13 Reasons Why Your Drums Sound like Sh*t!!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- You're stuggling to record drums! Of course you are. It's not easy. Here's a few tips to help you get better results. Many thanks to @CameronFleury for the amazing drum performance!
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About Spectre Sound Studios:
I'm Glenn Fricker, engineer here at Spectre Sound Studios. I love making records, and after doing it for sixteen years, I want to pass on what I've learned. On my channel you can find tutorials on how to record guitar, bass, real drums and vocals. There's reviews and demos of tube amps, amp sims, drums, mics, preamps, outboard gear, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, and plugin effects.
We've covered Moon on the Water, played Bias FX, given you the absolute best in Stupid Musician Texts, ranted & raved about bass guitar, and this channel is where The Eagle has Landed.
Everything you've wanted to learn about recording Hard Rock & Heavy Metal can be found right here on this channel!
I also respond to your comments & questions: The best make it into the SMG Viewer's Comments series of videos. Loads of fun, lots of laughs.
Thanks for checking out my channel & please subscribe!
Best Drum Recording Educational Video Ever and it is FREE!
Playing the playlist in support of your dear wife. Godspeed to her in her recovery.
Glen : “…Let your drummers personality shine through …”
Band, (looking at drummer) : “ oh my god, we are toast …”
There was an Onionesque meme going around for a while "Drummer ruins band photo by smiling"
"SHHHHHHHhhhhh!!!!!" The drummer is right over there ...
And Glenn says bass players are the problem!
I was a drummer who used to hit cymbals too much and too hard. One of the best things I learned was how to hit the drums hard, and the cymbals med-light.
Please make a PSA about this. So many young drummers that come in to record tell me "it's just how I play" or "it's my sound" and its nearly impossible to convince them that dynamics matter.
Too much Bonzo folklore brainwashing kids into thinking harder is better...
@@Tallstreehouse lol if you watch Bonham play you’ll notice that he also hits the cymbals pretty softly. in fact he doesn’t play very hard at all except for where he needs to, that’s the key (solos, big fills, etc.)
@@WesHampson you're probably right, but anecdotally, he's the hardest hitter who ever lived. When kids are just starting out theyre often misled--you know how many dozens people have told me Jimi played upside down? It's absurd 😭
When you play the cymbals, it helps to play them in a sort of fan/whip motion, not straight. Learned that nifty little trick from Matt Halpern. It allows the cymbals to move more freely and it will optimize your energy and keep a more consistent sound.
I cannot stress enough how much I *HATE* it when drummers just bash on the cymbals. It's fucking infuriating to watch somebody treat your stuff like it wasn't expensive.
A long time ago, (back in the early 80’s) I went cymbal shopping with a drummer, he needed a particular cymbal for a song that his band were recording, we visited nearly every shop in Melbourne (Australia) that sold drums, and he tried hundreds of cymbals, some sounded amazing, some sounded like barely warmed up crud. Finally we got to one shop and as he tried them all he finally found one, that to me, sounded like a rubbish bin lid with resonance (I can’t think of any better way to describe it), it added new levels to the idea of horrible, but he bought it !
2 weeks later I was mixing his band at an inner city venue and he had the crappola special set up as part of his kit, that night, he used it once.
In the context of the song, and the arrangement at that point, it was perfect.
That night, I had an epiphany in that I learned that what sounds bad is not always what sounds bad, or to put it another way,what you hear is not what you are hearing !
I hate that amps have been so neutered nowadays that it's not even possible to make them sound "bad", while sounding "bad" is the basis of all metal -_-
I have a song that I put a banjo in. I don't like banjos, I don't want to play a banjo, I don't want to write banjo music. I subbed out the melody with every other instrument I thought had a chance of working but absolutely nothing fit the line like a banjo did. It just belonged there. So it's in.
The part that bothered me the most though, was that I already had a violin track, and adding the banjo pretty much means that's a fiddle now, and that's WAY too close to bluegrass for my comfort 🤕 (Jokes aside, the point is you do whatever the song calls for and if it needs you to ride a pogostick while singing showtunes through a vocoder then that's what you do)
If you ever get the chance to listen to stems from old recordings you might be surprised how a lot of the tracks sound horrible on their own but once it’s all unsoloed it sounds amazing.
I listened to a stem of a Jimi Hendrix recording a while back. I don’t remember which song. I was shocked by how bad his guitar tone was soloed. Once you brought the rest of the band in it sounded great.
