I am working with a band who is one of the greatest hard rock bands I've heard in a while, except one thing, the drummer is not great. From what I was told, they made a demo and it took their drummer 3 days to get 2 passable drum tracks with a click. Rather then wasting time in a 2 inch studio, I was wondering if it would be better to track the drums at my place digitally (I have lots of good mics, a big room, and 3 AD8000s),edit a bit, throw in some killer snare and kick samples to mix in, and get it tight sounding. Then I guess I would dump those tracks on to the 2 inch and track everything else on the tape and mix to 1/2 inch.
I have never done much digital to analog transfering, from your experiences, does dumping to two inch improve the sound of tracks or degrade them (assuming good D/A). Or would it be better to hit the 2 inch first with the drums, then dump them A/D to Pro Tools, do all the stuff, and then back again to 2inch? thanks
Comments
Just a suggestion.. I wouldn't draw a lot of attention to your o
Just a suggestion.. I wouldn't draw a lot of attention to your own opinion as to how good this drummer is or is not. A band is often a family, and you go confirming their fears about this guys chops, and you could cause more trouble than help. In fact, drumming is pretty quick to improve on, and you can argue that a simple beat drummer like Ringo didn't really hurt the beatles. In fact, simplicity might have helped. So your own taste here may cause so much grief among the members (and the drummer might be some kind of cement for the group emotionally, etc.), that their negative future experience might come back to the source. Just help the guy. He'll probably improve with a loud click track. Paul Ps I'm not an engineer (I'm learning), but I know how it goes with musicians.
For me I usualy sit down with the entire band and explain the im
For me I usualy sit down with the entire band and explain the importance of session musicians verses live, im going through a similar situation right now. We have a bass player that just sucks ass, after a few discussions and takes, the player himself realized he doesnt have the chops needed for critical recordings. So we hired a session player, its all in the delivery of what the tune or album needs....
Nothing in the studio is more important the having great musicians, give me a 4track tascam and some 57's with great musicians and I would be much more satisfied than having shity artists and all the greatest toys in the world..
Originally posted by Paul Larisey: ...and you can argue that
Originally posted by Paul Larisey:
...and you can argue that a simple beat drummer like Ringo didn't really hurt the beatles. In fact, simplicity might have helped.
Personally, I think Ringo is one of the best drummers in the world (retroactively). Listen to him. The guy can lay back on the beat in the verses, and push the beat in the chorus' like no other. He had incredible feel.
Of course, most people remove all feel from drum tracks today, and most drummers don't really learn to play with feel anymore because they can be edited. Sad.
Mixerman
Yo John I did tons of metal bands, indeed they are like a famil
Yo John
I did tons of metal bands, indeed they are like a family so keep it like that.
There is another possibility, many metal drummers have problems with their (double) bass and snare when it goes really fast.
You can sync a sequencer like Cubase via SMPTE to the 2" machine and trigger the kicks and snare with triggers on the heads or even after recording from the tape. An Alesis D4 has 12 trigger inputs.
Then you have all kicks and snares in the sequencer and you can edit like hell. When recorded with a click you can even quantize.
Next find a decent kick and snare sample, you might sample his own kick and snare, and you have a decent metal drummer :D
John, I have dumped from ADAT to 2" and it does add a little s
John,
I have dumped from ADAT to 2" and it does add a little something. From what I've been told, going from 2" to digital is better than the other way around. If I could I'd track to 2", transfer and edit, and go back to 2".
I know that this is a touchy subject, but would the band consider hiring another drummer for the sessions? It's done a lot. In the sixties Hal Blaine cut everybody's record. If the band is as good as you say, maybe they will realize that they possibly need a personal change. Just some thoughts.
Have Fun!