Man. Serious? I steer clear of anything than isin't a direct project (ie> band member is also engineer / tapeop/ or playing on record).... so maybe that isin't the most accuate statement of quality, but I do think that Herndorn, Albini, McEntire, Weston are way less adventurous when it comes to recording thier own projects... which is when thier recordings are at thier best... what i consider to be really propper recordings.
Man. Serious? I steer clear of anything than isin't a direct project (ie> band member is also engineer / tapeop/ or playing on record).... so maybe that isin't the most accuate statement of quality, but I do think that Herndorn, Albini, McEntire, Weston are way less adventurous when it comes to recording thier own projects... which is when thier recordings are at thier best... what i consider to be really propper recordings.
mic-->shortest signal path --->tape.
But really... I smoke too much weed.
i think it has more to do with finding ALL their records regardless of project to be super freaking boring... I havent dug a Weston production since Polvo's "For Today's Active Lifestyle"
i dont really consider anything these dudes have recorded to be adventurous.. they all seem more preocupied with $2000 ribbon mics and custom made mic pres than actually making sure the songs on the record are anygood.
Man. Serious? I steer clear of anything than isin't a direct project (ie> band member is also engineer / tapeop/ or playing on record).... so maybe that isin't the most accuate statement of quality, but I do think that Herndorn, Albini, McEntire, Weston are way less adventurous when it comes to recording thier own projects... which is when thier recordings are at thier best... what i consider to be really propper recordings.
mic-->shortest signal path --->tape.
But really... I smoke too much weed.
i think it has more to do with finding ALL their records regardless of project to be super freaking boring... I havent dug a Weston production since Polvo's "For Today's Active Lifestyle"
i dont really consider anything these dudes have recorded to be adventurous.. they all seem more preocupied with $2000 ribbon mics and custom made mic pres than actually making sure the songs on the record are anygood.
Heh...
The thing is, these guys aren't aren't writing the bulk of the songs they produce, right? I think there is a line to be distinguished between the stuff that they do as a studio... hired gunning for a vast majority of records trying to sound like projects already completed by said producers... (who, in many cases are far more talented and better at songwriting than the bands that they record for money).
In any instance... Maybe I should qualify my statement a bit... in thinking about it, most of the chicago recorded records that I am into strictly as recordings... (the rachaels... the six finger records.... the polvos... achers of loaf... ect) are records that are 5-10 years old, so aside from the most known exceptions, for and for references to this recording genre (Trts, Shellac, etc..) I guess I have my head up my ass in lumping them all together as one era of recording...
Anyways, those same records are the ones I still like / check for / buy when I see them, and I think, for the most part that people involved in some sampler-drum-type music aren't trying to make records that have this shit as reference points anyway... so it comes down to three nerds on a messagebaord talking about some shit that other people could give a shit about.... Haha.
the amount of time you'd put into organising your drum hits.. why not get a snare and some hats and record the hits when you do the track???
you dont think drums you record yourself are by definition MORE unique than a break that's already been chopped / sliced / looped ?
man i wish i could get psyched about those cats... but with the addition of Jim Orourke I think they've been responsible for alot of the worst trends in production in the last ten years.
i think it has more to do with finding ALL their records regardless of project to be super freaking boring... (...)
i dont really consider anything these dudes have recorded to be adventurous.. they all seem more preocupied with $2000 ribbon mics and custom made mic pres than actually making sure the songs on the record are anygood.
So, from your own posts in this thread you find 1) working with sampled drums to be a waste of time, 2) recording your own drums not-so-interesting, 3) anything recorded by one of the best professional studios in the world to be "freaking boring."
What's left? Wallowing in mediocrity?
I disagree that the Chicago folks (since we're generalizing) are "preoccupied" with expensive gear. I find them to be just the opposite. They are, by all reports, dedicated to helping everyone who asks in making a record in a setting that is comfortable and affordable. And it just so happens that they are professionals who have a strong command of their craft. Not to mention being one of the cheapest studios in the world ($450 a day). I don't see any other professional studios offering to help half as much. "Give us a call, we'll walk you through how to fix that." Tutorials hosted at their studio every month. Willing to record anyone who can afford it. Offering professional service. And friendly...
