DRUMMER CAFE

You know what I have noticed about studio drumming...at least on alot of the records I have recently purchases is that it is over produced.  It sucks, it's boring, it's perfect and mediocre in one brilliant episode.

Stuff now sounds very machine like and perfect...no keith moon or john bonham performances.  But, I'm sure there is lots of indie jazz/stuff out there that is spontaneous as well.

What I try to do is get the best of both worlds (YEAH RIGHT!!)...play clean, measured, precise but try to maintain some human feel, some improvised fills/a little shading is nice also.  It's tough.  

Actually for live work I used to go apesh*t when I would play.  Now I'm trying to really settle down and get this robotic, steamrolling, power thing happening.  When it's time for a fill- BAM...then I'm right back to the deadeye thing. So really I'm trying to bring the best of both worlds together.  YMMV

I guess the biggest difference for me is I'm more creative live, while recording I try to stay true to the chart, I concentrate more in the studio, not that I don't while I'm playing live but I'm trying to do the tracks in as little time as possible, while playing live I will experiment more with a song I already know, so that I don't sound the same everytime I play it.

Put cloth over all your drums, raise your cymbals to an abnormal height and practice playing like a robot while hitting everything as hard as you can.  That will get you ready for the studio.

Raising the cymbals will provide better sound separation.  The cloth on the drums will prepare you for the ultra-damped sound every hack engineer wants. The harder you hit, the clearer the signal.  Don't waste time on dynamics because the gates and compressors will wipe them out anyway. Pretending to be a robot will prepare you for how you'll be treated in the studio.

And be prepared for the end product to be so edited it doesn't sound like your playing at all.  That is, if your tracks haven't been replaced entirely.

Interesting that there have been a few comments about dynamics, because this is one of the things I've been wondering about. I notice on a lot of mid-budget recordings, there's just no dynamics happening. Sometimes I can hear it in the processing or editing, but most of the time it seems that the drummer is intentionally trying not to be expressive. There are a lot of dull performances out there, I.e. not a lot of "feel" to them. Is that intentional? I tend to be expressive (but always in control, of course) when I play, in order to get some emotion in it, but is this the exception in the studio? Maybe flat playing is the norm.

I wonder if it's the difference between a studio dude and a band in the studio. The studio dude is there to get his paycheck, whereas the band has experienced all the struggle and been close to the development of the music. Maybe the difference lies there.

steve albini has the right idea about studio work.  it should be about capturing the band as they sound.  peroid.  with protools things do get to tidy, but I also think that a generation of drummers have grown up now listening to quantized tracks and thats whats natural to them.  and so they have that "tightness" inherant in thier playing.

as an engineer, I can say make sure your kit sounds good before you come in.  thats enough.   there are also some gear differences.  with live work, you want to project to the audience.  in the studio you dont need that.  and youd be suprised what works in the studio that wouldnt work live, so be open to suggestions.

as a drummer,  I dont do too much different.  I experiment less, because if im trying something new and different, ill inevitably mess it up  but other than that, I have developed techniques and a taste for gear that represents my sound.  and I just bring that to the table.  with a lot of gear, because you never know what youll want ... oooo, we need a frame drum part on that chorus! ... oooo, we need 12" hats for that intro! ... again, im open to suggestions.

if youre doing gun for hire studio work, it seems to me that youd be pretty much at the whim of the producer.  youre working for them like the grill master is working for mcdonalds.  you want to make your own burger? go home and make it.  hopefully though, youve been hired because the producer likes you.  matt chamberlain is a great example.  he gets hired because the producers want matt chamberlain.  but since all the work ive done have been my projects ive never had much in the way of producer conflict.

Do you remember specifically how he tuned to the piano?

He just used the lower register, I think my 14" tom was close to a G and then the 16" tom he went down, I believe it was to E (the third) and then C on the 18" floor tom. We just played with the tom sounds to get them close to that triad. It went something like that.
It wasn't perfect, but you really could here the tone of the drums and when we played the 14,16, and 18" tome in a pattern there was a definate nice tonal quality to it.

Also I remember he found the closet tone to the natural sound of the drum. I hope that makes sense.

Thanks, 563.  That's about what I had in mind.  I'll have to give it a try, next time.  The first time I went into a studio was the last time I went in without click tracks.  I use a little Yamaha drum machine and program the clicks so they sound more like accompanying percussion.  My stuff is all pretty basic, so that works well.

I was kinda hoping Bart, or some of the other guys who regularly work in the studio with producers, might chime in on this thread.

not to take away from anything said so far...

I was too ... since ive mainly worked with engineers and not producers.