Learn to record HEAVY DRUMS like the PROS!

hello everybody Christian Cola here today we're going to record some great sounding heavy metal drums [Music] I've come all the way here to a beautiful place called Rosewood where they have a mind-blowing collection of drum kits and especially snares but after all they also have a great looking and great sounding live room and they have a fantastic control room with a lot of outboard gear built around a nice large format analog console from audient that's going to be a lot of fun because you can be a part of the entire process of the whole sound check follow me inside welcome to Rosewood music such a wonderful and inspiring place look at this a lot of sexy gear let me give you an overview of what we're going to do today as I told you we're going to record heavy metal drums and you can be a part of the entire process so I'm going to talk about the drums we use I'm going to talk about the symbols I'm going to talk about the microphones I will show you how I place the microphones and we're going to record everything through this wonderful audient console I'm probably even gonna use the EQ on the way in that's what I usually do to make the signal sound a little more mixed ready now it's time to meet the man himself from Rosewood music let's say hello to Ed here we go and there he is hello Ed how you doing very well thank you what a great place no thank you very much it's really really cool lots of cool gear cool mics cool outboard great console tell us something about the studio um well I've been here about five years uh we built uh end of 2017 started operating from scratch yeah from scratch so it was just a big Warehouse so all infrastructure has gone in outer shell in a show all the upstairs floated floor um so it's nice to have a blank canvas I've had a great Studio company an acoustician that was um really good to work with trying to get what I wanted to do I wanted a place that's just Kick-Ass for drums hence the collection and also for my sort of fetish when it comes to Drums I have a bit of a problem as I like to say to my friends just just to just to clarify it's like how many how many snares do we have there's there's a upwards of 200 250 snares out there and there's about probably 60 70 kits and they're each of those are ranging from five shells in the Shell Bank up to 25 30 shells and then there's amps percussion keys and just yeah the list guys I've never heard of any studio uh worldwide with such a mind-blowing collection of drums so if that's what you want come here and we got this nice console here's the first time I work on an audience console always wanted to do that why did you choose it um I mean a few reasons I mean the the ASP 8024 is as a usability factor it's great it's someone's sort of gone let's make a professional working console but let's actually make it straightforward so you know Neves our Neves and are covered in thousands of buttons and they're they're great consoles but they're they're a lot of work to work out how it goes this this is It's structured really well it's laid out really great and it's been a pleasure to use it's just yeah it's things like you've got 12 auxes which is really great if you're sending it to you know multi-effects it's really good if you're sending fold back to different artists um and it's pretty idiot proof it is absolutely someone like me you know so I'm working with this for the first time and uh didn't take me long to understand the the layout yeah no it's late it's laid out really well and also I like what it looks like I love this the gray it's slightly retro and then and you know the wooden finish on the front is really good and it's nice yeah it's a it's a cool desk it's yeah there's a centerpiece of the control room we've got to try it very soon let's get started thank you cool so before we move on to the live room let me tell you this for me this is a real Adventure like I'm totally out of my comfort zone I've never worked in the studio I've never worked on this console haven't heard some of the microphones I've never worked with this drummer but this is what you got to do if you are a professional producer you got to be able to go to different places and make them sound great that's going to be fun that's going to be an adventure let's move on to the live room and let's see what Ed has prepared for us follow me [Music] so here we are in the live room and this is the drum kit we are about to record as you can see it's a pretty small pretty straightforward simple setup Kick Drum snare drum two Toms two crashes hired ride and a China but it's all we need to show you how to record drums um let's talk about the shell set first um Ed has prepared something what is this Kick Drum and toms this is uh Thomas Star Classic uh babinga so you know loud fast action word sounds really great you know Tom a bit of a household name when it comes to when it comes to metal emad on the bass drum so you get that you know click I've gone coated p4s Remo p4s I love the p4s they get you get a bit more of a dollar thud they have an inbuild ring right they do yeah so they're sort of there like semi-damped um I love the clears as well with these though you still get the click but you just get a bit