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Hey all,
I'm new to the site and to sound engineering so i ask you what you think of my recordings.

I'm a drummer who does some gig's a year and record drum covers,make drum tracks for other people in my home studio.

I dont got mutch because i'm on a very thight budget (you know how expensive drums are and i dont got a job since i'm still going to school.

My gear:
Mixer:Soundcraft EPM12
Microphones:Audio-technica MB/DK7
Cables:Procab,Neutrik
Audio Interface:Behringer UCA222
music editing software:Audacity 1.3 Beta

Here's some of my drum covers:

[="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyoKfVmgiWE"]Robin - System Of A Down - Toxicity (Drum Cover) - YouTube[/]="http://www.youtube…"]Robin - System Of A Down - Toxicity (Drum Cover) - YouTube[/]
[[url=http://="http://www.youtube…"]Robin - Foo Fighters - The Pretender (Drum Cover) - YouTube[/]="http://www.youtube…"]Robin - Foo Fighters - The Pretender (Drum Cover) - YouTube[/]

Tell me what you think !

Comments

Kapt.Krunch Sun, 08/14/2011 - 06:37

Oh...Belgium. OK, then.

You seem like a fairly fluid drummer. Relaxed and comfortable with what you are doing.

Hard to tell from YouTube how the drums really sound. The snare is loud, the kick is missing and the cymbals have no air, but that all may just be the format. How much of that is you, and how much is the original track? A better mix with a band, (or backing tracks with no drums) would be better for anyone to form an opinion on both talent and drum mix.

If you want purely comments about the drum mix sound, maybe drop the backing song, and post a minute or so of just your drums, as they are?

Kapt.Krunch

Mirrormix Tue, 08/16/2011 - 11:10

reloud37, post: 375151 wrote: [[url=http://[/URL]="http://soundcloud.c…"]Drums by robin lambrighs on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free[/]="http://soundcloud.c…"]Drums by robin lambrighs on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free[/] here's a drum only track from the "the pretender" cover

I think you're in a poor sounding space for tracking drums.

Drums need a larger space to sound large and when you do it in a relatively closed in space things always sound small-ish. You also probably need a better kick mic and better placement of it. It sounds pretty lifeless. But if I remember correctly that kick mic in that drum mic kit always did sound pretty lifeless. Your playing is decent though.

AToE Wed, 08/17/2011 - 19:49

I thought the poor acoustics of the room showed up more in the cymbals and snare than the kick, but the kick certainly suffered too. Dead isn't even really the main problem in my opinion, it the phasing that occurs from the early reflections, makes things sound boxy, odd, and generally like clapping your hands in a closet. Until you can get your hands on a bigger room or some real acoustic treatment you can improve on the situation as best as possible by juryrigging things with whatever you have on hand. Add book shelves, add more framed pictures on the walls, put matresses on the walls, get a sofa in there, whatever you can fit and find that will break up or absorb sound. It won't get you a pro room, but it'll help.

reloud37 Thu, 08/18/2011 - 00:42

AToE, post: 375272 wrote: I thought the poor acoustics of the room showed up more in the cymbals and snare than the kick, but the kick certainly suffered too. Dead isn't even really the main problem in my opinion, it the phasing that occurs from the early reflections, makes things sound boxy, odd, and generally like clapping your hands in a closet. Until you can get your hands on a bigger room or some real acoustic treatment you can improve on the situation as best as possible by juryrigging things with whatever you have on hand. Add book shelves, add more framed pictures on the walls, put matresses on the walls, get a sofa in there, whatever you can fit and find that will break up or absorb sound. It won't get you a pro room, but it'll help.

The room where i record is isolated with 10cm of sound isolation material on top of the original 25cm house isolation,even the floor is isolated 5cm.
i have a sofa in there and tons of other stuff,so as good as no echo.
Its just a REALLY small room.
I suppose my mic's arent the best to,but i think its more likely that my EQ on my overheads is all wrong.
I dont really know on what exactly i can set it (only from searchin the web i learned to cut the bass to isolated the toms,kick and snare and add some to the hi to get a more brighter cymbal sound,i also cut some mid's where my snare's ringing -3db max)
perhaps if i set it different i can boost the volume of the overheads and get a more "live" sound.

Mirrormix Thu, 08/18/2011 - 10:42

reloud37, post: 375283 wrote: The room where i record is isolated with 10cm of sound isolation material on top of the original 25cm house isolation,even the floor is isolated 5cm.
i have a sofa in there and tons of other stuff,so as good as no echo.
Its just a REALLY small room.
I suppose my mic's arent the best to,but i think its more likely that my EQ on my overheads is all wrong.
I dont really know on what exactly i can set it (only from searchin the web i learned to cut the bass to isolated the toms,kick and snare and add some to the hi to get a more brighter cymbal sound,i also cut some mid's where my snare's ringing -3db max)
perhaps if i set it different i can boost the volume of the overheads and get a more "live" sound.

