Gavin Harrison here!

Hi Gavin,

I'm very interested in working through your book Rhythmic Illusions. I've been playing drums for roughly three years, but have never really done any serious practicing as far as technique or coordination. I was wondering if I should work on such things as rudiments or out of, for example, Vinnie Colaiuta's Unreel Drum Book, or if you think I can and should begin your book. Thanks, and it's an honor to talk to you!

Dylan
 
Hi Gavin,
I have been trying to record the drums since the last time I asked about the mics thing.
There are 2 clips I recorded yesterday,it's glad if you could have a listen and give some comments on the sound.because Im not a drummer,I don't know if it sounds good to a real drummer's ears.
There were 4 mics to be used.kick,snare top,floor tom and one overhead.I tried to mix it to the best sounding as I can get.
by the way,I ordered a new pair of OH mics,they are coming soon.so I can try stereo OH this week later!
 

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Hey everybody,

I wanted to post this fill that ItalianRicky requested from the song "Vivi". Enjoy!
 

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Hi Gavin,
I have been trying to record the drums since the last time I asked about the mics thing.
There are 2 clips I recorded yesterday,it's glad if you could have a listen and give some comments on the sound.because Im not a drummer,I don't know if it sounds good to a real drummer's ears.
There were 4 mics to be used.kick,snare top,floor tom and one overhead.I tried to mix it to the best sounding as I can get.
by the way,I ordered a new pair of OH mics,they are coming soon.so I can try stereo OH this week later!

If I may be so free to post some remarks about this:

Have you used artificial reverb (in other words, not a natural reverb that comes from the room, like Gavin creates in his drumroom)? I hear a very long reverb in the back (which makes it a bit strange).

I think that the balance of the stereo imaging is more on the left side. Is the ride on the left side or on the right side? If it is on the right, then I would place it on the right during mixdown.

I would suggest:
Toms: panned over the stereo field. Highest pitch left, lowest pitch right. Equally panned.
Snare: somewhere in the middle, maybe slightly off center to the right.
Hihat: somewhere more to the left
Ride: depending on actual placement. In case of a normal setup, on the right
Crashes: depending on actual placement.
Kick: in the center
The above is of course a pretty standard placement, from a right handed drummers perspective. Its not a guideline, feel free to experiment but I think there is much more going on in the left side of the stereo image then on the right side which makes it feel a bit out of balance.

The drumsounds itself (the individual sounds) sound pretty good!
Of course, the sound of recorded drums all depends on context. Listen close to gavin's drums. They never sound the same on any track. It just depends on what other stuff is playing at that time (drums can be eq'ed more to fit better in the mix), the kind of character that is needed for the song (let's sleep forever has a lot of ambient room while fear of a blank planet sounds pretty dry and straightforward) and the kind of drums used (dark snares, light snares, metallic snares etc.)
 
If I may be so free to post some remarks about this:

Have you used artificial reverb (in other words, not a natural reverb that comes from the room, like Gavin creates in his drumroom)? I hear a very long reverb in the back (which makes it a bit strange).

I think that the balance of the stereo imaging is more on the left side. Is the ride on the left side or on the right side? If it is on the right, then I would place it on the right during mixdown.

I would suggest:
Toms: panned over the stereo field. Highest pitch left, lowest pitch right. Equally panned.
Snare: somewhere in the middle, maybe slightly off center to the right.
Hihat: somewhere more to the left
Ride: depending on actual placement. In case of a normal setup, on the right
Crashes: depending on actual placement.
Kick: in the center
The above is of course a pretty standard placement, from a right handed drummers perspective. Its not a guideline, feel free to experiment but I think there is much more going on in the left side of the stereo image then on the right side which makes it feel a bit out of balance.

The drumsounds itself (the individual sounds) sound pretty good!
Of course, the sound of recorded drums all depends on context. Listen close to gavin's drums. They never sound the same on any track. It just depends on what other stuff is playing at that time (drums can be eq'ed more to fit better in the mix), the kind of character that is needed for the song (let's sleep forever has a lot of ambient room while fear of a blank planet sounds pretty dry and straightforward) and the kind of drums used (dark snares, light snares, metallic snares etc.)

hi,SantiBanks
thanks for you comment!
what exactly is the artificial reverb?I added reverb plugin in the mix,maybe it's overkill.but is it already too much if the music needs much air and dreamy sounding?

