Recording Examples

Trial and error

1. Ave Maria(Aug.3, 2013 first video) -- Too much gate effect with brand new gate boxes (threshold was too high)
2. Sweating Home Rock Drummer -- gate threshold adjusted at very low
3. Your John Hancock
4. Air on the G-string -- cymbals are a little bit weak (balance)
5. Art of Walking
6. What's going on
7. 25 or 6 to 4 -- too much low freq? added snare bottom mic.

   Light compression (about 2:1 or less) on all mics
   Eq:
   overhead -- low cut -3dB to -6dB at 100Hz (for cymbals and whole kit)
   snare -- low cut -3dB at 80Hz (my snare sound is too heavy)
   high, mid tom -- low cut -3dB at 40Hz
   floor tom -- no eq
   bass drum -- no eq (kickport installed)
   
   Reverb: lightly applied to all mics. A little bit deeper on snare.
   A) Pre-recorded tracks -- ZOOM R24 (max 24 tracks) --> earphone (click can be added)
   B ) Live drum sounds -- ZOOM R16(max 8 input, mix and/or record)
   A and B are mixed with small analog mixer and fed to the video camera (ZOOM Q3HD)
   

8. Happy Hour -- drum tuning and new cymbals

   Around 1999 Yamaha Stage Custom (not all birch):
   
      Bass: 22 inch  Remo Powerstroke 3(top)/Power stroke + KickPort (no mute)
   
      Toms: 12, 13, 16(floor)  Remo Pinstripes clear/Controlled Sound clear
                  only top and bottom of 12 tom is slightly muted  
                with Evance MIN-Emad to avoid resonance from snare
      Snare: Ludwig LM402 with Remo Emperor X/Emperor  -- very thick
                 + GRETSCH / G-5412 (42 wires) 
            + top head is slightly muted with smallest MIN-EMAD
      Tuning pitch:   13(G), 12(B ), snare (D), 16(lower D)
           -- in major chord G. I am still working for better tuning.
   
   Cymbals
      Hi hat Zildjan Z3 master sound
      16 Crash Z3 medium(new)
      18 Crash A Zijdian medium heavy (Z3 medium was out of stock)(new)
      20 Ride Z3 medium heavy(new)
   
   8 mics (compressed a little and plate type reverb is added)
      Samson cheap 7 mic set
         Overhead stereo pair condenser mic (X-Y position)
         Bass (aimed to Kickport hall at 60 degree) -- phase inverted
         3 toms -- slightly gated
         snare top
      + snare bottom (with very cheap dynamic mic) -- phase inverted
   

9. Midnight Blues -- fine tune gate and comp

   1) cut low freq from the play along track (I felt bass guitar is too loud)
   2) Gate/comp are used while recording (because my recorder does not have gate)
        Comp: kick 6:1, snare 3:1, others: 4:1
   3) Plate Reverb added on drums and guitar tracks
   4) Drum tracks are slightly maximized with stereo 3-band compressors (built-in)
   5) Final mix is maximized with ZOOM HandyShare(free software)
      (replaced with post-processed stereo track maximized with ZOOM R16 built-in
      3 band compressor(maximizer).
   

10. Surfin' Spaggetti -- same as Midnight Blues
11. Drummer Boy -- almost same as Midnight Blues but "ultra maximized" with ZOOM Handyshare