more a bit more lower meat size interesting I'm not used to coated uh Tom hats but looking forward to to hearing them uh Tom sound great though in the room so far they sound fantastic something that people might not know is those evidence e-med heads you can add different types of muffling from the outside so it's a really versatile drum head so you can have either no muffling or I think two yeah they do like a narrow and a wide which actually just it slots into the Gap and yeah I mean it works a treat it's like a zero ring on a snare yeah right I usually just tune the bass drum by the way the kick drum just for that clicky metal sound so uh as low as possible that's how I usually do it just like hand tighten the the the screws because it's just not falling off right yeah because in metal you if it if it's too high especially for faster playing you don't really want to hear some kind of note you just want to have that low end and the click yeah and where you know especially people play double bass stuff then it just sounds like what about the symbols what do we have here uh so just a selection of sabian's uh hats and ride I'm using hhx legacies I mean I love the Legacy hats they just they work on everything the rides they I've got a couple of Legacy rides this one's a bit of a heavy set belt it's a 22 inch bit thicker it's got a ping but it's got a really nice bell sound and then crashes I've got a legacy 18 um it's sort of shimmery fast not too dark and goes really well with this this is an aax explosion fast crash I actually always find a metal and then a really nice Sabian Paragon China 19 inch it is crucial if you ask me it's crucial to choose the right right symbols especially to cut through in a in a metal mix and what's kind of ironic is the fact that's what I tell all drummers that if you are a metal drummer or a rock drummer and you play like loud and heavy stuff don't buy any crash symbols that are called metal or rock or power buy something thinner but they try to sell you those super thick symbols and tell you hey you gotta compete with a stack of Martial amps or something but the thing is they actually sound pretty terrible and they get really really loud and uh you don't actually want that because they're going to overpower your shells and the second reason for not getting really thick sounding um crashes despite the fact that they sound nasty and terrible is that you gotta hit them really really hard to make them crash because there's just more material so if you don't hit them really hard they're gonna gong and that's not what you want you want to have that cash and once again especially in metal and you play fast stuff you just don't have the power or don't have the time to hit things hard enough to make them to make them crash but even if you have the time and you hit them hard they're going to be super loud again so and that's not what you want so what we have here is a set of pretty thin or rather thin medium thin yeah that sounding crashes right you can bend them and one important thing is to match the of at least for me to match the crashes to the overhead mics I usually have like the main overhead mics right above the crashes one thing that you need to understand is that the thinner a crashed simple is or any symbol is the darker it will sound so these symbols here are quite a bit thinner than what I use and they sound darker than what I use I usually have a you typically use pies to Signature crashes which sound brighter but you can compensate that with a brighter sounding microphone so it's always a combination of how the symbols sound how bright they are and if they're darker use something brighter as the overheads or the other way around and that's Now we move on to the microphones is why we've chosen this pair of microphones that I've never used before um but I think those are one some of the most expensive currently available uh microphones you can buy and that's why I wanted to use them to be honest now those are the infamous Neumann m149 yeah um I think I've used them one on vocals and they started fantastic and usually as some people out there might know I'm more like a AKG um 441 guy or lately I've been using the Austrian OC 818 microphone as my go-to overhead mic sometimes I even use ribbons but then again that is because of the brighter sounding symbols and I'm pretty sure those microphones will sound a little brighter than than the akgs but right now you know that might be a good match I haven't heard it yet so we will see but we're also going to have a second pair of overheads just to you know to have another option and that will be something very different sounding you tell us a pair of ribbons pair of ribbons a secondary option uh I was going to put a pair up of samas which not many people know about their me included they're this is this little Boutique sort of Cottage Place um on the edge of the of Salt Lake City so these um what we're going to put up a model called a vl37 so they're passive ribbons they've got darkness and warmth but they've got this sort of like Hi-Fi Shimmer on the top of them let me just interrupt you for a second and I promise we'll be back in London in no time and I also promise that the sound of those drums and of