Recording - January 2020 - 28

Recording

Drums On Low
at Home
Are the tracks on the new album actual
compositions vs. improvs or drum solos?

I would say maybe three-quarters of it was improvised within
the context of an idea. I'd get an idea for a melody or a rhythmic concept, I'd play it and maybe do two or three passes of
it, or a couple of different versions if possible.

Where did your ideas or concepts come
from?

Part of it came down to the tones of the drums I was using;
essentially, the sound of the instrument was inspiring me to do
something, and I would follow that direction. Sometimes that
one-time pass would become the song. Some things were more
planned out regarding song length, feel, and even the drum
setups and tuning.

So, you had some self-imposed parameters.

I never wanted this to be about drum pyrotechnics-I never wanted to think drumtastically [laughs]. I thought, let's not
worry about drummers, but more about what it would be
like if played on a piano or a guitar. When playing melodic
instruments you leave more space, where drum playing tends
to be fast. If you stop thinking like a drummer and try to think
about the song, you might let things develop, or pause-can
we make some whole notes happen somehow?

How many drum kits did you use? Did you
stick to a specific kit, or mix and match?

I have three Ludwig kits, but for about three-quarters of the
album, I used a set of 1970's Ludwig Vistalites.

What is it that you like about Vistalites?
They're kind of polarizing-drummers
either love 'em or hate 'em.

I think a lot of people hear with their eyes when it comes
to the Vistalites. I dig them, and I do think they look cool.
People say they're bright or boxy, but I feel like tone is something you make with your tuning, your head choices, and
your stick choices.
I'm not going to say that there are no differences between
types of woods, plastics and metals, but I feel like you can
shape it any way you want to.
Another reason I chose this kit is because it has two rack
toms and two floor toms-none of my other kits do. Funny
thing: the Vistalite kit is usually my practice kit. When I set it up
for recording the album, the heads were all mismatched; some
had been on the drums for five, six, seven years, but for this
project, the sounds were working.
28 RECORDING January 2020

When and why did you swap out to
another set?

After I had a bunch of tracks recorded, I stagnated with my
ideas. I broke everything apart and brought out my black 2016
Ludwig kit. I set up a djembe as a second, left-foot kick drum.
I also did some songs with multiple snares, played the kit with
my hands, and used lots of different types of sticks and mallets
for different sounds. I played mini shakers from Meinl that have
buffalo heads on them, played them super soft, getting only the
drum sound rather than the sound of the shaker.

What about cymbals?

I didn't mess with my cymbals much. I really only used maybe one cymbal on the album other than changing the high hats.
I didn't want a lot of cymbals on the album in general.

When tuning the drums, were you
tuning to standard pitches?
No, I just went for relative pitches from one drum to the next.

In addition to minimal cymbals, there's
not a lot of typical rock kick drum.

For the album, and especially when I play these pieces live, I
swap out my kick drum beater a lot. My favorite is a big bomberstyle felt beater. For some of the tracks, I taped a sock onto it
to make it even softer.

More for tone than for chest-thumping
punch.

Yes, and I also had the bass drum wide open-nothing in it
for dampening. Then I have an old 1930s external muffler to
alter the tone, which I also used on the djembe.

Let's get into the technical stuff and the
gear.

My rig is pretty basic. I have an older Focusrite Liquid Saffire
56, and a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40. Those are my interfaces. For
preamps, I've got a Seventh Circle eight-channel preamp with
four N72 Neve-style pres and four A12B units, which bring the
API flavor. I also have a Focusrite ISA Two, a TL Audio 2051,
and an ART Pro MPA II. I don't even know if I used all of them;
most of the time I was running about six tracks for the complete
kit. Kick, snare, djembe, one mic between the two floor toms
and one between the two rack toms, and then an overhead
mono mic. I never mic the high hat.

Which microphones?

The djembe was miked with an AKG 451. The kick was
a Beyerdynamic M88. My overhead was a Beyerdynamic
M160, and for the toms I mixed it up between a Shure SM7
and an AKG D112, usually with one mic per two toms. At
one point, there was something weird with the D112, and I
flipped the SM7 down to the floors and put a Shure SM57
between the racks.

Recording - January 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - January 2020