I swear this channel is an absolute treasure. To get all of this information from a veteran musician and producer for free is something I can't thank you enough for, Rick. Keep rocking man, also those sideburns are awesome
8:40 "If it sounds good, it is good." More people need to realize this. A lot of people lately have gotten into the "it has to be EXACTLY on the grid."
I have recently done a drum session recording for a famous British musician who is well into his 50th year of career. Known for being a perfectionist and sometimes "feared" by musicians, he told me exactly the same thing "if it feels good, leave it there, don't mess with that, don't look at the grid".
“if it sounds good, it is good” yeh cool but he was literally talking about phase relationship between mics. I understand mapping drums to the grid doesn’t suit for all genres that require the style of play to be smooth and slick. Genres such as Rock, Metal and even punk though do benefit from gridding the drums in time. But the only way to do this is to have the drummer be a great player in the first place which 99% of time thats when it’s only used. I do love keeping things natural when recording bands, but when it comes to the genres that need it I am not afraid to tell the drummer that the beat detective process is what i’m doing and they 9.5/10 understand why if you show them why as well 👍🏻
@@mattcapuana-sodorstudios3743 I do agree with getting the drummer to do a great performance, and I do make sure everything is good. Some people get very anal about it to where if a snare hit is 1/258th of not off, they will adjust it, and it's not even noticeable. If they drummer is way off, than I would begin to grid. Like you said, most musicians are great players who get it done "right" the first few takes without a ton of editing.
@@j_freed really amazing the difference. Really amazing how music used to be produced as opposed to how it is "now." I remember reading in a guitar magazine in 1989 about rush producing Presto. Alex joked that in previous 80s rush records most of the time was spent by yelling "fuck! Stupid computer!" But Presto they made a more old fashioned way. And i remember first hearing it and thinking "this sounds like something you'd hear on a college radio station."
@@thecharlieramirez Put NT1 as OH, sm57 on snr, senheiser e604 on toms, Audix D6 and NT1 on Kick, and Sm7 on HH, and NT1s on rooms. As soon as the height of the rooms is high enough, it will sound very good
@@andree0101 There's not really any point unless you really wish to have it. The overheads work just fine for capturing them. I'd only really mic the hi hats if you have the money for the mics and preamp inputs spare.
I always had a lot of respect for engineers as it the subtle nuances that collectively make the ‘ sound’ , make the difference When I see an analysis like this it reminds me of the painstaking art involved - in search of the perfect blend
The fact that Rick uses black and white filter on photos with red arrows here 2:22 shows how thoughtful and sharp the man is in making teaching content. Totally appreciate it! What a brilliant man!
Hey Rick, potato producer and sound engineer wanabe here. This specifically, not to put asidde all of the vids you do which is great, are the nitty gritty things I really dig and would like to learn. Mic positioning, recording techniques, mixing techniques, and how to ge the best out of what you got. I really thank you a lot.
The only channel on youtube that can blends together musical theory/recording techniques with feeling and "rock'n rollness". AWESOME content. As usual. Thanks, Rick!
Vintage drum set, Niv preamps, two expensive mics for each drum, amazing studio acoustics. Man drum recording is easy! (But really learned a lot about mic phasing, tnx Rick! )
You realize he isn’t talking about moving the kick so it’s exactly on the grid. But instead moving the kick so it lines up with the other kick mic. Which actually creates more low end (Warren Huart)
Always a pleasure to watch a master at work, be it a master chef, a master woodworker, a master martial artist, a master crab fisherman, or a master studio sound engineer/producer.
Sounds great! Don't forget the most vital part of this recording: a great performance! The drummer is not whacking the drums with all his might. He's being reserved on the hi-hat. He's not killing the cymbals and choking their sound. The drummer is clearly aware he is playing in a very active live room and thus not pounding away. Great video Rick! Appreciate all the tips and tricks for such a complex instrument to record!
I clicked on this video with 25 years of frustration, thinking I'll never deal with more than 5 drum mics ever again. And then you proceeded to address every stupid mistake I've been making! Now I'm wishing I still had a 16 channel interface.
I have no mics or sound engineering experience but after watching videos like these I'm amazed at how much I learn. I can't believe I can gain all this professional knowledge for FREE! Videos like these are one of the reasons why UA-cam is such a great platform and I'm so happy people like you take advantage of it and are willing to share your knowledge. Thanks for the high quality content!
This is insanely helpful. As people have said it may not get the same views as a what makes this song great but the information you’re sharing is invaluable to us home recorders.
