best real staging drums in a recording

[atomicAdam]

So, I'm getting pretty sick of hearing the drum kit spread haphazardly around the left/right channels.

It seems so often that the hi-hat is shoved all the way over into one channel and the ride or crash on another. The toms usually dead center with the snare and the kick. Sounds nothing like a live drum kit. I mean, unless you have your head right in front of the drummer you don't get that kind of left/right staging.

Who can recommend a recording where a drum kit sounds like a drum kit should sound, spatially speaking? Either from right in front of the drummer or if in jazz, maybe in a corner but with cymbal bleed over into the other side or at least center. And if some other live performance, the drums in their place, not all over the place.

[Mr Peabody]

I will give this some more thought but what comes to mind right off for me is Chicago. Try their greatest hits. The kit still stretches across the soundstage some but they are done very well, not too far pushed back and they are miked well. Eric Clapton, Slow Hand is pretty good too. Funny, it seems several Classic Rock and Jazz have this down best.

[poppachubby]

Dude I could list quite a few. A good MUST OWN album would be Sonny Rollins Saxaphone Collosus. This features the one and only Max Roach. You will find realistic placement and depth. He takes a couple of legendary solos for your enjoyment also.

You should also look into Buddy Rich, possibly the best drummer ever to walk the earth. However some of his recording are big band style, and don't really feature his drumming like they should.

Here is a drum battle with him and Shaughnessy, another drum monster. Enjoy.

[poppachubby]

Adam I would also like to add a couple of things,

are you getting some recordings which sound satisfactory? Sometimes excessively panned sounding drums can be a sign of poor left and right integration. This would require some speaker placement to fix. Also, it can be a sign that your listening seat is too close. Only you can decide if that's the case.

The other thing I will say is that with the advent of digital in the studio, came click tracks. Terrence can explain better, but what they do is after the drummer plays the track, they revisit it, looking for the best sounding snare hit, kick, tom hit, etc. Once they determine that, they digitally insert those into each beat in which that piece appears. Studio "magic" at it's best. This saves time and money from a production standpoint.

Just an example to show you that the earthiness of a couple mics while a drummer plays along, is not always the case. Click tracks combined with panning can make for a pretty sterile sounding drum kit.

While huge and awesome sounding, I find Metallica's "Justice" LP to have this problem. They just don't have that live feel, VERY over produced.

[MasterCylinder]

Dave Weckl -- Master Plan

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Adam I would also like to add a couple of things,

are you getting some recordings which sound satisfactory? Sometimes excessively panned sounding drums can be a sign of poor left and right integration. This would require some speaker placement to fix. Also, it can be a sign that your listening seat is too close. Only you can decide if that's the case.

The other thing I will say is that with the advent of digital in the studio, came click tracks. Terrence can explain better, but what they do is after the drummer plays the track, they revisit it, looking for the best sounding snare hit, kick, tom hit, etc. Once they determine that, they digitally insert those into each beat in which that piece appears. Studio "magic" at it's best. This saves time and money from a production standpoint.

Just an example to show you that the earthiness of a couple mics while a drummer plays along, is not always the case. Click tracks combined with panning can make for a pretty sterile sounding drum kit.

While huge and awesome sounding, I find Metallica's "Justice" LP to have this problem. They just don't have that live feel, VERY over produced.

Actually a click track is just a bit different than this explanation.

A click track is nothing more than a metronome playing(no drum or other percussion) that keyboards, guitars, and other instruments play to(or use as tempo guides) which allows other instruments to be added live to a recording track. Once all of the instruments are tracked, then the drums are added to the mix using the same metronome speed as the click track. So it is a reference "beat" that is used in the studio for all non percussion instruments to add layering without the presence of the drums(pre-production). You do this as a way to pre-record something to be added to a live playing session. At my church we do this a lot, because the band uses a lot of synthesizers, but really has only three keyboard players. When the orchestra that normally plays during special occasions is not there, it is used to fill out their parts for weekly worship.

What Poppa is referring to is basic cleaning of a track, whereas poorly played parts are exchanged via software with better played tracks previously recorded. This is more common with vocals than instruments, but instrument benefits from this practice as well.

[WE300B]

One of my favorite reference drum recordings comes from the 1977 Valerie Carter album "Just A Stone's Throw Away". The song "Back to Blue Some More" has a remarkable drum part played by Jeff Pocaro and originally produced by George Massenburg.

STUNNING, absolutely stunning. Take a listen and post your thoughts.

I have 6 copies 3 of which are still SEALED! My Goldmund front end is well isolated on my new BDI audio stand that I purchased on line.
Try it if you're in the market for a stand.

And at the end of your day, listen to Little Feat!

[Hyfi]

Dave Weckl -- Master Plan

or any disk he is on...Love this one though!

[Troy]

Try this song.

[Mr Peabody]

Adam, like the Allman Brothers? Most every album I've heard has two drummers so one set is off to the left and one to the right. You might enjoy them since the drums aren't across the entire soundstage.