yes,about the imaging,it sounds abit odd to a natural drumkits because I got only 4 mics to record the drum at the moment.i did it mono overhead and if i pan it center in the mix,sounds not balance with the floor tom i recorded.so i tried to pan the mono OH to left and Floor Tom to right.Kick in center and Snare abit off to left.

thanks for your words! I did compression and eq'ed alot to clear each tracks together.the original sound is not like that.I will try again next week after I get the pair of Overhead mics,it's Joesphson C42MP.anyone got experience about this mic?
 
hi,SantiBanks
thanks for you comment!
what exactly is the artificial reverb?I added reverb plugin in the mix,maybe it's overkill.but is it already too much if the music needs much air and dreamy sounding?
With artificial reverb, I mean added reverb that is not present at the real recording and does not simulate the setting of the recording space (in other words, reverbs that are not common for recordingrooms like a bathroom reverb, a grand canyon reverb etc.)

I think the drums sound a bit odd with the wrong type of reverb. A room reverb would suite the drumsound much more as it emulates the room the drumkit was recorded in.

yes,about the imaging,it sounds abit odd to a natural drumkits because I got only 4 mics to record the drum at the moment.i did it mono overhead and if i pan it center in the mix,sounds not balance with the floor tom i recorded.so i tried to pan the mono OH to left and Floor Tom to right.Kick in center and Snare abit off to left.
In that case, the "problem" is more the usage of 4 mics. Its ok to record drums with 4 mics (in fact you can do it with 2 or 3) but placement is very important. If you have 4 mics then I would suggest using 2 overhead mics positioned in such a way that the full drumkit is covered and that you can use that as the base for panning and making your stereo image.
Then you can use an additional mic for the snare and one for the kick (which might need processing, depending on what you want)

thanks for your words!
You're welcome!

I did compression and eq'ed alot to clear each tracks together.the original sound is not like that.I will try again next week after I get the pair of Overhead mics,it's Joesphson C42MP.anyone got experience about this mic?
I don't know the mic so I don't have "experience with it". If you use a lot of EQ then you might want to change your mic placement.
 
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Hey Gavin,

I was listening to The Sound of Muzak and found that there's a little polyrhythmic thing going on with your bass drum. In the 7/4 time signature, you basically play 4 identical 7/16 beats with your bass drum, playing notes on every 1st and fourth 16th note in a group of seven sixteenths. Is that something you did on purpose or did that just happen?

Cheers,

Philip
 
Hi Gus

Will be available for download at PT´s site, any concert from 'blank planet' tour? -like 'Rockpalast','XM'...-

We've got no plans to do that right now.

Hi voyaging

I'm very interested in working through your book Rhythmic Illusions. I've been playing drums for roughly three years, but have never really done any serious practicing as far as technique or coordination. I was wondering if I should work on such things as rudiments or out of, for example, Vinnie Colaiuta's Unreel Drum Book, or if you think I can and should begin your book. Thanks, and it's an honor to talk to you!

I would get a good teacher if I were you - might be able to save you a lot trouble in the future. You're still at quite an early stage of your development. You will need to do some really SERIOUS practice if you intend to really progress.

Hi communion

I have been trying to record the drums since the last time I asked about the mics thing.
There are 2 clips I recorded yesterday,it's glad if you could have a listen and give some comments on the sound.because Im not a drummer,I don't know if it sounds good to a real drummer's ears.


Are you the drummer on the recording? It sounds like the drummer is holding the sticks too tightly and not letting the drums breathe. Never underestimate how much the stick stroke can effect the actual sound of the instrument. I can't add much to what SantiBanks has already said. It's too strange having only one overhead and a big reverb. You really need to have a stereo mic placement - and it sounds like you're on your way to doing just that...so best of luck to you.

Hi Big_Philly

I was listening to The Sound of Muzak and found that there's a little polyrhythmic thing going on with your bass drum. In the 7/4 time signature, you basically play 4 identical 7/16 beats with your bass drum, playing notes on every 1st and fourth 16th note in a group of seven sixteenths. Is that something you did on purpose or did that just happen?

All part of the rhythmic design.

Many thanks to Terry B for his transcription.
 
Hey Gavin, I've got a couple of questions again :D

1. I know you like Tomas Haake's playing, but is Meshuggah's music in general your cup of tea? Learned any of their songs? Also, have you ever met Tomas in person? His English is pretty amazing.

2. I do almost all of my practicing with a click going, except for the rare case when I'm practicing a pattern gradually from slow to fast and back. Do you think this kind of speedup-slowdown practice is something one should do a lot, and is there some practice one NEEDS to do without a click as well?

