Recording Live Drums on a Budget
Kenny Gioia multi-platinum producer and engineer is back with yet another power packed assortment of tutorials, this time showing you how to get killer drums sounds on a tiny budget that just about anyone can afford. Get ready to bang out big beats that won't break the bank.
Videos
• Introduction (06:16) - In this tutorial, Kenny goes through the setup for recording live drums as opposed to settling for virtual drum software instruments. With using just one or two mics, the results can be dramatic.
• Microphones & Preamps (03:17) - In this video Kenny goes over the mic choices, mic placement and setting up the computer audio interface for recording.
• Drum Dampening (05:18) - In this tutorial Kenny reveals the proper dampening of the drums to achieve the perfect amount of tone versus eliminating annoying ringing or resonating of the kit.
• Recording Levels & Phase / Polarity (15:36) - In this video Kenny shows how to correctly set up your recording levels in the DAW to avoid distortion or other artifacts. Adding EQ, Compression and Drum Reverb (IR or Impulse Response) are covered as well.
• The Performance (07:48) - In this tutorial Kenny records the final performance. He starts with setting up a proper click track, setting your inputs to tracks and creating separate headphone mixes for the drummer.
• Editing with Elastic Audio (11:26) - In this video Kenny reveals his technique for getting our drums to land perfectly on the grid using Elastic Audio, and also talks about the benefits of this method.
• Editing with Beat Detective (13:20) - Kenny now goes discusses and goes over the editing process of getting the drums in time using Beat Detective.
• Kick Samples (12:28) - In this tutorial Kenny shows you how to add samples to the drum mics to create the feeling of having close mic'd the drums. This adds punch, attack and an upfront sound. Kenny starts with the Kick drum and uses 4 audio samples which are then mixed to taste to achieve a great sound.
• Snare Samples (11:17) - Kenny continues to add samples to the recorded drum mics and layers Snare samples taken from the CLA Expansion Pack used with Steven Slate’s Drums SSD4.
• Tom Samples (14:28) - Kenny wraps up the series demonstrating how he gets the Toms to sound big, by combining samples taken from the Toontrack EZ Drummer software and finalizes the drum sound.