6:41 Instructions unclear. My drum kit now smells like an Italian restaurant.
Keeping the channel rockin' while Glenn tends to his wife.
💯!!
Absolutely 🤘🤘
Thanks for this overdue and not misleading video. The snarky pulldown interface menu is priceless. Great work on this video
Great video Glenn! I freaking swear so many people who've sent me songs they recorded to mix are just so ugh for the drums. i often gotta give them tips to make it sound better because it was that unmixable lol.
I really have to thank you Glenn. It has been many many years since you came out with the "how to record drums" series, and because of you I have always recorded real drums when I've had the opportunity. First time was in 2017, borrowed some mics, had no idea what I was doing and it sounded like shit.
Past forward to today, my last drum production and it when it came to the mix, I only sample blended on the kick just to get a little more consistency in the top. But still has the dynamics in the hits!(Not released yet so cannot share)
If it wasn't for you being so stubborn, angry and dedicated about recording real drums, all your tutorials, going down the rabbit hole about guitar tone and so on. I would propably just do programmed drums, a whatever guitar sim with a v30. They sound great and use I use them when it is the best solution, I can be proud and say to myself: "I miced it myself."
So thank you Glenn. I have learned a lot about the mentality about doing this from you. I am eternally grateful for you shouting at the camera about how much programmed drums suck! Even though the libraries sound awesome, it is still not your own craft!
Doing my part to keep this amazing channel going❤ Great video, Glenn!
Awesome 🤘🤘
Same here ❤❤💯
I don't even play drums, and your constant stream of metaphors/similes had me in tears of laughter! "Stop hitting it with your purse" was the best! Thanks Glen :)
Right on Glen! I LOVE my Saturn IV kit! Take care of them and they’ll take care of you! Had Cam drum on my song “Keeper” as well! Great guy and amazing drummer!
What’s up from Chatham!
Time to let the playlist RUN!!!!!! Take care of your family! Love you and your videos. By proxy I love your wife as well! Get well soon! Prayers to any gods listening!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your amazing wife, Glen! Sending all my love and best wishes. Good tidings and may Krom bless you and your family with full cups and full bellies.
Man this channel is good. Solid practical advice. Entertaining. All of it. All of it. I don't even like metal.
I love to tune drums. Yes it takes time but there ain't a better feeling than getting that rig sound perfect.
Nowadays with tuning apps / Tunebot it is also quite easy. The art comes finding tuning which fits the drum and then which skins are the best for the drum.
I love your videos and you always have sound advice. I have been playing and recording for many years now and still find new things to learn. Great takeaways here is your idea of giving each drum its space...get those cymbals up higher than you think to keep them from bleeding into tom mics. Practicing technique and balance your playing...easy to say hard to do. This will take time but so worth it in the end and you will get better gigs. Also bashing cymbals is another great point. I recently got the Audient EVO16 and SP8 interface and expansion module. Both are great and I have 16 inputs. I highly recommend these interfaces to those on a budget and they have auto gain built in which is nice for a drummer/engineer multitasker. Easy to get great signals going without a bunch of back and forth knob turning. Also they don't break the bank and have Audient pre's which are great! Killer vids and advice, keep it up!
I dialed in a good heavy tone on my boss katana Mark II. Ran record out through a splitter cable into left and right interface inputs. Double tracked hand paned and got some really decent results! Finally!!!
I m not a heavy metal fan drummer but I admire them a lot. Excellent show 💥
You're spot on with this! Luckily, after drumming for 50 years, I've already followed this great advice. (I got the analog Drum Dial based on your older video). I got a set of reasonable mics (needed longer cables than the set came with. Sweetwater got over a thousand dollars that day) and a couple of interfaces/preamps (it's a large kit). My kit was bashed together over years and includes elements from all the major manufacturers. Back when I was starting and had no money, I had a squeaky kick drum pedal that liked to fall apart and cymbals that flipped inside out when you hit them too hard. I've lived the struggle. My recordings now are fun to listen to. I'm proud of how I'm playing.
