I threw together a super quick mix this afternoon to sort of demonstrate the difference between hard hit drums and softer hit drums.  We were discussing just how hard a drummer should smash the drums during recording.  My experiences have told me that the harder, the better.  A drummer who crushes the drums is going to come out with a great recording.  At least this is what I was expecting.

The time I've spent with Malcolm Springer, Michael Wagener, and various engineers at big studios going for the aggressive modern rock type of drum sound has led me to believe that a drummer should crush the drums.  Malcolm Springer was HUGE on this.  The hardest hitting drummer that I knew was smashing them and Malcolm basically said “Is that all you've got?  Are you some kind of pansie? HIT THEM DRUMS!”.  Malcolm definitely wanted extremely hard hit drums for his modern rock mixing style.

Wagener didn't really make a big deal about it either way at the recording workshop, but he had just finished an album with that drummer and the drummer knew exactly what Wagener wanted.  It was obvious by listening to the overheads that there was quite a bit of skin in those overheads.

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