What's your favorite drum sound(s) on record?

[benleb]

9. U2 - Achtung Baby

????? I'm not sure I get this... Since "The Joshua Tree", U2 has IMHO one of the worst drum sound around.

I understand that U2's albums are well-produced and sound, as a whole, very good, but I think that as a drummer point of view, the drum is buried in the mix. As an example, where's the hi-hat? Just listen to "Elevation" on ATYCLB and then, check out the Tom Raider Mix of that song, and boom, the drums are more in the front.

[waymag]

 Rollo by Helmet (John Stanier)is my favorite. I like just about anything from Helmet.
Also I must say Sailing The Seas of Cheese by Primus is exellent too. Everyone seems to have exellent choices

[Critter29]

????? I'm not sure I get this... Since "The Joshua Tree", U2 has IMHO one of the worst drum sound around.


I listed Achtung Baby because I love the fact that the overall record and drum sounds particularly have an industrial feel & sound to them.  For example, tracks like Zoo Station and Cruel. Go back and re-listen to them. U2 was doing sampling and looping before it was envogue for most rock bands. And just for the record - The Joshua Tree is one of the best sounding albums ever made. Nevermind the drum sounds - the songs kickA$$.  ;)

[bennyleb]

Hey Critter29!

I agree with you on U2 being kind of a "avant-garde" band as far as the sampling and looping is concerned. Also, like you, I also think that U2's overall sound is great and totally serve the songs, thanks to the Lanois & Eno duo...

What I was surprised about your "vote" for Achtung Baby was on the drum sound, which I think doesn't have enough power to it.

I play in a U2 tribute band and I had to study the drum parts very carefully and, for a lot of songs, I had to find a live version of the song to figure out what the hell Larry was playing. For example, on the studio version of In God's Country, it's very difficult to hear what he plays on his HiHat, and, to my ears, that's not a very good clean drum sound.

The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby are indeed, great albums with great songs that are very enjoyable to listen to. The drum is also very good, but I would love to hear these songs with the drums having more presence, that's all! Of course, we could have discussions on what the term "presence" means for each of us...

[Daddy0]

Hey Scream187, don't dis yourself! I'm an old dude (well, not as old as pdangelo, but who is?) but I went and saw Korn a few months ago and thought that they had excellent sounding drums.
Soon after that, I saw Tool and was equally impressed! Remember, we're not comparing style, talent, etc. here, just sound, so I would be hard-pressed to pick the better of the two -- they both were supurb.
Another great sounding set is on Creed's Human Clay CD -- Overproduced, perhaps, but man that is a great sound!

[Pops]

Way too many to consider at this time of the morning, but these guys jump up....

Chris "Whipper" Layton on "ArcAngels"
Ian Paice on "Burn"or "Live in  Japan"
...and oddly enough...Skip Prokop on "One Fine Morning"

..and a garland of Martian Fire flowers to you if you can name the drum corps that Skip played with in Trawna when he was a kid.

cheers, Pops.

[Paul DAngelo]

I'm an old dude (well, not as old as pdangelo, but who is?)

Hey!  I'll have you know I'm on a youth serum, I just took this picture yesterday.

http://members.cox.net/pdrums/pdrums_child.html]http://members.cox.net/pdrums/pdrums_child.html

[Critter29]

Ben -

I agree with you about the drum sounds on In God's Country. There's an awful amount of tape hiss on that track more so than the rest of Joshua Tree album. Not sure why....

Anyway, yeah, I just love the industrial/metallic sound of the drums on Achtung Baby. Some of the snare drum sounds are amazing. They have this sort of "droning" effect to them with a $!itload of reverb or something...very cool stuff but, strange indeed. My favorite track for drums sounds would be Cruel. The bass drum is huge on that recording. It sounds like your standing right in front of it cause you can hear the front head vibrations that sound sort of wrinkly. I love those kinds of things that add character to a record. Also, there's this loop or delay thing going on with the snare drum. All of that put together just makes that song groove it's @ss off. Just my opinion of course. :) I'm such a U2 fanatic so maybe I'm not offering up an objective opinion.  :)

Very cool that you play in a U2 tribute band! ;) That must be alot of fun getting to play all those great songs and a huge challenge to get them to sound accurately production wise. :)

[Tkitna]

Speaking of chris layton, I was at my buddies lastnight and he threw on the 83' Stevie Ray Vaughn concert that he has on vhs. He was fun to watch.