Electrical records something like 4 or 5 albums a month. You say "ALL their recordings" from the last ten years are a benchmark of a downward trend? Since when did people helping you get your record to sound as close to your band as possible become a bad thing?
I guess all these bands (a partial list) have been duped then, right?
.22, 12Twelve, 3, 33 1/3, 36 Invisibles, 41 Rivers, 54-71, 8 Bold Souls, 90 Day Men, Adrian Crowley, Aerial M, Air This Side of Caution, Alex Gross, Alex Tween, Alligator Records, Alternator, Amber Band, American Dream, Amon, Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, Another Tragic Story, Approximation, Atari Star, Ativin, Ballydowse, Beach Buggy, Bear Claw, Beckett's Other Voices, Bedhead, Bellini, Bennies, Berkeley, Bicentennial Quarters, Bill Dickens, Black Eyed Snakes, Black Lung, Bloodlet, Bobby Conn, Bokomolech, Bottletones, BR5-49, Breeders, Brian McMahan, Brick Layer Cake, Bridgett, Bright Channel, Bugs Life, Built to Spill, Bun E. Carlos, Burnt Sienna, Business Machines, Buzz, Caesar, Celestial Static, Charm Unit, Chauncey, Cheap Trick, Cheer Accident, CheerleadR, Chestnut Station, Chevelle, Chevreuil, Chicago Underground Duo, Chin Up Chin Up, Chisel Drill Hammer, Chris Demark/ Mike McCartin, Chris Winters, Cinerama, Coffinberry, Colonel Stem, Comedy Central, Cordelia's Dad, Cords, Crashdog, Dagueissinge, Damon Che, Danielson Famile, Dead Man Ray, Decanters, Delta 72, Desc, Descendro Allegro, Destro, Detachment Kit, Devil In A Woodpile, Dianogah, Dickybird, Dirty Three, Distortion Felix, Don Caballero, Doublelife, Doug McCombs, Drag Body, Dyonisos, Dysrhythmia, Early Lines, Eclectics, Edith Frost, Elysian Fields, Eurogression, Evaluation, Ex-Chittle, Exploding Sky, F-minus, Fashion Period, Father Divine, Federation X, Filibuster, Fleshold, Flogging Molly, Flour, Fra-foa, Frames, Frank Tribuzio, Fun People, Fweep, Garden Bower, Giddy Motors, Glen Hansard, Glen Meadmore, Glen Thornton, Go Ask Brian, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Guided By Voices, Harmony Riley, Haymarket Riot, Heevahava, Heliogabale, Hero of 100 Fights, Heroic Doses, High Dependency Unit, High Fidelity, High Llamas, High On Fire, Holding Mercury, Honey for Petzi, Hope 12, Horsehead, Hosemobile, Hot Dog City, Hot Stove Jimmy, Houdini, Hurl, Idlewild, Impact Test, Intelligent Dennis, Isotope 217, Jason Molina, Jeff Hammond/Sean Morrison, Jeff Pezzatti, Jesse Scinto, JF Muck, Jimmy Sutton's Four Charms, Joan of Arc, Joan of Arse, Joffrey Ballet, John Fournier, John Langford, John Michael Vincent Car Crash, Johny Letcher, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Josh Epstin, June of 44, Kash, Kera, Kevin Thehista, Kicked in the Head, Kill Devil Hills, Killswitch, KK Null, Kyle Fisher, La Makita Soma, Labradford, Lance Ledbetter, Leftover Crack, Liz Phair, LonPaul, Gretchen, Kenny, & Sophia, Loraxx, Loukeelium, Lovesick, Low, Lucky3, Magnolia Electric Co., Mainframe Theory, Man or Astroman?, Mark Rubel, Mary Timony, Matics, Matt Rademan, Matt Walsh/Icarus, Mclusky, Meat Joy, Mel Gibson and the Pants, Mentally Ill, Mike Saenz, Milemarker, Mind Es One, Monkey Paw, Mono, Mouse, Mt. Shasta, Nad Navillus, Nagaland, Neil Hagerty, Neurosis, Neutrino, New Black, New Brutalism, NG Kindheit, Nina Nastasia, No Empathy, ODE, Of Death, OK Go, Old 97's, One Ton, ORR, Otis Levill, Owls, Palace Letma, Pansy Division, Pat Michalah, PegBoy, Pelican, Peter Sotos, Pezz, Phil Robuck, Phoenix, Pillow Theory, Pinebender, Plug Spark Sanjay, Plush, Pop 1280, Porter Sharks, Post Deluvian, Potables, Prom, Pugs, Purplene, Quiverlip, Rachel's, Radiant Republic, Rallo, Red Krayola, Red Swan, Reverie, Rewide 6N, Rian Murphy, Ring Cicada, Rising Shotgun, Rob Correll, Robbie Fulks, Rope, Rye Coalition, Sadies, Sappy