A Rant On Sound Replacing
A Rant On Sound Replacing
Sound replacing should NOT replace actual engineering! That’s right, I said it, sound replacing is used entirely way too much for drums, especially in the metal industry! Prove me wrong! I honestly believe that engineers who make it a habit to sound replace drums, are doing so because it creates a ‘passable’ product without the need to spend time dialing in the actual drum sounds.
The key is when you are tracking the drums though. To avoid the need for sound replacement, the setup / positioning of the microphones are critical as this allows you to capture the best representation of the drums. In fact, cutting corners in setting up the microphones and equalization is what forces engineers into sound replacement just to get a decent sounding product. Creating a full, high quality, representation of the drums requires that your engineer takes the time to learn how to properly set EQ, compression, side chain, gates, and of course, the blending of the microphones. Easy, right?
Before we start with all of the complicated stuff though, you have to make sure the drummer actually tuned her drumset for the best tone and sound. That’s right drummers, can’t just blame the engineer here! Ensuring your drums are tuned properly means that the raw tones picked by the microphones are as good as they can possibly be.
Remember. You. Are. Setting up. For Success!
Think about it like this. Most studios that you go to, are going to take their time in setting up the drums, making sure they are tuned, positioning the mic, etc. So are they just charging you for empty time when they go back to sound replace those drums...effectively cancelling out all that work they just did to set you up?
Not only do you have the efficiency in time, but capturing the natural sounds vs replacing them at a trigger allows you to capture the natural nuances and vibrations of the drums. This creates a huge difference in what the audience hears. Sound replacing pulls from the same tones, so the first issue is that each song ends up with the same sounding drums after a bit. Because a trigger is used to replace the natural sound with a digital sound at the presence of a sound wave spike, your drummer is losing all of those natural overtones. When you lose the natural overtones, you effectively lose the individual life of the drum set.
Before you run out and start mastering the art of recording natural drum sounds though, there are some cons to consider...namely the skill of your drummer. If you have a drummer who lacks consistency with his foot and hand work on the kick, snare, or toms, then replacing his tones is going to help immensely...but is essentially compensating for a lack of skill that will show during a live performance. This begins to dive into another topic altogether though, which is the psychology of the producer to be able to drive his musicians to the best possible performance...but we will cover that in another article!
So metal engineers, I leave you with this. Push yourselves to give your bands the best quality sound, or stop wasting their time tuning drums just to make you look good. Personally, I think it's a huge double standard anyway. If guitarists started using a similar technology to playback the perfectly hit guitar notes, they would likely be turned into a joke, and the technology would be relentlessly smeared...cough...autotune. Of course the technology doesn't really exist as it stands now, so we shouldn't have to worry about it.
About the author - Family Tree Records is a recording studio / label located in Shelby, NC. Learn more by visiting their Facebook at www.facebook.com/familytreerecords2014.
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