What Recording My Drum Playing Has Taught Me

MoreBeer

Silver Member
I guess about four months ago I bought a basic interface and a few condenser mics. I have since expanded that and added a mixer, a few more mics and like to play along to whatever and listen back to hear how bad, or hopefully good I might sound.

The biggest lesson I've learned is to improve my patience and timing. As listening to the recorded tracks I've discovered that "at times", I tend to get slightly fast and ahead of the music. Not by much, but noticeable. This would have not been perceived by simply playing to music with headphones without the ability to review the result.

Buying the modest recording gear setup has provided immense value to me and has helped improve my timing and technique immensely.

If you're a newbie or possibly somewhat more experienced, I highly recommend going this route. You just might be surprised what you discover!
 
I have a basic Zoom H1, great stuff, cheap and useful. I often record the band during rehearsal, really the best thing to do to improve. The quality is enough for us to catch the flaws and work on it. We record and then share via a Dropbox. It's easy now to do so.
Recording and listening ... And working = the best way to improve, and sometimes stop having illusions about our playing too !
 
I highly recommend this practice - and I just use voice recorder on my blackberry. Don't need hi-fi to hear my mistakes! So don't think you need to spend money to reap the benefits.
 
That's awesome, MoreBeer. I agree, recording has helped me immensely.

Funny, when I started playing 40-some years ago I was taught by a jazz player. I tended to play light and quick. When I started playing rock I was encouraged by bandmates to dig in and play behind the beat. When I started recording myself I found I was actually dragging that backbeat! It took a while to find the happy medium and reprogram my limbs and my ears.

I encourage all players to record themselves now that the technology is common and affordable.
 
I totally agree MoreBeer, I have improved as a player, listener and hopefully Musician (If I may be so bold). Plus I feel like I have picked up another hobby. It's a learning experience, which learning something new is always a good thing.
 
I make recordings occasionally. Things sound different on the recording than when I'm playing.
 
Yep, couldn't agree more with recording yourself. Recording keeps your playing honest and ego in check.

I use the quick record on my e-kit. I play along to various of the built in songs but turn the click off. I then play back the recordings and turn the click back on to see where my strokes are landing. Mostly land dead centre with the click but always strokes here and there landing a bit behind, or even ahead which annoys the hell out of me. I'm totally obsessed with perfecting time and groove WAY more than working on chops. Whether I ever reach the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow, hmm, dunno!
 
I thought of myself as a much better drummer when I first joined this forum. I started watching some of the videos others have posted and while I've wanted to record my playing the past, it was never a priority. I've since acquired a simple mic setup and been listening to my drums while playing, which is huge for finesse, but recording my playing, which has been a very humbling experience.

It's been months and not a single recording worth posting. It seems the second the blinky light goes on, out come the slew of mistakes. I think I actually do play like that and just never noticed. I thought I at least had timing down, but I now find myself pushing and pulling. We play a lot of syncopated songs at church and it scares me to think how bad it may be going now.

Recording myself has ban eye opener, but it's also brought out the perfectionist in me and now, instead of being satisfied by thinking I know a song, I disect it. Definitely less board with song selections now. Absolutely nothing bad can come of of recording yourself, except quitting! LOL!!!
 
There's nothing like it, is there? There are moments of cognitive dissonance where it's almost unbelievable that the drummer you're hearing is really you. It seemed so hip and tight while you were doing it, but the recording reveals a completely different truth.
 
Recording has taught me I'm far worse than I realised. When I started up again I thought I might be intermediate and a decent one at that. I have since realised I'm probably low beginner with poor timing and a cackling handed bass pedal foot. Hard pill to swallow when my hopes were high and there is so little time I have to actually play or practice.

I also find the minute I'm being recorded it's just negative and shaky. Every decent beat is forgotten and every skewed beat rings in your head like an alarm bell... sending you further off course.
 
From the comments above it seems like there's a danger that recording one's self playing may lead to serious discouragement.

There's a better way to look at it though. So many people ask how they can know which aspect of their drumming needs the most work, and what they should focus on when they're practicing. Recording yourself provides that info in spades.

And since drummers are notorious for their egos, it's probably a good thing to have a tool that shows us how far from perfect we really are.

Humbler drummers are a gift to the music world!!
 
fair point, maybe playing in front of a mirror would be best first (in order to check technique) then record when happy with that.

What I found was that my left arm barely moves, it's all in the wrists and fingers, yet my right arm is much more expressive. Not surprisingly since I've had 3 ops on the left and only 1 on the right.

Even just a go-pro in the corner of a practice room is a help. When i practice I mainly improvise though so it's not always going to be right on the money.
 