Bell, Saturnine, Sauna, Scary Chicken, Scout Niblett, Scrawl, Seam, Secret Agent Bill, Sef, Senator, Serotonin, Shannon Wright, Shellac, Shine Ghostes, Shuttle Cock, Silkworm, Silver Apples, Sixto, Slantwise, Sleeping at Last, Slut Banks, Smog, Soil, Songs: Ohia, Sonna, South of No North, Sparklejet, Spirit Engine, Spy, Stanley's Joyful Noise, Staynless, Storm and Stress, Subversive, Superchunk, Swan Lee, Sweep the Leg Johnny, Swinging Love Hammers, Sylvan, Tanger, Taxe, Technician, Teenage Frames, Teriyakis, Thawfor, The Amazing Kappa, The Atari Star, The Blamed, The Bomb, The Cash Monies, The Ex, The Frames, The Ghost, The Heavils, The Hidden, The Kilroys, The Living Things, The Mighty Blue Kings, The New Year, The Owls, The Patsys, The Poetry Band, The Ponys, The Punuk, The Regels, The Rolls, The Sonnets, The Strike, The Tiles, Three in a Tree, Thumbril, Torben Floor, Tortoise, Toshi Isedea, Tracer, Traitors, Transit Belle, Tren Brothers, Trend 86, Trinity, Tsuji Giri, Tucker, Turn, Ultra Swiss, UMFM, Utah, Valina, Vandal X, Venus In Furs, Vermillion, Wire, Wolf Eyes, Wonderful Smith, Worker & Parasite, Wrangler Brutes, Wuhling, xbxrx, Zach Duenow, Zu, Zwan,
Does nobody here mix and match drums? Personally - I think this is easy and efficient, but I guess not as hardcore "true" as yall... but I sample drums anytime its open and sounds good. Timbaland - take it. Pete - snatch it. Spyro Gyra - gank it, and then save it with names that describe it like "metallic ride" .. Recently I even use 800 series, 900 series, and even download some free hits from banginbeats.com ..
And then whenever I want a certain drum sound, I got em all on disks with names I recognize that describe the sound and/or where it came from. I don't know man, this seems pretty common sense to me, sounds like some of you choose a hard path.
I would love to sample real drums but I've heard few drum sets that sound good to me. props to those that do.
I'll see if I have any of my libraries handy when I get home. Most everything is boxes right now, as I am moving.
So, I found one decent example.
This is a recording of a drummer in a studio with several mics (each drum individually mic'd as well as ambient room mics). Recorded to 2" analog.
Example 1 is just the sound of the snare and kick mics. They are panned (for purposes of single channel transfer), which is slightly weird in this context, but whatever.
Example 2 is the same pass, but you're hearing the ambient mics only.
Example 3 is a combination of kick mic, snare mic, and the ambient mics. The full picture, so to speak.
I don't remember the context of this recording, but we did several like this. Recording loops to a multi-track. We also recorded individual hits with the same mic configurations, so you could solo specific mics or sub them all for different samples.
We did this with drums, piano, Rhodes, mellotron and voice.
I don't have any samples of individual drum hits handy, but this is a snippet of a song from a soundtrack that used one of the kits we built. All single hits, combined and stacked atop each other to make a kit, then programmed via MIDI.
This is one of the recordings we did using the piano. It's our friend Jason Lytle, quite a pretty song, I think.
A funny thing about the voice samples:
I asked several singer friends to come to the studio and sing individual notes in multiple vowels ("Ooooh", "Aaaah", "Eeeee", etc.) with vibrato and flat. The idea being, once I had all the voices together, I could assign them to keys and create my own virtual choir. All the different expressions and vowels I could use as patches. I also asked everyone to breathe a little, so I could program breaths to corresponding upkeys to make it sound a little more natural. Singers do take breaths, I figured.
