I have a Pintech Edrum kit mated with an Alesis Trigger IO I purchased used a few years back. For certain projects it's quite useful when utilizing modern samples like Superior Drummer 2.0, Steven Slate Drum Samples, or more techno-type pursuits.

I've found it difficult to tame drummers I've groomed for years to beat the living shit out of their real drum kit as if it were a [insert sexist comment here] woman to suddenly treat my plastic gadget as a UPS employee is SUPPOSED to treat his deliveries. In short, they blow through the triggers pretty quickly.

The Bad News

At first I thought I was just screwed. Luckily, replacement triggers are available for about $20 a pop from the Pintech guys. With drummers who have issues with the estrogen gender and plastic, I've found it doesn't take too many sessions to render these triggers useless. On the worst cases, that can get about as expensive as buying drum heads for a real kit. Yuck!

Even worse, nothing evokes that crapped-your-pants feeling in a drummer like when they hit something and it doesn't make any noise. It's a violation of their instincts. So the last thing you want is missed hits due to bad triggers.

The Good News

It turns out that these edrum gadgets are WAY simpler than anyone may lead on. In fact, there is almost NOTHING to them. They use a piezo, which is basically that buzzer/beeper thing you hear when a computer starts up. It's essentially the worst speaker on earth (a buzzer thingy that looks like a thin coin from the old west and two wires). Since it's a speaker, it's also a microphone. Let me explain.

As you may be familiar with the Yamaha Subkick or equivalent, microphones and speakers are more or less the same thing except for one is optimized for sending sound out and one is ideal for bring sound in.

So you've got Doc Holiday's soda money, some foam dampening the shock between the mesh head and the piezo, and that's about it. It's much more primitive than I had realized.

Saving Big Bucks

That $20 piezo from Pintech can be found at Radio Shack (piezo transducer part #273-073 http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062402) for a whopping $2. I'm re-using the foam that game with the edrums when possible, but when those break, I simply use some foam I found around the house. So instead of trigger swapping for the entire kit being a $100 enterprise, it's now $10. (AKA WELL worth my time!)

The only downside with the Radio Shack version is it comes with a plastic shell you have to pop the piezo out of and it won't come with the little wired lead. Once you figure it out, it takes about 45 seconds. You'll have to splice the two wires in. So it does take a few extra seconds and a little electrical tape.

I have this little hypothesis that cutting the foam in half and taping a quarter in between them so the shock of the stick hitting the head, the foam, then the quarter, the foam, and then the piezo may add significant life to the head. It may screw with response a bit. I'm not sure about that. The principal is the same as adding various, isolated layers when sound proofing a room. We'll see. If anyone has tried it, let me know.

On the drums I've used dramatically larger foam to cover the trigger, I've not noticed any downsides. So far, it appears that placing just a little foam underneath the piezo helps to reduce vibrations from the kit, which have been problematic for me in the past. I expect my setup to last longer. We'll see.

BS Theory Time

You could probably do the same exact thing using cheapo dynamic mics. Yeah, I'm serious. Some $20 dynamic mics with foam on them to protect them and running that into a module might even work. It's the same thing in concept. (I'm not sure about the levels going into the module.) When the foam-covered mic is struck, a signal will flow out of the mic, into the module to be converted to MIDI, and into your computer rig. The results would be similar if the module could handle it.

The Fancy Rimshot Mechanism

A big selling point of the Pintech drums is they offer the rimshot possibility. If you hit the rimof the drum, you can use that signal to trigger an actual rimshot sample. This seems like a cool feature (and is most of the time). However, I didn't realize that all they had done was clipped a piezo to the "shell" of the drum. Of course, this "shell" is metal. So when you hit the rim, it vibrates and this piezo picks it up. This tells me that if a person really wanted to, they could just attach these piezos to metal pots and pans and have a functional edrum kit (the feel of the drum may not be up to par, but I've not had anyone comment on the EXCEPTIONAL feel of my Pintech mesh kit either). I suspect there is some way to use sheet metal, cover it in something dampening to get the feel closer, and a person would never need to replace their piezos again. Of course, it would look like something from Mad Max.....(Yes, that IS a good thing.)

So Why Not Build Your Own Edrum Kit?

Now that I know how simple this edrum stuff is, I now know that I can swap out the triggers myself in a short amount of time. Even better, I know that I'm not dependant entirely on what the kit came with. When stuff breaks, I don't feel the extreme need to order factory replacements. For example, when the remaining cymbals of mine break, I have big plans of buying plastic plates that belong in a kitchen, attaching the piezo and seeing what happens. I expect it to work just fine with a little monkeying.

Note: The whole purpose of this blog is to pass on just how simple of a technology this whole edrum trigger business is. I'm not exactly attempting to sway you away from buying a kit. I just wish I would have known that the edrums were THIS simple. It may have affected decisions in the past.

The truth is it is going to be time consuming to develop your own edrum setup that is fully adjustable from scratch and feel good to you.....unless you already have a cheap old drum kit you don't mind tearing up (HINT HINT).

The hihat functionality probably wouldn't be too hard to figure out, but I'd rather just buy a ready made solution.

