Mixing is a skill

I’m perfectly aware that all allegory falls apart in the end. But I’ll still go and try to make my point clear with some. So have an open mind and please buckle up:

It takes years

I’ll have to break up my background a bit first to give a little weight to my ramblings.

I begun practicing mixing back in the early 2000’s. I literally knew nothing about making albums, but I was eager to learn. Having watched Tuomo Valtonen working at Sundi Coop I was totally hooked. He made my band Gloria Morti's first visit to a professional studio such a revarding experience and as a result we got several labels lining up to work with us. And Valtonen was definitely a big part of that. We gave him free reign in making our songs sound as good as he could get them, again, we knew basically nothing about what needed to be done and we knew we did not know. He was the professional, and we trusted him 100%. We had to. He was the one with the keys to a good sounding recording. He had made several before.

Fast forward two decades. As a person I’m fairly logic driven and I enjoy tinkering with technology, I love working with people and I seek the excitement of going into unexplored territory, learning something new. In hindsight I'm truly in the field I am the most use in for other people. And that fact lines up with my values. So here we are. In the spot I think I should be; Working as an Audio engineer, Mixer and Producer, at a somewhat peaceful location in Finland.

Little by little, during the past 20 years, I have gathered the knowledge and most importantly the time behind the mixer (Easily surpassing Malcolm Gladwells 10 000 hour mark to expertise) to start understanding how Tuomo pieced that Gloria Morti promo CD together. It’s like a complex puzzle with the pieces sometimes matching, sometimes not. Every time the puzzle is different in different ways. Then you throw in the fact that the puzzle is a living, breathing thing with people making changes, their personalities and their current place in life affecting everything. As you might see, the problem gets three dimensional quite quickly.

I don’t claim to have everything down, to know every little nook and cranny about making records. But I have run into most problems and been in most situations. I can call myself a professional and not blush too much. I’m also totally and utterly obsessed. I want to learn, I need to know how deep the rabbit hole goes. And it goes much deeper than where I am now. In a sense it feels like I have just dipped my toes.

Arrangement, arrangement, arrangement

It all starts with the song. It always is about the song and nothing else. As Rick Rubin has said: The execution is not the art, the idea is the art. (I’m sure I totally butchered that. But you get the idea).

You have a great idea that makes the hair in the back of your arms stand up. That ultimate melody, the coolest lick you have ever come up with, that perfect lyric. Now you have the art, the reason for the song to exist, the holy nugget. Your job from now on is to cherish that, to keep it safe and to make sure all ears are turned to that core of the whole reason why this thing exists in the first place. Anything and everything added will try to put out that flame, and you must protect it. And the most importantly, you must protect it from yourself.

You’ll grow tired of it and you’ll try to make it better, but little do you know you are actually just drowning that golden bit. You are actually chasing that first feeling you got when you came up with that idea. But you’ll never get that feeling again. Nothing old can ever be new again. You are just little by little destroying the very thing that got you exited. That golden nugget.

We humans are finely tuned to listen to speech. We concentrate on one speaker at a time at a party and can make sense of that important thing that is being said, nevermind the noise in the background. But, what if two people start talking directly to you at the same time. Now you have a problem on your hands. You can only listen to one person at a time. You resort to listening person A a little, then person B a little, switching back and forth, trying to make sense of both speakers. You don’t get everything, but you get the jist of both. Throw in a third person and you are screwed. You get bits of everyone, but not a single coherent story. You’ll need to stop the speakers and ask for people to go one at a time. What if one of those people was talking to you about something important and two of something of no interest to you? And in the end the content doesn't even come to play. Almost no information is transferred because you couldn't make out the words.

You can only concentrate fully on a few things at a time. For arguments sake, for a minute, let's use speech interchangeably with the act of playing your instrument. You might have five people in the band. What happens if everyone starts speaking (or playing) to you directly at the same time trying to get your attention? You feel uneasy and threatened, you are suddenly listening to something that you want to stop as fast as possible so you can start making sense of it. Contrast that experience with only one of those people talking to you directly and four carrying their own discussion in the background. Or everyone talking the same words in unison. Feels better doesn’t it?

