The iOS version of What Comes Around has been added to the RjDj scene catalog. Now we’re just waiting for Apple to approve the paid version before both versions become available. Coming soon!
Yesterday, I ventured out and into a rehearsal room here in Taichung to record live drums for Chris Bailey and my upcoming Suncake Lounge Vol. 2 album. I always have a little trepidation when working with live drums, because I’m so used to working with drum loops. Recording live drums and working with the resulting seperate drum tracks is another beast altogether. But I like to think that there’s no right or wrong way when it comes to recording, as long as you end up with usuable results – and in this case we most definitely did.
Drummer Dave Ramey kindly agreed to drum on the album on very short notice and very little time to prepare. He did a sterling job though and we powered through the 15 tracks with a single take for each. I’ll probably end up cutting loops from the recorded material, taking care to keep most of the fills and flourishes that Dave added – these have really made the tracks come to life.
We worked with the kit that was in the rehearsal room. It’s obviously not the best kit in the world, but I really like the flavor it brings. There’s something loose and vintage sounding about it. The same goes for the room itself – it’s not going to give the same results as a dedicated drum room, but it has its own character.
I brought in my M-Audio Fast Track Ultra and recorded on 5 tracks straight to Sonar X1. I miked the snare with an SM-57 and the kick with a locally made Superlux PRO218A that I bought for this session. I used the Zoom H2 Handy recorder as a stereo overhead. Finally, I had an Audio Technica AT4033 a couple of metres back as a room mic. Now that I’m mixing the drum tracks and after working in detail on the seperate kick and snare tracks, I’m finding the room mic really useful for blending the sound back together and adding some cohesion again. I’ve also added a dash of reverb from the freeware epicVerb VST, again to add a sense of cohesion.
[audio: http://moshang.net/audio/Dave_Ramey_100bpm.mp3] Download the mp3
So far I’m pleased with the sound of the drums in isolation, but there’s still going to be a lot of fiddling to get the drums to suit each individual track. I may also blend in some of the loops that we’ve using for the tracks up to this point – just for variety, if nothing else.
And a happy Year of the Dragon! We’re enjoying the break and trying our best not to think of being back at work on Monday. I’ve managed to put in some uninterrupted hours’ work on Suncake Lounge Vol.2 – or at least as uninterrupted as it gets with a 4 month old boy in the house. Chris and I are planning to track drums for this project on the weekend.
Here we go, the last installment of the MLO Podcast for 2011. How was your year?
It’s been pretty good this side. I released Groove Suite, and just a couple of weeks ago What Comes Around. Further East saw re-release on CD in Russia. And my soundtrack for the NatGeo production finally aired here in Taiwan.
I mentioned more than 20,000 listening hours on play.fm last week, so I thought I’d see how moshang.net did. According to awstats provided by my host, this website served up roughly 1630GB worth of mp3’s this year. Calculated at 1MB/minute that makes for another 27,000 listening hours.
As satisfying as it is to know that somewhere someone is listening to my tunes, I have a much better reason to celebrate 2011 – the birth of my son, Louis, in September. Can you tell a proud father?
Thanks so much for your support over the year. I love to hear from you, so do give me the occasional shout – I very rarely bite!
