Here was the sound cloud of different tracks solo'd and the entire mix from each place. It's actually remarkable that some of the million dislike studios don't necessarily sound a million times better. The living room actually did a decent job w the overall mix track imho

https://m.soundcloud.com/soundonsound

kmetal, post: 441196, member: 37533 wrote: Also insteresting to me was they used and RME/ISA 828 combination. This is similar to pcrecord marcos setup I belive.

Yes, A ISA 428 + 2 ISA Two is probably sounding exactly like a 828..
I usually use the ISA for Bassdrums and Snares + room mics. Lately the toms are going to the UA 4-710 but in a next project, I might go ISA for the entire drum and get you some samples ;)

About the play of the room; recording is like cooking a cake. mess with one ingredient and the results will be different.
I wish they would have gone further with this ; like recording the drum in different spot in the room...
In my situation, I don't have a good room to record my drums.. but what I do is tricking the overhead and room mic with a room reverb to compensate..
It is somewhat convincing until I have the real thing ;)

Rak Studio One had a really nice natural reverb to it IMO...the drum sound really came alive in that room

Air and rack were my two favs.

Don't want to go off topic but Im having a problem A/B ing different toms and it
relates to the room .
I have 2 different sets of toms at home and we want to buy one of them .
1 is maple and the other set birch . they have the same make of heads on them ,
although the maple tom heads are more used.
The birch sounds way better in our average size room at home , but when
we took them to 2 gigs yesterday (one outdoor and the other a large club )
the birch had attack but I missed the boom .
So today we will take the maple toms to another large room club gig .
BTW the maple are from a mapex meridian , and the birch are pearl studio session.

So Im a little naive when it comes to drums , can some one chime in here .
My gut feeling is go with the birch but it will be nice to get some feedback here

There was so many things different with your tests, it's hard to A/B that way.
First wooden drums are alive. They have their mind on their own. Because of the type of wood, ply and thickness they will all resonate differently to specific frequencies. Even toms made the same day, by the same make and series will sound more or less different. Many rely on tools to tune a drum but when you can find and tune to the resonating frequency of the tom, it will sing for you.

Second, comparing an outside and club gigs are futil. The worst place for a drum is outside with changing humidity and no reflexion. I always insist to go on stage to retune a few minutes before I play. Sometimes I can't and I hear it right away. Other time I do but the sound will also change with the sunset, so I get to retune again if we do multiple sets.

You need to be scientific with you want the truth.
Same spot in the same room, new heads, optimal tuning (even if the note is not the same), record them with the same mic and placement.
Or go with your feeling. If you tried them both long enough you can average how you like them.
My vintage Ayote drumsmith is made of thin mapple shell and I like them very much ;)

Maple typically has full frequency response, and longer sustain. With dampening and eq you have more options.

Birch has more snap and top end plus low end.. the mids are sucked out a bit in comparison to maple. Less sustain.
They are both mid level pro kits.

It depends on what you want a pre eqed sound with shorter sustain with Birch, or something that you'll need to have more of a hand in to get the sound tuning and muffling wise with Maple.

Thanks for the feedback Marco and Chris ,

After the weekend experience I heard the maple much boomier .
I liked the snap of the birch but they can't have been tuned because the tone wasn't there.
I ll try tuning the birch top and bottom to find the tone next.

We are pretty slack when it comes to tuning drums .
Although the importance is becoming much more clearer when
listening back to recordings ...

There is also wood/fibreglass (japan) pearl set that we haven't tried yet .

My wife is the drummer, so its her decision. Im just trying to help make it more informative.
So from what you have said , the maple needs more TLC as regards to tuning ?

Smashh, post: 446677, member: 45856 wrote: We are pretty slack when it comes to tuning drums .
Although the importance is becoming much more clearer when
listening back to recordings ...

Would you ever play a guitar without tunning it first ?
Ok, I know a drum is more complicated to tune. It took me years to learn how to tune it well. But the more I do it the faster I get.
I had a few drummers who brought their drum to my studio and I can say it's common of most amateur to overlook that aspect.
When they allow me to tune their kit, I often get the jaw dropping face and comments like "Man, my kit never sounded like this" !! That alone makes my day ;)

Great , we've got something else to look forward to .....yeaahaaa!
Im seeing more enthusiasm in the drummer here and even heard her practising rudiments
on a pad with metronome .

Maple provides more options as it has full frequency vs the Birch. Head selection, tuning, and muffleing will be more important with a Maple kit. With Birch those things will effect the sound as well but to a lesser effect as the wood itself projects with less mids.

Interesting . So maybe birch is more foolproof is the gist there ?

It's more consistent in its sound.. But it puts out less volume and less sustain.

I am going to suggest the birch . the volume can be sorted with microphones ( only 2 toms ) .

Birch isn't any easier to tune, with bad heads and tuning they will be as bad as Maple.. by consistant I mean the tone..

Ooh , I was thinking about the humidity where we are in the tropical climate here too , thinking the less tuning the better ...lol
We are in and out of aircon all the time here , and high humidity with heaps of rain this time of year.
Also the recording at home side , the path of least resistance , I really like . ( Thats actually becoming my credo when playing songs now)....lol
I think a consistent tone would be good , I have had probs before trying to record the old toms and Im sure they where maple pearl exports.

It's very easy to shock a drum with tuning. I rarely use muffleing, except for a moodgel or two on the floor tom.

Just in case someone finds this with a google search :
There is 2 methodes to tune a drum, by tension and by note or harmonics.

1. The idea of tunning by tension is to apply the same pressure to the head at each log.
   1. Drum dial :
      
      
   2. The tunning by note is to get each log to sound at the same pitch to get the head to resonate at a pure note.
      1. By ear or apps :
         
         Some might be surprised but drum tunning is not a new thing... It's been done since the first drums but what is the go to sound changed a lot over the years.
         I remember a song from Chick Corea in 88' on which Dave Weckl played with toms tuned to the song which added to the melody. It was amazing !

         Attached files

This is outta hand haha