That golden nugget needs to be the one talking to you directly, the other things happen only in support of the nugget. You might have ten golden nuggets, but they need to be talking one at a time, maybe and in very rare special circumstances two at a time. But that is pushing it.

Everything comes down to communication. Your band needs to understand the principle I laid down here, and you must communicate (literally, speak to one another) so that everyone knows who has their turn to speak and when. This is also why so many times bands with the songwriting firmly in the hands of one single person work so well. It’s hard to speak on top of yourself, or in other words, the songwriter knows what is the golden nugget and is unable to concentrate on second order things at the same time.

 

And just as a quick tip: Like it is sometimes said that a fine lady takes off one piece of jewellery before rushing out the door, you should too err on the side of having one less thing crowding up the mix. Always leave the least important thing unrecorded and let the important shine. And I’m talking quite concretely here. If you are a drummer, leave that extra cymbal home, if you are a bass player, don’t play that one extra lick, if you are a guitar player, record one less overdub. Ten of these decisions and suddenly the mix opens up.

Now you have an arrangement. Before this realization, all you have is noise. And world is already filled with it.

Of size and definition 

This could easily be a part of the previous, but for clarity's sake I’ll put it under it’s own heading.

An album and its mix are something that needs to be pushed thru a very tiny window. You have a little iPhone speaker or headphones to push all that complexity thru. Imagine the sound being a picture. If you watch the most epic movie with big landscapes on a phone screen, something is lost. You can’t make out the details that make the movie look so epic. You don’t get the sense of scale. The same holds true with sound. In the end almost everything gets compressed and limited to play at the same volume. Wether it be Rammstein with their epic soundscape and size, or Julian Lage playing his lone acoustic guitar. Both will in the end be the same volume and size. This makes either Rammsteins thunderous drums like a toy instrument, or Julians guitar the size of a mountain. It’s hard to make out the details of the Rammstein splash cymbal because its relative size is the size of an ant. But in the other hand, Julians mountain sized guitar is free for you to explore. Every little crack in the lacquer, the winding of the strings, that little blemish on the fretboard.

This is a scale. The more tracks you have, the more you put in, the less you’ll be able to hear the little nuances, and by effect, the less lifelike the instruments sound. A session with a hundred tracks all at the same volume will make one track one hundredth of the whole volume produced, which makes Julians lone guitar a hundred times bigger and more defined than yours.

Job of a producer (As Trevor Horn once put it: “The mix is the worst time to do anything.”)

Todays music industry works in a new way. Bands are recording themselves and the tracks created are then transferred to a professional studios computer to be mixed by somebody who has been at it for long enough to be trusted. Producer is a loaded word and can mean so many different things. So I’ll just go and use it like I please (that is to say how I behave when a band pays me to produce their album.)

To me the most important job of a producer is to prevent the band from doing stupid things. Things they are unaware of because perhaps this is their second time walking the path of making an album. There are limitations to this stuff. Technical ones. Things the band has no clue exist, because this is their second time. The producer on the other hand has walked different but similar enough paths to a finalised albums hundredths of times during the years. Perhaps thousands of times. He knows things you do not even know exist. Let's read that again nice and slow. He knows things you do not even know exist. And this is just plain experience and hours behind the desk, you know, the thing that makes people good at things. Like someone who has played thousands of games of pool. I would never win that person in a match. In my mind we are just hitting some balls with a stick towards some holes. And this surface level view of the game is not wrong per se, but it lacks all the definition that makes one a great pool player. Here you have the core of your problem. One can enjoy watching a game of pool, and even notice when someone makes a mistake, but could never win the game (Imagine a typical, know-it-all sports fan trying to score a touch down). The professional pool-player is intuitively seeing the correct angles and the cue ball ends up in the perfect place after each shot. I can’t even make this analogy sufficiently enough, because I don’t know what I don’t know. But I can know, and I do know, that I don’t know.