I can’t tell you how helpful this video was for me. It gave me like five things that immediately improved the sound of my recorded drums. For real man, thank you 🙏🏻
That Broadkaster kit with the bell brass and 2002:s sound like a dream from the start. Pair this with a great drummer and you'll get a great drum sound no matter what.
I love your videos and I've been watching a lot of them lately! I don't know if anyone already commented on this, but here goes: Wavelength is a spacial feature. So if you have time on the x-axis you actually didn't point out the wavelength, but instead the period of the signal. The period is the temporal counterpart to the wavelength, and measured in seconds pr. cycle. Wavelength on the other hand is in meters pr. cycle, or how long the wave is. It's not really a problem for matching up phase, because wavelength and period are proportional. But if we don't use the correct terms it will be a problem in more complicated cases where they are not proportional (i.e. there is some dispersion relation between the two). Hope this was helpful if anyone was confused about the language used. I'm not disputing any of the techniques just some nuances of the language used to describe them :-)
Been playing drum for 20 years now. 15 professionally. I will say that first the drummer being able to balance himself or "mix" is most important. Next comes the room. I've recorded in nice big studios and they sound excellent. Used same mics in a bedroom and sounded terrible. Of course you can polish it as they say. Drum replacement is very popular due to the already great sound can be dropped right in. Of course everything else like mics placement phase etc is all important. But drummers don't get hung up on buying a $6,000 kit and think it will record well. Invest in good darker cymbals and have fun. Experiment as well. Rick you are a true artist. You actually learned how to engineer and mix without all this new tech. Great video. Thanks
Great advice about the difference between matching the visuals in OCD fashion vs. trusting your ears to hear great sound! Too many people concentrate on what they're seeing rather than what they're hearing, but music is all about the sound!
our engineer double mic'd everything and man the drums sounded huge and have a dimension like you are also in the room. He also had 3 room mics Left Right and Mono that added a lot. When I pulled up the sessions and saw 14 drum tracks I thought it was over kill. Now I see the light
Thanks Rick! Immeasurable information! All my drumming life, I’m 61, been playing for 50 of those years, I’ve spent thousands of dollars and hours trying to get a great live drum recording. But I’ve been basically clueless until now!
My benchmark drum sound is John Guerin’s playing on Joni’s Hissing of Summer Lawns record. The record sound as well. I’m using three dynamic mics. Using the “don’t mic the kit, mic the room” idea. I’m enjoying the sound, much dryer and darker than modern records. Love it.
Love your videos. Keep them coming! I remember back in the day learning how to wrap cables properly. The whole experience with you and Ken 10 years ago was like a “Wax on Wax off” music master class. Glad to see you’re doing well!
Rick, I think one more important element to recording drums is the room and room treatment. It saves so much work when the room sounds good and gives the mics and easy job of picking up the frequencies. Also when setting up the drums move the bass drum, snare and hat around to find the sweet spot in the room that sounds the best.
Hey Rick!!!! I just wanted to thank you. I found your channel a few weeks ago and have spent many hours trying to watch as much as possible. But I've also picked up my guitar again, (thanks to watching you) You are a very knowledgeable and inspiring person to watch. I have played guitar since I was 15, but for years I haven't been playing. Now I spend every second of my free time watching your videos or practicing.... Sometimes both!! 😁 Thank you!!
I have a fairly large Ludwig kit (6/8/10/12/14/16 toms, 22 kick, 6 1/2 x 14 snare) and, partly because of budget, use only 5 mics but will be adding a hi-hat mic next Cd's worth of demos. (Rode N5 overheads pair - SM57 snare top - AKG P170 aimed at batter kick - AKG P220 unported front kick). As toms aren't mic'd at all, I found that if I copy the overheads and edit all of the copy track down to toms only, they can be processed to really bolster the tom sound, in addition to the toms that are on the main overhead tracks. I'm really loving how the drums sound. They're tuned super well and played with as much of a quality performance as I can muster (being primarily a guitar player). The biggest bonus for me is virtually no phase issues and I'd much rather write and record than engineer, given my druthers.
This is just so clear and seems simple but its not easy to figure out on your own as i failed at too many times. All the time spent learning comes down to what i see in this very elegant video.
The difference in sound with the top and bottom on the tom toms is huge! I have never tried that before but I will definitely consider it in the future. Thanks for another great video Rick!