There is something to starting with the solid foundation, already soldiered jacks, etc of a good edrum kit.

Building Your Own Edrums

Use the ol' Google machine for this one. When I first set out on my edrum quest, I didn't realize just how comprehensive the world of DIY edrum construction was. There are tutorials out the wazoo and tons and tons of people who've put together incredible setups for dramatically lower price than the fancy, high end kits out there.

I just assumed that these things would be clunky or wouldn't have the feel of something on the high end like Roland or Pintech. I can tell you that a trigger gadget is a trigger gadget at least when it comes to mesh.

Conclusion

The article kinda went all over the place. Basically, I have a few points.

EDrum triggers are $2 to replace
Edrum technology is not nearly as complicated as everyone says it is.
Building your own edrums is not nearly as complicated as you may think.
There are numerous tutorials and instructions for building your own edrum kit.

Party On!

Brandon

So, knowing just how damn desirable the room sounds are in Ocean Way, I was PUMPED when they asked me to review a copy. (I have more damn drum samples than a sane person would ever need. Good thing I don't meet that criteria!) I can say that, without a doubt, the are a welcome addition.

The Simple Approach

Ocean Way Drums has taken the old school sample approach. When you trigger the snare, it comes up on one fader. The kick is on another fader. If you want to turn the hihat down, you simply grab the hi-hat fader and pull it down. There is no bleed. There are no overheads. There are no room mics. There is no further complication at all. The samples are already processed. All you need to do is send MIDI to them. Quick to the point. Easy!

The good news is this is excellent for people who have 14 minutes to get busy with the noise and don't want to spend it scratching their head about snare sounds. Even I get into creative modes and the last thing I want to do is even consider the engineering side. If I have a guitar in my hand, I DO NOT want to be touching compressors. I already have my hands full. I want to make music and I want to make it now. Ocean Way Drums definitely caters to that.

Ocean Way Drums uses an included Kontakt engine. The Native Instruments guys have been good to me and they delivered an extreme reliable sample player. I never had a single technical problem with the Ocean Way Drums !

The Sounds

Because of their simple approach to drum samples, they've taken a drum kit, recorded it in 3 different rooms, and said, "Here!". As a guy that gets sick of hearing myself on my 6 string noise maker, I do like to tinker with compressors and room mics some times. Unfortunately, doesn't allow me such fun. The ambiance is what it is....for better or worse.

When I first started out, I grabbed one of the 2 drum kits they allowed me to play with. Being the kind of guy I am, I grabbed the ultra live, ultra ambient kit right away. I loved it!! It fit my style of techno rock perfectly. That part is subjective, but if you liked the sounds on their website you'll definitely like 'em on your productions.

I did run into a little snag. The default snare is pretty damn loud in these things (could have something to do with the crushing velocities I was using). It's easy to fall in love with that sound until you realize that your mix isn't loud enough in RMS jive because the snare is blasting through with peak level. Tossing on the brickwall limiter and knocking the snare peak down brought up some corny sounding ambiance. It went from being badass and modern to reminding me of a sillier time in music production.

However, the problem was solved by simply pulling the snare channel down. This reduced the crushing attack I had fallen in love with too, but it solved the ambience problem and ended up sounding great. I just didn't have the luxury of getting the snare as ridiculously in my face as it was previously. This isn't exactly a flaw in the . It's a byproduct of having already processed samples. Not a big deal. Easily solved although it did scare me for a minute.

I decided to try out the other extreme. I went with the ultra dry drums. I can't remember a single instance in my life where I've ever wanted to throw up. Just a hair lower on my list of things I have no interest in is dry drums. I know that quite a few of you out there hate my Mr. Mister drum sound. (Seriously, it gets no better the Kyrie for powerhouse drums...EVER!) So, I figured I'd play along and see what I could do with dry drums. While these were samples were top notch, pro, and had just the right amount of chunk, I personally felt that I was watching TV with the power out. (Not that a TV with electricity is any better.)

For those of you who got into the Slipknot drum sound or anything super duper dry, you will be very happy.

I did quite a bit of tinkering with the super live and super dry drums. In fact, I had forgotten that there was even a medium version. Oh buddy! I found the sound I've been looking for!

I'm a big fan of several of the drum samples I own. (The entire Superior 2.0 line is outstanding and Steven Slate drums are flat out brutal.) However, I've been looking for this one particular flavor. It's the kind of sound that has ambiance, but doesn't mush up when I crush it with a drum bus compressor. I want to hear the drums pumping yet still hear this hi-fi/pretty sounding hihat. I want this particularly for full blown dance music type of stuff with metal guitars in it. (One of my favorite poisons.)

The medium setting is outstanding! I LOVE IT! Other than the optional slammage from the drum bus compressor, it needs no processing. It's exactly perfect for what I'm up to. I don't miss room mics or bleed. I don't miss any of the fancy features found in other samplers. I just turn it on and kick butt without having to think about engineering. The medium room drums are HIGHLY recommended if this sounds like your cup of tea!

