We will start by chatting about your project and what ideas you may already have about drum sounds and beats. With such a lot of drums, cymbals and microphones to choose from, I'll take a thorough listen to your track(s) and ideas and make some suggestions.
Once we've both got a good understanding of how to approch your music, I'll make sure I have everything I need from you to get started! This will typically be a version of your song in with a click track in either MP3 or WAV format.
I will schedule a recording session date and depending on your individual project, set up the drums and mics in my studio and cut the tracks! Each project is slightly different; we may record the same track on several different kits or with several mic techniques, we may be recording a whole album of tracks with one main kit set-up- it really depends on our imagination and the constraints of the budget!
I only consider my role complete once you tell me you're happy with the results.
As my client, you have piece of mind that I will do my utmost to exceed your expectations! I absoultely love to play drums and to record great drums tracks - if we don't quite get what you need the first time, I am happy to take your direction and re-record/provide an alternative take to help you realise your vision. This is my customer satisfaction gurantee.
There are a few ways we can start working together. It depends all how you wish to develop your music project.
The most common process assumes that you have a track you are already working on, recorded or sequenced on a computer using a DAW such as Ableton, ProTools, Logic, or Cubase and that the audio tracks or clips have been arranged to a click track. This is ideal for me, because it means that all the instruments and voices that make up your song are in-time with eachother and I can play along. If your song has a tempo-map or time changes, I will also be able to hear this easily. The other advantage is that I can drop your rough mix into my DAW (I use the latest version ProTools on subscription) and then we know everything will sync up beautifully. The advantage of working in this way is that when I mix down a stereo mix or individual tracks of the various drums for you, you can sync-up with in your own session and get to work editing and mixing knowing everything is perfectly aligned.
For some projects, the producer/composer will send me sheet music with a written drum part; If drums are the first instrument to track, I will create a click track according to the tempo instructions and play along to this.
Very occasionally, I am contacted by a songwriter or composer who has a recording that they want to add drums to that was not recorded to a click. This could be a freeform piece, legacy work or was just recorded organically; it doesn’t matter – the process is the same. I will upload the audio that you give to me.
The most impoortant question! Each project can be tailored to your particular circumstances, but generally, you will want both a .WAV Stereo drum track (Left and Right channels, balanced and ready for you to mix) and also individual drum tracks, typically 8 chanels, comprising (typically) bass drum, snare, hi-hat, overhead L, overhead R, tom-toms (summed) room mic and omni mono mic placed in the middle of the kit. This gives us the best overall sound capture, good separation for snare, hats and kick, but with overheads, a room and a mono mic, lots of opportunties for cool effects and processing once you get my tracks in your DAW. I can also do one-mic recordings for a very vintage sound, two-mic, which actually can sound AMAZING, the Glyn Johns technique (acutally can be derrived from my standard 8-channel set-up) and any other wierd and wonderful ideas we have along the way! I have recorded drums from inside buckets, traffic cones and even a piezo mic stuck on a household radiator!
Finally, I can (and offen will) send an additional 8 tracks of semi-mixed audio; I will do some EQ, compression and general clean-up just to check that I have captured everything before I set up for the next project. You then have the option to start from scratch with your own mixing, or take my rough mixes as a start point. The advantage of the latter is that I know my drums, mics and plugins really well and can quickly get the drums sounding sweeeet!It is nice to have the option, so I will include this.
