recording tips heads etc

joeysnare

Silver Member
my band and i are recording our first album,ive went and bought all new snare wires and skins for it i usually play evans genera dry on my snare and remo pinstripes and g1s on my toms and a emad on my bass (we play death/extreme metal) i love the sound of my kit live. but will these skins sound good on recording? im just trying to prepare as best i can to save time and money once we hit the studio anyone with experience in this your opinion would help greatly. cheers
 
One mistake you dont want to make when going into the studio is playing on brand new heads. Make sure you wear them in pretty well before you go into the studio. Any heads you chose will sound good if you like the heads. Having worked for a couple months with a sound engeneer so I could learn a little bit about how its done I picked up a few tips. I recomend getting heads that cut down a little more on overtones and resonance. I'm not saying make your drums sound dead but when doing close miking all that resonance and overtones just make the mix sound muddy and realy bad. If you are partial to that sound you can go in and put it back when mastering the traks, like everyone does. Another thing you should do is ask the person running studio if you can come in an hour or two before the rest of the band gets there to tune your drums to the room they will be in. Make sure to make them as perfect as you can because I can asure you they will sound much different in this new room. You might have to throw down a few extra bucks but it is worth it when the recording comes out.
 
I'm not saying make your drums sound dead but when doing close miking all that resonance and overtones just make the mix sound muddy and realy bad. If you are partial to that sound you can go in and put it back when mastering the traks, like everyone does.

If you are referring to reverb that would be added in mixing stage, not mastering and is not really the same thing

But back to the core issue, while its true that a bit of muffling may be necessary it shouldn't be assumed up front. Lots of factors in play with that decision. Often those overtones provide a presence/body to the sound that help the drums punch through in a crowded mix typical of metal. If the engineer has experience recording metal trust his opinion until you have the experience yourself to know what works and what doesn't. There will always be things you don't like and learn from when you first start out in the studio.
 
ive also heard of people taking resonant skins off for recording,all i know is i do want my drums to have body a nice mix of attack and mid and low end but its fast metal so obviously i want articulation too.
 
ive also heard of people taking resonant skins off for recording,all i know is i do want my drums to have body a nice mix of attack and mid and low end but its fast metal so obviously i want articulation too.

In that case A bit of dampening may be in order for note seperation etc but don't get carried away. I would also differ on the concept of using well worn in heads. Thats kind of counter to my experience. I would recommend changing heads the day before with good stretching/seating and retuning to settle things in. Fresh heads will be a bit livelier and help with the articulation.

Are there any plans to do any triggering? That can also impact these decisions as well
 
thanks for the info so far,ive thought about triggering,im kinda in a delema so. A. i trigger and get that consistant sound i need to get the note speration and well keep things consistant lol. B. i dont trigger and this id actually prefer cause there are some songs we have that i do a lot of bass accents on,but alot of times in metal this is misconstrued as me just not being consistant and perhaps having bad tech or a weak foot.
 
If you are referring to reverb that would be added in mixing stage, not mastering and is not really the same thing

But back to the core issue, while its true that a bit of muffling may be necessary it shouldn't be assumed up front. Lots of factors in play with that decision. Often those overtones provide a presence/body to the sound that help the drums punch through in a crowded mix typical of metal. If the engineer has experience recording metal trust his opinion until you have the experience yourself to know what works and what doesn't. There will always be things you don't like and learn from when you first start out in the studio.

To be fair your right. Didn't use my words as well as i should have, but way to be picky.
 
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