5 inches minimum

so this is installment #2 in my continuing series entitled "don't be a moron." today we are going to talk about drum depth. (volume one can be found here)

1st - if you are in a rock/pop/alternative country band, and you are playing a bass drum that is less than 18 inches in diameter, then you are a moron. no, it doesnt sound good. no, it doesnt sound the same as my 28 inch kick drum because you put XYZ kind of heads on it.
- side note - that big vinyl pad you stuck on the beater head makes it sound worse. yes, congratulations, you made your $20 head last 6 years. ps it sounded like crap for 6 years.

2nd - if i ask you to try out the big bass drum, or my new favorite, the big snare drum, i am not insulting you. i, like you, actually would prefer to have your album sound as good as possible. please understand, i own 3 drum sets, and I DO NOT PLAY DRUMS!!! i did not buy them to fill up my storage room in the basement, i bought them TO HELP YOU SOUND BETTER!!! i wont even ask for a credit

3rd - ATTENTION ALL DRUMMERS!!!! PICCOLO SNARE DRUMS SUCK!!!!!! yes, they are indeed louder. guess what, i can turn up a snare just as easily as i can turn down your crappy piccolo snare. if you listen to 311 records and think that the drums sound awesome, please, lets not work together. lets limit the snare drums to at least 5 inches deep.

(dont even get me started on those acrylic snares with the huge holes in the sides.)

now, all of that being said, i need to say that i didnt have these problems today with tim. he doesnt like piccolo snares, his kick drum is a 20 inch, and we've been using the 24 inch ludwig a fair bit as well.

he was however, a tad apprehensive about the big bass drum and especially the big snare drum, which i think is 12 inches deep. anyway, i pushed, he pretended not to hear. after a few minutes i pushed again, this time he conceded, timidly.

and guess what, surprise surprise, both those drums rock. these are man drums, so take that piccolo snare and store your potpourri and doilies in it, cause it aint welcome here.

Chris Merritt day numero uno

i'm tired. last night paul jacobsen and i stayed up muy late and FINISHED THE RECORDING of his epic second album. this is very big news, and luckily we went out with a bang and a great last track.

cut to this morning at 7am and me not really wanting to start the first day of a project on 3.5 hours of sleep.

but i finished the setup, and we got rolling right on time.

let's meet the band shall we?

first up, mr chris merritt - piano, vocal

senior dustin hofheins - bass

monsieur tim fellow - drums

today we got 3 songs down - bass, piano and drums live. this is a boring post. sorry, as i said i'm tired, and american idol is on the tivo, and sarah made me a milkshake that i want to drink, and i'm tired.

in nerd news today:

drums got the usual with the slight exception of my version of the glyn johns technique on the overheads, with the blue kiwi over the snare and the aea r84 looking over the floor tom at the snare.

bass got the avalon u5 for direct, and then the subkick combined with an audio technica atm25 on and amp - either an ampeg svt, an ampeg b-15n or the ampeg b-50r.

now, for piano. in an efforto to be prepared for whatever may come, the piano was well-mic'd. by well mic'd, i mean 7 MICS! thats 5 more than usual. overkill? yes. bases covered? check.


yeah, that's a lot of microphones.

57's over the hammers, km-184s under the lid, u-87s in x-y on the edge, and (not pictured) a 414 down at the end.

ok, that is all. here are more pictures.

should you aspire to my occupation...

If you do what I do, you will work long hours

If you do what I do, you will be feel lucky to be able to continue making music all day, while your friends have to answer to their boss and deal with TPS reports.

If you do what I do, you will sit. A lot.

If you do what I do, guitars and amplifiers will be a tax write-off.

If you do what I do, you will rarely be outdoors.

If you do what I do, you will always crave new equipment, sure that it will be the key to great sonic improvements and the doorway to huge success.

If you do what I do, you will feel proud to be able to help people realize a dream.

If you do what I do, you will rarely be out during normal business hours, and as such, you will find yourself longing for the opportunity to go to such stupid places as comp usa and the mall.

If you do what I do, you will need an incredibly supportive, independent wife who is willing to put up with the weird schedule and won't be too mad when "I'll be home at 7pm turns into, "I'll be by 7am."

If you do what I do, you will be lucky to do a job you love, even when some of the time you hate it.

If you do what I do you, most of the time you will realize you aren't nearly as good as your peers, but every once in a while you will find that you are.

If you do what I do, you will not be paid as well as the arrogant, baseball hat wearing, enormous lifted truck driving, alarm system selling 23 year olds that work in the same building as you do.
(they will also look at you as if you are not nearly cool enough to be in their presence)

If you do what I do, you will ache to have the time to have your car washed. It will achieve a new level of dirty not seen before in the county in which you live. The dirt will actually add size to the car. In fact, you will be so desperate to just have the 30 minutes to have your car washed that not only will you pay to have it washed, but you will pay to have it WAXED as rain and snow are literally falling blocks away.

i am not diligant

alright, well, who ever said i was, i mean really. come on, im a flake, ive come to accept it, and the sooner you can, the better off our relationship will be.

so here is something to catch you up:

first, got through all the shupe mixes. that was indeed boring. not the music, but the process of mixing. no surprises there.

second, spent a good amount of time, enough time in fact to actually be within hours of finishing the long awaited paul jacobsen record. yes, it's been 2 years in the making, but my oh my it is one very good album, and frankly, probably could not have been done any quicker. here is a quick paul jacobsen album recording montage:

photos from the montana cabin sessions, george brunt plays bass, the wonderful pat campbell on drums, paul in the hallway of the old studio, the chart

so cross your fingers and hope we are at Lurssen Mastering on Mar 10th.

the last couple of days, in addition to some paul j stuff, have found me recording drums for the very talented Jenny Jordan Frogley, finishing Ryan Shupe mixes and last minute overdubs, and drums with the excellant Aaron Anderson for his band Good Morning Maxfield.

here we see aaron daring to take on the Big bass drum

join us monday night, feb 25th for the first of many sessions on the road to a finished album by the amazing Chris Merritt.

adios

high notes per minute ratio

click to see that one

well, in case anyone is missing some notes, you can come on down to june audio studio a, cause we got A TON.

that's right, jazz.

corey christiansen, matt jorgensen, pat bianchi, and david halliday. these guys are all amazing players, and it is very impressive to watch them play.
i must admit to not knowing anything about jazz, and this is the type of jazz that doesnt make me want to throw up, but still...

clearly im not the target market here. because this just sounds like a whole lot of notes. but it has been enjoyable, everyone is nice as can be and i'm fairly happy with the sounds.

nerd talk:
corey, matt and pat all in the large room. leslie behind baffles. corey's amps in small iso booth, david in the large iso.
drums -
kick - beta 52, blue mouse
snare - 452 and 57 taped together on top, 57 on bottom
toms - atm25's
oh's - blue bottle mics with b0 capsule, aea r88 stereo ribbon mic
crotch mic - 421

b3 - top 421 x2, bottom - beta 52

guitar - 57 and royer on both amps

sax - aea r84 and blue kiwi

im also using pats talkback mic as a room mic every once in a while

mixing=boring

man oh man. mixing is soooooo boring. shupe asked me if i'd rather have someone else mix this, but that's the problem. not that none of the other great engineers around wouldnt do a great job, but they wouldnt do it how i would want it. so, tough crap wiley, you're gonna be bored for a week.
anyway, there was mixing, there was listening in the car, there was lots of "oh, we forgot to record this, can we still put that in?"
it was boring.

here are the highlights from the last week: