Snare drum fixin...
Had to fix my snare drum. Ive been having this problem where the top drum head seems to slip past the rim as i tighten it down. Turns out the actual woodshell of the drum is bending into it self(kinda like a cone...). So my soulution? Flip it.
First, i removed both heads and the snares.(and i got a great tip from Larry (sound dude at old i) about getting the snares super tight, more on that later..)Then i took of the tensioner arm. This piece (on my drum at least) was easy to remove and easy to just flip around. On the other side of the drum is a adjustable clamp that i decided to leave there, id have to drill new holes, so i left it alone. I wrangled up an old kick drum head that ive been saving. I cut out a long enough strip to hold the snares in place of the clamp side. since flipping the drum now places this clamp further away, i needed a longer "strip".
So next i put the bottom head on the new bottom(the one that is curving inwards) and it fit fine, i was able to tighten it up nicely with out it slipping out, maybe the bottom head is just a little bigger? now i tried out the tensioner arm. Got the straps locked in place and tightened it up, but it just didnt sit well. seems as if its not getting tight enough. Didnt bother with it much and got the top head back on. No problems, still wanted to slip out, but i centered the rim best i could and went with it.
I played the snare a little and was happy enough with it.
Later i got to Old Ironsides for our show. PLayed the snare as i set it up and noticed it realy ringy and hollow. So this means that the snares are not tight enough, they are just rattlin against the head, rather than snappin. So what was happenin was that i had the snares set to where i thought they'd be best at, but then i tightened the bottom head more, which inturn pulled away fromt he snares. Ak, it was frustrating, but we nailed it down. Larry gave me a screwdriver and i went at it. Pulled the strap tight and then screwed the clamp in place. Still sorta ringy. Larry said to loosen the tensioner arm, tighten the snares and then tighten the tensioner arm. WOW! that got the snares upclose and personal!
It might have been a little too tight, but now its easy to adjsut it where i like it. perfect.
Looks like Sunshine Smile is headed over for Vocals tomorrow morning. Should be fun to *finaly* get that project done....
Goin out to Dig-Doug Studio tonight for some Munia recording. Listening to what we did last time right now in fact. Thinkin that the vocals sound great, just right on top, and not mixed in at all, but we can fix that in mixing. i think they were good takes too, so munia might get all finished up today, and if so i can start working on putting the cd together!
FRENCHMEN
Well the recording session went off without problems, mostly.
Again we put up the drums in the living room.
kick akgd112
snare top sm57
snare bottom beta sm56
rtom sm57
ftom sm57
overhead rode nt-4
hihats akg c1000
we bussed the kick and snare to individual tracks on the adat.
then we bussed the racktom, and left over head to tk3, and the ftom and right overhead to tk4. hihats went to track 5, we werent sure if we were going to like the sound of them during mixing, so we gave it its own track.
we got the drum sounds by a different method that im used to, but it worked rather well. first, solo the drum and get your level. then we had Charles play the whole set, but we were still soloing the mic, to hear the bleed. we did that mainly for the kick/snare/tom gates. the kick needed some compression too. we did that for each channel(mic) solo it out, then listen to the whole kit. After all of that we had Charles go and play again, but this time all the mics were up so we could hear and make a decent mix for the headphones.
We set up the two guitar amps in the kitchen, facing away from each other, and the bass guitar all the way in the back bedroom. The over all sound was pretty good, and the seperation wasnt all that bad.
Spent some time getting the right headphone mixes to everyone and after about 4 hours all together we were up and running. we will be doing the vocals out at dig-doug studios within the next few weeks.
PETS are coming over tonight to finish everything up and prepare for final mixing. Hopefully i can get some pics up soon.
