Anybody use real drums to produce trance? I just bought a kit and now looking into micing to mix. Also any tricks to get the base drum to thump?

dabb

Last edited by dabb on Feb-27-2007 at 16:30

actually real drums could do well in some breakdowns when used well...but I guess for the normal parts of the track as in intro, climax etc...I wouldn't really want to use a real drum kit...just because...it'd sound unusuall. anyway, feel free to try it...I'm still thinking about making a trance tune with orchestra instruments only...so why wouldn't real drums work ...

try and see...


as in punch...clever EQing and compression can do quite well...I have a tutorial for making the bass/kick combo flowing well...you might find some of the settings usefull as a base ... http://tutorials.djbooster.net

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The trick is definately going to be in good micing. Make sure you choose a really good low frequency mic and experiment with placing just inside the sound hole of your kick. You want to make sure that your end result is a nice full, round sounding kick without a lot of beater, unless you like that metalic punch that comes from the beater. my advice is to play with how far inside the hole you place it, until you hear what you like.

I also recommed micing your entire kit, in isolated elements. The great thing about using your kit is you'll capture that natural harmonics of your drums, vs using synthesized samples. I've miced a lot of drums and you can honestly get away with using a low end dynamic mic on your snare and toms, and even your hat. I would mic each instrument and do several passes of just that instrument to ensure you don't get any bleed from anything else. Again, it's all about placement to avoid metallic resonation from any of the metal bans surrounding your drum heads.

I'm not sure how avid a drummer you are.. but, mess around with tuning your drums to get that really desirebale sound you're looking for.

Compression is something you'll want to use later on for sound shaping, but honestly, you can save yourself from having to EQ a great deal if you have proper mic placement. EQ is used to make things fit in the mix, not to correct bad micing. You should avoid EQing acoustic instreuments because you're affecting the natural tones and harmonics that are specific to those instruments. Most of the time, if you're EQing an acoustic instrument, it's to repare poor micing technique.

Last edited by A1C on Feb-27-2007 at 23:20

good mics and micing are your best option...as already stated.

sure using a real drum kit could be cool if you were to do somthing "unique" but if you just "played" a simple rhythm it would be rather pointless. complex patterns will probably be too complex for trance...

these are just generalizations...if you were really creative you could maybe make something work...

this of course all depends on the skill level of your drumming and how good your time is...unless you practice with a metronome or have perfect rhythm...you probably have horrible time. LOL.

quote:

Originally posted by ASFSE good mics and micing are your best option...as already stated. sure using a real drum kit could be cool if you were to do somthing "unique" but if you just "played" a simple rhythm it would be rather pointless.

To a recording enthuiast, playing simple rythm wouldnt be pointless. The idea here is to cpature the natural sound of the instrument. You could have your own original snare hit or tom hit or kick hit. Then you could take these recordings and use them as percussive elements in your tracks. It really all depends on how passionate you are about being original and capturing something unique, rather thatn using something someone else has already captured. Playing rythm patterns would be pointless unless you're a good enough drummer to sit down, know what pattern you want to play, and then execute that pattern with little to no error, but then you'd also have to be a good engineer and know how to take what you've got, clean it up, and and mix it.. so, cest la vie

I can just hear that its going to be verry...."wet" and noisy! But give it a try, though i personally wouldnt waste so much work and time just to but real drums in a track thats ment for a dancefloor!

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quote:

Originally posted by A1C To a recording enthuiast, playing simple rythm wouldnt be pointless. The idea here is to cpature the natural sound of the instrument. You could have your own original snare hit or tom hit or kick hit. Then you could take these recordings and use them as percussive elements in your tracks. It really all depends on how passionate you are about being original and capturing something unique, rather thatn using something someone else has already captured. Playing rythm patterns would be pointless unless you're a good enough drummer to sit down, know what pattern you want to play, and then execute that pattern with little to no error, but then you'd also have to be a good engineer and know how to take what you've got, clean it up, and and mix it.. so, cest la vie

ya you're right to some extent...but how much of a difference is that "original snare" gonna make? i can take a sample of a snare and make that original as well.

it just seems like a lot of extra work for trance.

Thanks for some idea's here. I'm going to be looking into getting some drum triggers, and layer some sounds to beef up the kick and snare. Kind of new to me so definitly a learning curve coming!

dabb

btw the guys question is how can he mic up a bass drum well

I think it would be a good idea, you could play some shuffled hi hats riffs and create a midi file from the timings and then use other samples to play the actual noise!

You could create samples of all kinds of percussion inc just hitting anything you want and layer up for original loops to lay as beat foundations.

Post up a sample man when you've got it all working together would like to hear it

FJ

quote:

Originally posted by flutlicht junky btw the guys question is how can he mic up a bass drum well FJ

Why would you make this statement, and then proceed to contribute nothing of any relevance to the very question, which you're trying to suggest we're not addressing?


BTW Dabb- One thing you might consider for getting extra thump is using a sub kick mic. It's basically just a speaker that's used to record low end thump from a kick drumb, depending on how aggressive you are about capturing your kickdrumb's low end. I've used them quite a bit to get some real thud.... Again, it's probably too ambitious for you at this stage, but it's another way of getting thump.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SubKick/

quote:

Originally posted by A1C Why would you make this statement, and then proceed to contribute nothing of any relevance to the very question, which you're trying to suggest we're not addressing?

Because I have absolutely zero idea / experience of micing a drum set. I wouldn't even know where to look for the info apart from soundonsound.com

But I though I would lend some support to dabb as a few ppl were saying how they didn't see the point of it, however I think it's a good idea

FJ