Big Boomy Drum Sound

[Donna]

Hey Everyone,

Anyone here have sucess tweaking the drums, room, or rec/eq to acheive that big boomy drum sound?

Also...if anyone's messed with tuning the drum heads in order to get such a sound, how did you cut down on ringing? Er, I'm still looking for mainly acoustic solutions as I am compressor-less presently.

Thanks a lot!

-DD (aka DF)

Edited January 15, 2007 by Donna

[john]

Hey Donna

I haven't worked with live drums for a while (at least in terms of recording). Alot can be achieved by lo-tech solutions such as microphone type and placement, and an even more lo-tech use of dampning (muffling).

I'm probably telling you what you already know, but...

For a boomier sound for Toms and bass drum, consider placing the microphone inside the drum by removing the bottom skin entirely. You can also avry boomyness by adjusting the angle of the microphone, and by moving the microphone a bit further away from the drum.

Dampning a Ringy Drum

Drums ring. The shell resonance and the resonance of each of the heads create a sound that goes on and on. To reduce the ring of a drum, you have to muffle it

A common drum tuning mistake is to listen to the way a drum sounds and muffle the drum to get a dry sound when you're playing by yourself. Doing this, though, your drums will probably lack projection when you're playing with other instruments.

So, you want to tune your drums to have some amount of ring. A drum that sounds a bit too ringy when played on it's own will probably sound about right when played with other instruments.

The point is dampning can be useful, but keep it to a minimum.

The simplest ways are to loosen the striking head a quarter to a half turn and either increase or decrease the pitch of the bottom head so that it is a significantly different pitch from the top head.

If you still have unwanted ring or dislike the tone then try external muffling techniques.

1. Use a commercial muffling device, like "O" rings.

2. Put a strip of duct tape on your striking head. Experiment with different lengths of tape, different positions for the tape and multiple strips in layers to get a heavier muffle.

3. Tape an tissue or napkin to the rim of your drum, and let it lay loose on your striking head. Experiment with different material thickness and position.

4. For toms and snares, try putting some "moon gel" on the head. The larger the piece of gel, the greater the dampning.

5. Cut a long strip of felt and mount it underneath the striking head on a tom or snare, or across the front bass drum head.

6. Try putting a pillow inside the drum. You can control the amount of muffling by adjusting how much of the pillow touches the front or rear heads; the less contact, the less muffling.

7. Cut a hole in your front head of your bass drum. The hole reduces the natural resonance and gives a punchier sound with a more defined attack. The bigger the hole, the less resonance you'll get.

The choice of drum head also makes a difference, from coated/non-coated to double-ply or even self-dampned skins.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

John

[Steve]

I used to play with a drummer who taped the inside of each skin with a wad a tissue paper using duct tape. This was placed to the side, near the rim of each drum head. And a loosely thrown blanket inside the bass drum. Sometimes hanging halfway outside depending on the venue. The wads of tissue were constantly being moved for differing venues!

[ATom2]

Hey, nice set of cans!!!

Sorry, carry on.

[Donna]

Hey thanks, you guys, I'll play around a bit with this. Where my bottom rims and heads are is a mystery to me. It's worth looking into differing padding thickness and placement. John, we used drum ringers (moon gel) when we were kids, I'd forgotten about them.

BTW, what I've seen or used for drum mik clips - even at a recent drum shop trip - are still the outragesously expensive, flimsy things which one prayed wouldn't fall off the rim, and never turned the way one needed them turned, in the 90's. Maybe I'll just duct tape some pvc pipe to the mic, then tape the whole stick near the drum rim! Viola - miking and padding in one.

Or better yet, tape a 7a drumstick to it - should fit just right into a tall candle holder set aground!

signed, "Meatball Musician"

Edited January 17, 2007 by Donna

[Prometheus]

Go to the Solid State Logic Website and you can download a plugin version of the SSL talkback compressor for free...

It is partly responsible for the BIG drum sound characteristic in 80's pop rock mixes...

I've actually only been in a couple of situations where the SSL talkback compressor was any use to me, but in one particular instance, it provided a workaround fix that rescued a whole drum and bass orientated mix for me...

Edited June 23, 2007 by Prometheus

[DeadSkinny]

i like the o rings for good muffling, remo makes the best ones, but the set they offer isn't sized for a standard kit. if you get the ones the other guys make, put some margarin or oil on the backs. no buzz, no fall off. as far as boomy drum sound on tape, try a good condensor mic some distance away from the kit, in a fairly ambient room. i like to put mine off at my three o'clock when i record this way. good luck

-joel