Thoughts about drum rooms
Mikael Wikman
If you want to achieve great sound from your drum kit, the room you’re recording in is a huge factor in producing optimal sound. Finding a room with the right balance, character and acoustics to compliment your drums, especially in a recording, might be bit of a challenge. Many rooms in home studios are often too small, too live, too dead, too bright or too dark, and it can be a mess to compensate for bad room modes in a mix. Another issue with drums is that they are very loud by nature, and neighbors can present another challenge when choosing a room for a home studio. Putting that to the side for now, we’ll look at some interesting options you can consider when setting up a recording space.
When I started to build my own drum studio, I realized that there was a huge range of options available to construct a great drum room. It took me a few years, plenty of experimentation and some great help from studio designer Philip Newell before I finally achieved a sound from my room that I really enjoy.
In this article, I would like to share a few drum room concepts that all have their place within famous recordings and that have historically contributed to plenty of great drum sounds.
A conversation with Derek Jones!
Mikael Wikman
Derek Jones is the Director of Production & Creative Services, Producer, and Chief Engineer at Megatrax Production Music and Megatrax Recording Studios in LA. His experiences with recording drums are vast and truly amazing. He has recorded world famous drummers like Vinnie Colaiuta, Gregg Bissonette, Mike Portnoy, Bernie Dresel, Gary Novak, Joe Travers, Nate Morton, Walfredo Reyes, Jr, and so on. Last year Derek produced 140 albums, among them some amazing recordings with a full orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in London.
Megatrax is the one of the largest independently owned music library in the in the world. Their music is licensed in over 60 countries on a daily basis. They are also one of the few music libraries to own and maintain their own historic, world-class recording studios in Los Angeles, CA. Here you can hear all the various music Megatrax has done on their website: http://www.megatrax.com
Share this with your friends
