and technique in his own controlled environment based on the style of the song and what he’s feeling at the moment.
This is what makes recording so fun, no rules. At the same time there are some helpful principles that will get you closer to making a more “pro” sound than an amateur sound.
Great insight guys. This was highly interesting (even for a non-drummer such as myself).