The ultimate goal of a producer is to guide you around all the traps and the false paths while you are blindfolded. He makes sure that no problem is pushed to mixing, because that is the worst time to do anything. Shit rolls down hill as they say, and it’s hard to mix an album if all you have is a pile of shit. You are the one doing the walking, but you’ll get home much faster and in one piece. And in some cases getting to where you were going is a win in itself.

Money

Ahh, Isn’t this the topic we all love. Making art and talking about money. What a nice combination (Sarcasm ends here).

This is unfortunately the deal breaker, the only thing in making albums that trumps everything else. Get this one wrong and it all ends. The harsh reality is that we as audio engineers and studio owners cannot make albums with you if you mess this one up. No matter how talented you are, no matter how close friends we are, no matter how fun it is to work together. To not pay the bill on time is sending us engineers a very loud and alarming message: To keep working with this band is to not have money to pay your rent on time, or buy food when you are hungry, or to purchase that new hard drive to record the project on. This hits us all in a very deep place as humans. This shakes the very foundations of the Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Your album is our job, not our hobby (like it might unfortunately at the moment still be for you). We are working with your dreams and goals in mind. Understand that this is our salary. Turn the tables and think how you would react if your boss just suddenly pushed your payday back a month, or more. Like really think what would happen to your bills, your family, your sleep. This one is the dealbreaker.

Thanks for getting thru. Let me know what you think. In the end I too am here to learn =) 

Preparing to record vocals

Your vocalist is most often the "selling point" of your band. The vocals transmit feeling and mood on a level unparalleled by the instruments in your band. It's also the first thing people concentrate on when listening to your songs. This is where the sheep are separated from the goats. Let's dive into the world of getting ready to record vocals, be it growls, clean singing or something in between. This is the most important phase in recording music. Make it count.

A singer is pacing back and forth in the studio hallway and doing his warm up exercises. He is clearly stressing the situation, although he is making his best efforts to not let it show. I'm setting up a bunch of mics in the live room. I have a faint idea of the vocal sound that would be suitable for the songs and the style, but we'll see. It's always impossible to say beforehand which mic suits the singer the best.

We go thru six mics singing from verse till the end of the chorus. The specific song is selected so that it has most of the prominent vocal styles of the singer. It's important to make sure the mic suits the low growls in the verse as well as the high pitched squeals in the chorus. Or maybe we need to track those separate with different mics for both. Let's investigate.

After fifteen minutes of going thru the mics a sudden realization hits me, somehow I'm not getting the vibe from the singer. He sounds wimpy, although he is a full bearded and long haired viking with arms as thick as my legs. I've heard him on shows sounding like a Balrog and at the moment comparing him to Gollum would be stretching it. He is clearly stressing the situation and not feeling it. I ask him to come to the control room. I start a casual conversation about his past recording experiences and what he is used to. After a few minutes of chatting, I tell him to grab a few beers from the fridge as I fetch the SM7b from the live room. I give the mic to him, hit the space bar, crank the monitors, he starts growling and lo and behold: suddenly he sounds just like he looks. A 260 pound viking is attacking thru the monitors. Great! Now we are talking.

Recording vocals is often much more of a mind game than something overly technical. Here you have a few tips on how to calm the turmoil in your head and start bringing out the best in you.

• If you like to hold the mic in your hand, at least try out a mic that is suitable for that
• Try out every mic before making a decision. To pick out a SM57 from a lineup filled with really expensive mics is not at all that uncommon
• Don't listen to what anyone else says how things should be done. Try it out, compare the tracks  with honesty and open mind and decide for yourself. For instance cupping the mic can sometimes sound good if done right (Randy Blythe and Phil Anselmo come to mind). Just record a pass both cupping and without, listen, and make up your own mind.
• Have your lyrics printed out for yourself and the engineer. For starters it'll be much easier to find the correct spots from the song when the engineer has a roadmap. The communication will be a hundred times easier.
• Drink room temperature water while singing
• It's not advisable to be intoxicated while tracking, but again, don't listen to what anyone tells you. If you need to loosen up to give your best performance, have a beer or two. The feeling is much, much more important than the technical aspects. Just don't be too drunk. Slurring up the words does not sound very good, unless thats something you are going for.
• Remember to practise your parts thoroughly. Singing is not something magical by nature. Repetition makes you good in anything you are trying to achieve.
• Make sure the mood in the studio is right. If you are singing a soft ballad, cranking the monitors and having a half empty moonshine bottle in your hand is probably not the way to go. But then again, who knows.
• SING YOUR HEART OUT!   <--  This is the most important thing of the whole recording. And I'm not referring to just the singers part, it is THE, MOST, IMPORTANT, THING, OF, THE, WHOLE, RECORDING. *Sorry, had to drive that one home =)

