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Skype Call with Hannes Grossman

Hans is, you know, most people spending one of the best drummers out there on the scene right now. You know, he's made his name playing in some of the most besides, the fact that they just make music some of the most technically impressive bands out there. Neck riffage is obscura blotted science are three names that people will just think of if they think of, you know, these are some of the most impressive bands out there. And, you know, one of the things that I also, you know, really wanted to get a chance to talk to. That is, you know, it just does a lot of session work with a lot of different bands, you know, he's got a great recording set up. He's been on so many albums. He just a solo record that he masterminded eso you know, he's been all over the place and just such a good drummer. How's it going? Hello. Thank you. Very well. Like after hearing this, it's getting you be better. Well, thanks for joining us all the way from journey. Sure. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to te...

ll you. Actually, I didn't hear like, uh, this chat so far. But, like what? What topics you were discussing. But I'm curious. What's what you want to talk about so well, part partially. You know, we just wanted to look at you know, some of the gear that you're using and your set up your You use all model symbols and your Tom a player also, right? Yes. OK, Yeah. I got, like a play Thomas, since I was 13. That was my second drum kit. And, uh, I played that, like that Set second from kid, like for, I think, almost 10 years on, Uh, I don't know, never disappointed me. And it's kind of the sound I was always looking for. And And the good thing is that the model guys here in Germany also distribute Thoma drums, right? It's very well, eyes that how you started playing minor in the first place. I Well, I to be honest, I tried every kind of symbol factory or a simple brand, like every kind of a friend that was out there. Just do you know what sound I was going for? And I exactly remember when the bison serious came out. That was very impressive to me. Um, and they just get better and better. And they got so many sounds, so many different sounds in once serious and I don't know, I always liked them, and I tried all the other brands. And so when it came to the point to to get endorsed. And that means that you have to decide for one brand. And it should be the brand that you're you like best, of course, because just choosing something because you get something cheaper or getting something for free. That doesn't make sense because, after all, it's like you're a sound. It's like how you sounded and especially like when you record animal natural way like I tried to do. You can hear the symbols and how they sound naturally, and that's that should be all right with with your image of what you want to hear. And that's that's actually the big thing about endorsements and what you want to choose not necessarily only go for for the company that that can give you something for free, or rather go for for the thing or the sound you identify with. And that was perfect because, of course, I was interested in Tom a before. And when I heard that mindless distributing Thoma drums, I immediately approached him because that's another thing you need to know. Like how companies work together. Something I'm curious of is, you know, obviously just with your own projects, you have quite a few musical projects, and then on top of that, you do session work. So do you have, like, one core kit one course simple set up, used for a majority of the material play on? Or are you constantly changing up your specific drums and your specific symbols for each of these projects? When we're talking about recordings, I use a Tom, a Pope Inga Star classic probing set for all the recordings and only in the studio. This is a very expensive set up, I would say, even though for me it's not so expect. No, I mean, it's a great piece of art and the great piece of work, and I don't want to take this on tour and haven't damaged or something like that. And, you know, dramas can be very picky with equipment stuff, and, uh and so I'm using this one set up for pretty much everything I record and I also used the same snare drum. You know, if I if I need a different sound like and it's mostly like bass drums and snare drums. What you always can do is use different drum heads, and Evans provides a wide range of different sounds, and it also depends how you tune them. And, most important, is how you play them like, um, like the way the way you hit the drums affect the sound a big time. And if it would go for a different sound, I would just use the instruments I have and tuna differently and maybe play it differently. And then I get a different sound or use different microphone, and then then you get a different sound. But what I want to do 1/2. I want to be known for a certain sound because I think people need to be able to recognize my playing not only by what I play, but also how how the other drum sounds sound itself like if there's I'm mostly also tuning in the same way, like for the session words and for the obscure stuff, and it's very similar set up and it works for for a lot of occasions, and the music I record mostly is very similar. The good thing about the start classical Binga is that it? Very. It's very flexible when you record the dry signals. It also depends how you cue them and how what kind of mixing levels you choose. And that way you get either metal sound or a more hard drugs are mm fusion sound. And there's a wide range of possibilities you can, uh, go for with just one kit on tour. I use a different set up that it's a little cheaper, and that's, you know, not so well. It's great quality, but why should you take like, your best piece on in a club? You know, the small clubs we play when everything is wet and sweat. Yet rather have a tour kid, which is pretty much wrote proof with kids that I have a kid at home which stays there and just what can you bring on the road? Then what? It's a Thomas superstar custom. Actually, I used that kid for recording on idiom and the last flooded science record. Okay, I mean, it sounds good. There's nothing wrong with it. I also use it for recordings. But I tend to to use the bingo for recordings just a little more. And it came out that this is my main recording set and the other one is my main life set. It was like the people have the fancy car that they only drive to church on Sundays. Yeah, it's a little like that, but actually I would say, Um, it's like a Cabriolet like it's raining, right? So did you use that other kid on the blotted science record just for a practical reason or didn't have a sound that you were looking for when he did that record? It's good question on it was more a set up. Think, because the Thomas supports their custom and the shells of the drums are lower, like called this hyperdrive system sounds approach Tom. A hyperdrive custom hyperdrive. It's a dramas just more fled. All the times a little more fled, but they don't lose volume or, you know sound. And it's very practical to set it up because you can say that very low, and I wanted to have it set up lower because it's it's a little easy at this way and since blooded times is probably the most difficult stuff I ever recorded, I waas going for a solution that