Different Drum Kits

It was very cool how they included different drum kits. I'm not the kind of guy that gets too wound up about different kits too often. I'm used to recording real drums and before we start a given project I usually don't have the option of selecting the drums I want to use. (Some day!) We just use what the drummer has and make it work. So, I don't get overly wound up about having a billion drums to choose from. I tend to tweak tones on the engineer side. That "maple shell" this and "brass shell" that is reserved for zoned out head nodding when drummers flap their jaw.

However, I did find the variety from kit to kit extremely useful. So if you are more wound up about that sort of thing than I am, make sure to take a hard look at the options.

The Room

I do want to point out that the Ocean Way room sounds are EXACTLY what you'd expect. Even when I'm not going for the Mr. Mister drum sound (even I wuss out sometimes) I LOVE that 3D, alive sound that a great room can do for drums. The simply do not disappoint! Very nice!

Different Pricing Structures

I first saw the in Musican's Friend. It was an enormous package that cost well over $1,000. For those so inclined, that's not a bad way to go. However, there are dramatically less expensive versions out there via the download. For $200 you can download 5 different kits in their full blown glory (dry, medium, and ambient). I personally think this is a great way to go. The Ocean Way sound is a nice compliment to my stock pile of drum samples and I get what I need with just a few kits.

Conclusion

I was going to say that the is a very nice, super simple sample drum sample library with rooms that stand out. Then I discovered how freakin' great the medium sounds were. When I filled that void I've been missing in my drum samples, I flipped! I couldn't be more excited. Now not everyone is going to want that exact sound. Hell, I don't want it all the time. However, when you can find your dream sound for X little niche, you have to jump on it! Excellent product!

Brandon

If you are in need of realistic drum samples (or want an amazing platform for your electronic sounds such in Electronic EZX which we used in the upcoming Toontrack Mixing Wars: Techno contest) I think Superior Drummer 2.0 is THE way to go.

The only thing is, I always thought it was a $300-400 sample set. It appears now that you can snag it for a measly $149! That's crazy!

Superior Drummer For $149

On top of that, a crossgrade from competitors gets you into Superior Drummer 2.0 for only $99!

Check out the crossgrade.

Brandon

While the kick drum used in Toontrack Mixing Wars: Metal from the Metal Foundry drum samples was recorded in a robo high end studio by a mega engineers and a super pro drummer, some people are surprised by what they here from the unprocessed drums.

Note: Toontrack intentionally left the drums unprocessed so that they could mega manipulate them using their included mixer. Take a listen to the results.

EQ On Metal Kick Drums
If you start with the stock kick drum Metal Foundry, you'll notice it's very heavy in the low mids and not a whole lot going on top. So, the solution to that is fairly straight forward. I pulled out a narrow band at 250Hz quite aggressively. (There are times and genres when you want plenty of 250Hz, but this wasn't one of them at least not for my tastes.)

Then I boosted the hell out of 5k and 10k. I use more EQ here than I do on any other source EVER. I don't feel guilty using 30dB of EQ if I need to (watch out for the bleed however, if applicable). At 10k, you'll hear more of the death metal click. At 5k you'll hear more “clack”. Getting the relatively balance of these right is mega crucial and something I spend some time on.

Note: Some drums have tons of attack by default and don't need EQ. As I discuss in Killer Home Recording: Murderous Mixing, EQ is both problem solving tool and a creativity enhancing tool. So this notion of “needing” doesn't necessarily mean the source was flawed. It simply means we want to enhance it to fulfill our creative vision.

Compression
I don't compress the actual kick drum often. I'm sure it's happened, but I don't automatically start there. I use two parallel compression buses which I route directly to my standard drum bus. One bus dramatically over emphasizes attack by setting a release long enough for the peak to leap through. The other drum bus uses an super dooper fast compressor to increase the sustain. By blending these two faders we have outrageous tonal possibilities for our fake ass, over-the-top kick drum sound.

Killer Home Recording: Murderous Mixing
If you liked this little mixing tip, you MUST check out Killer Home Recording: Murderous Mixing. I've jam packed it full of every mixing trick, tactic, and concept I know. You'll love it!

I've had a chance to play heavily with Toontrack's Metal Foundry the past few weeks so now let me tell if you this thing is really worth a damn.

Boring Background Info
Toontrack has been making robo real drum samples for years. They started with Drum Kit From Hell and have created various revolutionary products such as DFH Superior 1.0, EZ Drummer, and Superior Drummer 2.0. The latter is their flagship model and I think it's one of the best products I've ever touched in recording land. (Hell, I guess I should review it some year!)

bla bla bla

To cut to the chase, Metal Foundry is an expansion pack thingy for Superior Drummer 2.0. You've got to have Superior Drummer 2.0 to even think about using it. (Now is a GREAT time because the thing is priced somewhere in the ridiculously low ballpark. Check it out here.)

Installation and Authorization
I tossed the Metal Foundry DVD #1 into my D: drive, told it where I wanted to put the samples, and swapped DVDs every few minutes. It's so simple my mom would complain how easy it is and she still looks awkward using a mouse.

The authorization process worked perfectly the first time, too. I'd guess it took me 45 seconds to pull this off. (Don't tell anyone, but I hooked internet to my recording computer. Yes, I know this is scarier than a coke addiction. I live on the edge. What can I say?)