Well, this woman singer friend came over, and she ran through her whole range in all the combinations (something like 90 passes), and then her friend who was with her said she wanted to do it as well. I thought, cool, more samples. So her friend gets to the mic, and me and my homie are upstairs in the control booth talking to her in the headphones. I ask her to start with her lowest note, hold it as long as she can, then wait a second, and move up one step. Simple. She does it no problem. At the end, I ask, "Would you mind just taking a couple breaths into the mic?" Just like I asked the previous woman. Take a breath, pause, take another, etc. Sure. So, she does. But her take is... well, much more, um... "excited."
She starts breathing, at a slow pace at first, and then she forgets to pause in between, then it gets louder and louder. I put my hand on the talkback button and my homie grabbed it. I looked at him, and he said, "Don't interrupt her!" And I fucking fell over laughing. He was like, "Quick, turn on the camera down there and see what the fuck she's doing!!!"
She went on like that for at least two minutes. When she was done, she said "is that okay?" into the mic, and I got all flush. "Uhh, great. Thanks. Come on upstairs."
Homie was like, "I'm gonna need a copy of that before you leave." Shit was so funny.
So, from your own posts in this thread you find 1) working with sampled drums to be a waste of time,
i never said that ... the initial poster was complainging about how hard it is to organise and find a particular drum hit at a give n moment, to which i asked why not record your own kit.
2) recording your own drums not-so-interesting,
im not sure where you got that from my post dude... i even stated myself that recording your own drums is more unique than using the synthetic substitution break
3) anything recorded by one of the best professional studios in the world to be "freaking boring."
yes..i've never heard a single record that came out of soma, or electrical that i actually listen to on any regular basis... and yes that's ALOT of bands so there must be something in common there then.
I disagree that the Chicago folks (since we're generalizing) are "preoccupied" with expensive gear. I find them to be just the opposite.
i disagree about the gear issue.. i think these dudes are almost pretty responsible for the trend in boutique / vintage / it can only be recorded to 2" tape or it sucks mentality that pervaids a great deal of underground / indy rock.
i've never read an article with any of these dudes where they werent esposing the virtues of some legendary holy grail peace of kit that most people would have to sell their car to afford.
And Electrical is recording something like 4 or 5 albums a month. You say "ALL their recordings" from the last ten years are a benchmark of a downward trend? Since when did people helping you get your record to sound as close to your band as possible become a bad thing?
well thats exactly what i consider to be a bad trend... do you think zappa was trying to make trout mask sound like the band did live?? were the beatles concerned that fucking with the tape speed was gonna make their voices sound funny?
the problem with this boutique analogue recording style is that it costs so much freaking money to record one session bands can only concentrate on getting the sound "that truely represents us" instead of trying to make an interesting sounding record.
i read an interesting quote about albini.. some band was in doing a session.. dude went in to do his take.. noodled around and then came out and asked steve if the take was good... only to find steve reading a book "if you like it thats cool with me man". this is probably a great situation for alot of artists, to not have somebody medling with your shit, but its also awfully close to working with a yes man.
and that again is part of the downward trend.. artists are not being challeneged in the studio.. there used to be a time when you had to fight to get your ideas on tape, you had to break RULES.
i think it pretty obvious that alot of great records came out of those adverse situations.
I guess all these bands (a partial list) have been duped then, right?
well none of these records have made it on my shelves.
Comments
SG
I steer clear of anything than isin't a direct project (ie> band member is also engineer / tapeop/ or playing on record).... so maybe that isin't the most accuate statement of quality, but I do think that Herndorn, Albini, McEntire, Weston are way less adventurous when it comes to recording thier own projects... which is when thier recordings are at thier best... what i consider to be really propper recordings.
mic-->shortest signal path --->tape.
But really... I smoke too much weed.
i think it has more to do with finding ALL their records regardless of project to be super freaking boring... I havent dug a Weston production since Polvo's "For Today's Active Lifestyle"
i dont really consider anything these dudes have recorded to be adventurous.. they all seem more preocupied with $2000 ribbon mics and custom made mic pres than actually making sure the songs on the record are anygood.
Heh...