those high-end microphones that we are about to use will blow your mind well the entire day at Rosewood music the entire recording session took way longer than what we can show here on YouTube so what you are about to watch is a 30 minute best of of that day if you want to see more there's a much longer version inside my Academy Cola audio called where you can see me talking about every single microphone where I show you how I position every single microphone and why I do that and you can see the entire sound check of every single mic and you can also download the multi-tracks and check out those drums for yourself if that sounds interesting check out the link below to call the audio called you can get the whole thing for 19 or you become a member of caller audio call and get all our courses that's all I wanted to say now back to London here we go foreign [Music] I've tuned the better head to 250 and the what's it called the resonant head quite a bit higher I like that combination so you get like the the punch that one and if you have the resonant head a little tighter it usually sounds a little more controlled and less ringy and we're using one of the most famous snare drums out there coming from Ludwig it's the Black Beauty a brass near 14 inch by six and a half I usually start the sound check with just pulling up the overheads because I want the overheads to give me let's say an overview of all the drums in favor of the symbols that's how I call it I want to have like the the main crashes a little louder but I also want the overheads to cover the shells and then I pull up the the clothes mics and especially on the other um on the other symbols I only I try to avoid any other mics as much as I can but most of the time you need them here and there so I'm just going to listen to the main crashes and then I'm going to see like okay the China is my maybe a little too quiet and then I add another mic and pull it up but I usually just have those additional symbol mics really low in the mix to yeah to give those those symbols a little more articulation articulation like a position also panning and something like that but they're not that important it's really more important to get your overheads right and then you just add a touch of those other microphones let's talk about the shells on the kick drum we got a pretty interesting combination of old school and new school so I requested the mic that is inside the kick now and that is an Audi xd6 which is just the industry standard for clicky sounding metal metal kick drums and it usually just sounds creative that's the sound you want don't use it for anything else it has like a very it's a very pre-equeed scoop kind of frequency response there's one thing and does one thing well exactly and outside we got some kind of u47 fat looking mic what is it there's a Neumann fat 47 are the new one yeah great I haven't used that yet but that's another classic right yeah absolutely they work really well and I just I love sort of getting a bit more space just to pick up a bit more of the Resonance of the bridge snare drum that's the only mic I brought you know this one no I don't I think they don't even make it anymore it's like my um one of my go-to snare drum microphones that always seems to work quite Snappy and modern sounding a fast sounding dynamic microphone from mic Tech and I don't even know what it's called it's called PM something we're gonna put a text here so uh we're just going to use that because I'm used to it and gonna see how it sounds and as a bottom snare mic we have an AKG c414 but not the buls version that I usually um use this is a tl2 or Excel XL2 so it's a slightly brighter sounding one let's talk room mics we got two pairs of room mic set up we got one pair of um 67s it's a brand new yes u67s remake from Neumann or the original that they just released again from Norman in a wide a b setup uh maybe whatever two meters and something high and then we have a pair of Bloom line ribbon microphones again from that company from from Sama from Summer Salt Lake City difference with these is they are actives they've got a really low noise floor with being active but they just sound great and yeah just putting bloom in front of drums just right it's funny because I I do the exact same thing I'm using an active pair as well the the I'm using lately I've been using the rode NTR or something like huge ribbon microphones my drum room is a little deeper and I have them as far away as possible and one thing that I do to make them sound darker and depending on how it sounds we could try that as well I usually have like a gobo in between the room mics and the drum kit just to make them sound a little darker and just get more of the so especially if you if you compress them hard later it's not going to sound edgy or something to just give you that yeah you know that that punch and that body but we will just start like this I think now we've covered all the microphones right so next thing is I will um yeah I will I will reposition the mics the way I use them and uh tell you how I do this so let's move on [Music] all right time to do the sound check here we go at all levels are already said and I want to start with the overheads because again the