Starting work on a new track is always excited. With the scratch track for It’s Not Happening done, we’re moving onto drums. As before, we’re taking things out of the apartment, and into room 8 in Astoria Soundworks.
Drums: rig run down
- ASUS Chromebook Flip C100PA
- Samson Studio GT monitors
- Beyerdynamic DT-100 headphones
- SE Electronics 2200a
- Pig Hog 10ft XLR cable
- The house drum kit in Practice Room 8 at Astoria Soundworks
- Vic Firth American Classic Extreme 5BN
Of course, all these odds and ends come together through Bandlab.
Recording: It’s Not Happening drums
Certainly, having done this before, I was a little bit more confident in setting thing up this time. As a result, I felt like my setup was quicker. Obviously, this meant that I had more time for hitting things!
As has been noted before, I’m not a drummer, so the more time I have, the better, because who know how many takes I’ll need.
With this in mind, I started the process by bouncing down the scratch track, exported it, then imported it to a new session in BandLab. Knowing Bandlab’s limitations, it seemed a wise course.
However, despite my swift setup, and optimizing how BandLab would work, there was another issue. Astoria Soundworks’ WiFi wasn’t behaving. I struggled to connect to it.
My phone seemed OK, so I set it up as a hotspot, and tethered my Chromebook to it. I wasn’t super-confident in it, but I didn’t have much choice.
It was more time fannying about with that than I would have like, but this is where we were at.
I did one take. Then I did more. I feel like I did maybe 20 takes, but I walked out of there with five.
Conclusion
In spite of all these takes, when I listened back to them all, I decided that the first take was actually the best one to work with!
I say “best one to work with,” because it wasn’t quite perfect, but a little editing made it OK to move forward with.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Cost: $10 for an hour… c’mon | Cost: you get what you pay for |
| Setup: I feel like I’m getting quicker – practice makes perfect? | WiFi: unfortunately, that was a faff |
To conclude, this is where we’re at going into recording bass.
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