Why Your Drum Sound Sucks: The 3 Most Important Things To Get Right
Not happy with your drum sounds? The instrument matters, the gear matters, but possibly nothing matters more than the drummer, the environment, and getting the best performance out them.
Here’s a hypothesis for you. The three most important variables to an amazing recorded drum sound are as follows:
The Drummer
The Environment
The Performance
No matter what mic placement you use, whatever recording technique you decide on, and whatever your choices in EQ and compression are (the last which could be a contender for #4 on this list); no matter what preamp or plugins you’re using, none of that matters more than The Drummer in an Environment that elevates Performance. Here’s why.
The Drummer
A good drummer knows the song, holds the tempo, and remembers the changes. A great drummer however, will make you feel things. They will make you move and they will help take you on a 3-and-a-half minute joy ride to transcendence.
That kind of groove—that level of feel—is not something that can be learned quickly or easily. To some extent, it’s either in you or it is not. A drummer simply has to put in the hours in a room to be able to play effortlessly in support of the songs, the band, and the material.
As Eric Moore, drummer for Bobby Brown, Debarge and Suicidal Tendencies once said: “Practice makes perfect, and even if you think you’re perfect you’re not, so keep practicing.”
The drummer is the train, and we as listeners, are the passengers. It’s up to the drummer, just how that journey will transpire. Will it be chaotic? Will it be smooth and easy? Will it be filled with stops and restarts?
A truly great drummer listens and serves the song, and makes choices with intent and authenticity. So if you’re the drummer, be great, or do the best you can to fake it. If you’re not the drummer, make sure you get a great one to play on your recordings. (…Even if you already have access to a whole slew of OK ones.)
The Environment
Often on social media, I see drummers in their rehearsal rooms being recorded by their guitar players.
One might think this could be a great way to get the best take. It’s certainly a cost effective and unsophisticated way to make a decent demo. The drummer is used to being in there they’re comfortable. And they should be. They play in there all the time!
But the space is also dingy and smells like a locker room. There is puke green carpet padding the walls. There is the looming threat that a bass player will fire up their SVT two doors down and ruin the perfect take. The guitar player, who may or may not have some recording experience, is monitoring the sound through crappy headphones 5 feet from the crash cymbal.
Though it may seem frivolous at first to those on a tight budget, “vibe” is very important to getting the best possible performance. And the acoustic environment is absolutely paramount in getting good sounds. It even affects the way the kit reacts to the drummer’s performance.
A good room can add an incredible amount of power and emotion to a performance, in part because the drummer feels great when the drums sound fantastic. And when the drummer feels great, the drummer is much more likely to play great. Even the way the drums react to the room helps elevate the way the drummer plays them. Be it a dead room or a very lively room, the choice is yours. If it feels good it sounds good, and if it sounds good, it feels good. When it feels good, you give your best performance.
When a drummer walks into a decent recording studio, they are met with a smile and a handshake by someone who is there to help them. They have a colorful choice of snares, cymbals and drum kits that are tuned and record ready. The room is open and the drums sound amazing. How could they not shine?
Performance
I hear all too often from fans of a band, “they sound way better live!” So, I’ll go and listen to their recorded music after seeing the show, and their fans are right.
Why is that? 90% of the time, it’s because the drums were recorded in a crappy rehearsal space with an inexperienced recordist and a drummer who was just trying to get it right.
Aside from the compromised acoustics, audio gear, recording talent and condition of the drum kit, perhaps part of the problem is that the drummer wasn’t elevating him or herself to a level of performance that they can achieve in a live setting.
Perhaps they were not focused, the room sounded dull, the place smelled like a bag of trash, and they were looking at the guitar player every time they made even the slightest mistake they were hoping to go unnoticed.
“Whew, only 8 more songs to go,” says drummer to guitar player.
Hire a Studio
It may be counterintuitive, but oftentimes drummers perform their best when they’re out of their element. And unless you’re on the level of an Aaron Comess, Travis Barker or George “Spanky” McCurdy, most drummers are out of their element in a professional recording studio with a well treated room.
When a drummer sits down and hears how incredible the drums sound in the room, they get excited. Adrenaline starts pumping through their veins. Their eyes dilate, their pulse quickens. These are the exact things that transpire when a drummer takes the stage in front of an audience. Elevation of performance has already begun.
Once the drummer is in the room, it’s all about PERFORMANCE. Shut off your phone, close all the doors, take a deep breath, focus and play away. Play to support the song, intention on elevating the energy and Performance, Performance, Performance.
Work with a Producer
It should be obvious that working with an experienced professional is the best way to get the best performance possible out of a player—not to mention the high quality sonic materials, such as gear and well-treated rooms, that they employ for capturing said performance.
As suggested above, when a drummer is too comfortable, they tend to go into auto-pilot. A good producer will push the right buttons to guide a performer to being present and in the moment.
They might remind them to focus or remind them of who they are performing for, and why they are laying back on the 2 and 4 during the verse. It’s for the audience. It’s for themselves. It’s for their bandmates. It’s to provide a platform for the songwriter to tell their story.
Useful Tips for Optimizing Performance
I usually like to communicate with the drummer prior to a session so I can already have a kit tuned, in place and “pre-mic’ed” for their arrival.
“Pre-mic’ed”, means that all the mics are plugged in and routed, on the proper stands, and ready to be put in position around the kit, but placed out of the way. In my experience, if there is too much time between arrival and hitting record, a drummer can lose the momentum necessary for optimal performance.
As a producer, I do my best to gain trust by listening and by observation. Learning the personality of the performer is essential for sensing what kinds of direction one might give—if any—to put them on the right path to playing their best.
Sometimes the drummer is the jester and sometimes the drummer is the mathematician. Knowing how they communicate and what they like and don’t like is a good way to creating an openness that lends itself to working together on getting the best take. The best take is a performance that gives any recording the elevation that will make fans say, “Yeah, they’re great live, but you should hear their new record. They sound amazing!”
When The Levee Breaks
Here’s a story I love about one of the greatest drummers of all time, elevating his performance because of the environment. The story goes that when recording Led Zeppelin IV in a converted house in Hampshire, England, John Bonham was delivered a brand new Ludwig drum set.
The kit was set up in the entryway, at the bottom of a three story staircase, before it would be brought in to the chosen room for recording. On a whim, John Bonham sat at the throne and started the groove. Sonic transcendence transpired.
Jimmy Page’s reaction was instantaneous: “Oh wait a minute, we gotta do this!” Moments later, a stereo pair of Beyerdynamic M160’s were placed on the second floor landing by engineer Andy Johns, and that’s the sound on the record.
A great drummer, an incredible acoustic environment, influencing the perfect performance.
Add to that some good sounding mics, and a good, well-tuned kit, and that’s how the stuff of legends are made.
“But we can’t afford a fancy recording studio!”
Actually, you can’t afford not to. Too often, new musicians are penny wise and pound foolish in making decisions about their craft. They’ll spend plenty of money on cheap microphones and interfaces and rehearsal studios, and waste plenty of time getting results they’ll never be happy with, but not allocate a bit of their resources to choices that can have them leapfrogging over the barriers that stand in their way.
Invest in yourself. You don’t have to spend the entire time making a record in a studio that costs $600, $800 or $1,000 a day. But you should at least invest in the basic tracking of your music—specifically recording the drums in a quality environment, with great tools and an industry professional.
Give your music what it deserves. Then take your amazing-sounding tracks back to your bedroom, rehearsal space or your mom’s basement. You’ll be glad you did, and your fans will feel and hear the difference.
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