Rate the drumsound (first attempt at mix)
 

Hey there drummer dudes...

So as I've said in that other thread last week, I've finished building my studio.

I've been busy all week learning that enormous program and trying out all kinds of settings and stuff with that freaking handbook (boy, what a load of information :( )

I'm pretty close to a drumsound I like, but something is still missing... Maybe some of you guys experienced with mixing and stuff can give me some pointers...

I'm still working on the toms, so I didn't include much off those in this recording. This is basicly only bass-snare-overheads. I hit a tom here and there because I couldn't help myself though :smash:

Also, for some reason, when I did a mixdown to an mps, it lossed a lot of volume... I was able to fix it a little bit, but chances are that you'll have to turn up your volume a little bit. I didn't get to the mixdown-part yet in the handbook, so I'm probably doing something wrong there... :lol:

Enjoy and LOTS of opinions wanted :D

[URL="http://users.pandora.be/Drums/test.mp3"]The recording[/URL]

It's about 2,5 MB. There's a little brake in the second half. another recording follows after that (same settings though)

That sounds GREAT. I love your cymbals, man, they suck feckin sweeeeet.

And I couldn't hear the hats very well...

[QUOTE=osiecki]That sounds GREAT. I love your cymbals, man, they [u][b][i]suck[/i][/b][/u] feckin sweeeeet.

And I couldn't hear the hats very well...[/QUOTE]

please tell me that was a typo... :D

The hats are indeed not that clear. They are only 12" though, those are my new Istanbul Mehmet hats, Pasha series :D

But indeed, they need to be a bit louder. It's hard though... when played here on the stereo it looses so much detail compared to what I hear on the studio monitors...

Cymbals sound awsome.
If the bass was a bit deeper i would like it.
Great playing too!

[QUOTE=DxRocker]please tell me that was a typo... :D

The hats are indeed not that clear. They are only 12" though, those are my new Istanbul Mehmet hats, Pasha series :D

But indeed, they need to be a bit louder. It's hard though... when played here on the stereo it looses so much detail compared to what I hear on the studio monitors...[/QUOTE]
The splashes were like...

omfg.

That sounded AMAZING, nice beats too!! Hey what crash were you using?

Good stuff, everything sounded great except for the bass.

That's two people who have trouble digging the bassdrum...

/note to self: check bassdrum settings :)

As for cymbals, here's the layout of what I used:

- 20 alchemy sweet ride
- 12" pasha istanbul mehmet hats
- 14" alchemy sweet medium crash
- 14" agop traditional thin crash
- 16" agop traditional medium crash
- 8" sabian AA splash

both of my alchemy splashes are broken :(

I broke one by smacking it to hard during a gig and a butthole stepped on the other one :angry:

I need to send the one broken by playing it back to Istanbul before april or I won't get a new one.

tnx for the input so far!

[QUOTE=osiecki]That sounds GREAT. I love your cymbals, man, they suck feckin sweeeeet.

And I couldn't hear the hats very well...[/QUOTE]


OMFG I busted out laughing when I read that. By the way Dx, I love your bass drum sound:thumb: . Toms could use some work though.......

[QUOTE=jalel]Toms could use some work though.......[/QUOTE]

yep... still working on those

Need to retune them as well. Been a while and I've been smacking them like a mofo lately :p

cymbals sound great, especially the splashes.

toms and snare sound good.

bass drum could stand to be a bit deeper, but still sounds nice.

the beats in general were really good too.

tnx.

In case you are interested, those variations in the second recording are all based on the following stupid triplet lick: right-left-bassdrum or RLB :)

I still dare to go out of time on that lick though, but I'm getting closer :)

Sounded very good, loved the second beat.

How long you been playing?

I think it was all awesome except the hat and toms. The bass is great.

[QUOTE=Locke]How long you been playing?[/QUOTE]

Not really sure actually...

Somewhere between 7 and 9 years I think :D

Only got serious in the last 4 though. Needed to take a few steps back then as well. Stuff I didn't bother to learn in the beginning and some flaws in my technique (of wich I still suffer today!)

