EQ Magazine - February 2008 - (Page 58)

DRUM HEADS TRYM TORSON TAKEN WITH PERMISSION FROM EMPERORHORDE.COM shorter tom sounded way better. If the shell is too deep, the sound reflects back upon itself, and sound against sound reduces the volume. So I’m really glad I ordered the power toms—I didn’t even change the heads that came with them. I’ve got 8"x7", 10"x8", 12"x9", and 14"x11" rack toms, and 16"x16" and 18"x16" floor toms. “Here’s what I do to get a big tom sound. First, I make sure the tone of the toms is optimum for producing a thundering recorded sound. I have this tuning instrument that you just put on the rim, and it tells you the tension of the head.The manual gives you rough guidelines about how a tom should be tuned if you want a certain sound. So I did all the top-head tunings to make the toms fairly high, so you can hear the attack.Then, I tuned the bottom heads a pitch down to get the low frequencies. It can be a nightmare to get the lower heads right— it’s so easy for them to get out of tune. “We used one microphone to record each tom, but we split the signal to two Torson unleashing his mammoth tom-tom assault in the studio. separate tracks. One track was used to bring out the attack, so you could hear all the hits I played. There was no low end at all on this track. The other track was worked to make the tom sound as good as possible— round, rumbling, and intense.This method allowed us to produce all the power and all the attack of the toms. “Even with this method, though, the recordings never come out the way I want them. It’s the best we can do, but I guess you can’t have everything you want. I can’t make my drums sound like machine guns and like an old Led Zeppelin record at the same time. In addition, the drums have to sound good with the rest of the music. For example, when I recorded IX Equilibrium, I had an amazing tom sound in the beginning, but there was so much low end that it drowned out the guitar. So we had to cut a lot of the tone in the toms. It seems you always have to compromise!” Customize your Reprints REPRINTS EPRINTS PLAQUES POSTERS Reprints offer a powerful statement about your product, service or company. Customize your editorial content into a strong marketing tool by inserting a company logo, adding highlights to bring out stronger points or place an advertisement to capture your targeted audience. Reprints can be used as: • Tradeshow Handouts • Media Kits • Point of Purchase Displays • Direct Mail Campaigns Call today 877- 652-5295 and allow our reprint coordinator to assist you with some proven marketing ideas. 58 EQ FEBRUARY 2008 www.eqmag.com http://EMPERORHORDE.COM http://www.deepwavemusic.com http://www.hearback.com http://www.hearback.com http://www.hearback.com http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - February 2008

EQ Magazine - February 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Punch In Toolbox The Book of Knots HIM Avenged Sevenfold Capture Your Band Live Rompler Rooms: Workstation Domination Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Motu Digital Performer Ableton Live 7 AMS Neve 8801 Channel Strip Apogee Duet Roland VG-99 Adobe Audition 3 Digidesign Strike IK Multimedia ARC East West Voices of Passion, Sony Seven Minutes to Midnight, Big Fish Rock Star Room with a VU

EQ Magazine - February 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.