When recording in the studio, drummers (and especially engineers) have a tendency to muffle and cover the drums with all sorts of things. Gaffer's tape, towels, wallets, t-shirts. Sometimes this is done to achieve a certain effect (for example, the "Ringo" sound), while other times it's just an attempt to control the natural overtones of the drums. For a good example of a heavily muffled drum sound, just listen to any album recorded by The Eagles.
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Chris "Daddy" Dave shows us how to take crosstick back beats to another level while playing with Me'shell N'degeocello.
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One of my good friends, a fellow drummer and former classmate, offered me the chance to 'babysit' his cymbals this week. He was going down to New Orleans for Jazz Fest and, knowing that I was busy recording a series of loop packs, was kind of enough to loan me his vast array of cymbals.
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When I set up to record today, I felt like a kid in a candy store. I had two cases FULL of various cymbal...
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Legendary crooner, Paul Anka, gives his band a little bit of friendly advice between sets.
Click below for the lesson:
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The always-in-the-pocket, Steve Jordan, shows us how to break things down with the guitarist. This is exactly how ghost notes should be played.
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I still remember my first Modern Drummer magazine. It was the August, 1989 issue and Chris Frantz of The Talking Heads graced the cover. I was twelve years old and had finally convinced my parents to buy me a drumset (an old red sparkle, 4 piece "Apollo" kit). While we were at the music store purchasing some cymbals to go with the drums (Zildjian Bronze Scimitars), I grabbed a few pairs of sticks and my first copy of "MD".
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The great Dennis Chambers shows us how to get down with John Scofield and friends. This video is a clip from his instructional DVD, "Serious Moves".
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To be perfectly honest, I had no clue about what I was going to write today so I decided to attempt another death-defying round of the "car game". For those of you just tuning in, the "car game" is when I get in my car (typically after my wife has driven it), start the engine, and then base my loop on whatever happens to be playing on the radio. Anything goes. Brooks and Dunn. Daughtry. Michael Bolton. You name it... I'll make a loop that sounds like it.
Fortunately, I was spared once a...
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Warning - Geek Alert
After repeatedly listening to the Marvin Gaye drum track I posted last night, I decided to run it through The Echo Nest BPM Explorer and actually "see" what it looks like (at least tempo-wise). I know Marvin (or whoever the mystery drummer is) didn't record to a click track, but the geek inside of me wanted to see some technical data. What does something that feels so amazingly perfect actually look like when graphed out by a computer a program?
Here's the result (cl...
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Def Leppard's, Rick Allen, gives us a tour of his unique setup and discusses the importance of using "smell" to get in the zone. Personally, I need to smell some bacon to keep things in the pocket. I usually set up a couple of frying pans around my kit. One next to my hi hat and the other by the floor tom. I like to mic these up with 57's and pan them (pun intended) hard left and right.
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