Ryan's Gig Guide - September 2019

The Lies Of Recording Drums Recording music at home sounds wonderful till the band asks “What about the drum kit?”. Rather than buy sixteen microphones to record the kit a decision to compromise or downsize is normally adopted. In the digital age there’s drum machines, torrents of programable drum loops and Apps you can download to mimic realistic beats but it often means your drummer isn’t really appearing on your CD; so it’s a big fat lie. Fortunately, most drummers aren’t intelligent enough to notice artificial drums on a song or even realise they weren’t in any band recording sessions. Importance of Electric Drum Kits An electric kit which resembles an IKEA toddlers activity table is the most flattering way to accurately capture your drummers playing style in a home studio set up.This is because when any of its rubber pads are beaten, the sensors underneath relay a voltage value to a sound module that translates that value to trigger a particular sound. Plus the velocity of the strike is calculated into a dynamic value to reproduce softer or louder articulations.To any drummers struggling to read this; basically it sounds just like you playing the drums. The Spider Web of Home Recording Purchasing a top of the range vocal microphone is necessary if you’re recording your own music at home and expect professional results but it’s also like justifying buying an expensive Olympic Javelin knowing that you’ll have to consider a Sports career afterwards.You’ll be torn between investing time and money on equipment, learning how to use it and spending less time with your band mates writing music. Once you’ve gained more sound engineering knowledge you’ll naturally want to experiment and suggest recording others in order to harvest more experience; plus build a studio in the garden for your overpriced microphone to sit in.Arguably the total cost for producing a professional sounding album in the comfort of your own home after sound proofing your bedroom, stocking up on mics, subscribing to and studying online audio mixing classes plus upgrading software so that you can handle storing a quadrillion terabytes of data is likely more expensive, time consuming and less practical than financing a fortnight in a well-equipped luxury recording studio with a credible engineer. On the plus side, if you’ve your own home studio you can record yourself as many times as you want; providing you can spare the time.You’ll likely become a fulltime business recording other musicians instead. That’s all for this month. Don’t get too stressed if you disagree with anything I’ve written, I know I certainly won’t. If it’s your first time reading this series then welcome to the magical world of the music industry.Ta Ta. Nick J Townsend is the frontman and guitarist for British bandWeak13. An experienced Underground musician and music promoter, film producer, all round good guy & supporter of original music. www.ryansgigguide.com rgg Sep 2019 33