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.