Drums done!

Well, actually they were done three days ago, but I've been so damn busy that I've had no time to write about the recording.

Saturday we took our time checking the sounds and everything flowed pretty smoothly. First we tuned the drums (except the kick, which we stuffed full of pillows n' shit because I'll replace it 100%) and got pretty easily good sounds out of them. Mamu is a rare drummer actually being able to tune his kit, so I was fortunate! (I don't have a clue about tuning a drumkit, tho I should learn, it being one of the most important things about drum recording..)

First we sampled the drums, which included the snare, high tom and floor tom. Tuning was pretty low to fit them in the mix since the band plays in drop-A or standard B, if I recall correctly. During sampling I used Audix D6 for both toms and 57 on top and i5 on bottom of the snare. Samples also included the overheads, which were Rode NT5's and room mics in ORTF-position, which were Rode NT1-A's.

During the actual recording, I had the following setup:

Kick: diy-trigger (thanks to Hannu)
Snare top: Shure sm57
Snare bottom: Audix i5
High tom: Audix D4
Floor tom: Audix D6
Overheads: Rode NT5
Stereoroom, ORTF: Rode NT1-A
Room: Behringer ECM8000

All going through the Motu 896HD, except the kick trigger and the behringer room mic, which went through behringer adat.

Then we began to record, and got about 1/3 of the song done as we called the day and drove to summer cottage ashore to spend the night. Ah...


Next day in surprisingly good shape considering last night we started recording the rest of the song.














We got it down pretty easily, Mamu being a solid drummer.




























Now I'll edit the drums to the perfection and back and then it's time to record some guitar wanking!

Let's see...

..if I'll ever write here more than this first post.. Laziness is a pretty strong habit for me!

That being said, I've always loved reading studio diaries and all the possible stuff relating to ventures around making music. So, as a somewhat beginner recording and mixing engineer I thought it would be fun to document some of those recordings I make. If not for anything else, then just as sake of therapy so I can open up about the horrible and frustrating things happened during the recording process. ;D

Tomorrow we are going to start recordings of my friends metalband's promo-song, which we have decided to do very meticulously. We have reserved 2-3 days for drums, so for the first time I will actually have the time to test various mic placements, tune drums and play with room mics, for example, without no hurry. We have loaned a vintage Premier kit, which is very old but fairly good sounding, so I'm pretty confident about this session!