When a company can actually get their shit together on the installation and authorization side, I commend them. Seamless and trouble-free install and authorization is about as rare as living out those multiple simultaneous female fantasies all you dirty guys seem to have (and possibly even more satisfying). Let's just say that if I smoked, I'd need a cigarette after experiencing a process that normally reminds me of a bloody Ed Norton scene in American History X.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Reliability
The thing I like about Superior Drummer 2.0 is it loads samples FAST. I mean REALLY FAST! It runs about as reliably as you can get on a sampler. I have other drum sample gadgets. They usually work. Superior Drummer 2.0 always works. I found The Metal Foundry to be just as reliable.

I did notice I had a few Cubase shutdowns when I loaded up a robo RAM drum kit. However, I must have screwed up my RAM settings in Windows.

Control Panels > System > Advanced > Performance Options > Advanced > Memory Usage

When I went here and changed this to “System Cache” I had no problems.

I've got 4GB of RAM on a Quad Core Intel PC. (The best $400 I've ever spent on a computter). For those of you who are using a computer from back when the Iraq police action seemed like a good idea to conservatives, the cache button is a life saver. Basically, it only loads the samples that you use in the file. The downside is it doesn't load a sample until you play it, but I didn't find this to be all that bad of deal. Just don't forget that one stupid China cymbal at the end of the bridge because if you render without loading it, it will not exist.

Rating: 10 out of 10

The Sound
This gets interesting (and longwinded) but hear me out. I was working on the mix for Toontrack Mixing Wars: Metal song, Bearing Teeth . Before the Toontrack bozos (in a good way, ) got me Metal Foundry I was using good ol' Superior Drummer 2.0. I personally feel that the stock samples in Superior Drummer 2.0 as badass for just about everything. I love the “scooped” drum sound with plenty of crack in the snare and attack in the kick. I feel this works for metal, country, and just about everything in between.

When tweaking the “pre-mix” of Bearing Teeth, I basically turned on Superior Drummer 2.0, added some beater on the kick drum and called it day. I MAY have used parallel compression on the kick and snare. Okay, I'm almost positive I did, but other than that, I didn't even think about it. I didn't have to.

I was excited when I first pulled up Metal Foundry because I was ready to leap into the next level. Being the kind of guy that I am I didn't bother saving hours by using the presets. I jumped in and started mixing the damn thing. In fact, I went ahead and rendered the wav files with full bleed and went to town. This was a mistake. The samples within Metal Foundry are unprocessed to my ears (this has been semi confirmed with hearsay). They are super smooth and most of you turn them on for the first time are going cuss in a way reminiscent of the first time your old Playboy mags turned up missing from between the mattress. (Why does EVERYONE think this is a good hiding spot? My kids will some day joke about everyone putting their naughty crap in C:/Misc/3255/ .) The unprocessed drums are NOT what you hear on your favorite metal records!

The Never-Heard-Real-Drums Crowd
Let me go ahead and pigeonhole you bastards who are going to get your panties in a wad over these samples (at first). There are many of you who've never had the joy of recording a real drummer and therefor you've never had the joy of pulling your hair out. You learn how to deal with the round thing smashers over time, but let's just say there is a WHOLE bunch of processing and mixing that needs to take place to turn a couple of room mics, overheads, kick, snare, and toms into what you hear on a Dragonforce record.

A huge part of the sound of real drums is what the drummer is giving you. For beginners, it is often difficult to tell if the “cheap” (natural) sound is caused by the drummer, the drums, the room, the gear or the lack of processing. The cool thing about Metal Foundry is it was done with world class drummers, playing world class drum kits, in a world class studio room. That pretty much narrows it down. You've got to mix these stupid things! In other words, you get to be creative. Let me rephrase that, if you skip the presets you HAVE to be creative. (Remember, this CAN be fun if you are nerdy enough!)

If a multi-stringed wooden thing is more your creative weapon of choice than a compressor or EQ this can be a bit daunting. In fact, with full bleed on (as you get with a real drum recording), I had a HARD time matching the sound I was hearing on Superior Drummer 2.0. In fact, I spent 15 hours mixing the damn song and didn't come up with one damn mix I liked. I was struggling.....and cussing.

Then it occurred to me. When it comes to the fake ass metal drums I like so much (Clayman from In Flames is a mega fun one) I gave up on getting this sound naturally a long time ago. When you crush your snare with compression and then EQ it to get robo crack and robo meat, you've effectively trashed out your hi-hat, your ride sounds like it was recorded with something Behringer wouldn't even sell, and your kick drum has more crappy boom than the garage band down the street. A gate helps, but it's not enough. You need a snare track with zero bleed if you want to get stupid with your processing (aka modern metal).

Enter the world of samples. You see, this is a bit confusing because Metal Foundry (and pretty much all Toontrack products) have designed their samples to sound real. In fact, I guess I'm bitching that if used in such a fashion, they can sound too real for my tastes. This is a hell of an achievement and it's nice to have the option of being too real, but that option can lead one to underestimate the giga powers of Metal Foundry. So if you want to rock out to killer, modern, and over the top drum sounds, turn off the bleed. It ain't gonna help you.