I haven't had many tracks of my drums recorded in studios but in my limited experience I always fight with the producer to get my hihats up in the mix as to me they are a key signature tone for me and also if I switch to a ride pattern instead most producers seem to practically erase it from the mix, it seems to be the standard producer thing. I get that there needs to be space for the frequencies of the guitars and all, however it's overlooked in general so I know it's not just me! Incredible video, so much knowledge !
My takeaway is if you go to all the trouble of lining up all the mics to a grid in post, then you may as well use a drum machine - a little phase shift gives you the "feel" of the drums. Great video.
Excellent video on multi microphone phase. I've done the 3 and 4 mic arrangements back in the late 70's with lots of room and always got a great, big sound.
Rick, thank you so much for this video! My growth as a producer over the last several years has been largely facilitated by your production videos (I've watched the old "how the pros use eq, compression, etc" videos over and over while taking notes lol. I know this isn't the kind of video that will get a million views, but it's seriously appreciated and helpful!
Thanks Rick for this great video! I've been double miking toms ever since you revealed the technique in an earlier video a couple of years ago. I normally use old gray MD421's on the top heads and now-discontinued Sennheiser MD409's or AKG D14's on the bottom heads. They both are convenient to place thanks to their flat shape and thus fit nicely even with a more crowded kit. And on top of that - or actually on bottom of that - they sound phenomenal! I typically use a Sennheiser MD441 under the snare drum: the supercardioid polar pattern nicely rejects the rest of the kit - especially the kick drum - and the inherent low sensitivity works nicely so you won't clip the preamp so easily, as the snare drum can produce pretty loud transients. Also the bass roll-off switch comes in handy at times. All the best from Finland!
Something you're also getting from adding that bottom mic to the floor tom, because of how close it is to the floor, is just a bit of floor reflection of the higher frequencies in there, which just opens the thing up when you add it it. It's just a hint, considering you'll have carpet and possibly an isolated subfloor under the drums, but it's just a little extra something.
I know I won't be able to apply this to a recording session, but seeing all the hard work going on gives me a whole level of appreciation for sound engineers 👌
Great info. I think the room is more important than any pre, mic or amount of mic’s used. Smaller rooms with more mic’s will introduce comb filtering, boxy and hollow sounding drums.
Forcing myself to finish this deadline so I can watch on my TV instead of cell. That setup already looks so luxurious, I know I’m in for a treat! If only I had my old drum studio back, I could experiment with all this. Bonus points for the Gadd thumbnail 😊
getting ready to record some drums tomorrow and i can't tell you how helpful this has been! Love all your videos, rick. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us
Man,beautiful snare. My father owns an 11piece DW Classic set,and now that I watched this I really would love to hear it mic'd. I keep telling him to get a chrome snare,but he likes the matching snare😁
Phase shift is super interesting to me. I recorded electric bass DI and with a mic once and the recording engineer used very small amounts of delay to change the phase relationships between the tracks. The resulting tone changes were very significant. Would love to see a video from you showing how phase shift affects drum sounds.
I love and appreciate these hands on miking techniques, especially for drums. I was so surprised when I watched the Glyn Johns technique video because I hadn't heard of it before but just by trial and error was already using it. Love the show,
Useful to know that phase shift thing, I started to record my own things and and I was really obsessed with syncing every single wave, but it actually sounds different and sometimes cooler to leave that tiny little gap
I love these recording and mixing guides you do Rick. I know the internet/youtube is full of videos about recording and mixing, noone covers the subject such as succinctly (yet somehow comprehensively) as you. Thanks
Please do one for rock and metal guitars, like how to choose the recording chain or IRs so that double or quad tracked guitars sound solid in mono! This is really informative and interesting! I would love that last drum beat to chop up into a Jungle rhythm!
I wish I had this video before I recorded my first album! Everyone talks about phase with mics...very few people explain it the way you do on this channel! Mic'ing guitar cabs took me years to get right!
Secret weapon to great drum sounds, tune them well. If you can't or don't know how, get someone who can. I once saw Carl Plaster tune drums for an hour and a half before a 'Hot Stove Cool Music' session, and it blew my mind how effortless it was to get great drums sounds during tracking.
I think it's not important to go so deep for every situation. But I think it's important to know the background and how deep you can go if required. Interesting video.
Thanks Rick! The advice on not to freak out on distances was appealing to me. Makes a lot of sense to trust your ears. What I cannot understand is why you are using all the different microphones different for top, bottom, overheads, and so on... A few words would be appreciated very much!
