Room of Earthly Delights

M

mediocrefunkybeat

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So, I'm starting a teacher training course next year and my parents were kind enough to firstly, let me move back into them and secondly use my brother's old room as an office. I also use it for some of my musical equipment. I'll soon be moving more into this room, but I have to clear more space first!

So here's the kit standing in one corner. There is another kit in here in storage as well, but there isn't enough room to set it up properly.
 

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Ooooo, your stuff looks very organic sounding. Immediately get the Murat Diril Black Sea hats, a brave partner choice to the other cymbals. I'm liking that, & request sound clips without delay! (well, ok, perhaps a bit of delay, but no cheating with reverb!!!!). Fail to see the point of the stand mounted ice cube mold to your left side. Are you a porous punchy percussion performer like Abe?

Loving the finish on the drums.
 
I'm in the middle of planning a couple of pieces of video work; so sound clips are on the way. I'm just in the process of sorting the room and a new workflow out as well as waiting for a bass drum mic I ordered that is due in the post tomorrow!

The Black Sea hi hats I got on an exchange for my old HH 14" Regular hats. I did a deal with ADC in Liverpool and they ended up selling my HH's for slightly more second-hand than the new value of the Black Sea hi hats. It was a very good deal all-around. They're difficult to play but very rewarding when you get it right. I'm a great believer in extracting sound from my cymbals to get the best results and that's what most of my cymbals do. The exception is the AAX 16" Studio on the right hand side - which doesn't quite fit but I keep it there anyway because it's useful and I like the sound - even if it's one-dimensional in comparison.

The 'ice cube tray' to the right is actually an Arduinome. It's a software controller that I use to program beat arrangements in with - the catch being that it can actually do anything I want because I write my own control software for it:

http://vimeo.com/1854975

That's not me - but this is what the Arduinome is capable of with somebody that really knows what they're doing with it. What I do is comparatively simple sequencing, but I write my software for it so it's very much set up for my needs. One of my friends at Uni actually bought the kit and assembled it in my first year and I used it through my degree.
 
I am very much looking forward to hearing what you do with this. Is this setup representative of the way you'll be micing it?
 
I am very much looking forward to hearing what you do with this. Is this setup representative of the way you'll be micing it?

It's going to be something like that. I don't have anything for the snare and my overheads will pick it up fine. The main issue is the room. I need to find a suitable compromise between the acoustics and practicality. I re-arranged it earlier and that was when these pictures were taken. I have a few ideas on what I need to do to the room before I start tracking.

I definitely prefer micing with an XY. If I had the right gear, I'd be doing an M/S - I just prefer co-incident pairs and that happens to work well with the space issues as well. The room is big, but it has a lot of things in it.
 
I'm in the middle of planning a couple of pieces of video work; so sound clips are on the way. I'm just in the process of sorting the room and a new workflow out as well as waiting for a bass drum mic I ordered that is due in the post tomorrow!

The Black Sea hi hats I got on an exchange for my old HH 14" Regular hats. I did a deal with ADC in Liverpool and they ended up selling my HH's for slightly more second-hand than the new value of the Black Sea hi hats. It was a very good deal all-around. They're difficult to play but very rewarding when you get it right. I'm a great believer in extracting sound from my cymbals to get the best results and that's what most of my cymbals do. The exception is the AAX 16" Studio on the right hand side - which doesn't quite fit but I keep it there anyway because it's useful and I like the sound - even if it's one-dimensional in comparison.

The 'ice cube tray' to the right is actually an Arduinome. It's a software controller that I use to program beat arrangements in with - the catch being that it can actually do anything I want because I write my own control software for it:

http://vimeo.com/1854975

That's not me - but this is what the Arduinome is capable of with somebody that really knows what they're doing with it. What I do is comparatively simple sequencing, but I write my software for it so it's very much set up for my needs. One of my friends at Uni actually bought the kit and assembled it in my first year and I used it through my degree.

The arduinome is the tray in your avatar, correct?

Also you probably have a thread on this somewhere and I just missed it, but do you have some examples of some of the software you write? I'd be very interested to see some.

Beautiful drums and cymbal as well...
 
The arduinome is the tray in your avatar, correct?

Also you probably have a thread on this somewhere and I just missed it, but do you have some examples of some of the software you write? I'd be very interested to see some.

Beautiful drums and cymbal as well...

I have an example of something that I did for my degree - it wasn't using the Arduinome but it was using the same toolkit that I use. If you're into that side of things, I use Max/MSP which is an object-based language.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjspdcq76rQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVMfQhqWVgM&feature=related

That piece is just some basic motion tracking software.

I used some software in an installation I did recently as well that randomised four inputs from cassette tapes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhyWH6B68iA&feature=related

And yes, the Arduinome is the tray in my avatar!
 
They're difficult to play but very rewarding when you get it right. I'm a great believer in extracting sound from my cymbals to get the best results and that's what most of my cymbals do. .
All the classic traits of a focussed quality instrument, & extra delightful as a result. I love it when every aspect of an instrument is geared towards a specific, & often deeply personal end goal.
 