overheads are like the the backbone of your drum recording um and they give you a good overview and they're yeah the perfect track to start with as you remember we have got two pairs of overheads we got the Neumann M 149s and we got the Samar ribbons let's start with the neumans and have a listen [Music] and the ribbon mics [Music] back to the nine month [Music] all right that's very interesting they both sound good in a way and they do what we wanted from our overhead microphones you remember we wanted to have the snare in the middle we wanted to have the crashes on the left and the right and we wanted them to represent the whole drum kit in favor of the symbols and it really just sounds exactly like that [Music] even the kick is in the middle so I can hear the entire drum kit but I hear more of the symbols now those two pairs sound really really different the neumans the condenser microphones sound way more precise they sound also a lot closer because they have a cardioid pattern the ribbon mics sound they pick up more of the room and they sound a little more edgy they also have surprisingly many high frequencies for a ribbon microphone so they sound quite Airy and fresh for a ribbon mic but compared to the neumans there's they're kind of edgy and a little mid forward so let's compare them one more time Neumann precise and clear [Music] and the ribbons [Music] they sound a little more trashy I would call it trashy and of course they pick up a lot more room now which one do we prefer it depends on the music you want to record so if I was doing a vintage Rock album I think I would go for the ribbons here because they sound a little more vibey and a little more edgy and roomy and a little more complete Maybe thank you like in between room hikes and overhead mics but the neumans sound close so they are way more precise and since we're doing metal here we really want the overheads to be in your face and direct because our whole mix is going to be packed with guitars and a lot of other stuff so they're going to fight a lot of other tracks so the neumans are the right thing for what we do here and I forgot to say that because the the symbols aren't too bright sounding I think the frequency response of the neumans is pretty much perfect like if I had brighter sounding symbols I would go for darker sounding mics but this sounds good to my ears so that's it overheads I'm not gonna EQ anything here I'm not gonna do anything else those are the backbone and what we're going to do now is we're going to pull up the close mics we're going to start with the snare and see how that sounds with the overheads so overheads [Music] it's a snare [Music] he got the snare top mic and it seems like the snare tuning has gone down already so the snare sounds it sounds nice and Punchy but it seems to be a lot deeper already maybe one of the screws or lugs got loose I'll check that in a minute [Music] but I gotta say I think the the mic position works so we got a good balance between the punch of the head and the snap of the shell [Music] nice and fat maybe a little too deep but it doesn't sound bad next thing I want to do is and I will do that with all the clothes mics on the shelves I will pull up the overheads the neumans in this case and add the snare mic and I will check the phase on the snare mic and flip the face to see which one of the setting sounds better better means Fuller let's do that [Music] could you hear that difference when I flipped the phase the polarity to be precise on the main snare microphone things just sound fatter and Fuller and that is because the overhead mics and the snare mics have been out of phase basically because the sound needs some time to travel from you know the snare to the snare mic and longer to go to the overheads you always got to check that if you get it wrong you're always going to fight uh the the that mistake you know because things are going to sound thin and you will try to EQ this and it's much easier to just flip the flip the phase and make things sound better so um I'm going to repeat that process with pretty much all the clothes mics kicks in there and toms especially it's not so important on the additional symbol mics and also not that important on the room mics but you should still do it okay let's have a listen to overheads and snare next thing I'm gonna pull up is the lower the bottom snare mic [Music] okay foreign [Music] I'm not the biggest fan of bottom snare mics I usually still record one because it can give give you your snare a little more Sizzle a little more snap and but sometimes I use it in the mix sometimes I don't this time it actually sounds pretty nice [Music] let's mix it in slightly [Music] oh I don't have to check the polarity here the phase here because if I know that the upper snare mic is out of phase with the overheads that means the bottom snare mic will be in Phase with the overheads because those two are always opposite um sounds nice with the bottom snare mic Blended slightly next up is the kick drum let's listen to the kick drum solo [Music] nice and fat it could have a little more click a little more bite a little more top end if you ask me [Music] because you know a metal Kick Drum um usually sounds like I call it like a typewriter