When I turned all (or most ) of the bleed crap off, Metal Foundry made sense. In fact, it came alive. It was like getting hit in the head with a frying pan. (In a good way!) It no longer took 15 hours to get something that sucked. In 5-10 minutes I had a pretty damn smashing drum sound that reacted well to extreme compression on both the drums and the 2bus. Impressive!

Non-Engineer Types
For you guys who just want palm mute and shred, just click on one of the presets. This is where Toontrack is WAY ahead of the game. By including a full blown mixer with all necessary plugins they've been able to include mixing presets that pretty much sound unbelievably good, mega over the top, and still natural all at the same time. This is awesome for a few reasons. First off, if you aren't more familiar with compressors than you are your girlfriend's body (for the 2% of you metal 'tards who have girlfriends ) , you would have your work cut out for you. Now you can click twice, wait 30 seconds and have drum sounds that used to cost $5k per day and required a non-idiot drummer (never met one).

The thing I LOVE about these presets is you can reverse engineer what Mr. Mix It was up to. It's pretty damn awesome. The value of this for us engineer nerd types (with 3% girlfriend's and basically infinite one-time "encounters") is out standing. This lesson alone is worth the price of admission.

The more I play with Metal Foundry, the more I see why they elected to not to process the samples right off the bat. If you take Pantera, In Flames, Slipknot, and Metallica you end up with four wildly different drum sounds. It just makes sense to let the user decide what they want and then give them preset mixing options to more or less nail these sounds instantly. I guess you could make the argument that Fleetwood Mac, Toby Keith, and Joan Osborne also require infinitely different drum sounds (when speaking of Superior Drummer 2.0) but I'm not going there.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Conclusion
The Metal Foundry is bad ass. Superior Drummer 2.0 is amazing. The two of them together makes you feel like you can do anything (not to mention the other Toontrack expansions I'll be writing reviews for). While Superior Drummer 2.0 is pretty damn versatile, it's not so easy to dial in such a broad range of metal drum sounds. With Metal Foundry they've really taken a hard ass look at metal drums and given you a pallet which few of us are ever going to outgrow. When you factor in the mixing presets and the ability to tweak those mixes or to start with mixes from scratch, the flexibility of this thing is stupid. Skip three or four dates with Rosie Palmer and buy it!

Rating: 10 out of 10. Home Run!

P.S. If you ever have to deal with the Toontrack guys, you'll see that most of them have Viking names. That's an automatic 10 point bonus right off the bat.

The drums sound outstanding right out of the box, the room sounds are incredible, and the system is so damn flexible that pretty much every genre is covered. One thing I love about Superior Drummer 2.0 is the fact that it's extremely reliable. It doesn't suffer near the hiccups of other sample drum libraries do. It loads RAM incredibly quickly and I've found the included MIDI loops to be way more useful than I had ever expected.

In fact, I really can't think of anything negative to say about Superior Drummer 2.0. (Something I'm usually exceptionally skilled at.) The Toontrack guys got it right.

And now they are have Superior Drummer 2.0 on a ROBO sale. If you've been tempted to snag Superior Drummer in the past, it's STUPID cheap right now. Check it out!

I had an exceptional experience with Pintech, makers of high end edrums (among other things). I had purchased a Pintech edrum kit used and it was clear that the triggers were a little bit more worn than I was lead to believe based on the Ebay ad.

I limped by on the old triggers for some time in the pre-Killer Home Recording phase. It was time to fix the triggers and get the edrum kit to work like I knew it was capable of. I hopped on the http://www.edrums.com/ website to order the new triggers. I had absolutely no idea what the hell I was doing so I just bought what I thought I needed. It cost me a little over $200.

Laurie from Pintech gave me a call and said it looked like I had ordered like an idiot. Okay, she worded it much nicer, but the point was it was clear that she had a ridiculous order on her hands. She had me tear into my current triggers to figure out what model I had so I could get the right replacement. She was super friendly on the phone and didn't make me feel nearly as retarded as she probably should have.

She immediately tossed out half my order because these parts didn't even apply to my drum kit.

She also signed me up for their warranty dohickey which cost $45 or so but made my order half price, which instantly saved me some cash. Anybody who purchased a used Pintech kit can by this warranty thing for half price fixes. There were some other perks too involving cymbal upgrades, but I don't remember the details. (The point of this is to point out exceptional service, not sell you a warranty!)

I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE companies that will give me the secrets of saving some cash with that company. I wish more audio companies lived by this “free insider secrets” thing. This is the way I do business and what I feel is the ultimate path to long term success.

All in all I ended up getting exactly what I needed and saved well over $100. I'm impressed! I'll be dealing with Pintech more often!

Brandon

Check Out The Audix D6 @ Musiciansfriend

For years I've been very happy with my Shure Beta 91. It's been my go-to kick drum since I started back in 2001 and I feel that kick drums, generally speaking, have been the least of my problems. So I have to admit that I haven't been a huge hurry to try out other kick drum microphones.

For the mega shootouts in Killer Home Recording: Drums, I thought it was important to try out an array of kick drum microphones. I got a hold of a Shure Beta 52, Audix D6 (as reviewed here), AKG D112, my good ol' Shure Beta 91, my Sennheiser 421, my Shure SM7b, and a Sennheiser e602. You can listen to all of them in Killer Home Recording: Drums.

