real drums

[rdance]

i wrote about 30 songs with one of my songwriting partners in 2011, and now we are going back and having a real drummer play them.

before, whenever i sent one of these songs in for a listing, the comment i usually got back on returns was something like, "strong song but because it is so organic and band-like, it needs a real drummer."

okay...2 down, 28 to go...big project, whew! here's the first one we re-did:

http://thecrawdaddy.bandcamp.com/track/ ... ovy-bluesy

by comparison, here is the same tune with me tapping out each drum part on a yamaha mm6:

http://dancehallproductions.bandcamp.co ... -the-blues

feedback on the difference appreciated. thank you!

[bobporri]

Richard,

Nice. I think the real drummer really cuts through the mix well. I guess I'm not as tuned in to this as I should be because until I heard the real drummer I was thinking the earlier version sounded good.

I have very little experience recording real drums. A fair amount doing it the way you mentioned and using midi and sampled drum sounds.

I want to ask, and I'm trying not to show too much ignorance in the process, are you recording real acoustic drums or midi drums played by a real drummer using sampled drum sounds?

You might be way ahead of me in where I would lead this, but I might bring up a few things once I hear the answer.

Bob P.

[rdance]

hey bob, good question and thanks for asking. it's a real drummer on an acoustic kit in a booth with...i'm guessing...6 to 8 mics.

luckily, this drummer, who plays gigs with my songwriting partner and knows our style/material, has a full studio, is very proficient on protools, so it's an ideal situation for us.

if you ever want real drums on a song, let me know and i can refer you to him. he is a 'first call' drummer here in phoenix, plays with a lot of pros on the local circuit, etc.

[cassmcentee]

Nice Craw!
listened to both...
Homosapien WINS!!!
And By A Longshot!
Sounds frikkin slick now...

[Kolstad]

Imho, I like the feel better with the real drums, but I like the sound of the sampled drums better. Or rather, I like the feel better with a real DRUMMER. The kit does nothing for me in particular.

Sampled drums are also recordings of real drum kits with a real drummer. So if you think about it, when you record real drums, you end up with samples either way, so the main difference is not the sound, but the feel of the drumming.

Many prefer to combine the best of both worlds, and record drums on an electronic kit with a good drummer. It gives you more control down the line. Sometimes the piano doesn't play like that, though, when you want to commit to a sound, so neither is wrong nor right. But when you pop the question, thats what I've got..

Another option is to convert the audio of each drum to midi information with Drumagog or Trigger, so you can layer the tracks, or trigger them with other samples. Very flexible when you're mixing, but a little more work than recording directly on an electronic kit. Could be a great thing when you're up for remixing that many songs.

[SteveJCurtis]

Hey Crawdad!
I liked that track when I first heard it and am with Magne in that I LOVE the feel the real drummer adds.
No wonder he works so much! Good luck with the project.
(and what is that lovely looking cream coloured car pictured on your site? It looks fab!)
Best / Steve

[rdance]

appreciate the feedback everyone. drum mix/eq can probably use some tweaking, but sure is nice having a real guy pounding skins and brass.

nice insight magne about blending the two...i didn't know about drumagog...thanks.

steve, that's a '72 buick riviera, often called a 'boat tail'. odd body style ran from 71-73. couple more shots:

[bobporri]

Richard,

What Magne said was exactly where I was hoping the discussion would go. Having the benefits of a real drummer's feel, AND after the fact being able to change the kit is a cool thing. All you need is a screener saying they don't like the sound of the kit and you have 30 tracks with certain kits you might wish to change or have the flexibility to experiment. I personally think this track, kit, etc. sound fine and you should be happy with the track, but I've been bit a lot by hindsight in life in general . So, you might want to at least discuss the midi option with your drummer and/or talk about the possibility of having things separated (if he's using 6-8 mics they probably are anyways) to the extent that using Drumagog later would be easy. I was going to mention Drumagog using audio to trigger the various drum sounds which an awesome engineer we use has done on quite a few tracks for my co-writer and myself. My extent of knowledge is sitting in on the mixing sessions and trying a Drumagog demo. I works very well. The better the separation of each drum and cymbal on it's own track the better of course, but there is control of that too. If the tracks are midi to begin with, you would have many options.

Bob

[funsongs]

Wonder if any of yous happened to watch/catch the rockumentary, "Sound City" that's been airing on palladia? Talk about it being all about the drum sound (as the foundation); eesshh.

Cheers.
Peter R.

[SteveJCurtis]

Cool car !
& thanks Magne - I'm going to check out Drumagog too.
Cheers all
Steve