You can't EQ in a good sounding drum. You have to track it in and if the room sucks in it's sound it's always going to sound like that no matter what EQ you dial in. Trust me. It's just not something you'd know until you track in a good sounding space. What you can do with EQ is tweak and enhance and often times remove the worst offending sounds. But that's all limited in scope by the sound of the raw recordings and those are completely dependent on the sound of the source in the room as the mic picks it up.

You're recording. That means that everything that happens with the mic present is affecting what the mic is picking up and thus affecting the sound of your recordings. That means the source cannot be separate from the room. You don't have "no echo" or even close to that (having that would mean that you were in an anechoic chamber and I can assure you that's not what you have going on). What you have is a small room with a rolled off high frequency response and a very short reverb and that is being bounced around again and again creating the impression of your drums being played in a box. That's a very typical situation for home recording types to get involved with because their available space is rarely large enough or purpose built to sound good or at least neutral in a recording.

You also have a kick mic that leaves much to be desired. The other mics could work out fine. But if I was in your position (and I have been in the past) I'd seek out a better sounding kick mic. They aren't much of an investment but they pay off because they help you get a better sound happening at the mic.

The point is to get it right (or as close to "right" as you can) at the mic. When you do that you set yourself up for a much better sounding outcome. You can only do so much in an overly small, poor sounding space. Signal processing won't save you from the source. What you can try is purchasing diffusers to break the reflections up so that they sound more diffuse, thus giving a less boxy sound to the tracks. But that's still going to be limited by the size of the space.

[[url=http://[/URL]="http://snd.sc/oWAVzp"]HERE[/]="http://snd.sc/oWAVzp"]HERE[/] is a completely raw drum recording that I made some time ago (for some audible perspective). I keep it on hand for just such conversations. There is no processing, no EQ, no leveling, no reverb, nothing, all faders are at unity gain. Just a drummer in a decent sounding, small to medium sized, space (the snare wires are off on purpose). You can take your recording to whatever level of quality you wish if you can get it right at the mic. That means that for you, your current biggest problem is your tracking space, not your signal processing.

deggs37 Thu, 08/18/2011 - 12:02

Mirrormix, post: 375296 wrote: You can't EQ in a good sounding drum. You have to track it in and if the room sucks in it's sound it's always going to sound like that no matter what EQ you dial in. Trust me. It's just not something you'd know until you track in a good sounding space. What you can do with EQ is tweak and enhance and often times remove the worst offending sounds. But that's all limited in scope by the sound of the raw recordings and those are completely dependent on the sound of the source in the room as the mic picks it up.

You're recording. That means that everything that happens with the mic present is affecting what the mic is picking up and thus affecting the sound of your recordings. That means the source cannot be separate from the room. You don't have "no echo" or even close to that (having that would mean that you were in an anechoic chamber and I can assure you that's not what you have going on). What you have is a small room with a rolled off high frequency response and a very short reverb and that is being bounced around again and again creating the impression of your drums being played in a box. That's a very typical situation for home recording types to get involved with because their available space is rarely large enough or purpose built to sound good or at least neutral in a recording.

You also have a kick mic that leaves much to be desired. The other mics could work out fine. But if I was in your position (and I have been in the past) I'd seek out a better sounding kick mic. They aren't much of an investment but they pay off because they help you get a better sound happening at the mic.

The point is to get it right (or as close to "right" as you can) at the mic. When you do that you set yourself up for a much better sounding outcome. You can only do so much in an overly small, poor sounding space. Signal processing won't save you from the source. What you can try is purchasing diffusers to break the reflections up so that they sound more diffuse, thus giving a less boxy sound to the tracks. But that's still going to be limited by the size of the space.

[[url=http://[/URL]="http://snd.sc/oWAVzp"]HERE[/]="http://snd.sc/oWAVzp"]HERE[/] is a completely raw drum recording that I made some time ago (for some audible perspective). I keep it on hand for just such conversations. There is no processing, no EQ, no leveling, no reverb, nothing, all faders are at unity gain. Just a drummer in a decent sounding, small to medium sized, space (the snare wires are off on purpose). You can take your recording to whatever level of quality you wish if you can get it right at the mic. That means that for you, your current biggest problem is your tracking space, not your signal processing.

Great post! Very helpful.

twobob Tue, 08/23/2011 - 02:42

Mirrormix, post: 375296 wrote: You can't EQ in a good sounding drum....
[[url=http://[/URL]="http://snd.sc/oWAVzp"]HERE[/]="http://snd.sc/oWAVzp"]HERE[/] is a completely raw drum recording that I made some time ago (for some audible perspective). I keep it on hand for just such conversations. There is no processing, no EQ, no leveling, no reverb, nothing, all faders are at unity gain. Just a drummer in a decent sounding, small to medium sized, space (the snare wires are off on purpose). You can take your recording to whatever level of quality you wish if you can get it right at the mic. That means that for you, your current biggest problem is your tracking space, not your signal processing.

This is a very useful set of observations, thanks.