The Audix D6 is a large diaphram style dynamic microphone designed for kick drums. The second you solo the D6 it's immediately clear that they were NOT going for flat frequency response on this booger. Not even close! They knew exactly what sound they wanted to get out of the Audix D6 and they voiced it to give the exact sound they wanted? So what sound is that.

Take a look at the frequency response chart of the Audix D6.

It's clear that the engineers at Audix had no intentions of developing anything “subtle”. The frequency response chart says it all. The Audix D6 has a big ass low end, all the boxy crap scooped out by nearly 10dB and then nearly 10dB peaks at 5k and 10k. Ironically, this pretty much looks like what most of my EQ settings look like anyway when I track/mix a kick drum.

Set It Up...Do Nothing
Recording drums is a pain. I end up running low on mic stands, I have cables everywhere, I have the loudest, dumbest instrument to deal with and the tone is almost entirely in the drummers hands. By taking just one element out of this process, I free up 10 points of brain power to think about something else.

Because the Audix D6 provides a massive low end and the upper midrange / high end attack I require out of my kick drums for modern metal, country, pop, and just about any other genre I can think of, I have 10 more brain power points to put to something else. I REALLY like that!

This sounds-good-with-nothing idea is what separates the Audix D6 from other kick drum microphones. While other kick drum mics are often voiced in the direction of the D6, none of them seem to be bold enough to go all out to get exactly what I need right off the bat.

In situations where I did end up adding EQ to the Audix D6, I was clearly doing so for creative reasons and not necessarily because I was fixing the usual engineering problems.

Not So Versatile
The Audix D6 completely kicks ass for kick drums. However, it's frequency response tends to be good for nothing but kick drums. You aren't going to get the Audix D6 to work well on a bass cabinet or electric guitar cabinet. It's way too mid scooped sounding to be effective on any other instrument that I can think of. (Just in case you are wondering, no, I don't think it would be good on metal electric guitars either).

Personally, I like bold microphones. I rarely look for tools that do everything “okay”. I'm completely content with microphones that kick butt at one thing and one thing only! I want to make it perfectly clear that the Audix D6 does that one kick drum sound extremely well, but it's not the only kick drum sound on Earth. The punch of the Shure Beta 52 goes quite a bit higher than the Audix D6. Some aren't going to like this upper mid sound. Others are going to absolutely require it. So just remember the Audix D6 is a one trick pony.

Price
I ended up snagging a mint Audix D6 on Ebay for $139 + shipping. That ain't bad! Hell, they even through in a $10 XLR cable. You can snag the Audix D6 brand new at here Musiciansfriend for $200 .

My New Kick Drum Setup
While I could certainly get excellent kick drum sounds with the Audix D6 alone, my new setup is, by far, the most versatile kick drum setup I've ever used. I place my Shure Beta 91 inside the kick drum and the Audix D6 about 6” outside the kick drum port. The Beta 91 has an excellent snap/attack if I so need it and the D6 provides plenty of low end muscle. Tossing a blanket over this knocks down the bleed considerably. Blending the two together with zero phase problems has been a breeze. I can see myself using this setup for a long time.

Conclusion
I'm keeping the Audix D6. It's an outstanding kick drum mic at a very fair price. I can't imagine you not being happy with it. In most cases, zero EQ is required. You can just slap the Audix D6 on a kick drum and know that you are most of the way there. Audix has a winner in the D6 that I can see being around for decades. Best of all, it's not too expensive.

In the blue corner:
Gefell M930s – We are talking about $2k microphones from East Germany. (Yes, I'm aware that Berlin Wall fell decades ago.)

In some other colored corner:
Karma K10s – We are talking about $100 microphones from....I don't know where. I'm guessing they are not East German.

Take a Listen
Gefell M930 vs Karma K10 On Drum Overheads is for member's only so make sure to join today!

Myth #1: All bands should use click tracks
Right out of the gate I want to make it clear that not all bands benefit from click tracks. These are the best of the best musicians that have the ability to groove without need of a click and can explain exactly why they don't need a click from personal experience. These are the bands that have already recorded to a click track before and have made the decision to let the natural talent (and decades of experience) breath through the music. In my experience these are usually musicians who grew up playing back in the day. As of this writing I know of very very few musicians in their 20s who fall into this group. If you didn't make a serious run at getting signed in the 80s this probably isn't you.

Myth #2: A click track guarantees a great performance
Many people look at recording with a click as if it will magically tighten their recording. While most drummers do perform dramatically better with a click track, it's just as easy for less experienced drummers to speed up, hear the click, slow down, hear the click, and speed up again. In this case, the click track is actually making the performance worse. It's a huge problem when drummers “compensate” and therefore hurt the performance in an effort to accommodate to the click track.

Every time a drummer unnaturally speeds up or slows down the groove falls off. Mr. Excited now needs a Viagra pill. You've lost the game. That simply can't happen on a recording.

