There are two different drums sounds I've always really wanted to reproduce and I'm wondering if anyone hear has any ideas as to how to go about it...

1) The Smashing Pumpkins - "Gish" album... Penetrating but quite thin, trippy snare with clicky but otherwise quite flat kick, tightish toms... I absolutely love this sound which is used to effect of songs such as "I am one" and "Rhinocerous".

2) Flat Jazz sound - Harder to put up an example here, but that flat almost like hitting a cardboard box sound for the toms, light snare with little or no fizz and muffled / muted kick... another excellent mood setter for tracks...

I guess it's most a matter of what mics, where do you mic, how do you tune and/or suppress the heads...

Any advice really appreciated....

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Whilst we're on the subject I'd really like the drum sound from Songs For The Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age, if anyone has it laying around!

I guess having Dave Grohl behind the kit has quite a lot to do with it really.

Damn right grohl has a lot to do with it!
Saw the live in Brum with their different drummer - and although rather excellent - the drums just wern't quite as good (no offence to the drummer - guy from the deftones?)

I would love 'that' sound - the american Indy/nu-metal/hard rock sound....SofAD/Queens/Chillies/Foo Fighters

Great drum production - right in your face

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Edited by Wease (28/09/04 07:42 AM)

Yeah, totally agree, the drum sound on songs for the deaf is amazing; very original. It sounds like if you put your head right next to the snare, so close and dead sounding. It sounds really close-miked; but not over compressed, really natural sounding. Grohl amazing druming is the answer; he is so even in volume he probably barely needs compressing.

Merle Haggard's 'Mama Tried' has a great cymbal sound -- it's played as a ride but sounds more like a small, very bright crash. There's something a little bit similar on Beyonce's 'Crazy In Love'. And I've never come across a sampled version...

I love those too.
Try sending the drum mix through the Sans-Amp. It does something magical to it. Some other pedals are cool too.

deve

Two sounds I'd love to know how to emulate - it can't all be about mic placement(?). One is DJ Shadow, I know he's DJ Shadow but if you hear the original drums he samples they never sound as big and angry as he makes them sound. So I guess this is a compression/effects question?

The second one, that beautiful 70's drums sound as heard on various artists from James Brown to early ZZ Top. Not the Zeppelin recorded in a church, all four buttons in on the 1176 sound, but the dead 70's drum sound.

Thanks

How about Sisters of Mercy - Flood II. Wow.

-Paws

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Quote Deve:

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Try sending the drum mix through the Sans-Amp

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I don't have a Sansamp, but I'm reasonably confident I could simulate the effect if you tell me what it is designed to do... Thanks for the info...

Thanks everybody else for introducing me to some great drum sounds and drummers...

Anybody got any ideas on the actual micking solutions and any othe jiggery pokery used on the Gish album or for Jazz drums... ?

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Quote Paws:

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How about Sisters of Mercy - Flood II. Wow.

-Paws

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Drum Machine...I was always disappointed with the sisters drum sounds....although i do like the mix within the songs...

They were big and mighty....but i always prefered the guitars with them

and live, there was definatly a weakness in the drums

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It's all Oberheim DMX and Yamaha RY5, I think, although for the album they're coming off an S1000 or S1100, and the reverb and compression/gating is obviously very important to that sound. I have to say I really think that Flood I, Flood II, Lucretia My Reflection, Driven Like The Snow and Neverland are probably some of the finest pieces of music ever put to tape, I just love the mood and the production on those tracks - right up there with Joy Division, IMHO... but the rest of the Sisters' output doesn't really float my boat sadly.

-Paws

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oooh - i could debate for hours about the best drum sound!!

My absolute favourite is Siamese Dream (smashing pumpkins).

most of my other favourites come from my metal days - i love the drums on Burn My Eyes (Machinehead) and the Great Southern Trendkill (Pantera) - the latter being sooo big and 80s, but so solid and thumping!

The Rage Against The Machine drum sound sometimes makes me cream too.

Oooh, and the drum sound on Stuck Mojo's album Rising! and anything produced by Andy Sneap for that matter (like the Kill II This albums he did).

and Tool! how could I forget them classic 'snare-off' sounds!

DP.

Edited by eyan (28/09/04 09:55 PM)

Andy Sneap... ET9 Off-Kilter Enhancement... oh yes. Or the toms on Tat Twam Asi. Oh yes^2.

-Paws

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Good drums - well, later Electronic stuff (twisted tenderness), Pitch Shifter (psi), blink 182... jimmy eat world is quite nice drum...

Quote Paws:

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Andy Sneap... ET9 Off-Kilter Enhancement... oh yes. Or the toms on Tat Twam Asi. Oh yes^2.

-Paws

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oh yes!

Hi Robin Lemaire,

It sounds to me like Grohl is using some tricks in the recording process. Basically I think he is tracking the cymbals whilst using a midi kit then switching and overdubbing the toms and snare etc. I haven't figured out if he is triggering his kick from samples he makes himself...

Either way it requires skill and consistancy to acheive the results he got on 'Songs for the Deaf' and on the Killing Jokes, 'Killing Joke' CD. I basically think he is recording in an acoustically dead space and using either miking from inside the toms or some different overhead technique afforded by the acoustic cymbals not being there.

I think it sound very natural and that is down to his talent as a drummer. I should think that they are tracking the drums to tape as they sound fuller than digital recordings.

I'm just guessing and speculating on this but I do know that he does sometimes record hi-hat tracks separate and then plays to that.

As for me I love the first track on the Larry Carlton and Lee Ritenor; 'Larry and Lee' CD with Harvey Mason on drums. Now that my friends is a phenominal combination of a beautifully tuned kit, master drummer with possibly the best touch in the world recorded by an AE with a gift having a particularly great day and mixed to perfection!

Also some of the snare on the Eels stuff is really fat and approaching the perfect low-pitched rock snare sound I'm trying to find at the mo with my own snare drums.

I love the compression used on Danny Carey's snare sound on the Tool CD 'Lateralus'.

The sizzling hats on the Coal Chamber stuff and the lively cymbals as well... also on the last Alien Ant Farm CD are quite good too.

I do go on and on sometimes. Good topic.

Regards,
bassdude

Quote Bassdude:

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I love the compression used on Danny Carey's snare sound on the Tool CD 'Lateralus'.

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favourite tool drum moment has to be the continous switching from snare on to snare off on Pushit from Aenima, and the drum solo in Forty 6 and Two. Pure class.