making love to a sub drop so you got a lot of high-end a lot of low end and a scoop mid-range the low end is nice here it could sound a little more clicky and either I can do that with the help of the EQ but the first thing I would like to try is to move the microphone a little closer a little more into the kick drum a little closer to the better head [Music] face check [Music] not that much of a difference but also sounds better when the phase is flipped [Music] maybe you want to do that now let's move let's see if we can move the kick drum mic a little bit more into the kick drum and why we do that I can also check the tuning of the snare because like I told you it felt like it it sounds already a lot deeper doesn't sound bad but I'm sure it's not 250 Hertz anymore it's something like 220 or something so let's see what we can do [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I've just tuned the snare again like that's a typical Ludwig Black Beauty problem to be honest they sound great but they don't hold the tuning very well so I guess every after every song more or less you've got to retune them so now it's back in the right unit 250 Hertz [Music] I also moved the audix D6 Kick Drum microphone a little more into the kick drum but it was only possible to get it in maybe four or five centimeters more so let's have a listen to the kick drum and see if that's enough and if not I will just add some EQ um to the main kick mic on the way in it's actually quite a bit better [Music] but it's fun to EQ it now watch me make it more metal [Music] foreign [Music] so let's listen to before and after [Music] so what I've done is this I've pretty much cranked all the highs uh added a touch of low end and also removed some of the kind of boxy sounding lower mid-range this is or upper Bays like around 150 so things sound a little more transparent clear have a lot more bite and have a lot more treble this sounds a lot more heavy metal let's listen to the kick drum in the mix foreign [Music] I'm very happy with that I'm very happy with that okay we're gonna move on with the Hyatt microphone [Music] okay and this one sounds rather dark you remember we're using a biodynamic m160 ribbon microphone on the high end I wasn't sure about that and I gotta say it's a little too dark for me because what we want from that mic is a little more precision and I want to keep it as quiet as possible and the more highs I have coming from the mic the less I need to push it and with a dark sounding mic like this I have to push it quite a lot [Music] to have an effect so I'm pretty sure we're going to replace this mic with a brighter selling condenser microphone typically small diaphragm condenser back in Germany I hope this was interesting I hope you could learn something if you feel like you could learn something please check out the link below to call our audio cult where you can get the entire course from Rosewood music the entire session and download the multi-tracks for just 19 or you become a member of cola audio called which is much smarter because the cool thing about that is that the day you sign up you will get all the courses we have ever released so you can get an Impulse response course with jensbogren or you can learn how to track drums with Bob Marlette or how learn how to master your tracks by with just using plugins with irmin hamideovic and so much more a lot of basic courses coming from me you can download multi-tracks and mix different songs from Stoner Rock to extreme death metal and you can become a part of a great Community that's Cola audio called you just have to sign up for three months and uh yeah a whole world a whole wonderful learning experience will open up in front of your eyes and ears or you just get like the the the Rosewood session uh which is also also cool right I think there's a lot to learn about uh miking drums in this course that's all for today check out the studio check out uh Rosewood music if you ever think about recording drums somewhere in London and want to have like a kick-ass professional session please book that studio and I'm gonna add links to all the microphones used so just in case you want to buy a pair of the new Neumann u67s for 14 000 or something there's a link below and um also check out the wonderful audience console I'll put a link to their 16 Channel version which is so sexy I really want to console like it's like the perfect drum recording front end a 16 channel console like really really cool and really nice looking like the the little brother or sister of the console I worked on in London okay that's all for today don't forget to subscribe to this channel uh don't forget to ring the bell again check out my Academy check out the studio check out audient uh and have a lot of fun I see you in hell thanks for watching bye bye foreign [Music] foreign

Channel: Kohle Audio Kult

Views: 9,467

Keywords: drums, drum session, metal drums, rock drums, ludwig drums, analog console, neuman u67, neumann m149, kristian kohle, kohle audio kult, rosewood music, audient, audient console, recording drums, recording studio, high end mics, drum microphones

Id: RY98ykMCeXE

Length: 34min 44sec (2084 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 19 2023