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Recording Acoustic drums is probably the biggest challenge any Sound Engineer has to face, in his or her career. The second challenge is convincing a Lead Guitarist, that ‘they can’t have everything louder than everything else!’ (Deep Purple)
If you are planning to record a Demo for the first time, here are some tips that I hope will help you achieve the best recording, for the least amount of money!
1. Tune and maintain your kit before going to the Studio. If you are not sure how to tune your kit, try some of the great Websites on the Net: www.drummerworld.com or www.drumbum.com for example.
2. Do your research! Check out your local Studios and ask them for examples of their work. Make sure you know how they plan to record your band and know what format they are recording onto. Will it be Digtal or Analogue? What type of Mics will be used? Will the band be recorded in one room (Live) or will it be Multitracked ie.each instrument is recorded in isolation? If the latter is the case it is a completely different experience to playing ‘Live’, you will be prompted to play along with a Click Track. Make sure you practice playing along with a Metronome, this will help you establish the proper Tempo before arriving at the Studio!!! Preparation is the key, if all the ground work has been done, it will give you more time to play and therefore will cut time in the Studio. (And Save Money) 3. Be realistic! Don’t attempt Ten songs in a day! Ask the Studio what they recommend as a reasonable time to record your songs but this will obviously differ from Band to Band. Remember, if you book a certain time at a Studio you will pay from the minute you arrive! It’s not possible to arrive an hour early and expect to set the kit up, so the less time you take, the more time you have for recording.
Okay, I can hear you saying, it’s all very well talking to me about all this but I don’t even have a Kit or I don’t have transport to get my drums around. Well, fair comment but there is always a solution to every problem and here it is:
Cymbal Simon has always been sceptical about the use of ‘Electronic-Kits’ but since he has been teaching using the Roland TD6 V Drums, he has been knocked out by the quality of sound that these kits produce. In fact he has been using these kits to record onto his computer with great results. The main advantages to recording using an electronic kit are:
1. No Tuning problems.
2. No ‘Overspill’ when recording in a Live situation. ( Drum Mics will pick-up the other instruments if you record altogether in the same room).
3. If you record your drumtracks at Cymbal Simon’s, there will be no ‘Set-up’ time required.
4. You can choose to record in MIDI or use WAV files, either way you can leave with a Professional recording on a CD, which you can then take to another Studio and record all the other tracks.
5. It works out a lot cheaper!!!!
If you like what you hear and want to know more about recording your Drum- Track, or you need CS to play on your latest Album, e-mail him today!!
Recording Acoustic drums is probably the biggest challenge any Sound Engineer has to face, in his or her career. The second challenge is convincing a Lead Guitarist, that ‘they can’t have everything louder than everything else!’ (Deep Purple)
If you are planning to record a Demo for the first time, here are some tips that I hope will help you achieve the best recording, for the least amount of money!
1. Tune and maintain your kit before going to the Studio. If you are not sure how to tune your kit, try some of the great Websites on the Net: www.drummerworld.com or www.drumbum.com for example.
2. Do your research! Check out your local Studios and ask them for examples of their work. Make sure you know how they plan to record your band and know what format they are recording onto. Will it be Digtal or Analogue? What type of Mics will be used? Will the band be recorded in one room (Live) or will it be Multitracked ie.each instrument is recorded in isolation? If the latter is the case it is a completely different experience to playing ‘Live’, you will be prompted to play along with a Click Track. Make sure you practice playing along with a Metronome, this will help you establish the proper Tempo before arriving at the Studio!!! Preparation is the key, if all the ground work has been done, it will give you more time to play and therefore will cut time in the Studio. (And Save Money) 3. Be realistic! Don’t attempt Ten songs in a day! Ask the Studio what they recommend as a reasonable time to record your songs but this will obviously differ from Band to Band. Remember, if you book a certain time at a Studio you will pay from the minute you arrive! It’s not possible to arrive an hour early and expect to set the kit up, so the less time you take, the more time you have for recording.
Okay, I can hear you saying, it’s all very well talking to me about all this but I don’t even have a Kit or I don’t have transport to get my drums around. Well, fair comment but there is always a solution to every problem and here it is:
Cymbal Simon has always been sceptical about the use of ‘Electronic-Kits’ but since he has been teaching using the Roland TD6 V Drums, he has been knocked out by the quality of sound that these kits produce. In fact he has been using these kits to record onto his computer with great results. The main advantages to recording using an electronic kit are:
1. No Tuning problems.
2. No ‘Overspill’ when recording in a Live situation. ( Drum Mics will pick-up the other instruments if you record altogether in the same room).
3. If you record your drumtracks at Cymbal Simon’s, there will be no ‘Set-up’ time required.
4. You can choose to record in MIDI or use WAV files, either way you can leave with a Professional recording on a CD, which you can then take to another Studio and record all the other tracks.
5. It works out a lot cheaper!!!!
If you like what you hear and want to know more about recording your Drum- Track, or you need CS to play on your latest Album, e-mail him today!!
Here are some Great Tips on Recording from the owner of “Homegrown Productions” James Taylor.....
A typical ‘live’ recording Set-up where all of the band are effectively playing as they might at a gig or ‘live’ performance, is usually the quickest and the best way to capture a Bands’ sound.
Setting up to do this can take up to 2 hours for a 4/5 piece band as all the individual drums, instruments / amplifiers and vocalists need to be assigned their own microphone to ensure the best quality of recording.
We then need to create a monitor mix for the performers to allow them to hear what they are playing during the recording process. Once this is done recording can begin.
Sometimes the band might need to play a song quite a few times in order for everybody to get used to the sound through there headphones and to achieve the best recorded performance.
This means a band can record the song a number of times and then choose the version they like the best.. These are called ‘takes’. This is what separates live performance on stage from a recorded performance. For instance, The Beatles recorded around 67 ‘takes’ of “Strawberry Fields Forever” and in the end used ‘take’ 49. Meaning they played it 67 times before settling for the 49th performance, which was the one they thought was the best. With today’s modern technology we don’t usually have to go quite that far. We can ‘overdub’ certain mistakes without the whole band playing the whole song again.
All the instruments and vocals are recorded onto separate ‘tracks’. The band will play together but record all their instruments and singing onto these separate tracks. The idea is to get as good a performance as possible from the whole band recorded as a ‘take’. If that ‘take’ has a few mistakes in it, all is not lost. Mistakes on the guitar, bass and vocals can usually be fixed by overdubbing new parts onto the recording. The drums are the main instrument that has to be spot on in your final ‘take’.
Once we have a good ‘take’ for all the songs we want to record we can start to ‘mix’ the song. Each ‘track’ has its own individual volume level to make that instrument or sound louder or quieter coming out of your stereo’s speakers. This process is called ‘mixing’. Once all the instruments sound good and clear, we can record our ‘mix’ onto a CD. Then you can take your finished demo home and impress all your pals with how clever you are!
Costs are £120 per 8 hour session weekdays 10am – 6pm. Normally a band can record and mix between 3 and 5 songs in an 8 hour session. Costs outside those times are £20 per hour.
JAMES TAYLOR (PROPRIETOR AND SOUND ENGINEER)
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