So there you go. Have fun singing and let the feeling shine thru. That's the reason why people buy albums and sing along at your shows. Just shoot me up if you have any questions or horror stories of engineers concentrating too much on engineering.

-Räihä-

Getting ready to record electric guitar

Electric guitar can easily make or break a Rock/Metal recording. If the guitarist plays like a wimp and without precision your songs will sound uninspiring and bland. Let's find out if there is anything you should be considering before the recordings to make sure this won't happen. And while we are at it, let's explore some of the often undermined effects of amps and cabs to your sound.

The clock is running sadistically small numbers in between 10:00am and 11:00am. With somewhat dreary eyes I'm finding my way to the dungeon (an "affectionate" nickname for the studio). We are supposed to start recording the rhythm guitars for a black metallish group and I'm trying to make it down to the lair a bit before the guitarists turn up. I find myself taking a few running steps now and then 'cos I'm not quite sure how precise the guys are. I get in and head straight to the coffee machine. Once I get the coffee going I start to assess the situation. I have both of my amps all ready to go and I'll just need to set up the cab in the live room and throw a few mics in front before the guys get here. Just as I get everything close to set up the phone rings "Räihä" I answer with an upbeat. "Sorry that we are a bit late. There was a bit of a situation before we got driving... But we are at the door". I'm already walking to open the front door "I'll come up" I conclude.

The guys come in with a pile of guitars and a few amps (with some weird issues and old tubes, I have been told). We shoot the shit for good ten minutes and start making a wall of the amps we collectively have gathered for the session. I urged the guitarists to bring every working amp they had any positive feelings about. I also strongly advised to leave the beat up 2 x 12" Harley Benton at their rehearsal place. Not that I have anything against cheap gear but let's just say I've been there and done that. And besides, I happen to have a great 4 x 12" that'll give the sound the kind of importance and weight we are after. We look at the guitars the guys brought in and I ask which guitar brings the most joy when played. Both guitarists take out their number one axe and I quickly scan thru the pickups and the overall condition of the guitars. The other one has EMG81 in the bridge and the other one has a Duncan JB in the bridge. Excellent! The stars are in alignment. We can start out with the stuff the guys are most at home with. I just hate talking musicians out of their main instrument but sometimes it's the only real alternative. You should see some of the "guitars" and "pickups" that come in.

After a quick tuning we go thru every amp and try to find settings that compliment the bands music the most. At this point it's essential to listen to the sound in context. Isolated sounds do not interest me the slightest. The most important thing is that everything fits together. With this specific project our work is a bit easier 'cos we have already decided that we are shooting for a raw tone that lets the "touch" of the player be heard. So two tracks of main rhythm guitars it is. Now all we need is a sample of each amp and then a brutally honest comparison and an open discussion of the sounds. One more round with the best ones (to our ears for this specific project), little tweaks and off we go. Hopefully...

