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As opposed to the thread about [="http://recording.org/index.php?threads/recording-drums-under-less-than-ideal-situations-please-help.55232 recording drums under 'less than ideal conditions'[/]="http://recording.or… recording drums under 'less than ideal conditions'[/], I'll share this link I came across a few months ago.

You guys in Canada know KI'm Mitchell is a rock monster with some really cool recordings and a mantel full of Juno awards. He's always been very interesting, both musically and sonically. Not many below the 41st parallel know much about him, (I think by his choice). Now that he's doing a regular radio show between tours, he's bustin' open the vault on some of his old recordings and sharing some behind the scenes info on how they made some kickin' rock records.

This is about deconstructing a no BS rock song, and the individual tracks that give it its signature sound. Enjoy.

[[url=http://="http://www.q107.com… Start with the Drums[/]="http://www.q107.com… Start with the Drums[/]

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audiokid Fri, 04/11/2014 - 20:42

Nice one Dave!

I've played many Kim Mitchel songs over the years. We love him here. He's pretty fast getting it to sound like it should too?
Vocal are boxy sounding though. You'd never no it. Whats interesting to me, now that I've switched rolls, "musician to engineer" I hear things differently, notice things.
His songs always sounded better than most mixes on the radio.

From the sound of those tracks, who couldn't get that sound today. Vocals sound like any regular studio room, in fact boxy to me. But, the performance and raw talent is what we all love eh.

anonymous Sat, 04/12/2014 - 04:22

dvdhawk, post: 413653, member: 36047 wrote: As opposed to the thread about [[url=http://[/URL]="http://recording.or…"]recording drums under 'less than ideal conditions'[/]="http://recording.or…"]recording drums under 'less than ideal conditions'[/], I'll share this link I came across a few months ago.

You guys in Canada know Kim Mitchell is a rock monster with some really cool recordings and a mantel full of Juno awards. He's always been very interesting, both musically and sonically. Not many below the 41st parallel know much about him, (I think by his choice).

I absolutely know who Kim Mitchell is, thank you very much... I was in a band that opened for him in North Bay in 1986.... I'm also very familiar with Gowan (Larry plays keys with Styx these days), Honeymoon Suite, Stan Rodgers, etc....

- Your friend from below the 41st parallel ;)

dvdhawk Sat, 04/12/2014 - 07:56

My friends and I have loved his music too Chris, all the way back to his Max Webster days. One of the bands I play in, still plays Go For a Soda toward the end of the night. Rockland is a great CD for gauging how your PA system delivers. It's a studio album with dynamics and tonality that a live rock band should be shooting for, in my opinion. When we were working a lot through the 90's, we'd play it for pre-show music, and people were constantly coming up and asking who they were listening to - because they liked it and had never heard it before. So we like to think we drove some CD sales for Kim everywhere we played.

Donny you must live on the very south side of Akron. :D I arbitrarily picked 41 because it runs a little south of the Great Lakes, and I know his music did spill over the border a ways. So Akron is above it, but not by much. And even if you're south of the 41st, you're OK in my book. (I always liked North Bay too, we used to go through it on our way further north to fish for weeks at a time.)

anonymous Sat, 04/12/2014 - 08:14

Yea, North Bay was great. When we were there, I tossed more than a few lures into Lake Nippissing during the afternoons before show time, hoping for Northern Pike to strike. ;)

Actually, I toured up in Ontario (and parts of Quebec) quite a bit; A lot of Cleveland - Akron bands did. LOL..we used to run into each other all the time. This was during the 80's. (1983 - 1988...and then the bottom fell out.)

We played the club circuit that was there at the time - Thunder Bay, Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa... and a slew of little towns along the way...Kapuskassing, Kirkland Lake, Owen Sound, etc.

It was a great time. There was still quite a bit of money to be made. With the exception of the concert openers, most of the cities were week-long gigs... so, one set-up / one tear down in 6 days. ;)

Because we did quite a few originals and had an album out at the time, we did lots of openers, too. Hockey arenas mostly, but sometimes places like The Gasworks, and even Massey Hall a time or two.

Gowan, Mitchell, April Wine, Brian Adams, Honeymoon Suite, and a few others I've probably forgotten....

We used different agents for different cities and circuits... Peter Dunn, LaPointe-Dubay, Robbie Tustin...can't remember them all now... that was kind of a heady time for us. I've been told that I had a great time. (y)

audiokid Sat, 04/12/2014 - 20:36

That is so cool guys. And good on you Donny, you've had some great experiences. I used to book gigs near lakes and rivers so I could do the same.

Max Webster, Dave, now I really know you are the real deal lol! You share and support true Canadian rock roots. Good to hear.
I think his show is really cool. Kim Mitchell and Randy Bachman (another rock legend) are doing good things for music and radio.

RemyRAD Mon, 04/14/2014 - 13:46

I have no idea who Kim Mitchell is? Hal Blaine? Yeah. Ginger Baker, Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, Charlie Watts, yeah.

I mean who doesn't like a fabulous set of traps, you've been working on for weeks? You run through every microphone you have on every drum there is, in every position in which you can position it. You put the 57 in the bass drum and the D-112 on the snare drum. Anything to get the ultimate studio drum sound. And then you move the whole thing (which is on top of a riser) 10 feet over. And it's all wrong. Thank goodness you thought of putting that microphone snake on the drum riser. It sounded so much better when it was bleeding properly into the guitar. And how are you going to know that with a set of studio drums, if ya haven't taken weeks to work that part out?

And then you plug it all into a better sounding set of microphone preamps. And it's all wrong again!

Take it from the top.
Mx. Remy Ann David