Isolating drums while recording

babse · Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 5:36 am Post subject: Isolating drums while recording

Hello,
when a band wants to record a song, and they don't want to record each instrument seperately (so all together) I noticed that the often 'isolate the drums'. eg they put the kit behind a plexi wall. I was wondering if this doesn't effect the sound in a bad way? The sound should start bouncing against the plexi glass, right? Anyone has any experience with this? Do they use other things as well, like "carpet walls?"
Thanks.

Kevinlsg · Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2004 11:26 am Post subject:

You can record the drums behind a shield. that will just make it sound like it's in a smaller room. but if you remove the sheild you'll get the kit sounding like those big open room kits of the 80's. Personally i preffer a really tight crisp sound but i guess it depends on your type of music. Usually when you record you track the bass and the drums first and then you add the guitars. this is probably the most sensible way to record. Thats the way i've done it anyway.
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Anal-Juice · Tadpole Joined: 20 Jul 2004 Posts: 20 Location: Alberta

recording everything in real time is old school man. If you want to record like that you lose all your available mixing dynamics. Since every microphone (drums, amps, vocals) will pick up all the background noise. Almost no commercial recordings are done like this anymore. Like the last guy said, you start with precussion, then bass, then rythem, then lead, then vocal.

shaneohack · Posted: Sat Sep 25, 2004 9:39 pm Post subject:

Actually recording in real time isn't that hard. It just takes a little pre-production work. If you are at a studio with an isolation room inside one of the studios you can put the drums and the bass in one room with the bass running thru a DI box, and out the guitar in the booth. Then you just cut in the vocals later and the guitar solo too. At least that is the way I have done it. Cool

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chetatkinsdiet · Ferret Joined: 26 Jul 2004 Posts: 107

Yeah, the only thing that recording everything at once takes is talent. Our favorite recordings from the past that we are still in awe of were done this way. A group of talented musicians sitting in the room playing "together". If you mess up....do it again. Get a good mix down. That's why most modern music sounds lifeless and dull. To try to fix this, an unGodly amount of compression is added to make up for the lifeless parts put down by a musician playing by himself in a padded room.
You can still get a tight, killer sound with close mics. You can still go back and add other parts. You can even edit parts...assuming your original tracks aren't to out of it that they're causing problems. You wanna know how Bonham's drums sounded so loud? Because he was bleeding into the guitar mics, the bass mics and all the other ones in the room.
later,
m