Drum Sounds

Samples of drum recordings to hear (i) the room qualities and (ii) the differences resulting from variations in tuning and placement. All recordings feature a Yamaha Rock Tour Custom, standard sizes, mixture of Zildjian A and K cymbals and a Z hi-hat.

Room is about 13 square with a 10.5' high ceiling plus a small window bay.

All recorded dry in 4 channels onto a Delta 44 via a small Berhinger mixer, exported as 16-bit wav and converted to 256kbps MP3. No EQ altered - this is to let you hear the raw sounds.

Second Set - facing out with new heads
Kit turned to face out, and with rudimenary baffles made of blankets behind the kit at the walls. New heads, including Evans G2 clear heads replacing Remo pinstripes on the toms. AKG D 112 inside bass drum about 4" from batter head, Beyerdynamic M201 on snare about 2" above rim pointing to centre. Overheads pair of AKG C1000S.

After listening to the recordings sampled below, I chose the higher ORTF configuration. Adding a single moongel to the snare to cut out excess ring, we get: grooves in 5 sample.mp3

Experimenal set (before snare damping applied). Please ignore the sloppy playing, the point was to hear the sounds.

  1. Overheads at either side pointing inwards. About 12" above cymbals. outside_in.mp3
  2. Overheads ORTF about 9" above cymbals. high_ortf.mp3
  3. Overheads ORTF sneaked in between symbals and toms. About 4" below cymbals. Stereo seperation is excellent and toms are exciting, but cymbals create a nasty sound.low_ortf.mp3
Original Set - facing in
Originally positioned near a corner, a couple of feet away from the wall but facing into the wall. Skins hadn't been replaced for about 4 years but lightly used.
  1. AKG D 112 inside bass drum with 2 heads & 1 large pillow for damping, mic about 6" away from striking head. SM57 above snare about 3" above edge pointing towards centre, pair of AKG C1000S overheads, not in the centre pointing out but one on either side pointing slighltly in. drumstogether.mp3
  2. Recorded as above but with overheads in "ORTF" configuration i.e. in centre pointing out, 120 angle between them. Results in increased stereo separation. drumstogether2.mp3
  3. To complete the set I recorded with overheads in parallel A/B configuration. Prefered the others.
Drumming in Berkeley II studio