is just a little easier. And you have to say, like especially on the blood. Times record we used, like a mixed of natural drums and trigger drums are, like re sampled Trump's. And that worked very well, so it didn't really depend. And because, I mean, if you know the music of blood sense, it's very I would say robotic a certain way, like very technical, very fragment ized. And that way, if you have, like a trigger in addition to a natural sound, it brings up all the strokes and you can really hear everything. And it's just about the attack. But the attack that a natural drum doesn't not necessarily provide unless you play it like, you know, big marching sticks and play as loud as you can. Every no, But that's not a very healthy technique to play, and you can just in it sometimes can enhance. With some software solution, you can enhance your natural sound a little, and in fact, that's how I would use these kinds of processors. I wouldn't use it in a way where it's totally weight with the only thing that is really are symbols. I wouldn't do that. I would always go for for a mix. Yeah, here. So it wasn't so, so important if I used the bingo set over the other one. One of the things I like about the recordings that you played on is that they do say, You know, they still sound modern and polished everything, but they also sound riel. I can hear the dynamics of the drums. You know, I don't feel like I'm hearing like a sampled sound effect here. Like it sounds like I'm hearing somebody hitting a drum, and that's what I really respond to. I wanted to get your thoughts on. I feel like with a lot of modern metal, drums were sort of trying to make a drum set, not sound like a drum set, like the symbols way down the kick and snare super loud. Every hit exactly the same volume. And that's not That's not what drums sound like. A somebody who's kind of at the forefront of that scene in a lot of ways. What are your thoughts on that? I would say there's not really a general answer to that Because even if we agree on on one thing that I like natural drums are promised. That s you say our little maybe polished or very clean and with a little protect but still half the natural feel to order the natural response. I like it better, and I think most people like it better. And I think this is what's coming back. But that might be this one record where a drum machine just fits perfectly. You know, it's that there is no never like this dogma where you can say right, do it this way and only this way that's one thing. But in general, like the tendency off most recordings is, I don't know why. I think it also has to do because everything's getting like faster. And apparently when you play faster, you lose a lot of volume. And I tried not to lose volume when I play fast or not too much, and this way I get, like, really harsh signals from recording signals. Also, when I play fast and that's coming through, you know, you can hear it on all the symbol Mike's. When I hit the snare and you can hear it all bleeds into each other's money into into each microphone. And that's something I want. That's what makes it sound like a real drum set. Exactly like I can remember when we recorded EPA tests that McGriff ageist record I play on, I think half of what you can hear is room like, uh, that's that's one thing, because, um, because I think that fits very well for a record, that is. So how do you say that? Like, it's not very rock and roll it right. So So Teoh that no, you know, like having the right. Yeah, maybe Syria question my thoughts on. I didn't answer that. I I kind of was lining around into to make a point. Um, well, I have to say I think I think this whole from processing is because it's just easy to produce that way. You don't need a drummer who plays. Probably all you do is you record some takes and then you Kwan ties it that way. It everything sounds perfect. Perfect. In a way of how computer would define perfect. And here then you add samples, and it sounds kind of it sounds like an industry standard. Yeah, it sounds like to me as a standard, and it's like it's like pop music. It's that way. And But if you listen to some proper records like, let's say, from the eighties or the nineties, they had a really good sound. They all sound individual, even if it's kind of an industry standard, they don't sound the same. And I have the impression that with superior drama, even though it's a very, very good program and you can use it in a very musical way, I think a lot of people are just not using it in a musical way. They use it in a way to sound like every other guy, not to be in danger of doing something else and doing your own thing, because when you when you just go with with what everyone does, you can't go wrong so much. It's like social proof kind of thing to me. That's how I see it. And I always thought like that medal and especially extreme metal should be something where every record sounds completely different from another or like an individual sound of a band should matter. And now, apparently like a lot of those bands now these days sound like great, but there's but we already have one. Mushega. We don't need 100. Do you have anything? Especially cause I know you also do some engineering on you have a home studio. Do you have any particular techniques for when you're integrating your samples with your actual performance in order to make them sound natural and to make them not sound robotic? You go in there and, like, mess with the dynamics of the midi Or do you have, like, a recording technique or a triggering technique that you like to use? No. I record only the real audio signal and everything that maybe is triggered. It's done afterwards and then we got a sample library, which is my own samples, which I recorded myself. And mostly we use those, so it depends only for what you use triggers. If we use triggers, we use it for making that attack a little more obvious. I think that when you touched on actually makes a big difference for that natural in this too, because I found that with, you know, the recordings that do make everything sound really natural and you know what and the bands that makes some of the amateur mistakes. It's exactly what it touched on recording your old samples if you can, because you're matching your kit with your kit, and it just it sounds like you. Still, that's true. That's actually a one reason, if you see, like, bag back in the days like this early 90 records to make it audible and if they weren't triggering and, of course, that Technik already existed. But it wasn't like on that level, and it wasn't as easy as it is now. But when you listen to some of the natural recordings, what they did is put a lot of high frequencies in base drum or this never to make it audible and is a very special sound. But of course, you lose a lot from other frequencies, and what you can do now is have a really nice, perfectly mixed drum set, natural drums and and then just add samples, which are which feature those high frequencies. And that way you have a mix. It's like when you record guitars and we have a more clean signal, and then you add another guitar track that is completely distorted. If you make them up, you can still have both both worlds off sound worlds. And that's very similar approach to Teoh mixing drums. All right, well, we are out of time, but thanks again for calling in, and we'll talk to you soon.