Memories of late 90s August heat, 4 track cassette, one overhead SM58 for the entire drum kit, me putting duct tape on the heads to dampen ringing and removing one of the toms if not used on that song, and (squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak) on playback because we forgot about the kick pedal 😁
(It was my kit and my gear, but I wasn't the drummer, I was just acting as the recording engineer that day hence why I was adjusting the klt while forgetting WD40 on the pedal )
Ah so good to see one of these vids back on your channel Glenn, been a long time subscriber but running my own studio now and am super busy, a lot of my workflow and success has come down to your philosophies, oh and yes you were 100 million % correct about bands going out of there way to fuck up there own records haha
I know I commented earlier, but also, the fact that imperfections add character, no better a demonstration of that than Oxygen Destroyer. It's awesome, old-school sludgy death metal that sings about kaiju. Best I can describe them is chaos. The drums are imperfect, the guitars sound like they're picked with maximum aggression, the bass is played with bass seemingly up to 11, and the vocalist is always slightly out of key.
But they sound absolutely BRUTAL. All of that chaos creates a unique vibe, a unique sound, and makes them fun to listen to. They're great musicians, don't get me wrong, but their sound is UNIQUE.
All good advice. As a guitarist, I thought there might be a part on how to avoid mic phase/polarity issues when they are all in close proximity. I also thought there might be a section on how to properly use triggers when samples are blended with live sound.
Anyway, glad I'm not a drummer. Expensive, time consuming, difficult to record, and a pain to transport considering the size of modern metal kits. That said, great drummers who know what they are doing are invaluable.
The section on global compression surprised me. I expected separate compression settings on each mic for a more precise, granular approach.
As for me, BFD/Superior Drummer all the way. Time consuming to assign MIDI maps, program, set velocity, and create more human-like timing imperfections, but it beats having to find a treated room and undergoing the live drum recording process.
All my respect to you drummers for what you do.
I’ve always said that just replacing the heads with the right series, and tuning them just right will at least improve the sound dramatically. That includes the bottom heads, yes. Just replacing the top heads is low economy.
thank you for this Glenn. My band is coming up with a new record and the guy who's producing us does the over editing and the combination of samples and mics by default, which is a process I always questioned but the guy has over 20 years of experience like yourself. On other things he is very good, but when I talked about the subject with him, his answer was that it was to make the drums sound "bigger" and "perfect" and that "it's the way modern production is done". I swear on my life I had been rehearsing my parts very hard and the differences were of a few milliseconds on the pro tools grill, you couldn't see it if you didn't zoom in like crazy. As for sound, I brought my 2009 Pearl Export series with brand new skins and we put together a good set of cymbals between mine and his. I trust this guy because he's a professional, but I completely agree with you on the subject
I don't go for a Modern sound, personally. I am a fan of the old sounds of Thrash Metal and early Death Metal, I don't care what others think, my favorite sounding records are by the Police and Rush, but they didn't use pro-tools and sample replacement on the drums in those days. I'd argue that you're not interested in sounding modern, good is the goal.
@@myopicautisticmetal9035 I actually discussed this with the band before hitting the studio and I was the only one in favor of an old school production. So I kinda knew what I’m gonna get. Even though the producer insists that he wants to mantain the dynamics and human elements of the instrument tracks. But doing that as much as possible despite the plug ins and editing is one thing, producing old school is quite another. No grill alignements there
Playlist activated. We got you Glenn!!
The intro" "Yes, I am talking to you!" Damn Glenn, I felt that in my soul😅
Love this guy. Def watching playlists just to binge them
Hi from Japan! 🎌🗾⛩️
Soundcore is awesome! I discovered them quite by accidend, and they‘re, well, awesome! Their products work wonders, and their tech support is top notch! Two katanas up!
ive been recording my drums in 1 take for that old-school live feel. so much practice. whens mix reviews happening again? no vocals eq or comp but i got 2 songs im happy with so far. would love to get an idea how bad my drums n mic'ed bass n guitar is. 🍻
for the soundcore first song would be slayer - repentless or anything by megadeth ,pantera,ect
Glen my dad always taught me that items come three ways, good, fast and cheap! Pick two of the three because we will never get all three at once! I bought a new kit this year I started out 1986 with a Tama Star classic 5 piece kit with Zildjian A's and K's, I then upgraded 30 years later to Gretsch USA Custom 7 piece kit that kit I added Evans hydraulic heads, EMAD Bass Drum head, Roland Octapad and triggers Pearl Demon Drive bass drum pedal and Yamaha direct drive hi hat, and beyerdynamic mics stand My new kit is a DW Collectors Series Mahogany and maple again hydraulic heads on all toms, EMad bass drum head, Roland Octapad and TD50 With triggers, DPA MICS 2011's on both the top and bottom of the snare, 4099's on the Toms, 4055 inside the bass drum, Neumann U47 outside the snare, and DPA 2012s for overheads So yes if you want to sound good ok but if you are very particular about the sound invest! It's like this you can't make a Kimball piano sound like a Steinway no matter how great of recording console and gear it just can't be done! So take the time, save your money and the best products and NEGOTIATE, NEGOTIATE, NEGOTIATE! There's a lot of "Retail Markup" in musical instruments so the bigger dealers can put together package deals!
