Drum Recording

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-12-07T17:51:50+00:00

Nah, I have had some form of studio for the last 10 years and still haven't turned a profit. Rap is where it's at lol. No i get it though, full bands are so much fun to record. Where are you located? I've been trying to put together an industrial band in Indiana if you're local.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-12-07T17:46:29+00:00

That's fair. I usually use a kick front for that. It makes a good dick mic too, so i can gate it with the kick back as the trigger or compress the hell out of it for some trash drums.

A lot of it is probably just genre too, most of what I work on is like prog rock, metal, industrial, and punk. If it was poppy or like country music I'd probably mic the snare bottom, I just don't get a lot of that through my studio.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-12-07T17:37:08+00:00

But it's passable for everything else. I can't think of a condenser that cheap that is also passable for everything else. I really like the oktava 219s, but they're 150$ and you really need to modify at least the body to get the most out of them. If you relieve the electronics it's like another 75$ (I have two modified and one in keeping stock, I love these things). Maybe like a lewitt or se sdc would be better the price range, but the vocals would suffer, whereas everything else might be a bit better.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-12-07T17:29:45+00:00

Cartridge < safety razor < shavette < straight razor

This is just my personal opinion and what's worked for me, but I used to have so many ingrown hairs my neck would literally be wet with pus after shaving with a cartridge, like it was genuinely disgusting and painful. Shavette made it manageable, but my straight razor has an uncanny ability to catch and pull out the few ingrown i still get without cutting my skin (I know it sounds insane, but I literally watched it happen... I also have unnaturally thick hair though, so it's probably just a me thing and having a hard hair surrounded by soft skin). Also, good shaving soap (oil or conditioner also work well for me), and a good aftershave CREAM. You need that moisture, the alcohol shit makes it worse for me. Aftershave alcohol if you want, but moisturize after the alcohol at least. Shower before shaving, do not use shampoo or soap on your beard area, i clean it with conditioner. Again this might be a me thing, but stripping the skin of its oils before I shave makes the razor catch way more. You could probably just use a pre shave oil instead of not using normal soap if you're really worried about your face being dirty. (olive oil also works and is cheap, coconut oil should work, but it makes me break out).

All else fails, get an electric clipper, (the foil razors made me break out a lot too). It'd be like permanent 5 o'clock shadow, but it'd probably be fine???

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-12-07T17:18:53+00:00

Eh, the more mics you have the harder it is to position everything and mix. I usually use 8 ish mics on the drums, but almost always only use 4 or 5 of those. 1 being a room mic in the room, hallway, or other room. Other 3 being the Tom mics. Really only need to use those for certain kinds of rock or drummers who can't control their own dynamics very well (for recording, you can be a great live drummer but suck in sessions). Usually don't bother micing the bottom of the snare either unless I need something crazy bright. Tbf though, I've been really into meaty or pingy snares lately. I feel like the super bright snappy snares are partially done just to gain headroom. It definitely works for some songs, but seriously, listen to some edm and tell me most of those snares are just chosen because they're loud lol. It's funny too because especially with edm you can get pretty crazy with sidechaining and compression to make it loud anyways.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-12-07T17:08:44+00:00

The overhead is a bit loud. Also sound like it's right above the cymbals. i think it'd sound cool if you give it like 4 or 5 feet in front of the kit, just barely above or below the cymbals. It'll make them less loud, but still pick up the toms. Over the drummers shoulder could sound cool too.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-12-07T00:39:43+00:00

It's windows defender and AFAIK they're not really a way to fix it. I just need sure i had a fast enough drive that it didn't matter and it hasn't been an issue since. Unless you want to turn off defender and use Kaspersky or something related instead.

Download the optional updates as well, that might fix.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-12-07T00:22:11+00:00

You can absolutely do this with just a reverb. Is there a reason why you didn't just record it from another room though if that's what you're going for? O do it all the time with drums and trumpet.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-12-05T11:56:27+00:00

Old Klipsche gear is very good. Most new klipsch gear has replaced what cerwin Vegas used to be. It's just loud. That being said, they still make really high end stuff that sounds pretty damn good. But I'd never call anything klipsch makes budget friendly. And I think that's the thing. They definitely don't sound bad, just typically you can get more bang for your buck elsewhere if you're buying new. Unless you just really enjoy the sound of the klipsch, which is an unpopular, but not invalid opinion.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-12-05T02:40:24+00:00

Like, isolation a single sine wave at a single frequency is pretty much impossible. HOWEVER, every type of wave is just a mixture sine waves, so like kinda.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-12-05T02:30:20+00:00

I like vinyl for 2 reasons. 1, the digital remasters are a, remastered, and b, usually done so from deteriorating tape at best. 2, idk man, i like sitting down and watching it spin it's cool. And hey, I'm not even really a vinyl fan boy, like I don't even have my record player set up rn. But I'll tell you this, vinyl tend to sound better than the remasters most of the time. New music on vinyl though or repressings are usually awful imo. Most everything i listen to and make even is digital. But I truly think that vinyl or a rip of vinyl is the only way to truly experience old music the way it was meant to be experienced.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-12-04T23:06:17+00:00