The drummers who crack under the click track are usually drummers that simply don't practice enough. I don't think playing in time is enormously effected by talent. With proper dedication just about anyone can learn to actually play in time. (Even white people! Har har) However, it does take dedication and most of all awareness. A drummer can't play in time is a drummer who can't drum. Drumming is not about hitting stuff. It's about keeping time in a way that makes the music more exciting. You may be a double bass demon, but if you can't play in time you can an automatic F. If you can't groove, it's time to get busy right now.

Myth #3: A click is about matching the beeps
Some people are convinced that playing to a click is about making the drummer hit a kick on one beep and a snare on another beep. This is an entirely wrong approach in my opinion. A click has nothing to do with “matching beeps to drums”. A click is there to give a drummer a groove from which he can get his mind and body sync'd up to so that he can play his instrument with maximum intensity without any potentially distracting drifts in tempo.

The idea of the click is to convey a sense of groove which the drummer can do his thing to. It's not about rules about when this cymbal or that kick drum should be hit. It's about getting the drummer's head bobbing a little bit so he can get the listener's head bobbing a bit. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Drummers will get ahead of the beat and behind the beat. It happens with the best of drummers. I'm of the opinion that is SHOULD happen sometimes. This is a deviation from the modern tendency to snap drums to a grid, but there is plenty of room for human expression even with a constant tempo.

Myth #4: A click track makes a drummer play unnaturally
The click only causes unnatural playing when the drummer speeds up and slows down to accommodate the click. When a drummer is used to playing in time and keeping a solid groove he should have no problem playing very naturally to the click. In many cases the presentation of the click itself is the problem. For example, if you could replace the beep beep beep sound with a conga percussion loop or an arpeggiated synth no good drummer will have a problem locking in with intensity and excitement.

Drummers that can't play in time (click or not) are asking their listener's to listen unnaturally. We've all been to live shows (usually local bands) where the band is rocking, heads are bobbing, and then all of a sudden heads stop bobbing. People who were dancing, head banging, crowd surfing, etc all of the sudden all look at each other as if confused. Usually the band also looks confused. This shouldn't happen live and it definitely shouldn't happen on a recording.

While it is certainly acceptable for musical to naturally speed up and slow down gradually, it's a totally different thing when the music pulls a herky jerky manuever. The groove is gone.

Myth #5: Click track recordings are stiff
Many bands are afraid their recordings will come out sounding robotic if they record with a click track. Nothing could be further from the truth in my opinion. It's pretty much a given that if you heard a song on the radio in the past 25 years, 95% of these songs were recorded with a click track. While we could all have a field day picking out the bad songs, there are way too many great songs that have been recorded to a click track that excite the hell out of me to assume that a song will automatically lose something simply because it's recorded to a click.

To take it further, a tempo map makes it very easy for a song to breath. I've done songs that didn't feel right at the same bpm for the entire song. I feel that by ramping up the tempo slightly throughout the song I could still maintain groove but dramatically increase intensity as a normal band would probably do anyway. So if a song needs to breath a bit, why not go ahead and put a little extra effort into setting up a tempo map for the click?

Myth #6: Click tracks are there only improve the music
Unfortunately, there are home recording guys who force the click upon bands not because it will improve the music, but because it makes it more convenient to edit, copy and paste (yuck!), or add delays during mixing. In my opinion (ideally speaking) all decisions should be made solely because they improve the music. I would never force a click track onto music where a properly informed band thinks the click would take away from the music, but I would fight like a dog to use a click if I thought the music would improve.

The notion that using a click track makes overdubbing easier should not be undermined. It never fails. There are those bands who refuse to use a click track and do not want to edit their drums who have a break down that ends with a big cymbal crash. A guitar is supposed to play by itself with no way to keep in time and then the entire band blasts back in. This is fine with a live recording where all tracks are keepers. This is not so fine when the band intends to replace the guitars. Some method of time keeping is necessary to keep the guitar playing in time through the break and to let the rest of the band members know when they need to jump back in. I've encountered disasters were a band has wasted hours trying to overdub to a single section like this where no effort was made for time keeping in the future.

The issue is complicated because if the cymbal crash is supposed to ring out and the drummer doesn't want his hi-hat clicks cutting through. It appears that quite a few modern drummers really hate when the hi-hat is in a recording for time keeping purposes even though many of my favorite albums clearly do this. A compromise has to be made and in most cases this compromise is quite a bit of time spent trying to nail the part with no time keeping element.

I'm of the opinion that 99% of all bands should use a click track. If a band is going to be doing ANY overdubbing, we should pull out the click track. If a band is recording live, we can toss that click right out the window. If we are going to keep everything from the live session, there is no need to mess with the click if the band can groove.

Myth #7: Click track recordings sound like dance music
Anyone who assumes that recording a real life human band playing to a click track is going to sound like disco, dance music, or techno is totally out of their mind. The natural human element will always come out even if the drummer plays at a consistent tempo. Even with a constant tempo the drummer can push in fast parts, pull in slower parts, etc. The constant tempo simply means the drummer will have a groove in his head that he can base his performance around.