Have any videos up on TH-cam with that very expensive setup?
@@Nevernow721 no not yet but we will soon, possibly!
cracks me up how it's now gear"space" lol Great knowledge Glenn. Cheers.
Hi Glenn. This is the holy truth. However, I would add one more point. Don't be afraid to experiment with sound and try to go beyond your limits and use something different. For several years I used XY overheads, and they sound like crap. Nowadays, I use the Glyn Johns method, with additional mics for bottom snare and toms. Central Overhead is in mono in mix, or little on the right, and the back "overhead" is panned to do left but not all the way. I don't have phase issues or shit like that. I use a little more compression on toms and eq (sometimes saturation to get extra flavour). And last is snare. The bottom snare mic (of course, 180* phase shift) is going through the gate and eq to mute the kick, then is hardly compressed and, to "control the time" of springs, I use gated reverb. I use this technique for stuff like YES, Foreigner.
Love your awesome videos, they are fucking helpful :)
Glenn I recently completed audio engineering school and I’ve been checking out your 500 series videos. Could you do a video on how your running your mix back through your hardware and using them in a plugin fashion. I’d like to start getting some of my own gear and I really dig out the box mixing. Thanks man! I dig all your videos. keep the kick ass content coming!
GLEENNNN!!! I would like to recommend for metal drummers on a bit of a budget looking for cymbals, check out Bosphorus cymbals - specifically the Gold series. Not sure what the pricing in USA/Canada is like but in Australia they are almost half the price of a Zildjian A Custom. Maybe an idea for an episode could be a blind a/b test between different sets/brands of cymbals? Might be an expensive episode though....
For Glenn, for Julie!
Same here 🤘🤘
Make sure your rimshots aren't over the lug. It sounds better and feels better when you are between the lugs, the snare won't go out of tune as quickly.
its not that deep.......wont make a difference.
@@DALTRON666 if you can't feel the difference between rimshots over a lug and rims shots between the lugs, you probably haven't done it very much or done them with any power.
@@TaoBonFu Yeah, no..... Been drumming and recording for 20 years. A good take is a good take period. Makes no difference
@@DALTRON666 well you've been at almost half as long as I have. Just because you can't do it, doesn't mean it's not true for others. Just say it doesn't work for you and move along.
@@TaoBonFu not surprised someone with this mindset is on glens channel........
All the best, Glenn!
In the world of guitar you seem to be on a quest to save people money, prevent them from overpaying, and you've done numerous videos on more value based guitar gear that hits the bang for the buck sweet spot. Any chance of doing stuff like that for drums? I think a lot of drummers would benefit from that.
You might be right!!! I’ll see what I can do
I think the little difficulty is that, when it comes to guitar it is a simpler operation (specially if you are tracking through a DI)
And we already debunked the myth on the importance of stuff like wood and such.
But in terms of drums...
It's a fully acoustic instrument, so things like the resonance of the wood, and the room you are in may be taken into consideration.
Also technique is a lot more complex.
Glenn if you manage to pull this off you will be my recording hero!
@@SpectreSoundStudios Have you tried the shure PGA series mics?
TH-cam needs this
buy an electric kit? *shrugs
Happy Thanksgiving Glenn. My thoughts are with you and your wife.
Great video Glenn, very informative as usual.👍
I was really surprised not to see any mention of showing up with decent drum heads on the drum kit.
Ive had so many repeat conversations over the years with some drummers about how much of a difference having drum heads that arent dimpled into destruction makes on a sound. It was bad enough mic'ing a dead cardboard sounding kit for live sound,( and trying to put lipstick on that donkey and call it a supermodel ...) but the day you lay down your drum tracks, you show up with tired, ratty, spent drum heads to be recorded for posterity.🥴.
Some drummers will do anything to postpone the investment in a fresh set of drum heads, and dear Crom the wailing over the cost...😬
I mean, they should have chosen harmonica if they wanted to save on instrument upkeep.
