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Prepping Drums for Recording by Keith Rawlings “Most ...

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Prepping Drums for Recording by Keith Rawlings

“Most engineers would probably agree that recording a drum kit is one of the most challenging studio tasks” (Steve La Cerra, 24).

As recording drums is a naturally difficult task, every small detail must be accounted for. Included in this list of details are the acoustics of the drums themselves. As La Cerra notes “Obtaining a high-quality recording is a struggle when you start with a source that sounds bad” (24). In more simple terms, the higher the performance from the drum, the easier it is to obtain a high-quality recording. Engineers worry about mic placement, and mic/preamp combination’s, but the real difference in drum recording comes before you plug in the electronics. The article “Prepping Drums for Recording” in Tape Op #79, by Steve La Cerra gives many tips to help fix the small problems the common engineer has with recording drums.

There are many different parts of a drum that could produce a positive or negative effect, the most noticeable usually the bearing edge. The bearing edge is the part of the shell the head rests on. On older drums, such as drums made before the 1970’s, the bearing edge was round and wide. Today’s drums consist of a sharp and narrow edge. This edge must be the correct shape, as its job is to support a vibrating element without changing the motion of that element. A flaw in this edge could potentially cause a buzz or rattle as the drum is struck. Some shells have bad edges from being crafted wrong; others can also slowly lose shape as the wood warps or dents. It is important to be sure that with your drum, this is not the case.

La Cerra explains a simple way of checking this edge. With the rims and heads removed, set the drum on a flat piece of glass and slide a piece of paper against the edge of the drum. The bearing edge should stop the paper from passing between the drum and the glass. If it does so, the edge is strait. The drum could also be “out of round” meaning it has somehow become an oval shape. This could cause the drum to be more difficult to tune. If the shell is not strait you can either replace it or take it to a shop that specializes in re-cutting the edges to make them true. In a studio, time is money.

Getting the sound that you want out of each drum is very time consuming. The initial tuning of the drum kit before the recording is started could take hours. To tune a drum, you loosen or tighten bolts that pull down on the rim. The farther down the rim is pulled, the tighter it holds the head. Each bolt must have the same tension or the drum will have bad overtones. If the edge of the drum is not strait, the tensions of each bolt will have to be different to pull each part of the head the same amount. Finding each of these tensions is a very time consuming task. La Cerra’s knowledge of this and his ways to fix this could cut the task of tuning drums in half.

Steve also gives a few tips for small affects on the drum such as lightly rubbing a candle on the bearing edge to let the head vibrate more easily. Check and tighten all screws and bolts to avoid rattles. If your drum was manufactured with a muffler inside the shell you may want to remove them. They tend to create rattles and unwanted overtones. In the 1990’s and earlier, lugs (the part of the drum that the tension rod screws into to hold the rim down) had springs inside of them to hold the retaining nuts in place. These springs tend to rattle and create unwanted noise. To eliminate this noise, La Cerra suggests filling all lugs with cotton or foam rubber. This can be done to all hardware, including tom mounts. Tension rods pass through holes in the rim. Normally there will be a metal washer between the rod and the rim. Replacing this washer with a nylon or plastic one of the same size will reduce the amount of metal on metal contact that can create noise. With Much experience in the studio, Steve has learned that mics pick up every sound made, wanted and unwanted. By reducing the amount of unwanted sounds the drums cause, less work and time must be spent by the engineer mastering a recording to remove the unwanted.

All of La Cerra’s ideas are used to fine-tune the performance of a studio set, as demonstrated in the video embedded here. It is surprising how much change is noticeable from these suggestions. What is most noticeable is how much less time it takes to dial in the sound you want from the drums. Thisis easier because the source has been improved. “When the source sounds good, making a successful recording becomes much easier” (28).

Steve La Cerra. “Prepping Drums for Recording.” Tape Op. September / October, 2010: #79 pg. 24-28.

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