The equipment affects guitar sound immensely. At least the effect is much greater than with other instruments. Here you have a short list of things to consider:

• Have your instrument set up by a professional. You'll find yourself tuning the damn thing all the time anyhow but it'll make your life much easier. Trust me
• TUNE TUNE TUNE TUNE! Tune so much it hurts
• You should tune the guitar to the riff you are playing. If the part has only notes from high up on the fretboard: fret one of those notes, plug it, look at the tuner and tune accordingly. It doesn't matter if the open strings are in tune if you are not playing open strings
• Tune so that the attack of the note is in tune if you are playing fast stuff
• Tune so that the sustain is in tune if you are playing slow stuff
• The pick affects the tone, your picking angle affects the tone, how hard you play affects the tone, the riffs you play affect the tone
• Play hard and snappy, and preferably downstrokes with a steep pick angle (not parallel to the strings) for that Hetfield / scrapey attack vibe. If you are into that sort of thing. And frankly, who isn't?
• Mute the strings you are not playing. It is impossible to get a precise and punchy guitar sound if you have constant unwanted noise coming from the guitar. If you should remember and implement only one thing from this blog entry it is this one, hands down. You should practice this alone and fully concentrate on not letting anything unwanted to ring out.
• Change strings (at least) for every day of recording for both easier tuning and better sound. And remember to wash those sticky fingers of yours before smudging up the strings
• Make sure you have strings on that are of adequate thickness. That low A note better be in tune when you hit it like it owes you money.

So there you go. Follow these guidelines and be prepared for smoother sailing when recording your riffs. Did I leave out something important or do you disagree with something. Let me know and let's talk about it.

-Räihä-

Getting ready to record bass guitar

Bass guitar is the foundation of your songs and should be treated with the utmost of respect. If the bass player is going all over the place with an out of tune instrument, it will be impossible to get your mix sounding heavy and "important". I'll give you a few pointers on how to get your bass tracks and thus your band to sound crushing.

A nameless bass player (picture unrelated) has been sitting on the control room couch for several days now. He has been sipping his coffee and an occasional beer now and then. He seems anxious to get to work but is forced to endure thru the guitar recordings. I'm quite sure he has always recorded his parts before the guitarists but in this case I have given him enough reasons to let the guitarism happen first. He seems to have read (for once) the "getting ready for the studio" pdf I sent the band because he starts to change the strings as we are finishing up with the rhythm guitars. Then the typical question from the adjacent room: "Is it really that important to change the strings three times during the recordings." I switch to robot mode "It depends. It depends on your sweat, how long it will take to record your parts and what are your expectations for the sound. But it is good to come prepared". The bassists gives two nods with his lips tightly together. "That makes sense." and continues with the string change.

Much of the work for bassists is done prior to recording. Here you have a list of things to consider.

• Get your instrument set up by a professional. Good intonation is extremely important
• Mute the strings you are not playing. This is really important. A bass track with hum and ringing extra notes will not sound punchy and articulate
• Play so that the notes are in tune. Don't press too much or bend unknowingly the strings. If the foundation is out of tune, the whole band is out of tune
• TUNE TUNE TUNE TUNE! Tune so much that it hurts
• Record guitars first. It will be easier to listen for the tuning
• The sound comes from the bass and begins with your hands. I can't stress this enough. Get a good and sound-wise suitable instrument. and know that if you play softly with your fingers the results will be completely different than playing super hard with a pick. One is not better than the other but know and articulate to your engineer what you are after
• Simplicity is often your best friend. Knowing when there is room for the bass solo is much more important than the solo. Playing fast legato stuff during the power-chorus is likely not a good idea. The part most probably needs the firm foundation. This is what for you are in the band
• Distortion will give you more definition. Your midrange will "stiffen" and the notes you are playing will cut thru the wall of guitars better
• Try out a thin pick. This will act as kind of a compressor for the loudest notes
• Play everything as evenly volume-wise as possible. Practice this separately
• Try out D'addario Pro Steels for that piano like top end, if you are into that kind of thing

There you go. Have fun and play in tune. Your band will love you for it =)

Do you have a favourite set of strings or do you disagree with something? Drop a line. It would be great to broaden my spectrum.

-Juho Räihä-

How to set up your drums for recording

Setting up your drums so that it feels good to play and sounds good on the recording is no easy task. On your set you may have ten cymbals, six toms, two bass drums, two snares and some windchimes. Do your ergonomics go hand in hand with the sound or is there something worth considering here. Lets find out.

