A matter of time.

As Tom posted below we wrapped up the lion's share of the work on "Feed My Tragedy" on Sunday. Seeing as I am quite pleased with the sounds that we got with the drums, I feel that a gear chat is in order.

The centerpiece of the "Tragikit" is an old 1960s-era 26" x 12" Ludwig marching bass drum. When Tom and I were initially getting sounds on it last week the drum sounded very distant despite the AKG D112 that was placed 2" off the front head with no hole. It thumped like a cannon, but it was more of a tidal wave of sound than a bass drum. No definition whatsoever. My solution? I placed out of my son's t-shirts between the batter head and the bass pedal and propped a towel against the bottom 2" of the resonant head. To top it all off, I put a chair about 3" in front of the drum and draped a quilt over it. This served to really improve the drum's focus and presence in the mix.

The snare drum is also a bit on the unexpected side as it is a 10" x 5" Tama stainless steel soprano snare mic'ed with a Shure SM57. The proximity boost from the '57 really helped this drum in a big way. It just doesn't sound it's size at all.

The cymbals for the "Tragikit" were as follows (from my left to right): 12" Zildjian Soundlab prototype hihats, 18" Zildjian A Custom crash, 8" Argent import cheapo splash, 21" Sabian HHX Groove ride, and a 16" Zildjian A Custom crash. I was originally using the Groove ride as a crash and a Sabian 20" Jack DeJohnette flat ride as a ride (duh), but I thought about it and decided on the setup above. They were mic'ed by Tom's lone AKG condenser mic' set to an omnicartoid pattern. All of this was fend into the ginormous Behringer board and then into the trusty Yamaha AW4416. No outboard processing, no EQ, no effects. What you hear is what was in the room. I shudder to think what we could accomplish with a few channels of solid quality pre-amps.

The part itself is a mere shadow of it's prototype. No drum solo, one drum fill, and a marked omission of the Johnny Rabb-esque techno tricks (like I can even do half the ideas he has forgotten). The result? A fine piece of percussive music that serves to anchor the ship in the maelstrom that is Scot's overdriven fretless bass. If one were to listen only to the drums and the bass loop underneath the vocals, bass, and guitars, it is a solid foundation on which my bandmates built sonic niftiness.

Until next time!