Tracking Rock - Drums
This collection of video tutorials by the one and only Kenny Gioia takes you inside Kenny's personal recording lair and shows you step by step how kenny sets up and records the foundation of any rock / pop tune, the drums. From set up to performance to editing, it's all here, so clear your schedule and hang out with Kenny and learn his way of handling the skins!
Videos
• Introduction (09:14) - Watch Kenny go through the setup for recording live rock drums including mic choices, preamps, inputs and outputs on the interface, drum heads and tuning.
• The Kick Drum (13:30) - See how to properly record the kick drum, including drum head choices, drum dampening, mic choices and different mic placements. EQ and compression are covered as well.
• The Snare Drum (16:58) - Discover how to record the snare drum, including drum head choices, drum dampening, mic choices and different mic placements. Explore top and bottom drum head microphones and phase / polarity alignment. EQ and compression are also covered.
• The Toms (15:46) - Go through how to record the toms with Kenny. Both rack and floor toms are covered along with dampening, mic choices, mic positioning and head choices. EQ and compression are also looked at.
• The Overheads (14:14) - Learn how to set up overhead mics to record the overall drum kit sound, not just cymbals. Proper alignment between each other and the other mics on the kit is fully covered and discussed, including phase / polarity alignment, EQ and compression.
• The Room Mics (14:18) - Watch how to properly capture the size of the drum room, including making the room sound much bigger than it is. EQ and Compression is discussed as well.
• The Performance (07:21) - In this video we record the actual performance. We go through setting up a click track and headphone mixes and sends for the talent. We also cover recording multiple takes and comping.
• Extra Processing (11:53) - Watch Kenny add extra effects to the drums including a transient designer to control attacks, both increasing them and decreasing them along with adding IR (impulse response) reverbs to make the drums sound like they were recorded in different spaces.
• Elastic Audio Editing (11:04) - Go through the editing process with Kenny and see how to get the drums to land perfectly on the grid using Elastic Audio. Kenny also discusses the benefits of this method.
• Beat Detective Editing (15:07) - In this video, watch Kenny edit the drums to land perfectly on the grid using Beat Detective. He also discusses the advantages of this technique.
• Adding Kick Samples (10:08) - Learn the process of adding multiple samples to the kick drum to bring out different areas of the sound, including an aggressive kick, a deeper kick and a punchier option to be blended with the original mic'd kick drum.
• Adding Snare Samples (09:04) - Discover the technique of adding multiple samples to the snare drum to bring out different sounds, including a brighter snare, a fatter snare, a more lively option and a sample with a generous amount of ring to be blended with the original mic'd snare drum.