The thing is, these guys aren't aren't writing the bulk of the songs they produce, right? I think there is a line to be distinguished between the stuff that they do as a studio... hired gunning for a vast majority of records trying to sound like projects already completed by said producers... (who, in many cases are far more talented and better at songwriting than the bands that they record for money).
In any instance... Maybe I should qualify my statement a bit... in thinking about it, most of the chicago recorded records that I am into strictly as recordings... (the rachaels... the six finger records.... the polvos... achers of loaf... ect) are records that are 5-10 years old, so aside from the most known exceptions, for and for references to this recording genre (Trts, Shellac, etc..) I guess I have my head up my ass in lumping them all together as one era of recording...
Anyways, those same records are the ones I still like / check for / buy when I see them, and I think, for the most part that people involved in some sampler-drum-type music aren't trying to make records that have this shit as reference points anyway... so it comes down to three nerds on a messagebaord talking about some shit that other people could give a shit about.... Haha.
So, from your own posts in this thread you find 1) working with sampled drums to be a waste of time, 2) recording your own drums not-so-interesting, 3) anything recorded by one of the best professional studios in the world to be "freaking boring."
What's left? Wallowing in mediocrity?
I disagree that the Chicago folks (since we're generalizing) are "preoccupied" with expensive gear. I find them to be just the opposite. They are, by all reports, dedicated to helping everyone who asks in making a record in a setting that is comfortable and affordable. And it just so happens that they are professionals who have a strong command of their craft. Not to mention being one of the cheapest studios in the world ($450 a day). I don't see any other professional studios offering to help half as much. "Give us a call, we'll walk you through how to fix that." Tutorials hosted at their studio every month. Willing to record anyone who can afford it. Offering professional service. And friendly...
Electrical records something like 4 or 5 albums a month. You say "ALL their recordings" from the last ten years are a benchmark of a downward trend? Since when did people helping you get your record to sound as close to your band as possible become a bad thing?
I guess all these bands (a partial list) have been duped then, right?
.22, 12Twelve, 3, 33 1/3, 36 Invisibles, 41 Rivers, 54-71, 8 Bold Souls, 90 Day Men, Adrian Crowley, Aerial M, Air This Side of Caution, Alex Gross, Alex Tween, Alligator Records, Alternator, Amber Band, American Dream, Amon, Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, Another Tragic Story, Approximation, Atari Star, Ativin, Ballydowse, Beach Buggy, Bear Claw, Beckett's Other Voices, Bedhead, Bellini, Bennies, Berkeley, Bicentennial Quarters, Bill Dickens, Black Eyed Snakes, Black Lung, Bloodlet, Bobby Conn, Bokomolech, Bottletones, BR5-49, Breeders, Brian McMahan, Brick Layer Cake, Bridgett, Bright Channel, Bugs Life, Built to Spill, Bun E. Carlos, Burnt Sienna, Business Machines, Buzz, Caesar, Celestial Static, Charm Unit, Chauncey, Cheap Trick, Cheer Accident, CheerleadR, Chestnut Station, Chevelle, Chevreuil, Chicago Underground Duo, Chin Up Chin Up, Chisel Drill Hammer, Chris Demark/ Mike McCartin, Chris Winters, Cinerama, Coffinberry, Colonel Stem, Comedy Central, Cordelia's Dad, Cords, Crashdog, Dagueissinge, Damon Che, Danielson Famile, Dead Man Ray, Decanters, Delta 72, Desc, Descendro Allegro, Destro, Detachment Kit, Devil In A Woodpile, Dianogah, Dickybird, Dirty Three, Distortion