drums away

DRUMS AWAY

By Sam Verioa

A little winter’s road trip into the gorgeous countryside of the Yarra Valley outside Melbourne earlier this month saw Amarevois spend the golden (yet icy) day rather pleasantly recording drums for an upcoming album project at JHS. The picturesque setting, the serious Rancilio coffee machine, (let’s face it, nothing gets done without it; it’s got to be good – and it was!) and the veritable smorgasbord of resonant devices, made for a refreshing field trip for the Azimuth Arts team.

With Justin Humphries at the helm, Amarevois took a break from the other side of the console to explore the detailed acoustics of the drum room, as well as Justin’s generous offer of the use of his private cymbal collection and his two beautiful Yamaha kits (Recording Custom and Maple Absolute – see below).

“I’ve been using a beat up old favourite kit belonging to a friend of mine for the past few years which seems to just record so well when you give it some energy, but this was an opportunity I simply could not pass up. The Yamaha Custom recording kit has long been a favourite of mine, though I’ve not used one on a recording to date, I don’t think.” Amarevois

“Actually, I think we ended up going with the Maple Custom Absolute, which had bigger shell sizes, and just added the beat up floor tom, as I like to have one either side. I’m left-handed and play with an open-handed style, so I find it useful to have ‘the money shot’ sound closer to the hats. Also, it’s gothic jazz, so I need big drama to go with the big hair!”

“ I cut my studio teeth, as it were, working in a little boutique studio in Fitzroy Melbourne in the early 90’s and I was recording drums almost every other day, which is rarer now, with the use of Strike, BFD, Adrenalin and the like; but I really enjoy the process. Part of the reason I chose JHS is because Justin not only has a great set of ears, but being a drummer, really relishes recording them and that just created a good vibe for both of us to explore how I wanted to approach these tracks percussively, which have a dramatic, yet delicate kind of intricacy.”

“We used an AKG D112 on kick, Shure 57’s on high and mid toms, my ever-present favourites, the Sennheiser MD441’s on floor toms, a pair AKG 412’s for overheads and a RODE pencil on the hats. We also set up an MS stereo pair to capture the room, in case I wanted to use that for colour and contrast. It seemed a shame not to, the room sounded so good. It was the first time I’d used the Yamaha sub-kick and I thought it was very successful. It really suited the tracks and now that I’ve begun editing & mixing the takes we did on the day, it’s come up beautifully.”

Off the top of my head, I can’t remember which pre was used for which input, but yeah, the Avalon’s (737’s) are nice and of course, the UA, (6176) so we were pretty spoilt for choice. In the end though, it’s always a combination of things that bring about an exciting result. It’s nice to be moving forward with the project and after rehearsing in solitude for so long, to take it out of the rehearsal room and to get it ‘on tape’ was really fun. Well, actually, it really did go to tape, because the first thing I did was to re-record the raw takes onto some AMPEX 456 that I’d been manically stockpiling via my Tascam MSR16 ½” tape machine which I got from that first studio in Fitzroy, in fact.  I love that machine (can you love a machine?) it has recorded some very special moments for me throughout my composing life. And the effect on the drum takes? Well, as far as I’m concerned, it’s instant bliss, despite the hiss!  Amarevois

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