could use some advice

[badhabit]

OK, I don't know if this is the right forum but here goes anyway. Apologies if I'm in the wrong place.

 

It has to do with recording acoustic drums. Many of us know how difficult this can be. But to my question. I'm working on a project right now where the drum set's bass drum sets off the other drums tones. In other words, when the kick drum is hit, the toms and snare sound, and quite loudly. So how much of this is normal? Shouldn't the other drums be fairly quiet until they are hit? I'm pretty sure that it is the drum kit and not anything with the room or mics. So, any tricks outside of getting other drums? The overhead toms are mounted on the bass drum, with the floor tom with it's own legs and the snare in it's own stand.

 

Oh, and one other question. Is it the norm today to use triggers on acoustic drum recordings and midi them instead of attempting to get a good acoustic drum tone? If so, what triggers and module are recommended? I can see the advantage to this, but also the disadvantage with false triggering and drummers having to change their playing to compensate. Opinions?

 

Thank you!

[UstadKhanAli]

The first issue is definitely a tuning issue, and someone with more knowledge than me will step in and let you know about this. In the mean time, consider Googling "drum tuning" and see what you find. What you have are sympathetic vibrations, which can largely be addressed by tuning.

 

As for your second question, it depends on what genre, but yes, it can be very common. I occasionally use drum replacement software, Drumagog, to replace a crappy sounding kick or snare, but that's about the extent of my usage.

[Lee Knight]

Do the toms ring too loud in the room or just when you're soloing them? It's easy to lose perspective on the volume of things like that when you start soloing.

 

So... listen to to the kit in the room. Are the toms and snare still ringing too loud when the kick is hit. No? Then don't worry about it. Yes?

 

As Ken said, tuning. Try a Drum Dial and tune them to the recommended tensions for each drum size drum to start. It's 50 bucks well spent.

[badhabit]

Thanks. Yeah, when the bass drum is hit, the toms ring out pretty loudly. I'm thinking it's the tom mount hardware that does not isolate the vibration. But I will try re-tuning the drums as well. Thanks again.

[UstadKhanAli]

That has something to do with it, but really, not all that much. If you really want to find out, though, simply take the rack toms off, hold 'em up, and play the kick drum and see if there's any difference.