Felix, Don Caballero, Doublelife, Doug McCombs, Drag Body, Dyonisos, Dysrhythmia, Early Lines, Eclectics, Edith Frost, Elysian Fields, Eurogression, Evaluation, Ex-Chittle, Exploding Sky, F-minus, Fashion Period, Father Divine, Federation X, Filibuster, Fleshold, Flogging Molly, Flour, Fra-foa, Frames, Frank Tribuzio, Fun People, Fweep, Garden Bower, Giddy Motors, Glen Hansard, Glen Meadmore, Glen Thornton, Go Ask Brian, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Guided By Voices, Harmony Riley, Haymarket Riot, Heevahava, Heliogabale, Hero of 100 Fights, Heroic Doses, High Dependency Unit, High Fidelity, High Llamas, High On Fire, Holding Mercury, Honey for Petzi, Hope 12, Horsehead, Hosemobile, Hot Dog City, Hot Stove Jimmy, Houdini, Hurl, Idlewild, Impact Test, Intelligent Dennis, Isotope 217, Jason Molina, Jeff Hammond/Sean Morrison, Jeff Pezzatti, Jesse Scinto, JF Muck, Jimmy Sutton's Four Charms, Joan of Arc, Joan of Arse, Joffrey Ballet, John Fournier, John Langford, John Michael Vincent Car Crash, Johny Letcher, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Josh Epstin, June of 44, Kash, Kera, Kevin Thehista, Kicked in the Head, Kill Devil Hills, Killswitch, KK Null, Kyle Fisher, La Makita Soma, Labradford, Lance Ledbetter, Leftover Crack, Liz Phair, LonPaul, Gretchen, Kenny, & Sophia, Loraxx, Loukeelium, Lovesick, Low, Lucky3, Magnolia Electric Co., Mainframe Theory, Man or Astroman?, Mark Rubel, Mary Timony, Matics, Matt Rademan, Matt Walsh/Icarus, Mclusky, Meat Joy, Mel Gibson and the Pants, Mentally Ill, Mike Saenz, Milemarker, Mind Es One, Monkey Paw, Mono, Mouse, Mt. Shasta, Nad Navillus, Nagaland, Neil Hagerty, Neurosis, Neutrino, New Black, New Brutalism, NG Kindheit, Nina Nastasia, No Empathy, ODE, Of Death, OK Go, Old 97's, One Ton, ORR, Otis Levill, Owls, Palace Letma, Pansy Division, Pat Michalah, PegBoy, Pelican, Peter Sotos, Pezz, Phil Robuck, Phoenix, Pillow Theory, Pinebender, Plug Spark Sanjay, Plush, Pop 1280, Porter Sharks, Post Deluvian, Potables, Prom, Pugs, Purplene, Quiverlip, Rachel's, Radiant Republic, Rallo, Red Krayola, Red Swan, Reverie, Rewide 6N, Rian Murphy, Ring Cicada, Rising Shotgun, Rob Correll, Robbie Fulks, Rope, Rye Coalition, Sadies, Sappy Bell, Saturnine, Sauna, Scary Chicken, Scout Niblett, Scrawl, Seam, Secret Agent Bill, Sef, Senator, Serotonin, Shannon Wright, Shellac, Shine Ghostes, Shuttle Cock, Silkworm, Silver Apples, Sixto, Slantwise, Sleeping at Last, Slut Banks, Smog, Soil, Songs: Ohia, Sonna, South of No North, Sparklejet, Spirit Engine, Spy, Stanley's Joyful Noise, Staynless, Storm and Stress, Subversive, Superchunk, Swan Lee, Sweep the Leg Johnny, Swinging Love Hammers, Sylvan, Tanger, Taxe, Technician, Teenage Frames, Teriyakis, Thawfor, The Amazing Kappa, The Atari Star, The Blamed, The Bomb, The Cash Monies, The Ex, The Frames, The Ghost, The Heavils, The Hidden, The Kilroys, The Living Things, The Mighty Blue Kings, The New Year, The Owls, The Patsys, The Poetry Band, The Ponys, The Punuk, The Regels, The Rolls, The Sonnets, The Strike, The Tiles, Three in a Tree, Thumbril, Torben Floor, Tortoise, Toshi Isedea, Tracer, Traitors, Transit Belle, Tren Brothers, Trend 86, Trinity, Tsuji Giri, Tucker, Turn, Ultra Swiss, UMFM, Utah, Valina, Vandal X, Venus In Furs, Vermillion, Wire, Wolf Eyes, Wonderful Smith, Worker & Parasite, Wrangler Brutes, Wuhling, xbxrx, Zach Duenow, Zu, Zwan,
And then whenever I want a certain drum sound, I got em all on disks with names I recognize that describe the sound and/or where it came from. I don't know man, this seems pretty common sense to me, sounds like some of you choose a hard path.
I would love to sample real drums but I've heard few drum sets that sound good to me. props to those that do.
So, I found one decent example.
