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I'm gonna record a real loud band. I usually use a V-drums system for drums but this time I want to record the drums 'real' I can use a very good room (15mx10m and 4m high). I want to make good use of this room for recording the drums, i have a RODE classic mic for this. The problem is that the band is playing at its best when they are at rehearsel level (and thats loud!), I'm affraid there will be a lot of guitar in the drum's room mice.
how do you guys cope with that?

Comments

KurtFoster Sun, 12/29/2002 - 10:41

Loud guitar and bass amps will spill into the drum kit. No way around it. Even if the room has all the correct design features and room treatments, loud sounds will spill into the drum kit. Amps will make the snares rattle. This is why pro studios usually have several iso rooms of considerable size. Drums or amps are usually placed into iso booths. I personally like to track everything as live, getting as many instruments down at once as is possible. But isolation is a must if you want to be able to go back and punch in on an individual element to repair an otherwise good performance / take. Many times, producers will record a "scratch bass and guitar track, along with a click track to keep time. Then they overdub the drums alone in the room. After the drum tracks are finished they will record the rest of the band, again in the large room. That is one approach. Another would to forgo all of this and just set them up and record it "as is", using the spill to your advantage. This is a very subjective process and only you can decide if the results are acceptable. Some of the best records ever made were done this way although a smaller room (perhaps 6 meters by 8 meters for example) would really be better for this type of approach. In a really large room as you described, the reverb build up can really mud things up. The only way of really finding out what's going to happen is to set up and listen to how the mics are going to sound in the room on playback. Another solution would be to place all the amp cabinets against one far wall and drape them with moving blankets as much as possible. The idea is to minimize the spill as much as possible. Many times attenuation of the spill will make things workable in a mix and punch in situation. All in all, it can be a lot of "Let's see if this works." Most important thing, have fun! ..... Fats

Henchman Sun, 12/29/2002 - 12:49

The live off the floor thing, well that was nice when people actually knew how to play extremely well together.

If this is a quick demo, then go that route.

If it was me, I would set the drums up all by themselves in the room. Use a POD for the Guitarplayer('s). Go direct on the bass.

Get a great drumtrack. Overdub the rest.

anonymous Wed, 01/08/2003 - 13:25

i record in a similar environment. the best you can do is minimize the bleed. i often fashion a little pseudo amp room out of gobos and blankets, and you just hit tape, and make adjustments on playback. it usually rules out using omnis. i dunno if you have more room, but if you could just put the amps in the hall or something, and have all the gtr players stand in the big room with the drums - they'll feel like it's like practice and you'll get the live feel, w/o tarnishing the sound as much.

personally, i'd prefer the sound of bleed in my drum mics than a pod gtr sound and DI bass sound, but then again, to each his own. there are no wrongs/or rights in recording, just your preference. usually i try to do everything i can to have the recording process be as inabtrusive to the players as possible. i'm sure sonically this hurts my recordings, but i think it helps the playing of the band, which in the grand scheme of things is more important, IMO.

that's just what i've found, though, so take it for what it's worth. HAVE FUN!