Who Wants Drums?

[Invisible Man]

Been kicking around the idea since DRod's collaborative thread came up a few months ago.

There are tons of guitar-centric people here who write and record music, but something I hear a lot is that it kinda falls flat without percussion/drums. Programming them with a DAW/plugins is painful; drum machines are cool, but they're not for everyone.

What if you sent me (or any other interested drummers on the forum) .wav files, and I sent back recording of acoustic drums tailored to those tunes? I use a couple micing methods simultaneously. One on the kick, one overhead, one super close miced, one room mic--and I usually leave the close mic clipped to shit so it's distorted, or run through an interesting dirt pedal. You could have all of those tracks, maybe a couple takes, and you could add/chop/edit to your black heart's content.

So here's what I propose:

1) Send me audio files (.wav, .mp3) of whatever you want drums added to. There should be a separate track for a click, as it's just too aggravating to sync up otherwise. It also guarantees I'm not playing to your wack-ass time, and means people won't just send random shit. Click tracks are the great filter.

2) Send notes on what you're going for or what you want. Maybe a reference to a style/sound/production technique you admire or would like to get close to, or maybe the names of drummers you think are rad.

3) I record stuff, send it back. You do with it what you want.

We could also share or make the files public so that folks can edit or remix stuff to their liking, which would be a fun project. People can work on their production chops with music made by internet friends, and we could all access it, build on it, and provide notes.

Eh? Any takers?

*Notes: I don't play double bass, though I have a pretty quick single-stroke foot. I'm a capable drummer, and have played in a lot of bands (touring and local), been a drum tech, worked in drum shops, &c. I'm not the best with traditional metal drumming, though there's some interesting stuff you can do with non-metal drums in that context. I play 'heavy' music, just not the trigger-and-replace-double-bass-running stuff you'll hear on a lot of records. I love Jon Theodore, John Stanier, Dave King, Mark Guiliana, Tomas Haake, Zach Hill, Akira Kawasaki, &c.

[D.o.S.]

This is fucking rad.

[Lurker13]

This is fucking rad.

Totally!

IM, this is a very generous offer. If I ever feel inspired enough to record again, I will definitely take you up on this. Thanks in advance.

[Iommic Pope]

I want to get in on this but I need some gear to record with.
Although I might be able to get some scratch tracks out on my practice amp.
DoS you wanna collab some post bongcore to send to Iman?

[worra]

This is rad as shit. I'd get down on this as well, but in the capacity of being the drummer. I've got recording gear so if Invisible Man gets swamped I'd be down to do this as well!

[$harkToootth]

If I am not mistaken Zach Hill does not use a double bass either? Or at least he did not in his early HELLA days ('Hold Your Horse Is' is my favorite HELLA album). All quick single-strokes.
Echoing everything said. This is really cool!

[D.o.S.]

I want to get in on this but I need some gear to record with.
Although I might be able to get some scratch tracks out on my practice amp.
DoS you wanna collab some post bongcore to send to Iman?

Of course dude. Just PM me.

[Invisible Man]

If I am not mistaken Zach Hill does not use a double bass either? Or at least he did not in his early HELLA days ('Hold Your Horse Is' is my favorite HELLA album). All quick single-strokes.
Echoing everything said. This is really cool!

No he never has that I'm aware of. But he obviously doesn't need one. Like pretty much all human drummers, I'm not at his level, though I've stolen some elements of what he does.

[Olin]

This is a really generous proposition and I'll 100% be in touch about some drums that I'd love done live/not digitised at all.

[$harkToootth]

No he never has that I'm aware of. But he obviously doesn't need one. Like pretty much all human drummers, I'm not at his level, though I've stolen some elements of what he does.

I am not a drummer but I was reading this interview with Dave Witte and the interviewer explained some "cheats" this one drummer when taking Witte's place as the touring drummer for DISCORDANCE AXIS.

I'm a big fan of the first two HEALTH albums.apparently those guys told their drummer to just not use the crash cymbal. I happen to like a lot of toms myself. How unreal would it be to ask a drummer not to use ANY cymbals in a recording? Work with this thought, imagining the kit is not the limitation.

[Invisible Man]

Yeah I love HEALTH, too. No crash cymbals and lots of mixes run through an SL-20 (Boss slicer). I've recorded stuff with another drummer where we each pick parts of kits and stick to just those. He gets snare and cymbals, I get kick and toms, for example.

I'm super up for weird stuff like that--I do it already. Remove a part of a kit, add a weird noisemaker. I have lots of junk laying around to help with that, along with a couple snares and spare cymbals.

And regarding the Zach Hill fakery: ghost notes everywhere and on everything, dude.

[Iommic Pope]

I want to get in on this but I need some gear to record with.
Although I might be able to get some scratch tracks out on my practice amp.
DoS you wanna collab some post bongcore to send to Iman?

Of course dude. Just PM me.

You the best.

[Invisible Man]

I want to get in on this but I need some gear to record with.
Although I might be able to get some scratch tracks out on my practice amp.
DoS you wanna collab some post bongcore to send to Iman?

Sell one pedal, buy a cheap interface, an XLR cable and an SM57. Download Audacity for free. Approximately $150 and you're golden.

I know you're capable of figuring this out, I just wanted to make it clear to anyone reading that there's a low barrier to entry. And I can coach people through putting together a click. I know it's unsexy to lay down a click, but I'm not gonna sweat over a bunch of sloppy fuzzed-out guitars and try to keep up with tempo changes. It also means that anyone could cut and paste any part of tracks at the same bpm cadavre exquis-style.

[Iommic Pope]

Yo, this is a solution Ive been looking into for a long time, but youve just pushed me to triggerpoint.
I've done a bit of recording in the past with bands i was in, so I'm not completely clueless but I'm certainly out of the loop.
If youre using that program, then thats probably easiest.

[samzadgan]

this is cool...i would love to do it...but my timing is non-existent