Drum Pitch on Recording(s)

Hi everybody. I recently picked up a USB condenser mic that I can plug into my mac and record what I'm playing. Boy, it makes a big difference listening to what I play when I'm not engaged in playing!! I'm using Audacity and have slowly figured out a few things... so I know I'm on the right track. At least baby steps.

Anyway, I've got things sounding pretty good, IMHO. I had to fiddle around with mic placement and the different settings and everything is straight settings in Audacity. I noticed something interesting - my drums have a noticeably lower pitch (not necessarily unpleasant) on the playback of the recording(s).

Is this a common occurrence or do I need to tweak some other settings in Audacity or perhaps tune my drums to a higher pitch.

Any advice / feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks!

P.S. I don't know much of anything about how to tweak the sound after it's recorded. All the things I've tried makes the recording sound less than desirable.

It's not that uncommon for the recorded sound to have a lower pitch than you THINK you are hearing from behind the kit. You can often tell people who have never heard their drums from anywhere but the driver's seat - their drums may be tuned too low to project nicely or they are very muffled.

You really shouldn't try to change the pitch of the drums using Audacity - you will end up with unacceptable (to me, anyway) artifacts from the process. Using just one condenser mic, you really shouldn't need to do anything to the sound in Audacity other than a touch of reverb or slight EQ adjustments. Most adjustments should be made through mic placement, recording location, and drum tuning.

Congrats on recording - that is the one thing that really opened my ears and taught me how to listen to what i was actually playing rather than what I THOUGHT I was playing. It is a great learning tool.

This is what Larry talks about - tuning the drums higher than would seem ideal to you because they always sound deeper away from "the cockpit" - the nigh attack on the heads is less pronounced.

I personally have no qualms about changing pitch of drums in Audacity if it makes for a better-sounding recording. Since recordings miss out on the live vibe and presence of live performance I think it's fair play to dress up the sound any way you can. Then again, my recordings tend to have more artefacts than an Egyptian museum

What always shocks me with recordings is that things sound faster on playback. I think Bermuda has talked about that phenomenon at times - a combination of adrenaline and immersion gives the illusion that things are slower than they are when you're playing.

mmulcahy1 said:

P.S. I don't know much of anything about how to tweak the sound after it's recorded. All the things I've tried makes the recording sound less than desirable.

Click to expand...

A *small* amount of delay or reverb can sound good on drums, depending on the context. You can play with that setting in Audacity.

Tuning a little high sounds not so great in the drivers seat, but great from 1 meter or more away.

IMHO, many drummers' reference of a well tuned drum comes from recordings, which in most cases are close-miked and eq'd to bring out a deeper sound, which ends up sounding like tension is lower than it actually is. So people end up trying to replicate that sound from the driver's seat, resulting in lower tensions and lots of damping. This ends up with the drums sounding lower pitched and with less resonance when they are recorded.

One can get used to tuning that will sound good to you either from the drivers seat, or the audience, or in recording.

IDDrummer said:

You really shouldn't try to change the pitch of the drums using Audacity - you will end up with unacceptable (to me, anyway) artifacts from the process. Using just one condenser mic, you really shouldn't need to do anything to the sound in Audacity other than a touch of reverb or slight EQ adjustments. Most adjustments should be made through mic placement, recording location, and drum tuning.

Click to expand...

Anon La Ply said:

I personally have no qualms about changing pitch of drums in Audacity if it makes for a better-sounding recording. Since recordings miss out on the live vibe and presence of live performance I think it's fair play to dress up the sound any way you can. Then again, my recordings tend to have more artefacts than an Egyptian museum

Click to expand...

Well, my studio (so-to-speak) is my garage. It has a lot of other stuff in it, so it definitely does not have an echoey presence or much extra room to speak of. So, for the "room" that I play, the drums are tuned very well. Tuning is one area that I've gotten pretty good in - at least until I move my drums to some other location....

As far as using reverb and other "EQ," I've messed around a bit with some things and quite frankly, I have no idea what Audacity's doing or what I'm doing.

Also, I'm doing this with a single mic. It can record stereo, cardioid and omni-directional and each mic setting gives a slightly different presentation.

So with these mic settings and various mic placements (front, behind, above, across the kit, etc.) I have a lot of variables to try to test and control.

Gee, I'm sure glad I love doing this stuff or else I might just become frustrated.

opentune said:

A *small* amount of delay or reverb can sound good on drums, depending on the context. You can play with that setting in Audacity.

Tuning a little high sounds not so great in the drivers seat, but great from 1 meter or more away.

Click to expand...

I have actually looked at the delay settings in Audacity and the things I'm looking at mean nothing to me. The numbers used are seconds, percentages and hertz. Uh, what!?

I understand the units of measurement used, but have no idea what they mean in the context of editing and the EQ-ing process.