This is a recording of a drummer in a studio with several mics (each drum individually mic'd as well as ambient room mics). Recorded to 2" analog.
Example 1 is just the sound of the snare and kick mics. They are panned (for purposes of single channel transfer), which is slightly weird in this context, but whatever.
Example 2 is the same pass, but you're hearing the ambient mics only.
Example 3 is a combination of kick mic, snare mic, and the ambient mics. The full picture, so to speak.
I don't remember the context of this recording, but we did several like this. Recording loops to a multi-track. We also recorded individual hits with the same mic configurations, so you could solo specific mics or sub them all for different samples.
We did this with drums, piano, Rhodes, mellotron and voice.
I don't have any samples of individual drum hits handy, but this is a snippet of a song from a soundtrack that used one of the kits we built. All single hits, combined and stacked atop each other to make a kit, then programmed via MIDI.
This is one of the recordings we did using the piano. It's our friend Jason Lytle, quite a pretty song, I think.
A funny thing about the voice samples:
I asked several singer friends to come to the studio and sing individual notes in multiple vowels ("Ooooh", "Aaaah", "Eeeee", etc.) with vibrato and flat. The idea being, once I had all the voices together, I could assign them to keys and create my own virtual choir. All the different expressions and vowels I could use as patches. I also asked everyone to breathe a little, so I could program breaths to corresponding upkeys to make it sound a little more natural. Singers do take breaths, I figured.
Well, this woman singer friend came over, and she ran through her whole range in all the combinations (something like 90 passes), and then her friend who was with her said she wanted to do it as well. I thought, cool, more samples. So her friend gets to the mic, and me and my homie are upstairs in the control booth talking to her in the headphones. I ask her to start with her lowest note, hold it as long as she can, then wait a second, and move up one step. Simple. She does it no problem. At the end, I ask, "Would you mind just taking a couple breaths into the mic?" Just like I asked the previous woman. Take a breath, pause, take another, etc. Sure. So, she does. But her take is... well, much more, um... "excited."
(HeavyBreathing)
She starts breathing, at a slow pace at first, and then she forgets to pause in between, then it gets louder and louder. I put my hand on the talkback button and my homie grabbed it. I looked at him, and he said, "Don't interrupt her!" And I fucking fell over laughing. He was like, "Quick, turn on the camera down there and see what the fuck she's doing!!!"
She went on like that for at least two minutes. When she was done, she said "is that okay?" into the mic, and I got all flush. "Uhh, great. Thanks. Come on upstairs."
Homie was like, "I'm gonna need a copy of that before you leave." Shit was so funny.
i never said that ... the initial poster was complainging about how hard it is to organise and find a particular drum hit at a give n moment, to which i asked why not record your own kit.
im not sure where you got that from my post dude... i even stated myself that recording your own drums is more unique than using the synthetic substitution break
yes..i've never heard a single record that came out of soma, or electrical that i actually listen to on any regular basis... and yes that's ALOT of bands so there must be something in common there then.
i disagree about the gear issue.. i think these dudes are almost pretty responsible for the trend in boutique / vintage / it can only be recorded to 2" tape or it sucks mentality that pervaids a great deal of underground / indy rock.
i've never read an article with any of these dudes where they werent esposing the virtues of some legendary holy grail peace of kit that most people would have to sell their car to afford.
well thats exactly what i consider to be a bad trend... do you think zappa was trying to make trout mask sound like the band did live?? were the beatles concerned that fucking with the tape speed was gonna make their voices sound funny?
the problem with this boutique analogue recording style is that it costs so much freaking money to record one session bands can only concentrate on getting the sound "that truely represents us" instead of trying to make an interesting sounding record.
i read an interesting quote about albini.. some band was in doing a session.. dude went in to do his take.. noodled around and then came out and asked steve if the take was good... only to find steve reading a book "if you like it thats cool with me man". this is probably a great situation for alot of artists, to not have somebody medling with your shit, but its also awfully close to working with a yes man.
and that again is part of the downward trend.. artists are not being challeneged in the studio.. there used to be a time when you had to fight to get your ideas on tape, you had to break RULES.
i think it pretty obvious that alot of great records came out of those adverse situations.
well none of these records have made it on my shelves.
The antithesis of
E**c, you never cease to amaze me.
thanks man, nice examples... and the tracks are real nice.