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[C.Cash]

Pros and cons???

My room is small, however I have lots of acoustic treatment including bass traps in all the corners and 2'x 4' x 4" acoustic panels every 16" on the walls. The ceiling is completely covered in 4" auralex foam. The floor is wood with a couple rugs. I also have Leonard bass traps along the bottom of most of the wall space so my room sounds tight but kinda dead. I was told for a small room its better to sound dead then to sound bad.
  So far my drums are set up on a platform (auralex)in the corner, just far enough off the wall to fit mic stands. I have had good luck recording so far but was wondering what your thoughts were on this?

Thanks.

[Thomas Jouanjean]

It's a question of taste... And how your room sounds.

Some engineers like a big wood plank at an angle righ behind the drummer's throne. Some like them surrounded by gobos. Some in small live rooms. Or big. Or in very dead room...

No rules really...

[jetbase]

C.Cash wrote on Mon, 22 December 2008 10:51

I was told for a small room its better to sound dead then to sound bad.

That should be "it's better to sound dead & good than to sound live & bad" (or vice versa). If you look at it that way you might find that whether the room is live or dead sounding it may require the same type of treatment either way, just in varying degrees.

I don't know about having drums in the corner, but I do tend to like having drums near a wall. In the rooms I've worked in they seem to sound fuller that way.

[rankus]

Clifford, what I do when sussing out drums in a room is to walk around with the floor tom hitting it and just feel how the room and drum react to each other... (Floor tom because it has both low and high harmonics.) Place the Flr Tom where it sounds the best and build the kit around it.

Corners ten to reinforce the low end... great if you want fat drum sounds.

PS:  My room is pretty small and I ended up adding treatments a bit at a time trying to keep it as lively as possible... I ended up with about 30% of the total surface area covered with acoustic materials of one type or another.... Fairly dead to be sure.

Try leaving a door open and put a mic out in the living room or hallway to get a "big room" sound...

[Tomas Danko]

rankus wrote on Tue, 23 December 2008 01:31

Clifford, what I do when sussing out drums in a room is to walk around with the floor tom hitting it and just feel how the room and drum react to each other... (Floor tom because it has both low and high harmonics.) Place the Flr Tom where it sounds the best and build the kit around it.

This will work, as long as your producer repeatedly shouts "That's not it!" for a couple of days as you do this. Beware of bullets, as well.

[C.Cash]

Across from the door leading into my studio is a bathroom with tiled floor and walls. I ran a mic into the bathroom and left the door open, really nice huge effect, gave the snare a very slight slap delay.

[rankus]

C.Cash wrote on Tue, 23 December 2008 04:07

Across from the door leading into my studio is a bathroom with tiled floor and walls. I ran a mic into the bathroom and left the door open, really nice huge effect, gave the snare a very slight slap delay.

Now we're talkin!

My co-engineer likes to smash the crap out of that mic with an 1176 on "nuke"... interesting effect as well.. but I prefer mine untreated.  (Good to try playing around with that track a little)

I also usually put a couple of LDC room mics quite close to the kit.. say about 3 feet back and facing the drums. Waste height. Equidistant from the kick and both facing the snare.

Between the tight (acoustically) short room mics and the "hall" mic I can get a pretty decent "big" drum sound.

[Senad]

rankus wrote on Mon, 22 December 2008 19:31

Clifford, what I do when sussing out drums in a room is to walk around with the floor tom hitting it and just feel how the room and drum react to each other... (Floor tom because it has both low and high harmonics.) Place the Flr Tom where it sounds the best and build the kit around it.

Yeah,..just been reading about this exact technique in Stav's book...Have you read it?? Nice read..

[rankus]

Senad wrote on Thu, 01 January 2009 02:41

rankus wrote on Mon, 22 December 2008 19:31 Clifford, what I do when sussing out drums in a room is to walk around with the floor tom hitting it and just feel how the room and drum react to each other... (Floor tom because it has both low and high harmonics.) Place the Flr Tom where it sounds the best and build the kit around it. Yeah,..just been reading about this exact technique in Stav's book...Have you read it?? Nice read..

Yes, this was about the only technique that I gleaned from that book.  I thought it was grossly overpriced and under delivered on all counts.  (I would not be complaining if the book was $25 as it should be)

[Ian Visible]

You should write a book.

[rankus]

Ian Visible wrote on Tue, 06 January 2009 05:13

You should write a book.

Touche!

[Ian Visible]

Couldn't resist!