When it comes to getting a great drum sound in the studio, fail to prepare and you’d better be prepared to fail, as they say. Here are some pointers to get you on the right percussive track before hitting that red button.
Make sure the kit is fit for purpose
A drum kit is a physically complicated piece of equipment, bristling with potential sources of rattles and squeaks that can tarnish an otherwise pristine recording, from the lugs and tension rods on the drums themselves to the springs and chains on the kick drum and hi-hat pedals. Although your drummer should be well aware of this and have already taken the necessary maintenance steps to resolve any such issues before the session, it’s always a good idea to just hit every drum and operate each pedal in isolation to check for untoward noises, and tighten up whatever is required to fix them if any are detected.
Rattling from the snares on the snare drum in sympathy with the toms is almost inevitable, and the only solution is to either ditch the toms or dial down the snare channels at the mixing stage with automation. Honestly, though, although snare rattle can sound problematic when auditioning the drums on their own, it’s rarely an issue in the mix – in fact, it can actually make a positive contribution to the energy of the kit.
Focus on the kick and snare
For most musical situations, the three key elements of the drum kit are the kick drum, the snare drum and the hi-hats, and the majority of your drum kit preparation time should be spent on getting the first two of those sounding at their best in the context of the track. (There’s nothing you can do to change the sound of the hats, of course, apart from swapping them for a different pair.)
For the kick drum, leaving the front head on will yield a bouncier, more resonant sound, while taking it off will dramatically reduce sustain and enable you to place a second microphone inside the shell (the first being outside, pointed at the batter head) in order to capture the full ‘thwack’ and body of the drum. If you feel the need to damp the kick, don’t go overboard with it: a cushion resting gently against both heads (or just the one if you’ve removed the front) should be all that’s required to kill unwanted overtones.
On to the snare drum, and while the bottom (snare) head should generally be wound up to fairly high tension, the tuning of the top (batter) head is far more variable, defining the flavour and mood of the backbeat, which in turn contributes significantly to the styling of the mix as a whole. If a fat, full-bodied snare is called for, for example, tune it low; and when crack, cut and clarity in the ghost notes is called for, crank it up. Damping the snare is almost always beneficial, too, as the ringing overtones generated by its tighter heads and shallower shell be particularly unhelpful. A strip or two of gaffer tape is often enough, but if you need more flexibility, get yourself some MoonGel.
Get the drums in tune
Tuning drums is a very personal thing, and perhaps the best advice we can give in this area is to let your drummer take care of it, as they’ll know what kind of tuning best suits their playing style. When you are forced to get busy with the tuning key yourself, however, there are some general principles worth bearing in mind.
First of all, every drum shall has a natural resonant frequency, and it stands to reason that tuning the heads to that pitch will draw out the full tonality of the instrument. This isn’t by any means essential to getting a good drum sound (indeed, those particular frequencies might sit at odds with each other from drum to drum, or even clash with the key of the track), but it can work well as a starting point for further tuning. To hear the resonant frequency of a shell, simply take the heads off and tap it lightly.
Second, no matter how high or low a drum head is tuned, it should always be evenly tensioned, and a good way to assess this is to apply pressure to the centre of the head with one hand and gently tap around the edge of the head next to each tension rod. If the pitch varies at any point, loosen or tighten the nearest rod to bring it into line with the others.
Thirdly, being more melodic in nature than the kick and snare, the toms should be tuned to work together as a pitched set: an interval of five semitones between each tom and its nearest neighbour, size-wise, always works well. Also, to coax a bit of downward pitchbend out of a tom (albeit flying in the face of the previous ‘even tension’ stipulation!), try slightly loosening one tension rod on the batter head.
Microphones: work with what you’ve got
Once you’ve got your kit set up and tuned to perfection, the only things standing between you and that, er, ‘Best Drum Sound’ Grammy are the number and quality of the microphones available to you, which, for the average home studio recordist, will be ‘average’ and ‘few’ at best. Don’t worry, though, as amazing drum sounds have been produced using the most modest mic arrays, and you really can get great results with nothing more than a pair of overheads – or even a single mic suspended over the kit, a la Led Zep’s ‘When The Levee Breaks’. Experiment with positioning and distancing, and use damping on the drums (see above) and acoustic treatment in the room (even if just blankets and cushions) to shape the sound of the kit and space.
If, on the other hand, you’re able to get your hands on a full set of pro-quality drum mics, you’ll be able to dive into the details with spot mics on the kick, snare and toms, as well as overheads and perhaps even ambients. Don’t just throw them all up for the sake of it, though: if the track calls for a raw, edgy vibe in the drums department, rather than a pristine, polished sound, it might actually be better and more efficiently delivered with a smaller, simpler microphone setup.
Finally, with any multi-mic setup, always be on the listen-out for phase issues – if your dual-miked kick or snare sounds strangely ‘hollow’ or lacking in weight, simply flip the phase invert button on either of the channels involved to fix it.
Do you have any drum kit prep or tuning tips to share? Shout ’em out in the comments.