From the comments above it seems like there's a danger that recording one's self playing may lead to serious discouragement.

One day you're going to have to face
A deep dark truthful mirror
And it's going to tell you things that I still love you too much to say
--some Elvis Costello song


Recording audio is the single fastest path to improvement,, but you're right... It can be absolutely devastating to your ego and seriously compromise your self confidence.
 
I guess about four months ago I bought a basic interface and a few condenser mics. I have since expanded that and added a mixer, a few more mics and like to play along to whatever and listen back to hear how bad, or hopefully good I might sound.

Interested to read this. I too have been toying with doing the same.

Would you mind sharing your set-up details?
 
Some very good posts here. Yes watching and listening to a video of your playing is hard on your ego.

I've been play for many years. I evaluated my playing last week and found that I am playing too many ghost notes.
It makes my playing sound too busy. Now I have to figure out how to remember this when I'm playing live..........

.
 
Interested to read this. I too have been toying with doing the same.

Would you mind sharing your set-up details?


I initially started by using a PreSonus Audiobox USB with two Audio Technica AT2020 condenser mics. The DAW is Studio One Artist. Its possible to get amazing sound just with the two mic setup as the AT2020's do a great job. Fantastic mics for the money.

One mic about 40" from the drums on the left side front and about 36" or so off the floor. The other mic about 20" in front of the kick drum, about 16" off the floor and offset to the floor tom side (not directly in front of the kick drum). I also angle the diaphragm on the low mic slightly upwards. Both mics are set horizontally. I've found this to be the best setup if using two mics.

Recently bought a Mackie ProFX8v2 mixer, a few more AT 2020's and a kick drum mic....nothing expensive, a CAD kbm412 for about $40. So we'll see how a 4 mic setup goes. Not using 4 condensers, the fourth one I bought for the audio of my instructional videos.

Although for just about anyone, I think the simple 2 condenser mic setup is all that's needed if just wanting to get a decent recording of your playing.
 
Some very good posts here. Yes watching and listening to a video of your playing is hard on your ego.

I've been play for many years. I evaluated my playing last week and found that I am playing too many ghost notes.
It makes my playing sound too busy. Now I have to figure out how to remember this when I'm playing live..........

.

I'm also guilty of playing things that aren't there. I've discovered that I'm notorious for adding hi hat accents that aren't there along with being too busy on the snare drum. Usually just adding an extra beat or two here and there.

Overall, this doesn't bother me that much as long as the playing sounds good, tight and in precise time with the music. What does eat away at me is when I start getting fast or sloppy. At times, I also tend to start a song too slowly and sort of catch up 15 seconds later. There again, not all the time, just occasionally.

Lately I've been playing to simpler songs with a very clear and defined beat to work on my timing. For instance, I played to Donald Fagan's Security Joan last night about a half dozen times and kept playing it back looking for where I might have missed something, gotten fast, behind, etc. This type of practice has been helping (I think). Its also the type of song I tend to get busy with and begin to add things to.

Donald Fagan Security Joan - For those not familiar with the song.
 
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I've got what I believe is a useful tip for everyone that thinks they can't play in time. Record yourself and don't play the bass drum. Just play a beat of your choice with just snare and hi-hat with and without the metronome. You may be quite surprised, if not amazed, at how much more consistent and precise your backbeats are than you originally thought. If this is the case for you, and I find it's sometimes with the case with me, then what you've done is isolated a weak part of your playing, the bass drum holding you back, not in synchronicity with your hands. I don't mean the bass drum out of time so much as not pushing enough, we're talking nano timing here. Adjust the position of your foot on the kick pedal. I always remember Dave Weckl saying that he found his beats late if his foot is too far up the footplate.

That isn't the only reason though, it may be a case of working more on bass drum timing with the metronome. Recording limbs in isolation is a great way to really analyse where your weaknesses may be.

(I don't expect anyone to acknowledge my post, and after 80 posts of feeling like I'm talking to myself at DW, I've gotten used to it. :DD )
 
I record every single practice session with all of my bands and it's proven to be the single best resource I have for improving my playing. I had no idea how badly I was rushing songs until I started monitoring myself, and the improvement over the past couple of years (since I began recording myself) has been enormous.

And I don't use any kind of expensive or fancy set-up. I just use the voice recorder on my old iPod. The recordings sure as hell aren't press-worthy - lots of rumbling and crackle and distortion. But I can always hear my snare and bass drum, and it's easy to tell if I'm playing on-time or not. Funny how a good groove can make even a horrible recording bob your head. And if I'm bobbing my head, I know I'm playing it right.
 
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