3. Have you ever gone on one of those trademark metric modulations during Hatesong or whatever and completely confused the rest of the band as to where the one is? I kind of pity the poor sods sometimes when you do that. :D

4. What do you think of electronic drums?

5. Do you think you're awesome and kick ass?
 
Hi Big_Philly

I was listening to The Sound of Muzak and found that there's a little polyrhythmic thing going on with your bass drum. In the 7/4 time signature, you basically play 4 identical 7/16 beats with your bass drum, playing notes on every 1st and fourth 16th note in a group of seven sixteenths. Is that something you did on purpose or did that just happen?

All part of the rhythmic design.

That's awesome man! How do you come up with those designs!?
I just noticed that the snare drum part (or at least the accents) are also part of that same polyrhythm.
 
Hi Gavin !

I didn't find any drums transcriptions of Blackest eyes heavy parts...

Can somebody help me ?

Thanks in advance.

Salut,
Alex
 
Hey Gavin...

Just want to congratulate you on your fellow countryman Lewis Hamilton for becoming the youngest driver ever to become F1 World Champion...

Did you see the race?? It was pretty damn close those last laps...but he pulled it off anyway...

Greetings,
Dre
 
Hi kheddar

1. I know you like Tomas Haake's playing, but is Meshuggah's music in general your cup of tea? Learned any of their songs? Also, have you ever met Tomas in person? His English is pretty amazing.

I really like "Destroy Erase Improve" - and no I haven't learned any of their songs. I know Tomas - and he's a really good guy.

2. I do almost all of my practicing with a click going, except for the rare case when I'm practicing a pattern gradually from slow to fast and back. Do you think this kind of speedup-slowdown practice is something one should do a lot, and is there some practice one NEEDS to do without a click as well?


I've never been in any situation where a band want me to gradually speed up or slow down (apart from an obvious ending). I don't practise speeding up or slowing down - I think it's really unhelpful.

3. Have you ever gone on one of those trademark metric modulations during Hatesong or whatever and completely confused the rest of the band as to where the one is? I kind of pity the poor sods sometimes when you do that. :D

I might have lost one person on a very rare occasion - but usually it's because they were not paying enough attention.

4. What do you think of electronic drums?


Really don't like playing them - or listening to them.

Hi Drizzle

Just want to congratulate you on your fellow countryman Lewis Hamilton for becoming the youngest driver ever to become F1 World Champion...Did you see the race?? It was pretty damn close those last laps...but he pulled it off anyway...

Yes I watched it - real nail biting stuff right up to the very end!!!!!

cheers
Gavin
 
hi gavin
i recently listened to the clips on ed poole's myspacesite featuring you on drums...funky stuff...
i'm gonna purchase this as soon as possible
anyway what i wanted to ask is if you know richard bona?...and if so it would be awesome if you would collaborate with him for an album because that would be like the 'ultimate groove'...here is a short clip of him groovin'...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fibw2Xpfmo

should give you a good impression of his 'grooveskills'...
 
Hey Gavin!

I have a hard time coming up with nice polyrythmic stuff (such as Mother and Child divided, Sound of Muzak and a part of Halo)
Do you have any particular tactic when you think them out? Are you counting much or are you just sitting down and improvising? Either way, I would really like to know how you are thinking when you are creating those masterpieces

Best wishes / Emil
 
anyway what i wanted to ask is if you know richard bona?...and if so it would be awesome if you would collaborate with him for an album because that would be like the 'ultimate groove'...here is a short clip of him groovin'...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fibw2Xpfmo

should give you a good impression of his 'grooveskills'...

I think his best stuff was with the Zawinul Syndicate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpNjZDX0-uc

Looking forward to Gavin's clinic at PASIC on Friday. As long as I can find someone to cover my shift at work I will be there all day.
 
Hi Gavin,
I was just curious about your double bass technique.. You may have touched on my question in previous posts but I wasn't able to find anything...I was just wondering how you perform fast beats with the double bass and what methods you use...For example, on the heavy breakdown of Open Car during live shows, for those six straight 32nd notes, do you just play those as single strokes and alternate each leg, or is it more of a double stroke with each foot, like maybe using heel-toe? I can't remember if you prefer playing heel down or up....Similar question for the super heavy part before the last chorus in the second part of Anesthetize...Any details on how you go about playing these parts would be helpful!
Also...any news on a release date for the new PT live album with material from the Atlanta show last year?

Thanks!
 
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