@FresnoCAPunkrockMetalHardcore OldFigGang I have 20 snares and that 14x8 Yamaha Brass recording custom with aluminum hoops is my #1. That drum sounds so good
Charles Kiesling and Rick Beato: Why do so many snare sounds make me think of timbales?? I prefer snare drums to have that real snappy sound of the wires on the res-head, and very little of that hollow ringing tone. I go back and forth between preferring the the sound of an ultra-shallow snare vs. something deep and meaty!
Great video Rick! The 35 people who hit the dislike button are people who don't like their drums to sound good I guess. Just completely baffling. Great stuff man! Thank you!
One thing you didn't mention in this video (though you've certainly talked about it elsewhere) is making sure the drum kit itself is well tuned. I can tell in listening to these examples that the kit is really well tuned. And of course, the other variable is the drummer. If they can't generate great tone, it won't sound great.
I’m gonna try putting two mics on the toms. You can really hear it fatten up the sound especially on that floor Tom. Great advice in this video. One of the plug ins that’s really helped me in post production in regards to phase is the uad IBP phase alignment plug in.
I am 60 years old and I have been drumming sense the 7th grade. I have never recorded a single lick in all that time. I really injoyed this video but still have no desire to record. Kicking it in Chamblee sents 1977. Hotlanta!
GR8 drum sounds! 1 point you should have included is, make SURE your drummer knows HOW to TUNE his/hers drum kit! When I used to do studio work back in the late 80s, it was amazing how many drummers would come in for sessions with poorly tuned or not tuned at all kits. OR, the kit sounded great in the room, but once you got mics on them and heard them back in isolation in the control room, you could hear how poorly tuned they were!
I swear this channel is an absolute treasure. To get all of this information from a veteran musician and producer for free is something I can't thank you enough for, Rick. Keep rocking man, also those sideburns are awesome
8:40 "If it sounds good, it is good."
More people need to realize this. A lot of people lately have gotten into the "it has to be EXACTLY on the grid."
I have recently done a drum session recording for a famous British musician who is well into his 50th year of career. Known for being a perfectionist and sometimes "feared" by musicians, he told me exactly the same thing "if it feels good, leave it there, don't mess with that, don't look at the grid".
“if it sounds good, it is good” yeh cool but he was literally talking about phase relationship between mics. I understand mapping drums to the grid doesn’t suit for all genres that require the style of play to be smooth and slick. Genres such as Rock, Metal and even punk though do benefit from gridding the drums in time. But the only way to do this is to have the drummer be a great player in the first place which 99% of time thats when it’s only used. I do love keeping things natural when recording bands, but when it comes to the genres that need it I am not afraid to tell the drummer that the beat detective process is what i’m doing and they 9.5/10 understand why if you show them why as well 👍🏻
@@mattcapuana-sodorstudios3743 I do agree with getting the drummer to do a great performance, and I do make sure everything is good. Some people get very anal about it to where if a snare hit is 1/258th of not off, they will adjust it, and it's not even noticeable. If they drummer is way off, than I would begin to grid.
Like you said, most musicians are great players who get it done "right" the first few takes without a ton of editing.
@@j_freed really amazing the difference. Really amazing how music used to be produced as opposed to how it is "now." I remember reading in a guitar magazine in 1989 about rush producing Presto. Alex joked that in previous 80s rush records most of the time was spent by yelling "fuck! Stupid computer!" But Presto they made a more old fashioned way. And i remember first hearing it and thinking "this sounds like something you'd hear on a college radio station."
I have worked with tightening guitars alot and having both tied to the grid is not always a good thing. You lose all feeling, thickness and depth.
MIC LIST: 0:45 Overheads = Pearlman U47 x2 , 1:02 Kick = Wunder Audio U47FET + Electrovoice RE20, 1:15 Toms = Sennheiser MD421 , 1:31 Snare = Shure SM57 "Modded by Warren Dent" x2. 10:38 Triple Mic technique on Snare. 11:05 Double mic the Toms. 14:15 final thoughts and tips.
All I see is $$$$$$$$$$$.
Rick, have you tried to double mic the hi-hat (top/bottom)? Do you think it will make any difference ?
@@thecharlieramirez Put NT1 as OH, sm57 on snr, senheiser e604 on toms, Audix D6 and NT1 on Kick, and Sm7 on HH, and NT1s on rooms. As soon as the height of the rooms is high enough, it will sound very good
7:27 Wow, that sounds fantastic!
Rick, have you tried to double mic the hi-hat (top/bottom)? Do you think it will make any difference ?
@@andree0101 There's not really any point unless you really wish to have it. The overheads work just fine for capturing them. I'd only really mic the hi hats if you have the money for the mics and preamp inputs spare.
