Moving on from our discussion of the challenges of mixing drums in a live venue lets see what we can figure out about drums in the studio.
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First, new heads, new cymbals, and really, really.. I mean REALLY make sure the drums are properly tuned. If the sound of the toms are at odd musical intervals from each other, no one will notice what is wrong but they can nevertheless 'sense' something not right. many average listeners (consuming public) will just maybe not like it and not know why.
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I have seen professionals go so far as to re tune the drums for the 'key' of the song in the studio. It works.. it sounds so much better and I defy people to even be able to say why.. when they hear it. It just sounds better.
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If you don't want to tune for every song, pick a key your band or singer likes and use that. Make sure your toms have a musical interval between them that makes sense to the 'key'
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Wide open? Or muted?
That's the 'rub' as it were.. some engineers will prefer taping all kinds of things from wadded paper towels with gaffers tape to the old industry standby 'kotex' sanitary napkins to deaden the ring of a drum in a studio. In reality there are no hard and fast rules. I used to want a dead drum and would go to lengths to get it, from taping things to the heads to using 'gates' going to tape.. it's really a personal preference of the engineer. I have since gone to wide open recording, no gates, no deadening, and saving the work for the mixing process. If a band is on a budget and desperately trying to save cash, I will 'gate' a little on the way 'in' to the DAW. But once you do that, if you don't get it right, it's tough to fix in the mix......
UNLESS.......
You buy something like Drumagog drum replacement technology. Here is where drummers roll their eyes and say. Geez, man, that's not 'MY' drums !!
To which the answer most times is.. "OK buddy, do you have the cash on hand to kick in for the time it will take to make your drums sound listenable?"
Now. I bought Drumagog a long while back and love the program, it uses actual wav. files of actual drums to replace what you get on a track, it can be 'mixed' in with the original sound or used exclusively to replace the entire sound. It is completely 'tunable' and with a few tricks can sound fantastic.
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First, insert Drumagog then after it, insert an EQ and a compressor, this allows for serious 'fine' tuning of the 'replaced' sound. It works
and... it's not that expensive a program with a lot of free samples you can download and you can even create your own..
I did not tell one band I would use it, and when the mix came through the speakers the drummer was just 'high fiving' himself with how good he thought his drums sounded.. I did inform them after the celebration calmed down. and NO ONE wanted to revert back to the original 'recorded' sound !! So yeah.. it saves the bacon for small project studios..
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