More volume for the hats.

the splashes are a bit loud -- perhaps your OH's are a little close to the splashes and not close enough to your hats!

also, if you have any form of EQ on your mixer, you might want to turn up the low frequencies on that kick, it has no ooomph.

snare sounds killer! I rather like the quietter hats.

wow that sucks...



Just kidding

that is really good i really like the sound of the cymbals and the drums.... I wish i had a studio!

[QUOTE=jalel]OMFG I busted out laughing when I read that. By the way Dx, I love your bass drum sound:thumb: . Toms could use some work though.......[/QUOTE]
lol i didnt even notice i had done that either.

oh well. :D

Sounds great...actually your playing style reminds me of myself:chug: ...can you give me a link to your recording gear specs.

Matter.

Erotomania.

I liked the whole mix myself. I thought the hihats were just fine level wise and even though the kick didnt sound great on its own I would think it would stand out once you start adding tracks.

[QUOTE=FL3P]I liked the whole mix myself. I thought the hihats were just fine level wise and even though the kick didnt sound great on its own I would think it would stand out once you start adding tracks.[/QUOTE]
this kid's got it! :D

:lol: I'll take that as a compliment. But thanks!

[QUOTE=-TheGlassPrison-]Matter.

Erotomania.[/QUOTE]

i DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS POST MEANS, BUT i LOVE Erotomania... my favorite guitar solo is on that one.

The recording sounded sick dude! Just stick with what the others have been saying as far as changes go. Groovy stuff!

Hey TGP I'm all about that song but my bro Rounder has been sick off and on lately so unless you want a vid or audio of just the drum track you'll have to wait till he gets back on top.

Hats weren't projected very well, other than that your cymbals sounded great!!!
Bass a bit dull,snare was alright, toms were also a bit dull.
Other than that great playing and nice sounnd!

didnt read anyone elses input(probly already mentioned).... but the bass sounds a little off. cymbals sound great though

tnx peeps.

I guess I need to work that EQ some more for "the finishing touch".

I'm also thinking about micing the hats seperatly now. At the moment, I try to catch them with an overhead, but it's hard to keep everything balanced then. If I turn up the volume of that overhead, the splash will be even louder then it is now. That HH sabian splash is pretty loud on its own already also. It's about the most cutting splash I've ever had....

As for the recording setup I'm using:

- AKG drummic pack: D112, C419 for toms, C1000 for overheads
- SM57 on the snare (will also use SM57's for guitar amps)
- SM58 for vocals
- Behringer Ultra DI for bassguitar and keyboards

For mixer, I have a behringer sl2442fx pro, 16 balanced inputs and 4 stereo jack inputs.

I have a Sydec Mixtreme 16i/16o audio card and use Sydec's iBoxes as AD/DA converters.

Software is Homestudio 2004 XL from cakewalk.

I'm glad you all like the snare sound. That was one of the pieces I liked most. But I've put quite some time in that kickdrum.
As I've said before, when played on the studio monitors (clystar clear) it sounded soooo fecking awesome. On the stereo after the mixdown it lost a bundle of detail, hats went more to the background, splash became louder and the kickdrum had less punch.

Come to think of it... only the snare seems to be kind of the same.
I know this is normal, on studio monitors it will always sound heaps better. I'll get better in time I guess. As with everything: practice practice practice right? :D

I'm pretty satisfied with my first attempt though. I don't think this was bad at all :thumb:

tnx again for the input. It's much appreciated.

Try buying a small compressor or something, you might be able to find a software version on cakewalk.

And thats the horrible thing with mixing. You get it sounding sweet on the monitors/headphones.. pop in the cd player and it sounds completely different!

Anyway I thought the mix was fairly decent myself. Esp for first attempt. Might want to try beefing up the kick drum, does sound a bit weak and lifeless at times. However you might find when you start putting in guitars etc it sounds much better, who knows. Toms could also use some beefing up, sounded a bit thin. Snare was nice. Cymbals where spot on I think, and the hats where ok level wise I think.

Oh and i'd like to point in the direction of this message board:
[url]http://homerecording.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?f=24[/url]
its for questions/advice regarding recording drums. Not quite as busy as this site but there are some very experienced and knowledgable users on there.