I always had a lot of respect for engineers as it the subtle nuances that collectively make the ‘ sound’ , make the difference
When I see an analysis like this it reminds me of the painstaking art involved - in search of the perfect blend
The fact that Rick uses black and white filter on photos with red arrows here 2:22 shows how thoughtful and sharp the man is in making teaching content. Totally appreciate it! What a brilliant man!
I got no drums and no mics, but now that i know this, i feel like a pro
I've distant recorded with my
iPhone and gotten decent results, just use your ears
@@skeletonshorror5184 thanks bro
but still got no drums :)
We all do lol
That's funny!!!
From someone working on a Commercial Music degree, I always appreciate your videos on in-studio techniques!!
Hey Rick, potato producer and sound engineer wanabe here. This specifically, not to put asidde all of the vids you do which is great, are the nitty gritty things I really dig and would like to learn. Mic positioning, recording techniques, mixing techniques, and how to ge the best out of what you got. I really thank you a lot.
For me a high ceiling gives you so much more to your overheads. Love the room sound! Great video Rick. Everything you've covered is bang on!
The only channel on youtube that can blends together musical theory/recording techniques with feeling and "rock'n rollness".
AWESOME content. As usual.
Thanks, Rick!
Voicing drums is definitely not easy I'd say. Thank you for really well informed content as always!
Hello!
@@StamateTudorGuitar has an air guitar.
Vintage drum set, Niv preamps, two expensive mics for each drum, amazing studio acoustics. Man drum recording is easy! (But really learned a lot about mic phasing, tnx Rick! )
08:30 - This is what I love about Rick -- keep the sound a little loose, Analog, Natural not Artificial. Digital.
I couldn't agree more Mechanic. All this 'artificial' sculpting (which is everywhere now) steals the soul from music. I like keeping it human.
Exactly, it takes different lengths of time for the sound to travel from the top and bottom skins to your ear too.
You realize he isn’t talking about moving the kick so it’s exactly on the grid. But instead moving the kick so it lines up with the other kick mic. Which actually creates more low end (Warren Huart)
Always a pleasure to watch a master at work, be it a master chef, a master woodworker, a master martial artist, a master crab fisherman, or a master studio sound engineer/producer.
Sounds great! Don't forget the most vital part of this recording: a great performance! The drummer is not whacking the drums with all his might. He's being reserved on the hi-hat. He's not killing the cymbals and choking their sound. The drummer is clearly aware he is playing in a very active live room and thus not pounding away. Great video Rick! Appreciate all the tips and tricks for such a complex instrument to record!
I clicked on this video with 25 years of frustration, thinking I'll never deal with more than 5 drum mics ever again. And then you proceeded to address every stupid mistake I've been making! Now I'm wishing I still had a 16 channel interface.
I have no mics or sound engineering experience but after watching videos like these I'm amazed at how much I learn. I can't believe I can gain all this professional knowledge for FREE! Videos like these are one of the reasons why UA-cam is such a great platform and I'm so happy people like you take advantage of it and are willing to share your knowledge. Thanks for the high quality content!
This is insanely helpful. As people have said it may not get the same views as a what makes this song great but the information you’re sharing is invaluable to us home recorders.
I can’t tell you how helpful this video was for me. It gave me like five things that immediately improved the sound of my recorded drums. For real man, thank you 🙏🏻
“If it sounds good, it is good”-that’s all you need to know, brilliant Mr.Beato
That Broadkaster kit with the bell brass and 2002:s sound like a dream from the start. Pair this with a great drummer and you'll get a great drum sound no matter what.
Hi Rick. You're a great musician and you are a perfect English teacher to me. A big hug from Italy to you and your wonderful son Dylan!!!
I love your videos and I've been watching a lot of them lately!
I don't know if anyone already commented on this, but here goes: Wavelength is a spacial feature. So if you have time on the x-axis you actually didn't point out the wavelength, but instead the period of the signal. The period is the temporal counterpart to the wavelength, and measured in seconds pr. cycle. Wavelength on the other hand is in meters pr. cycle, or how long the wave is.
It's not really a problem for matching up phase, because wavelength and period are proportional. But if we don't use the correct terms it will be a problem in more complicated cases where they are not proportional (i.e. there is some dispersion relation between the two).
Hope this was helpful if anyone was confused about the language used. I'm not disputing any of the techniques just some nuances of the language used to describe them :-)
As a drummer who's trying to record on a budget, this is really helpful. Thank you!
