Hi All,

Longtime lurker, posting more now that I have time to indulge in the hobby at home

So my influences and reference tracks for the project are Hayden "Us Alone" and Aimee Mann "Mental Illness"

Unfortunately, there isn't a lot here (or Tape Op board) on either Hayden Desser or Paul Bryan.

I thought I'd post this to see if there is anyone else obsessed with these masterpieces and trying to reverse-engineer them.

Ok no help on those two. But I got another one.

I'd love to get a drum sound similar to what Andy Shauf has on his latest record Neon Skyline. It is very minimal, close mic'd and that 70s King Crimson snare sound.

He said most of the drums were summed mono to a single track on a Tascam 388. Which I have!!

But...I can't for the life of me get my snare to sound that way.

What is more important? A dead room? Or the compressor type/settings on that snare?

The most important things are the snare drum, the heads, the tuning, and the person playing it.

Ok well I know I can muster the same drum stylings he is. They are not exactly prog.

The snare is a Chad Smith Pearl. That's my only snare I mean.

The heads are Remo.

Now why does his sound have no snare wire rattle or room ambience and sound like it was lifted from Larks Tongue?

I have an LA4A on my HH and a 1176 clone on the snare. Should I switch those around?

Is all of this pointless if the room is pretty live??

I took a listen to the album, the snare varies a bit from track to track but I would start out with a deep wood snare drum, muffle the hell out of it and play very lightly.

Ok thank you for that.

I can't believe how great Neon Skyline sounds.

If Shauf really did record everything himself on a 388, then (in my mind) it just goes to show how important a mastering engineer is. Because I cannot get anything to sound that great with my machine which is performing at spec.

rorohello ..so fyi you just introduced me to this album (Andy Shauf / Neon Skyline). Big agree with JLast, these elements vary a lot between songs. So there's a bit of a moving target here.

At first listen, the drums on this album reminded me of Jim Croce recordings. I immediately pulled up up Croce and A/B'd a few Shauf/Croce songs.

Any chance you post a short excerpt of the drum sound you're getting presently so we can compare where you are now with your goal? If you post a dry track (no EQ / uncompressed, vs. "muffled"), someone might be inclined to take a stab at recreating the Shauf sound on your existing tracks and provide the processing recipe Just a thought..

But, I like JLast's theory, muffle heavily, play light ..I'd also expect you need pretty liberal EQing. Then compress and/or saturate to fatten.

Thanks for replying and for the offer.

I just got a preamp back I've been waiting on. I'll post some elements of a current track I'm working on.

Where should I host clips?

Hmm, good question ..presumably you should use .wav files which are obviously large files. I wonder how big a 10 second .wav would be? That could be enough to tinker with. If you select the "Quote" option, which opens your reply in a new window, then scroll down, there are "additional options", which includes the ability to attach files. I know I've attached an MP3 before, so I know files can be uploaded here directly. (It also says .wav is a valid file extension, so that is encouraging.) However it's possible there is a file size limit, which I don't see mentioned there. But if you keep the snippet relatively short, maybe even 20-30 seconds, optimistically would sneak under any max file size constraints.

Why don't I do a 192 MP3 first.

Then if people want higher res for whatever reason, we can figure out other hosting if necessary.

I've never posted my creative output on places like this...so n00b to me just FYI

I'm sorta over thinking I'm ever going to be a successful music artist, and I think once you clear that hurdle, it becomes easier to seek advice and input.

The first clip will be the track (acoustic/organs/piano) without any percussion. IDK if people think a close 70s sound like Shauf is doing won't fit it, maybe it's better to go the exact opposite direction (?)

sounds like quite a bit of wallet on the skin

Here is a segment of the track where I'd love to get closer to his snare sound.

I boosted the level of the snare here to try and make it more pronounced.

I actually do have a big wallet on it, and I did the downtuning on the top + crank the snare wires. It's hitting a BLA 1176 clone on 8 for ratio and the dry/wet (parallel output) at about 70%

Interesting that you mention "crank the snare wires" because, comparing to the snare sound on 'Clove Cigarette', my first thought was I hear more of your snare wires. I also hear more resonance overall on your snare vs his, as well as some reverb on yours.

You say you downtuned the top ..but how tight overall? I'd think you'd want both sets of heads to be pretty tight.

Just spitballing with you here--But if I was going for this sound I'd go super tight on both heads, super tight on the snares, and I'd go all-in on batter head muffling. If it still wasn't dry enough (or if the snares were still more apparent), and if I happened to have some old snare wires in reserve, I might try removing every other wire. I'd still really crank everything down. Maybe even tape a sponge across them haha But I'd try all this with old heads and old snares though ..don't want to waste any consumables going so extreme. If it concerns you going so tight, you could always pick up a cheap snare at Guitar Center, or even a cheap used one, and use it for experimentation. That might be a good idea anyway.

That's all in the spirit of experimentation, though. Because otherwise I think the sound you're getting is fine--it works well within your own recording. Your toms are considerably different than Shauf's, so I'm guessing identical isn't really the goal?

Ok all helpful. Thank you.

I'll keep an eye out on CL for el cheapo snare.

Yes, I basically had it done, but then thought to myself, I'd like to try a "dry" 70s sound like this on the track.

The kick/toms are triggers/samples and on a separate track. The only things real I do going in are HH/Ride/Snare.

I'm sure there is a sample pack somewhere to DL if I get a flavor I like going on the real stuff.