Some people are afraid of sounding robotic, but let's get real. How many drummers are capable of sounding like precise machines? I know of zero drummers who sound like drum machines. If there was some kind of stupid contest where drummers competed to sound the most robotic, they wouldn't come even close. Humans just don't sound robotic. This is why drum programming is such a pain in the ass and why I just shelled out big bucks on a Pintech E-jam electronic drum kit so I could have a real drummer do my programming for me. So a band that worries about sounding too robotic is a band that falls into Myth #1 land (and those guys can do whatever the hell they want!!!) or is a band that is also scared to death of being struck by lightning before a gig. Get over it!

If you are worried about sounding like a robot by using a click track, you are out of your mind. You are more likely to be struck by lightning AND win the lottery on the same day than you are to sound like a robot on a recording simply because you hear a beep in your headphones. You are completely delusional and clearly show a lack of experience if you really think any human being will sound like a drum machine.

Try editing together three or four different takes from the best drummer you know and you'll quickly discover just how random and non-robotic the best of local drummers really are.

Note: I want to make it clear that there is a huge difference in my opinion in sounding like a robot or quantized drum machine vs a song that should breath a bit and doesn't.

Myth #8: A click must be deafening to be audible to the drummer
While it's no secret that acoustic drums that are hit hard enough to sound good on recordings are going to be ear splitting and a headphone mix must be pretty loud in volume to overcome this, there are many ways to save a drummers hearing.

First off, isolation headphones should be used to dramatically knock down the sound of the drums in the room. This allows us to reduce the volume of the entire headphone mix. Whether you use earbuds from your Icrap mp3 player with the ear muff thingies used for shooting on top or you buy the real deal isolation headphones doesn't matter. You must knock down the volume of the real kit. Be advised that not all isolation headphones are created equal.

Secondly, you should always ask the drummer if he would prefer a double timed click track when applicable. In Cubase this is as simple as changing a 4/4 time signature to an 8/8 time signature. The double timed nature of the click allows the drummer hear the offbeats and is more conducive to getting the drummer to actually groove as opposed to hitting each kick on one beep and one snare on another beep. (As a guitar player, I dramatically prefer a double timed click track when recording parts with no drums.) Best of all, the beeps that happen to land on kicks and snares don't have to be so excruciatingly loud that they overpower the kick and snare in the headphone mix.

Lastly, experimenting with different click sounds can go a long way towards helping the click cut through. I generally select the most annoying, ear-piercing sound I can so that I the click will easily cut through a mix and I can actually turn the level down. There are different philosophies on the click sound so go with your gut.

Myth #9: The big boys don't need a click
There is this implication that the big boys don't use all kinds of tools we have available at our disposal. Whether it's click tracks, drum sample layering, crazy editing tricks, or anything in between we never really know what the big boys are using for a given session. To assume that musical talent makes various tools unnecessary suggests to me that a person doesn't understand the point of the tools.

I know one thing is for sure. The big time engineers, producers, and bands aren't basing critical decisions on what some other band is doing. The real deal engineers and producers make a decision because of what will sound best or be the most musically effective. Years of experience and a willingness to listen is what makes the difference.

Simply using this or that tactic because someone else did it is a ridiculous reason to force any method, trick, or tactic on a song. You should use a method because it makes the music more effective in your specific situation. Even if you really had a crystal ball and could see what your favorite bands were using in the studio, it still wouldn't help you in the unique situation you face today.

Myth #10: Click tracks are annoying to drummers
Not every drummer is annoyed by click tracks. Some drummers love them. Drummers that have their groove and timing down can focus on creating the most exciting performance without putting too much thought into their timing. As long as they keep their body bobbing to the click, the performance will take care of itself.

The drummers who are annoyed by click tracks are either so damn good that they feel they don't need them (again, Myth #1) or they are just avoiding the fact that they aren't that good of drummer. I'm not that good of guitar player. If there was some easy way to illustrate the fact that I wasn't that good, I probably wouldn't want it displayed the world either. I can see why so many drums are anti-click. However, insecurity and incompetence is not a good reason to despise a particular tool. If this is you, it's time to get busy and put the time into your craft and only then can you form an educated, informed opinion on click tracks!

Conclusion
A click track can be an extremely valuable tool to aid drummers in cranking out the most exciting drum tracks possible. It's not the end all solution for “perfect” drums, however. It has it's downsides and this is going to have a negative effect on the bands that are so damn good at grooving that they don't need it. I'm of the opinion that there are way too bands out there who don't naturally groove and are going to sound sloppy and downright bad without a click track. These bands dramatically outnumber the bands who feel the click is limiting.

It's up to you to decide if your musical will benefit from a click track. There is only one way to find out. A drummer who has put in the hours practicing to a click track should go into the studio and try recording a song with and without a click track. When the band puts the instruments down and listens to the two possibilities, they can then decide what sounds best for their music.

It needs to be said that if the drummer hasn't put the time into practicing with a click track, he's not a drummer yet (or at least he had better be naturally gifted at grooving). To toss a drummer into a situation where a beep is “telling him how to drum” is not only irresponsible, it's probably going to result in the drummer falling prey to Myth #2.

For an overwhelming majority of the world's favorite songs, a click track has been a useful tool. This doesn't mean the click track is right for you, but it does mean the click track is right for most situations.