Been playing drum for 20 years now. 15 professionally. I will say that first the drummer being able to balance himself or "mix" is most important. Next comes the room. I've recorded in nice big studios and they sound excellent. Used same mics in a bedroom and sounded terrible. Of course you can polish it as they say. Drum replacement is very popular due to the already great sound can be dropped right in. Of course everything else like mics placement phase etc is all important. But drummers don't get hung up on buying a $6,000 kit and think it will record well. Invest in good darker cymbals and have fun. Experiment as well. Rick you are a true artist. You actually learned how to engineer and mix without all this new tech. Great video. Thanks
Great advice about the difference between matching the visuals in OCD fashion vs. trusting your ears to hear great sound!
Too many people concentrate on what they're seeing rather than what they're hearing, but music is all about the sound!
our engineer double mic'd everything and man the drums sounded huge and have a dimension like you are also in the room. He also had 3 room mics Left Right and Mono that added a lot. When I pulled up the sessions and saw 14 drum tracks I thought it was over kill. Now I see the light
Thanks Rick! Immeasurable information! All my drumming life, I’m 61, been playing for 50 of those years, I’ve spent thousands of dollars and hours trying to get a great live drum recording. But I’ve been basically clueless until now!
It would be amazing to do an episode on Ennio MORRICONE music👍🏻.
YESSSS!!!!
My benchmark drum sound is John Guerin’s playing on Joni’s Hissing of Summer Lawns record. The record sound as well. I’m using three dynamic mics. Using the “don’t mic the kit, mic the room” idea. I’m enjoying the sound, much dryer and darker than modern records. Love it.
Maybe all this time we've been hating Lars' snare on St. Anger it was just out pf phase.
Nah, it was Jason Newstead screwing with the drum mix as revenge for the bass mix in "And Justice For All..."
@@dafretz hehe wish that was true, unfortunately Jason wasn't there to do that. He was gone before st anger was recorded.
nah... it was just played on Oscar The Grouches roof
ThatsRaidillonActually If by interesting, you mean doesn’t practice, then yes Lars is extremely interesting
That is the worst sounding snare. Can't stand it.
I love this channel. Rick Beato got my love of music and drumming back after 13 years not playing.
Love your videos. Keep them coming! I remember back in the day learning how to wrap cables properly. The whole experience with you and Ken 10 years ago was like a “Wax on Wax off” music master class. Glad to see you’re doing well!
Rick, I think one more important element to recording drums is the room and room treatment. It saves so much work when the room sounds good and gives the mics and easy job of picking up the frequencies. Also when setting up the drums move the bass drum, snare and hat around to find the sweet spot in the room that sounds the best.
Hey Rick!!!! I just wanted to thank you. I found your channel a few weeks ago and have spent many hours trying to watch as much as possible. But I've also picked up my guitar again, (thanks to watching you) You are a very knowledgeable and inspiring person to watch. I have played guitar since I was 15, but for years I haven't been playing. Now I spend every second of my free time watching your videos or practicing.... Sometimes both!! 😁 Thank you!!
Hands down, the best practical example of phase and how to ensure all your mics are grooving in time!! thanks, Rick!!
*BEST MUSIC UA-cam CHANNEL!!!*
I have a fairly large Ludwig kit (6/8/10/12/14/16 toms, 22 kick, 6 1/2 x 14 snare) and, partly because of budget, use only 5 mics but will be adding a hi-hat mic next Cd's worth of demos. (Rode N5 overheads pair - SM57 snare top - AKG P170 aimed at batter kick - AKG P220 unported front kick). As toms aren't mic'd at all, I found that if I copy the overheads and edit all of the copy track down to toms only, they can be processed to really bolster the tom sound, in addition to the toms that are on the main overhead tracks. I'm really loving how the drums sound. They're tuned super well and played with as much of a quality performance as I can muster (being primarily a guitar player). The biggest bonus for me is virtually no phase issues and I'd much rather write and record than engineer, given my druthers.
This is just so clear and seems simple but its not easy to figure out on your own as i failed at too many times. All the time spent learning comes down to what i see in this very elegant video.
Those Gretsch drums are beautiful. The bell brass is my bucket list snare drum.
The difference in sound with the top and bottom on the tom toms is huge! I have never tried that before but I will definitely consider it in the future. Thanks for another great video Rick!