Use Decent Quality, Fresh Drum Heads, Tuned Properly Dammit!!
Gah!
/End Rant
Keep the good info coming Glenn.
F*ck you very much.✌️
I agree with your points and would add. If your setting up a kit to record it needs time to settle. Over night works good. Taping the snare head helps lose that ringing noise. A giant A is my favorite tape shape.
I'd also recommend new heads! Swap the Remo UT heads that came stock on lower end kits. Tuning resonant heads a minor third above the batter head gets me good results, and I tune toms a fourth or fifth apart from each other. The notes themselves aren't really important, the main thing is it's repeatable; once you find a sound you like, you'll always know how to get it back. P.S. Glenn your drum sounds are killer!
I'm a guitar player, but 20 years ago in college I found an audio engineer class. I was able to get good guitar recordings very quickly, so I spent that class learning how to record drums, and boy has it payed off.
Great Video!
I'm surprised you did not mention ''changing drum heads'' I know you recommend it. Maybe it's too obvious. Keep up the great videos coming they are very entertaining! 🤘
There needs to a be a transition pedal for - people used to playing on wet cardboard boxes and garbage cans - you can play a regular drumset, hear what you want to hear, but make it easier on the mix.
Great video concept Glenn!! 👌
Beyerdynamic TG Drum Set Pro Medium is a really sweet budget drum mic kit. Their boundary mic is killer on the kick, the OH work well, and the tom/snare mics sound pretty good.
Their tom mic and an SM57 combined work well on speakers too.
I can't wait to expand my inputs to 16 so I can use more mics for kick In/out and snare top/bottom plus other stuff.
I have a Bose Bluetooth speaker. It is pretty good. The first song I listen to was “Stash“ by Phisch. What a great baseline. Another song was Slow Ride by Foghat.
I had a PDP kit forever. Finally upgraded to a Pearl masters maple custom 3 piece with the matching snare thrown in for $1000 used. The difference really is night and day. Paired with my Ludwig supraphonic, it’s a pro level sound that doesn’t totally break the bank and will last forever.
i spend wayyyyyy more time practicing drums than recording them. hardly any time editing....cuz i need to retrack them...back to practice.😂🍻
great stuff glenn, been recording drums since 2016, major improvement i had was by putting good drum heads, getting zildjian A custom cymbals and treating my room was the major one, now after 8 years ive got mapex armory, immediately getting better results. also get a good stable drum throne, goes a long way to get a good performance. cheers
Just for you and your wife! It's all playing in the background.... I hope she get's better soon! Cheers from near Thomann Germany! ;)
Love that kind of video❤ thank you for good tips🤟
My ears perked up when you mentioned the soundcore Bluetooth speaker. To me the demo sounded muddy, like most other speakers that market extra bass. Could be very different in person but I was expecting more Glenn. The first song I would play is Waking the Demon from Bullet For My Valentine. The choruses have a sick kick drum roll thing.
LOVE THE CONTENT
Nice to hear you talk about compression and samples. We indeed haven't heard real drums in 25 years. Hope this has some major influence!
Wise words indeed. I just bought a Pearl drumkit for my 8-year old to learn on. Really quite inexpensive. The shells themselves sound surprisingly good considering the price I paid, but my god, what did they make the cymbals out of? My garage door sounds better!
I wish I could "like" this video more than once. So much good stuff in there it's hard to believe you crammed it all into less than 20 minutes. You make me want to buy an acoustic kit and some decent mics.
I’m gonna sharply disagree with the first reason here. The drum shells are not nearly as important to getting a great sound as is the drum heads and tuning. You even have two videos showing how to get good sounding drums with a used Tama Rockstar and an off-brand DW wannabe. In both examples, the heads were replaced and tuned with your expertise. If your drum shells sound like crap but they are still round and have (mostly) flat bearing edges, just replace the heads. Don’t go out and buy a different kit unless your current shells are noticeably warped, which would make it impossible to tune.
I was thinking something similar. I recently bought a kit that I have named Lazarus because the only way back is to raise it from the dead. It is a Ludwig but it is the made in China version. But the whole kit including cymbals stands pedal throne and sticks cost £80. New heads will cost more than that. I will find out what it sounds like shortly. Was it £80 well spent or is it truly deceased?
