[HAM] OT Re: Miking the drums to get a big fat and ambient sound.

[Linda Dachtyl]

On Apr 30, 2008, at 10:03 PM, Kon Zissis wrote:

> Hi Linda.
> Thank you for the various links.
> The Walt James Band sound very good.

Thanks, Kon.
>
>> It is one of the reasons I prefer vintage jazz recordings to some of
>> the newer fusion. The drums sound too "rock" (IMO).
>
> I also like the warm ''woody'' drum sound and the room acoustics heard
> on vintage Jazz recordings. A lot of Rock recordings feature a hard
> bright or shrill drum sound and the close  miking and subsequent  
> mixing
> techniques end up making the drums sound like they were recorded  
> inside
> a little box.
> I wonder if one reason for the ''woody'' quality of the drums heard on
> old recordings is because the drum skins were made of animal skins
> instead of the synthetic  drum skins used nowadays.

I don't know for certain about that. Depends how old on the  
recordings, I'm sure. Now there are good replacements for calfskin  
heads.
Calfskin heads are too temperamental to deal with unless you are  
playing timps or snare drum in an orchestra situation.
>
> Some of the greatest Rock  drummers for example  Ginger Baker and Ian
> Paice came from a Jazz background ( Gene Kruppa and Buddy Rich were
> major influences on Ian Paice ).
> I think  that Keith Moon , Bill Ward from Black Sabbath and Carmine
> Appice might also have come from a Jazz back ground or a Jazz based
> drumming  education because of their complex and energetic  drumming
> styles.

I am thinking that too on all except Moon. I like Moon's playing  
especially on "Who's Next" but I think it was just animal energy with  
him.
>
> Many  young drummers that I have seen in local live bands  seem to  
> play
> in  a simple steady and basic rhythm instead of playing  in the more
> complex and energetic  style with the drum rolls and the intensity  
> that
> the old school drummers played.

I think engineers prefer this simple style....... concerning major  
label kinds of things.
Triggers the gates on the effects units;-)
>
>>> Also tuning is really, really important.
>
> To get the John Bonham type drum sound do the drum need to be tuned  
> down
> pitch ?

No, that's the deception with that. Take a look at the google article.
The drums themselves were big though.
>
>> For this CD, we went for a cross between the Bonham/Paice sound.
>> Don't know if we succeeded or not, but enjoy the tunes:
>
> I did enjoy the three songs and the engineer captured a nice intense
> thick sound.
> The songs reminded me  of bands like Montrose , Led Zeppelin , Black
> Sabbath and Rush.

Thanks. Others have said similar things concerning Walt's writing and  
style.
>
>
>> Played the synth solo on it in the middle. Just an atmospheric kind
>> of thing on that.
>
> The spacey Moog like sound was very nice and it reminded me of Jon
> Lord's  mid 70's analog synthesizer sounds.

Yamaha AN1X. One of the best purchases I have ever made for a  
dependable "Moog" type digital keyboard. The "poorman's" Nord Lead.

Linda
>