I haven't had many tracks of my drums recorded in studios but in my limited experience I always fight with the producer to get my hihats up in the mix as to me they are a key signature tone for me and also if I switch to a ride pattern instead most producers seem to practically erase it from the mix, it seems to be the standard producer thing. I get that there needs to be space for the frequencies of the guitars and all, however it's overlooked in general so I know it's not just me!
Incredible video, so much knowledge !
52 years of playing music and still learning new things. Thanks, Rick!
Amazing lesson ... just tried the doble mic on toms and it's an amazing change in all entire drum sounds ... tnx so much Rick!
My takeaway is if you go to all the trouble of lining up all the mics to a grid in post, then you may as well use a drum machine - a little phase shift gives you the "feel" of the drums. Great video.
Excellent video on multi microphone phase. I've done the 3 and 4 mic arrangements back in the late 70's with lots of room and always got a great, big sound.
Fantastic video, Rick. I loved the explanation of phase, something that confuses many drummers just getting into recording.
Rick, thank you so much for this video! My growth as a producer over the last several years has been largely facilitated by your production videos (I've watched the old "how the pros use eq, compression, etc" videos over and over while taking notes lol. I know this isn't the kind of video that will get a million views, but it's seriously appreciated and helpful!
Good looks Rick, I literally had a dream last night about how the drums in my demo recordings could be better.
Thanks Rick for this great video! I've been double miking toms ever since you revealed the technique in an earlier video a couple of years ago. I normally use old gray MD421's on the top heads and now-discontinued Sennheiser MD409's or AKG D14's on the bottom heads. They both are convenient to place thanks to their flat shape and thus fit nicely even with a more crowded kit. And on top of that - or actually on bottom of that - they sound phenomenal! I typically use a Sennheiser MD441 under the snare drum: the supercardioid polar pattern nicely rejects the rest of the kit - especially the kick drum - and the inherent low sensitivity works nicely so you won't clip the preamp so easily, as the snare drum can produce pretty loud transients. Also the bass roll-off switch comes in handy at times. All the best from Finland!
Rick. You’re simply the best source for everything music.
Something you're also getting from adding that bottom mic to the floor tom, because of how close it is to the floor, is just a bit of floor reflection of the higher frequencies in there, which just opens the thing up when you add it it. It's just a hint, considering you'll have carpet and possibly an isolated subfloor under the drums, but it's just a little extra something.
I know I won't be able to apply this to a recording session, but seeing all the hard work going on gives me a whole level of appreciation for sound engineers 👌
Great info. I think the room is more important than any pre, mic or amount of mic’s used. Smaller rooms with more mic’s will introduce comb filtering, boxy and hollow sounding drums.
Forcing myself to finish this deadline so I can watch on my TV instead of cell. That setup already looks so luxurious, I know I’m in for a treat! If only I had my old drum studio back, I could experiment with all this. Bonus points for the Gadd thumbnail 😊
Yet another fantastic instructual video from the greatist music teacher ever from the heart. Love you Rick.
Beautiful kit Rick. That great Gretsch sound. Thanks for shedding some light on the dark art of drum recording.
getting ready to record some drums tomorrow and i can't tell you how helpful this has been! Love all your videos, rick. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us
Those Gretsch's sound great. I love the attack of the toms. You can tune a drum!
I’m sure tuning doesn’t hurt, but never underestimate the rawness of “That Great Gretsch Sound!”
Now this is the kind of stuff I enjoy. Geeked out a bit when Rick said "Let's go to the white board."
its also ringo's birthday ! :)
Always good news.
*_pEaCe AnD lOvE! PEACE! AND! LOVE!_*
Day Trippa!
I love that you use 2002s. Those are the best cymbals ever in my opinion. PST 7 are awesome, too.
I finally got some monitors and can fully appreciate these videos. Those drums do indeed sound massive.
The most excited I've been about a video since the TOOL video!
This was great. I've been spending time moving the kick in mic back x number of samples to better align with the outer mic. Done with that!!!
Great tom sound! The whole drum set sounds gorgeous, but the double micing of the toms makes a big difference!
Thanks Rick, for a young Sound Tech like me this video is super useful. Greetings from Spain
Best example of drum mic’ng ever. Thanks Rick.
This is pure gold. Thank you Mr Beato !
Man,beautiful snare. My father owns an 11piece DW Classic set,and now that I watched this I really would love to hear it mic'd. I keep telling him to get a chrome snare,but he likes the matching snare😁
Phase shift is super interesting to me. I recorded electric bass DI and with a mic once and the recording engineer used very small amounts of delay to change the phase relationships between the tracks. The resulting tone changes were very significant. Would love to see a video from you showing how phase shift affects drum sounds.