It's going to be something like that. I don't have anything for the snare and my overheads will pick it up fine. The main issue is the room. I need to find a suitable compromise between the acoustics and practicality. I re-arranged it earlier and that was when these pictures were taken. I have a few ideas on what I need to do to the room before I start tracking.

I definitely prefer micing with an XY. If I had the right gear, I'd be doing an M/S - I just prefer co-incident pairs and that happens to work well with the space issues as well. The room is big, but it has a lot of things in it.

The room I do my recording in at the moment is acoustically not that brilliant, and I used to despair when I tried to do anything with just the overheads. Do you have enough channels to have spot mics?

My particular A/B / spaced pair overhead micing technique might seem a bit haphazard (like everything I do!) but I've always found it produced excellent results. The key is to imagine a line drawn through the centre of the kick and snare, and place the overheads left and right of that line. That way, if you pan the tracks hard left and right, the kick and snare will be right in the middle of the stereo field where you want them. Even X/Y micing doesn't produce this result in my experience, unless you're extremely careful. You may know about this already from your degree, but in case you don't I thought I'd mention it.
Perhaps try having the overheads as low and close as you can? Or X/Y quite low down in front of the kit, maybe three feet from the floor?
 
Andy - you're absolutely right. The drums themselves aren't high-end at all, but I think that the cymbals are really 'my sound' and they're very important and personal.

Ben - I think you're also probably right about the micing positions. I've always liked XY and used it for nearly everything I do. I'm not big on spaced pairs because of the 'hole' in the middle and the fact that I like to work in mono quite often (I won't be for the next few things, mind). M/S is my 'ideal' scenario, like I said.

I have enough channels to spot mic (eight) so I would go for overheads, bass and snare (maybe two) but I don't have enough of everything else at the moment. I'm seeing if I can snaffle an old SM57 here and there on eBay, but my budget is limited at the moment. I'm waiting on delivery of the bass drum mic I told you about the other day on the PM and I'm looking forward to getting it. I won't be able to put it through its paces tonight but when I do, you'll be one of the first to hear it. It's a punt, but the Studiospares own brand stuff is usually great so if this bass mic turns out to be a good one, I'm going to take a serious look at their smaller dynamics as well if I can't find a well-priced SM57 on eBay.

I don't know if you've ever used any of the Studiospares mic stands, but they're about £12 and the equal of stands costing in excess of £30. I have a 'Qwik Lok' stand that I absolutely hate because of the plastic fittings wobbling, but the Studiospares stands I've used are all metal and I've never had any issues. They even have an extra section of telescopic boom. I can't recommend those highly enough. They're the Beyerdynamic design which I have a lot of experience of and they're not quite as good as those - but they're damn close and £40 cheaper!

I'm going to be making a blanket tunnel over the bass drum mic when I do any takes because I want to avoid the wall reflections. There is a hole in my bass drum as well. I'm just going to have to experiment. I might even try the XY from behind my position. The 'low' idea is a good one, but the I'm worried about reflections into the back of the capsules and there's only so much I can do to dampen the wall in front of the kit, so having them extending out into the middle of the kit is the best solution to that problem at the moment. Whether or not that's the real problem though is just a matter of experimenting!
 
Just had a go with the overheads on the 'other computer'. It's sounding much better than it did before I moved the kit to where it is in these pictures. I'm probably going to have to spot-mic the snare, but I'm getting a very decent cymbal sound with the mics where they are. I could perhaps do with lowering them slightly to pick up more low end, seeing as my cymbals are all rather low-pitched!

Now to wait on that delivery...
 
Very good setup so far! Keep us posted on how it progresses.

Neat drum set. The orange is astounding and gorgeous. Do you have a thread for it?

I've had a few in the past. I've had the kit since 2005! I'll post up some better pictures at some point - unfortunately I've just lost my glasses whilst dog walking so I'm off to the opticians...
 
Trying to get some playing up; but I'm having all kinds of issues. The mics I'm using are working fine - but the playing just isn't up to scratch. I haven't been able to 'seriously' play for a while and it looks like in the meantime something has gone a bit wrong with my playing. My right foot is being sluggish and I can't seem to just get anything quite working.

So sorry guys, but this is going to take longer than I thought. My playing just isn't quite where it was. Going to be hitting the practice pad hard.

Add that to the fact that I can't see properly at the moment because I'm waiting for new glasses and things are on a bit of a downer. There's more going on but I'm going to try and get on with this when I can.

Put a small sample up.
 

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I am thwarted, Duncan! This is downloading as an html file! I can't listen to that! What's going on? It says it's a wav...must be a forum issue?
 
Delete the 'html' bit at the end of the file. That should work!

I'm also aware that I need to tweak things a lot more! I'm actually using an ORTF arrangement for that short clip.
 
Is that your Tamburo kit? Ash, isn't it? I remember seeing pics before. I'm at a coffee shop, so can't listen properly, but I'll listen to the sound clip a bit later.

Nice! (Off topic - must be the week for eyewear mishaps - I stepped on mine the other day!)
 
It's the Tamburo Ash. Nothing too exotic, but it is a lovely kit considering what I paid for it six years ago!

The sound clip isn't stellar. I need to work on my mic positioning!

I'm waiting for new glasses - due a pair next Tuesday. Total pain having to go around in my prescription sunglasses the whole time!
 
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