Ugh! I swore I’d never attempt drum recording in my room, but I might have found a deal on a Gretsch kit I can’t pass up. Hell, I have a billion preamps on that console, I may as well use those channels for something…right?
I have a Gibraltar rack that I use for a Tama Starclassic that I’m trying to dump way back from when I had my old studio. Is Gretsch hardware compatible with DW and Tama stuff?
If I were to attempt this, I had the idea of using memory locks on a rack then moving the rack in and out of the room in sections. I’m wondering if this would enable my session drummers to only have to bring their cymbals, kick pedal, and stick bag. And their snare of course. Either of the 3 guys I’d call would be pretty happy with Gretsch Brooklyns. I can stack them in the closet when I need to strike the tracking room and re-set for a vocalist.
So the Gibraltar rack breaks into 2 sections, and the sections aren’t very heavy. Is the idea of striking the rack quickly and deporting it to the garage to get it out of the way pretty feasible? Or is there a catch here?
Thoughts?
I’m not sure what hardware you are trying to mix. I have 3 studio drum sets. I have to strike them every time I use them because my room is used for so many different things. It takes me about an hour and a half to set up and sound check drums. I make sure that I have a lot of things to track when I invest this time.
I’m trying to mix 3 different drummers with a Gretsch Brooklyn kit and a Gibraltar rack.
If we have a project where we need to use my kit, they all have DW’s.
I only have an single 11x13 room. When the drums are not in there, what I was asking is if would conceivable save time by keeping memory locks positioned so that each of the 3 drummers setups can be easily ‘recalled’ on the rack. Then moving the rack in and out in pieces, instead of having to reassemble big hardware configurations each time they need to record. I was hoping it would cut the setup and teardown about in half. First with them not having to bring their hardware, second with them not having to set it up.
I’ll probably only record these 3 guys, but can see myself doing it on an on-goign basis, and I’ll bill the time to the clients of course. I really don’t want to be a drum tracking studio.
I get it:) In theory, I think what you are proposing would work. In practice, I think it wouldn’t help that much. When I have drummers come into my studio I am much more concerned with tuning than the drum set up. Drummers can position thing pretty quick if they are in the general area. It will take them about 5-10 min. When I set up a drum set for a drummer coming it is very basic. They will spend their 5-10 mins setting up while I put mics(that are already wired up) into position. I will get them playing along with the track while I sound check them. By the time they know what they are playing for the track I will have their tones dialed in (especially if we are on a tight budget). I look to have a drummer doing takes with 30-45 min of waking in the studio. Even when they walk in on a second day you’ll spend a half hour tuning an tweaking before resuming.
Gotcha.