It's the crack of dawn (10am) and I'm drinking my third cup of morning coffee while setting up some tracks on the studio computer. The phone rings. "Sorry that I'm a bit late" she says" But there was a huge traffic and..." I zone out and continue to name the tracks I just created on screen. A moment goes by, then a sudden silence "...great!" I blurt "I'll come and open the door for you". We start carrying the drums in. Not a single case or bag. Everything separate. Ten trips to the car and back later everything is in. Lock the doors and point the drummer to the restroom and then to the coffee.  I'll start assessing the situation. There is a lot of stuff. Most of which will get hit probably once or twice during the session. I already visualize the hour manually finding and editing the three hits we had on that sixth floor tom (on which I used half an hour tuning and the drummer 30€ on new skins).  I start talking with the drummer to get some of the vibe she is after. "I took everything with me just in case. But lets only use what's necessary" I smile in relief, take a sip of my coffee and start babbling about the upcoming Star Wars movie whilst starting to tune the drums.

Once the drums are up and set to the drummers liking, I start squeezing in the mics. "Would it be possible to bring up this crash a bit? I can't get the mic in" "Sure" she replies. "How much?" Maybe the caffeine is kicking in but my morning is getting brighter and brighter.

I then proceed to negotiate to put the crashes, that sound a bit low in volume, a bit higher and closer to the overheads than the, a bit louder, chinas she has. We go thru the whole set like this. And not because it makes my job easier (it doesn't at this point) but because I know we need everything coming in the mics well separated and balanced. The recording will sound much clearer and more "professional" (for lack of a better word). And this way I get the maximum amount of control for mixing. A super loud hi-hat in the snare mic is something that will ruin ones week. If you can't raise the volume of your snare in the mix because of the snare mic being more of a hi-hat mic you are faced with some compromises. And one should never step on that path in making music.

• Bring in only what you truly need or an alternative (i.e. a different snare)
• Have your cymbals high. Cymbal bleed in the rack tom mics is vomit inducing.
• Have an idea where the snare mic could fit in. That's if you have three rack toms.
• Have your crash and china cymbals preferably close to one level. Or purposefully so that the louder ones are on the lower layer and the quieter ones higher. The overheads love to hear balanced cymbal arsenals.
• Separation gives you clearer drum-sound and eliminates rattle (i.e. cymbals hitting each-other)
• A smaller set records better and is less time consuming (read: cheaper for you)

In the end you should express yourself freely when arranging and playing drums. Don't suddenly lose half of your set for the sake of recording, but have these ideas silently humming on your hard-drive while thinking about the upcoming recording session. It's fun to have a huge drum-set but sadly fun doesn't always equal good sound. Know what you are after and go make better records.

Do you disagree or do you have a horror story of an engineer ruining your vibe messing with your setup? Shoot a line and let's find some common ground.

-Juho Räihä-

Drum head, cymbal and stick choices

Drum head, cymbal and stick choices affect your drum sound immensely. The only other thing on par is your playing. The most expensive mics, preamps and room won't mean a thing if your drums sound like utter crap.  I'll give you some pointers on how to start building the jigsaw puzzle and make sure that those microphones are actually capturing something worth hearing.

I remember too many instances where a drummer has gone out to get drum heads for a session the night before. He/she walks to the music store, asks for the heads I have recommended for the project at hand, the shopkeeper says: "We don't have those 8" tom heads and that snare drum head seems weird. "Let me give you these heads instead (gives the drummer some mythological cow-skin heads). I used these the last time I myself was in the studio and they are superb." He then continues (without knowing anything about the session I might add) "By the way, you really want to use the same exact heads on the resonant side as well".
It's the last possible hour to get the heads. So the drummer just takes what is offered.
Come the morning of the session. I see the skins and think to myself "not again."
I'll be able to work around it, and new skins are always better than those duct-taped ones the poor drums had before. And we need to get setting up. Time is always of the essence. The first problem for mixing has already surfaced. And we haven't even set up the drums yet.