You beat me to it. Some 85-90% of the sound is heads and tuning. As long as the shells are intact, round and have flat bearing edges you can make inexpensive drums sound good. Are those DW customs going to sound better? Yep. 10x better? No f' in way.
@@Birkguitars without seeing the kit, I have no idea how thrashed it is. It being a Ludwig kit, I would assume the shells are likely fine, unless they were dropped excessively or the bearing edges are completely jacked up.
For £80 (~$100 USD), a whole kit with stands, throne, pedal, and cymbals is a really good deal. If you’re willing to put forth the money to replace the heads, I would say it is completely worth it. So long as you can get the drums tuned up nicely. As Glenn mentioned, try using a Drumdial if you’re a novice, or maybe have someone who really knows what they are doing tune them for you.
@Jellybean199611 Oh it's bad!! 🤣 Looks like it was stored in a shed nit a house. Rust everywhere. But it is still solid so I am hoping that with application of industrial quantities of elbow grease it may be playable. I have an electronic kit so although I can play to a degree I may acquire a few aids and beg assistance.
Looks like you guys haven’t recorded. Quality shells make big difference as do the lugs. It’s an all in-one instrument. Without one element you don’t get the best sound you need. Maybe live in the basement it doesn’t matter to you
i can't confirm if you're talking about this with the "brick snare" but i swear: if i have to hear that steven slate drums type snare (even some that don't use it produce their snare to sound like it) in one more song i'm going to lose it
The two things that helped me while mixing the drums were black salt audios silencer plugin and cutting below 30-35 hz on the drum bus
I bought a Mapex Saturn (regular) kit recently and it's badass! I am curious about those Evolution mounts...
Awesome as always! keep up the great content.
Soundcore also makes good cheap headphones. Ive got a couple Q30s that i use for tracking loud sources, the noise cancelling is quite handy for that.
Glen we are watching old videos per your request. I hope your family is doing better and look forward to new videos soon. Give our love to your wife, we are all supportive and miss you.
God damn it, I am literally going to my buddy’s studio this weekend to track drums, and I was going to make instructional videos about proper “recording” playing, like hitting the cymbals properly, rim shots, tuning, all the stuff you covered here, and I agreed with literally every point you made. So if a video comes out with me making some of these same demonstrations, I swear it wasn’t to rip you off haha
I would have emphasized heads and tuning over the kit itself. The drum head is the speaker of the drum, it's the thing actually making the sound. The amount of sound coming off the shell is minute. I put a contact mic on my snare shell, you'd be surprised what sound is resonating in the shell-it's not "body" or "thickness" or "warmth" or some other wafty adjective.
Speaking as a drummer who uses a behringer interface and preamp as well as the Samson Dk mic pac Glenn recommended in a years old video ( plus SM 57 clones on the snare top and bottom) the thing that’s made the biggest difference in my drum recordings is the literal hundreds of crappy drum recordings I made. As Warren huart said “stop trying to fix your first mixes. You can’t. They are unfixable. But with time and perseverance your 400th mix might be worth something.”
Hey, don't bash Dennys Grand Slam - that's the gig everybody is laughing at but secretly wanted to be there 8:28
I'd definitely play Meshuggah's Bleed as loud as it'd go! Thank you for everything, Glenn!
Continued from my last comment: compression. Funny thing, I was trying to stabilize a snare once and no matter how I set the compressor, it didn’t work. That ONE SNARE HIT was noticeably louder than the others. So I asked myself “why tf am I even using this then?” So I went in and I turned the entire drum mic down on that part, but I set the cross fades to sound natural as if I’m turning the faders up and down slowly. On a tape machine in order to achieve this, you’d send your drums to a mix buss and turn it up louder than your main drum mix (before you bring the other instruments in) and if you need to adjust something while the mix is happening, you can turn the buss up or down slowly. Or if your on an 8 track with a stereo drum mix, you just turn the 2 faders up or down while the mix is happening.
I’ve noticed that cutting compression out really opened things up too. CLA mentioned that once. You put too many plug ins on a mix and it’s gonna thin it out. It’ll sound much more open if you chillax on the plug ins and only add things parallel or subtle.
Hey, Glenn, serious question; is there a reason that FOH would rather use an acoustic kit over a dialed in electronic kit? Keep up the content, sir!
Re-posting for those that need it:
To output or record using multiple devices on Win10 & 11can be done pretty easily. All you need to setup is configure inside the stereo mix within the sound settings your 2 devices. There is a guide at how to geek- "How to Play Audio From Multiple Outputs in Windows 11". This works the same on Win10.