Seriously helpful, right-to-the-point, no bs video. Cheers
I love and appreciate these hands on miking techniques, especially for drums. I was so surprised when I watched the Glyn Johns technique video because I hadn't heard of it before but just by trial and error was already using it. Love the show,
Thank you for explaining why double mic'ing is important to capturing the full drum sound :D
Useful to know that phase shift thing, I started to record my own things and and I was really obsessed with syncing every single wave, but it actually sounds different and sometimes cooler to leave that tiny little gap
I know very little what he is talking about and yet I still enjoy watching Ricks videos.
what a pro are you, amazing. I am from classical, but what you show is really pro staff....
I love these recording and mixing guides you do Rick. I know the internet/youtube is full of videos about recording and mixing, noone covers the subject such as succinctly (yet somehow comprehensively) as you. Thanks
Please do one for rock and metal guitars, like how to choose the recording chain or IRs so that double or quad tracked guitars sound solid in mono!
This is really informative and interesting! I would love that last drum beat to chop up into a Jungle rhythm!
Thank you Rick for explaining in 17 minutes what took me years to figure out on my own!
thank you so much, you help to understand several things, greetings from Mexico :D
I wish I had this video before I recorded my first album! Everyone talks about phase with mics...very few people explain it the way you do on this channel! Mic'ing guitar cabs took me years to get right!
Excellent video! I'm getting into doing remote session work and the info in this video helped out a lot.
Those NEVE EQs and Pre, The API . LEGEND
Excellent workshop, very thorough, thanks!!
Secret weapon to great drum sounds, tune them well. If you can't or don't know how, get someone who can. I once saw Carl Plaster tune drums for an hour and a half before a 'Hot Stove Cool Music' session, and it blew my mind how effortless it was to get great drums sounds during tracking.
I think it's not important to go so deep for every situation. But I think it's important to know the background and how deep you can go if required. Interesting video.
Thanks Rick! The advice on not to freak out on distances was appealing to me. Makes a lot of sense to trust your ears. What I cannot understand is why you are using all the different microphones different for top, bottom, overheads, and so on... A few words would be appreciated very much!
I like the different tone combinations
@@RickBeato Thank you!
The secret to great drum sounds: a bell brass snare
True!
I want one so badly. My bank does not agree.
@FresnoCAPunkrockMetalHardcore OldFigGang I have 20 snares and that 14x8 Yamaha Brass recording custom with aluminum hoops is my #1. That drum sounds so good
Charles Kiesling and Rick Beato: Why do so many snare sounds make me think of timbales?? I prefer snare drums to have that real snappy sound of the wires on the res-head, and very little of that hollow ringing tone. I go back and forth between preferring the the sound of an ultra-shallow snare vs. something deep and meaty!
I'll take a Supra with a tone-control over anything ringy ..different strokes and all that
Great video Rick! The 35 people who hit the dislike button are people who don't like their drums to sound good I guess. Just completely baffling. Great stuff man! Thank you!
One thing you didn't mention in this video (though you've certainly talked about it elsewhere) is making sure the drum kit itself is well tuned. I can tell in listening to these examples that the kit is really well tuned. And of course, the other variable is the drummer. If they can't generate great tone, it won't sound great.
A UA-cam video where the host says "polarity" when they mean polarity, and "phase" when they mean "phase" ... Take my money now!!
Here a year late, and I must agree. This channel is an absolute blessing
AWESOME video!! Thank you for sharing your expertise, Rick!
I really never thought anyone in a studio environment, would thought about right polarity? Me as an Audiophile do dig this! :-) Cheers from Denmark
I’m gonna try putting two mics on the toms. You can really hear it fatten up the sound especially on that floor Tom. Great advice in this video. One of the plug ins that’s really helped me in post production in regards to phase is the uad IBP phase alignment plug in.
I am 60 years old and I have been drumming sense the 7th grade. I have never recorded a single lick in all that time. I really injoyed this video but still have no desire to record. Kicking it in Chamblee sents 1977. Hotlanta!
That sounds INCREDIBLE .Thats whats true open drums should sound like IMHO.
GR8 drum sounds! 1 point you should have included is, make SURE your drummer knows HOW to TUNE his/hers drum kit!
When I used to do studio work back in the late 80s, it was amazing how many drummers would come in for sessions with poorly tuned or not tuned at all kits. OR, the kit sounded great in the room, but once you got mics on them and heard them back in isolation in the control room, you could hear how poorly tuned they were!