Here are my tried and true, "go to" drumhead choices for Metal/Rock:

• Remo coated controlled sound for the snare batter if you are a tip hitter
• Remo coated Emperor for snare batter if you are a rimshotter or just like some good ol' ring
• Remo Ambassador resonant hazy for the snare drum resonant side
• Pure Sound Snare Drum Wires (Get the ones with 24 strands or more)
• Remo clear Emperors for the tom batter side
• Remo clear Ambassadors for the tom resonant side
• Aquarian Superkick II / Aquarian resonator (with the kick pad) for the bass drums

Music is definitely a subjective art and your mileage may vary. But if you are open to suggestions, or lost with all the choices, give this set a shot. You won't be far off (for Metal at least). I'll just point out (even with the risk of sounding repetitive) the list above is not be all end all of drum heads. there is no such a thing. But remember that everything needs to fit together. Your bass drum sound needs to sound fitting with the floor tom, snare drum, guitars, your singers voice, the synth pads... the list goes on. The selection above has been cumulated thru years and years of recording, mixing and making music. The list is far from just simply sounding nice in isolation. From the mixing engineers perspective, how the snare sounds by itself simply doesn't matter, at all. It does not matter until every layer has been recorded. Only then you get to hear what is left audible of the snare. Did I drive that one home? Good. Lets move on.

The heads and the tuning have more effect on the sound of your drum than the actual drum itself. So do yourself a favor and don't skimp on this.

Of course the drum and the skins are only a part of the equation. Now you'll need something to hit them with.

• Use wooden or plastic bass drum beaters for added attack (there seems to never be enough)
• Use a stick type that on top of feeling good to play with, suits your preferred sound. Remember: comfort doesn't necessarily equal good sound
• Don't squeeze the sticks. It really does affect the sound
• Hit the drums HARD and go easy on the cymbals. Seriously, this one is important

Use cymbals that sound balanced (volume-wise) to each other. And preferably use hi-hats that are a bit quieter. Those hats will always be the loudest and most annoying cymbals come mix time. Also playing easy on the hats is of utmost importance.

Be wise and get the skins from your local shop or from Thomann (or where ever) at least a week or two prior to your session. You'll save money, get the right skins and thus a better drum sound. No downside. Just put them on the drums finger-tight the night before recording. You can take care of the tuning at the studio.

Do you have a preferred set of drumheads for studio use? Drop a comment and give me your reasons for those specific choices. I'm always willing to learn and exchange ideas.

Have fun and go make that noise =)

-Juho Räihä-

Proper tuning is essential for your drums

I have tuned most of the drums I have recorded during the past decade and I have gradually learned my way thru the often mystified art of drum tuning. The truth is that tuning drums just simply isn't as hard as people tend to make it. My conclusion: Go and get yourself an Overtone Labs Tune-Bot drum tuner. Thank me later.

Now that we got that out of the way, here is a few pointers / my starting points where to begin with your Heavy Metal drum tuning.

• Both Bass drum heads finger tight (because we love that high slap that loose heads give)
• Snare resonant head tabletop tight (don't bother with the Tune-Bot, use your ears) 
• Snare batter head to taste (250hz - 350hz lug tension on the tune-bot)
• Snare wires at a tension best explained on the following video: https://youtu.be/cgZSrEvpWj0
• Tom resonant heads tighter than batter heads (use the Tune-Bot calculator)

When using the tuning calculator: 

1. Fill in your tom sizes
2. Select low resonance
3. Pitch adjustment to -1
4. Head tuning style: Resonant head higher
5. Profit

Start with the floor tom and listen how it sounds. With old heads you might want to use higher pitch adjustment values to make sure the head isn't "brumming" or making other weird noises. Once you get the floor tom right, you'll know how low you can go. Work through the rest of the toms with those settings of the tuning calculator.

Remember that patience and practice are key points here. And use your ears to make sure that the lugs really are in the same tension/tuning. The Tune-Bot will lie to you if the lug tunings are too far apart.

Tune-Bot website is your friend with all of its guides.

Tuning is not as hard as you think it is.

Do you have any questions on tuning?

I'm more than willing to steer you in the right direction. So ask away.

Cheerio!

-Juho Räihä-