Your wallet might cry looking @ cymbals
no, it won't. Try Thomanns Zultan Series. Great Stuff for little money! No excuses! 😅
For cymbals I’ve been using Paiste 900 series. They’re mid range prices and record really well.
Looks like your room mics were set up as Mid-Side. That’s what I use, and it sounds great.
I have pretty cool setup now that i think about it lol i have a Yamaha Recording Custom and K Zildjian cymbals all around. Im using a Beta 52 and WA 47fet on kick. Se electronics VX7 on snare top and Sm57 snare bottom. Using Sennheiser md 421's on all 4 toms and my overheads im using WA-251. I think it sounds damn good lol but always room for improvement. Mic placement and phase are your friends and enemies at the same time lol GOOD drummer will always beat everything else though.
For getting good cymbals a little cheaper, always check the used market. Half of the cymbals I have on my kit and most of the cymbals that I've bought, I bought them used, Also, cracked cymbals that had the crack cut out can still sound pretty good, though I would test them first.
Last time I submitted for review you told me my drums sounded legit 😉
I tracked on a $500 mapex kit the other day and after they sampled and blended everything it sounded exactly like every other drum sound the last 20 years. Lol. Cymbals do matter though. And also a good drummer helps a lot. One that doesn't bash cymbals and hit the snare like an earthworm. Pet the cymbals. Bash the drums. That's what good drummers do. Good video overall
On the subject of cymbals: Wuhan, known for their amazing-sounding and low-priced China cymbals, also manufacture Turkish-style crashes, hats and rides too. (think Zildjian, Sabian, etc) They're hand-made and cast from B20 Bronze. They sound great, and are priced about the same as a budget "cymbal" from the major manufacturers.
@@nicholasbstone wuhan symbols are trash
Good job! I will put a like to this video!
Stay stong glenn x
Hi Glenn,
thanks for the amazing info once again. There's always heaps to learn from every one of your videos.
One question I have is how would you go about micing up a kit for a live session recording? I guess mic the drums up like usual, point the amps away from the kit and hope for the best?
No way to get any room mics involved, is there?
Thanks, and f**k you Glenn!
Great tips Glenn thanks!, one more that I thought might be useful. Get new Drum heads for the recording session.
Tin shack in a Hail storm lmao ...You've heard me play drums 😂😂
the only downside of the 18i20 is that the 48v comes in banks of 4. I always need to use 4 condensers for drums. At least until the day comes that I buy myself another preamp
Drum samples I tell ya, such as Addictive Drums 2. They sound so good, I actually have to adjust the settings and even use plugins to make them sound worse!
These are all great tips that makes me want to call my friend who does drums and start messing around. We both need the practice.
Dam, well i gotta do a total rethink on my approach. Thank you for the tips, ill try to make something you don't want to turn off soon lol
Meinl Classics Custom are very reasonably priced, especially when you get the big packs. a grand will get you a decent sized set of really good cymbals. they're not exactly top of the range but they sound bloody good!
My favourite drum sound is from Bill Andrews' Sonor kit on the Leprosy and Spiritual Healing albums. I love the distinct musical boom off of each tom that's very clear in the mix because of the tuning and the panning. Better than Dave Lombardo's sound on South Of Heaven and Seasons In The Abyss in my opinion, even though the mix is better on Dave's because the toms are panned left to right so you can imagine yourself behind the kit as you're air drumming along. I always think the cymbals are too quiet and don't cut through the mix enough in your mixes Glenn. That's my critique. Too much time spent on getting the perfect snare sound and not enough on giving the cymbals a chance to have their say.
Hmm, I would play (on this boom box): Blind Guardian - Mirror Mirror; Opeth - Porcelain Heart and Tiamat - Whatever that hurts 🙂
Hey Glenn - on the subject of multichannel interfaces, consider doing a video on the Behringer XR18.
16 individual channels via one USB. Plus there are gates, eqs, compressors, etc on every channel.
I've been using it as my main PC interface for about 6 years now.
We stepped it up and went old school All on Tape! Best recording we ever did! 🤪🤘The only thing is? All have to nail it! Because there is no fixing it! But then the studio is about the performance! Not about writing! I suggest try that! You will really see how good your band is? And see the trouble spots!
00:03 Finally, Glenn recognizes my hard work and dedication
(My secret is the Casio keyboard)