[benleb]

Very cool that you play in a U2 tribute band! ;) That must be alot of fun getting to play all those great songs and a huge challenge to get them to sound accurately production wise. :)

I try to stay as close to the original drumming and, since my stye is very close to LMJ's, it is easy for me to stay true to the original drumming. I however allow myself to add my own "touch" whenever I feel like it. Live, I use one of my three snare (13x3,5brass/14x4brass/14,5x5,5maple+basswood) depending on the venue we play.

Check out or website www.joshua2.net for pictures and three U2 covers we did.

[Nono]

- Billy Hart in H.Hancock sextet "Crossings".
- Christian Vander in Magma's "Mekanik Destruktiv Kommando".
- Mitch Mitchell in "Axis bold as love".
- Keith Moon in "I can see for miles".

Nono.

[Nono]

...SORRY !

... I forgot Ginger Baker in "Fresh cream"!!!

Nono.

[James Walker]

Peter Erskine - "Green Chimneys" (Andy Summers), "Steps Ahead" (Steps Ahead)
Jack DeJohnette - "Still Live" (Keith Jarrett)
Stewart Copeland - "Synchronicity" (Police)
Steve Smith - "NYC" (Steps Ahead)
Bill Bruford - "Footloose And Fancy Free" (Earthworks)
Dennis Chambers - "Is What It Is" (Mike Stern)

Honorable mention to Danny Gottlieb - "Travels" (Pat Metheny Group) - love the cymbals, but not crazy about the drum sound...

[Paul DAngelo]

...SORRY !

... I forgot Ginger Baker in "Fresh cream"!!!

Nono.

Ah Nono.  You are now closer to my heart, a Ginger Baker fan!  When I was in high school, I actually learned all of Toad off of "Wheels of Fire".

[Steve_LeBlanc]

Another great sounding set is on Creed's Human Clay CD -- Overproduced, perhaps, but man that is a great sound!

no it isn't  ;)

[benleb]

John Bonham was mentionned in a previous post but I must point out his drum sound on "Stairway to Heaven". Everything, as a whole and individually, sounds great: the snare, the kick, the ride... wow! I never get tired of hearing that song.

[jamava]

I'm not sure this qualifies but I recently took out this cd from the library:    
   

   Heart of the Forest   Baka Pygmies

What is really interesting is that the tribe uses the river as a drum and they beat out rhythm patterns while bathing in the morning.  It is one of the neatest things I've ever heard.  

[dthree]

Hey, great thread.

I totally forgot about that Sugarcubes album until it was mentioned here, that was a good one.

I have a few, some songs, some albums:

Phil Collins: "I don't care any more"
Kit Walker: "Fire in the Lake" (Smith, woot!)
Any Soul Coughing. I know he stole that snare sound, but from who?
Any Tori Amos, late 90's to present.
Paul Simon: "50 Ways..."
Blue Man Group: Audio (how can 5 drummers sound bad?)
Peter Gabriel: the ensemble stuff on "Security"

And with Rush, I was a big fan of the Moving Pictures/Exit Stage Left/Signals sound, but I never found a sound I liked after that. Now the Test for Echo/Vapor Trails sound is really growing on me.

I'm sure Im forgetting a bunch of good ones, too.

d3 `-{>

[Thrak]

I'm not sure this qualifies but I recently took out this cd from the library:    
   

   Heart of the Forest   Baka Pygmies

What is really interesting is that the tribe uses the river as a drum and they beat out rhythm patterns while bathing in the morning.  It is one of the neatest things I've ever heard.  

aaahhhh..... memories of Rainbow Gatherings...... river drumming is definitely very cool to experience first hand.

ahem... I mean...  One of my favorite drum sounds on record has got to be:
Terry Bozzio on Bozzio Levin Stevens first release Black Light Syndrome.

Thrak

[jamava]

aaahhhh..... memories of Rainbow Gatherings...... river drumming is definitely very cool to experience first hand.

Thrak, did you mean that literally?  If so...please tell, sounds like a fascinating story.
If it was tongue in cheek....I don't get it....what is a Rainbow Gathering??
Well, either way...what is a Rainbow Gathering?  :)