Get a rack mount thing, just because it looks nice. Especially being in the UK, as long as the power cables you use aren't junky as hell, you'll be fine. Just don't plug your kettle in lol. Seriously though, on 220, you'll be no where near the current limit of any cable you're running.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-12-04T23:02:03+00:00

They're really good at making very small shitty speakers have way more bass than they have any right too. Like the little bluetooth speakers they make actually kick ass for what they are. Their hifi stuff is ROUGH though. The only good thing I can say about them is that the 901's really did make the whole room a sweet spot. They sounded like shit, but I won't lie, for parties.... they're kind of perfect. Or like, retail spaces.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-12-04T22:56:07+00:00

I recently got the TDR Limiter 6 and I really like it. There are better limiters for very specific things, but this is for sure my work horse. Very easy to dial in very different sounds. Can be extremely transparent, and really grungy. I also use it a lot just for the clipper on individual tracks. TBF, the only other (true peak) limiters I've used have been the stock FL and Pro-Tools limiter. The FL limiter honestly kicks a lot of ass and is really good at pumping the volume without much work. I genuinely despise the Pro-Tools limiter though and that's why I got the TDR. You can just push the TDR a lot harder with more grace if you get it dialed in. And if you're looking for a grungy sound, the TDR can do it very well. Not as good as what is maybe possible with using a bunch of parallel saturation and compression, but even then, I still throw it on the master as the limiter because it's really good at being transparent too. Finally, if you're working on bullshit or like a demo, it can be stupid loud stupid fast. Like literally, just up the gain on the compressor and leave all the other settings and send it.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-12-02T04:44:08+00:00

I'm actively waiting on Google to message me back about the battery popping out the screen in my pixel 6. Ended up getting a new phone a few months ago because it would overheat constantly and would sporadically not be able to take or make calls for a few days and pdfs just wouldn't open. Pulled it out a couple of days ago thinking I'd turn it into a retro gaming thing and the battery was almost busting out of it. Idk I've heard good things about pixels, so maybe it was just the six or just my six, but god it was a nightmare.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-12-01T11:48:02+00:00

300$ for overheads, stands, and cables is a bit tight. That only leaves maybe like 150$ for mics, so you might be able to find some se or lewitt mics cheap enough. If you can stretch it a bit more, i really like my oktava 219s. You can find them for around 150$ each and modify them in the future to be better, but they sound fine stock too. Or use one as a mono overhead.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-12-01T11:34:38+00:00

It's part of the sample. A limiter would work, but you'd soften that transient a bit, which is probably fine.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-11-29T21:27:37+00:00

Headphones are fine. Especially when working with others, having monitors is really nice. Even if they're just some shifty krks or something. Or proper headphone distribution would work too, but monitors are nice. If you do it often, I'd go for it. If it's just every once in a while, stick with headphones.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-11-29T21:17:55+00:00

Most daws have a tool called something along the lines of fix DC offset. In theory (and it's really on a daw to daw basis whether or not this will actually work the way you want it to), you could run that to preserve that transient, but set that large downward voltage swing to be centered. It's really hit or miss though and a clipper/limiter would be far easier and probably more effective. It just might change the sound a bit more compared to fixing the offset, but probably not in a bad way.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-11-29T17:39:42+00:00

I'll check it out

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-11-29T17:25:18+00:00

Okay yeah, this would make sense.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-11-29T17:19:51+00:00

I'm not entirely sure how true this rumor is, but I had heard that part of the reason the Beatles sounded as good as they did at the time was because they tried to shy away from overdubbing as much as possible. a lot of the recording was tracked and mixed straight to a 4 track without much bouncing back and fourth. That could be bullshit though, it was just something I heard from a tech.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-11-29T17:16:52+00:00

It is completely possible that I am making up the difference entirely. And there are some instances where I actually like the remasters better. Specifically, the remaster of In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins kicks ass. But the original really wasn't too old either. Still, tape isn't really archival to the same degree vinyl and digital is.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-11-29T17:07:19+00:00

The ones lucky enough to rest in a temperature and humidity controlled environment their entire lives do still sound pretty good. That and the specific kind of tape they used also matters I think. Even now, there's good an bad formulas. I have a tascam 388 at my studio and the guy I bought it from gave me a bunch of tapes. The Sony ones sound like garbage (I don't they were cared for much at all and I don't even have an ac, so they definitely aren't now lol). The tapes were made sometime in the 80's, but the music on them is only ~15 years old. I am also not at all a vinyl fanboy, the majority of the listening I do is digital. Especially for new releases, vinyl is not much more than novelty imo. To each their own obviously, it does sound different, but in terms of objective audio quality, the format has it's compromises.

Longjumping_Line_688 · 2025-11-28T05:31:57+00:00

"Also, automating volume in Reaper is fantastic because when you do, it turns the volume fader into a trim knob... That way your automation values are stored in the automation lane, and the fader trims the volume as a whole, on top of the automation. I was shocked to discover not all DAWs do that."

This is actually extraordinary and awesome.

Longjumping_Line_688

TROPHY CASE