Recording Metal with Eyal Levi: A Bootcamp
Lesson 12 of 74
Depths and Sizes
Recording Metal with Eyal Levi: A Bootcamp
Lesson 12 of 74
Depths and Sizes
Lesson Info
Depths and Sizes
Our depth, which applies to all drums, we can get into that a little bit. Basically, the deeper the drum, the lower the fundamental pitch is going to be. However, the deeper the drum, the less sustain you're going to have out of the drum itself. And that's counter intuitive It is counter intuitive and we've noticed that the trend in bass drums at one point was to go super deep with the bass drums. That was to get a super low fundamental and also cut down the amount of resonance, so you didn't have to muffle it as much. The trend has since gone and settled in kinda an 18 inch depth on the bass drum in that area because they've found that you can get a little bit, you know, enough resonance and enough low end punch from the depth. With the toms, the same rule applies. If we're going to go shallower, we're gonna get a lot more sustain. The reason being is because there's less air between the two heads. When you hit the top head, it sends air to the bottom head, and then the bottom hea...
d reacts and sends air back to the top head. You have this sympathetic vibration. The shallower the capsule or the cylinder that it's working with, the quicker that's happening, and the longer it's going to sustain, or keep moving inside of the drum. When you increase the depth, it takes longer for the air to get to the bottom and the energy loses, loses over time, so as it's traveling longer distances, it's not gonna make as many repetitions between the two heads, so your sustain is going to be a lot shorter for a deeper drum. I think it's just important to note, because I think a lot of people think it's the exact opposite. Right People think deeper drum lasts forever, thunder. Right. It's literally the opposite. All of our rack toms, our 12 inch toms, are all the same depth. Our floor toms are, we have two that are the same depth, which are 14 inch depth, and the last one is a traditional 16 by 16. Even when the 16 by 16 is tuned to the same pitches, it's going to sound like it has a little bit lower fundamental, just because it's a little bit deeper on the drum itself. And we'll show you guys later. We'll do side-by-side AB comparison of the two, so you can hear exactly what we're talking about. Right. As far as cymbals go, we have several different to choose from. They're all from the Byzance line from MEINL, which is their more traditional and dark sounding cymbals, which actually end up recording really well, because they're not amplified in the high end. Yeah. We can rely on more microphone selection to get the characteristics from the cymbals that we want, as opposed to the cymbals dictating where they're gonna live all the time, which is great. It makes it a lot easier to work them in with high gain guitars, too, which also, anyone who works with high gain guitars know that they are a frequency hog. They swallow everything. Those upper-mids and high range, you really need to get those balanced with the cymbals right in order for a mix to work out and not get muddy. You actually get a lot more width that way, once you get those high-mids worked out. Cymbals like these make it a lot easier to deal with later. I think that pretty much covers the basics of what we're working with now. Now we're going to go and figure out how we're gonna pick what we're gonna pick.
Class Description
Recording Metal with Eyal Levi: A Bootcamp will give you access to one of metal’s most in-demand producers and educators. You’ll also get to watch the talented and seasoned performers of Monuments show you how to record flawless takes and how to prepare to enter the studio.
Recording Metal with Eyal Levi: A Bootcamp is the definitive guide to recording and producing metal. From soup to nuts, start to finish, A to Z, you will learn everything you need to know about recording and producing a metal song.
Eyal Levi will take you inside the studio with Monuments as they record a song from scratch at Clear Lake Recording in Los Angeles. In this bootcamp, you will learn how to:
- Prepare for a session in preproduction by choosing tempos and organizing the session
- Record flawless drums from selection and reheading/tuning to mic choice and placement to editing
- Record rhythm guitars
- Record clean and lead guitars
- Record bass guitar
- Record, edit and tune lead vocals, harmonies, and screams
- Mix and master from session setup to final bounce
Lessons
- Intro to Bootcamp
- Purpose of Pre-Production
- Technical Side of Preproduction
- Pre-Production: Setting Up the Tempo Map
- Pre-Production: Importing Stems
- Pre-Production: Click Track
- Creating Tracking Templates
- Intro and the Tone Pie
- Drums - Lay of the Land
- Bearing Edges
- Wood Types
- Depths and Sizes
- Hoops
- Sticks and Beaters
- Drum Heads
- Drum Tuning
- Drum Mic Placement Intro
- Basic Drum Mic Setup
- Cymbal Mic Setup
- Touch Up Tuning
- Microphone Choice and Placement
- Drum Tracking Intro
- Getting Tones and Final Placement
- Primary Tracking
- Punching In and Comping Takes
- Guitar Setup and Rhythm Tone Tracking
- Amplifiers - Lay of the Land
- Amplifiers & Cab Shoot Out
- Guitar Cab Mic Choice and Placement
- Guitar Tracking and Signal Chain
- Finalizing Amplifier Tone
- Guitar Mic Shootout Round Robin
- Intro to Rhythm Tracking
- Setting Up Guitars
- Working with a Guitarist
- Final Guitar Tone and Recap
- Guitar Tracking with John
- Guitar Tracking with Ollie
- Final Tracking
- Tracking Quads
- Intro to Bass Tone
- Bass Tone Setup
- Bass Tone Mic Placement
- Bass Tracking
- Intro to Clean and Lead Tones
- Clean Guitar Tones
- Lead Tones
- Vocal Setup for Tracking
- Vocal Mic Selection and Setup
- Vocal Mic Shootout
- Lead Vocal Tracking
- Writing Harmonies
- Harmony Vocal Tracking
- Vocal Warm Ups
- Scream Vocal Tracking
- Vocal Tuning and Editing Introduction
- Vocal Tuning and Editing
- Routing and Bussing
- Color Coding, Labeling and Arranging Channels
- Setting Up Parallel Compression
- Setting Up Drum Triggers
- Gain Staging and Trim
- Drum Mixing - Subtractive EQ
- Drum Mixing - Snare
- Drum Mixing - Kick
- Drum Mixing - Toms
- Drum Mixing - Cymbals and Rooms
- Drum Mixing Recap
- Mixing Bass Guitar
- Mixing Rhythm Guitars
- Basic Vocal Mix
- Mixing Clean and Lead Guitars
- Mixing - Automation
- Mastering - Interview with Joel Wanasek
Reviews
Ron
I'm on lesson 19! Already worth every dollar!!! Priceless insight! I have already incorporated some of the ideas (preproduction common sense stuff that I never thought of, but damn). VERY HAPPY with this course! ALWAYS LEARNING and looking forward to the next 50 (or whatever) lessons!!! Excellent course! GREAT PRODUCER/ENGINEER, GREAT DRUM TECH, and GREAT BAND!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!
ceeleeme
I'm just part way though and I'm blown away by the quality approach Eyal takes to getting the best out of the sessions. I love how well everything is explained and Eyals calm manner is just awesome it really makes you want to listen to the gems of wisdom he offers.
user-eb82bd
Amazing knowledge is being presented here. If you want to start out recording, this should be your first step, it'll save you lots of time and get you awesome results. Highly recommended class.