With the scratch track out of the way, it’s time to start properly building this song up. You don’t have to be a professional musician or producer to know that drums are a song’s heartbeat, its foundation, and lots of other metaphors.
I do not have a drum kit in the apartment. That would be ridiculous. I could get away with an electronic drum kit. But, despite the leaps and bounds in how they sound, I don’t like them, and don’t like the feel of them.
So, in the interest of neighbors and sound, I’ve taken to the streets. By this, I mean that I’m at a rehearsal studio so I can shove a mic on a drum kit and give it a good leathering. I’m at practice room 8 in Astoria Soundworks. There’s a bit to say about that, but I think that’s a review for another day.
Remember when I said one of the key aspects of light audio recording is that it should be compact? Portability for circumstances such as this is tied into that.
Drums: rig run down
- ASUS Chromebook Flip C100PA
- Samson Studio GT monitors
- Beyerdynamic DT-100 headphones
- SE Electronics 2200a
- Unbranded XLR cable
- The house drum kit in Practice Room 8 at Astoria Soundworks
- Vic Firth American Classic Extreme 5BN
As with the scratch track, this BandLab is doing the working on this. One of the key reasons I got my particular Chromebook is because it’s compact, so I’m delighted to make use of that aspect, and get it out and about.
Preparation
Another key aspect of light audio recording is keeping costs down. To this end, I only wanted to book the rehearsal room for one hour.
I’m not a drummer, and I don’t own a drumkit, so working out what to play, as well as recording it in an hour is cutting it pretty fine. I didn’t want to go in completely unprepared though. There was an idea in my head, but I needed to align it with the song in some way.
I played around with drum apps on my phone in the past, and downloaded the best rated one. It’s called Real Drum, by Kolb Apps.
I won’t say I’m ready to record with such a thing, but it helped flesh out the ideas in my head. However, with practice, and maybe some multitracking, I’m sure I could do something with it in the future, just for lols.
The other thing I looked into recording drums with a single microphone. I always used about eight microphones.
Hey YouTube! Show me what you got!
I opted to go with the guidance in this video, for no reason other than they use the same type of mic I own.
On top of all this, I didn’t even own a pair of drumsticks. I hadn’t played drums in a few years, and I couldn’t even remember what kind I liked. All I remembered if that I liked a nylon tipped Vic Firth pair I once had.
I took a stroll to a local music store and played with a few different sizes. the ones I felt the most were these American Classic Extreme 5BN set.
Picking up a tuning key, I felt I was ready to hit things.
Recording drums
The first step in recording this was bringing my stuff to the practice room.
And with that, there was nothing to do but take a level, and record some drums.
Conclusion
In summary, I’m happy enough with how the drums turned out to continue with what I’m doing.
I’m most reflective of the single mic recording. I was surprised by how much of each part of the kit was picked up: some duplication, EQ, and some other tweaking and poking later on when I’m mixing, and it might not sound awful, which is really all I’m aiming for.
| Pros | Cons |
| BandLab: it really was very convenient; no major loading – literally just went to a website | BandLab: I also won’t pretend it didn’t annoy me occassionally – I’m happy to suggest that might be because I’m still figuring it out! |
| Astoria Soundworks: especially practice room 8; I’ll certainly be back there; all their rooms have Wi-Fi, which is pretty integral to the nature of this endeavor | No drummer: it took me a few takes, and it still wasn’t perfect; an actual drummer would’ve nailed it in one take |
| Single mic: it worked, it really worked!; this is something I’ll be comfortable doing in future | My audio interface: it absolutely did the job, but I didn’t really need the monitor, so something like Bandlab’s Link Analog or an iRig might have been better |
To conclude, here’s where I’m at to build on for recording bass, where I will not reference a song with the word bass.
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