“For the hobbyist, I always keep an open mind.  Although I’m a ‘technique geek’, I find it pointless to keep a new drummer on a practice pad for a full year, then move to the kit – yawn!  Drums are meant to be fun!”  Well I want a teacher like that!

Those words were uttered by drum instructor Mike Michalkow in an interview with Drums Etc. magazine back in the Fall of 2007.  Although he takes his drumming very seriously, he’s just as serious in teaching his students to ‘always have fun’.  That is a very refreshing view to take to the drums, and is part of what makes Mike’s approach to the drums and his drumming style so appealing.

I became familiar with Mike back in 2009 with the release of his flagship DVD instruction course, the “Drumming System”.  At the time, I was looking for a drumming course where I could learn at my own pace, just focusing on what I wanted to focus on, when I wanted to.  The “Drumming System” fit the bill nicely.  But even more impressive than the course itself, was its instructor.  Mike’s a very friendly guy, who never talks down to you and is always encouraging.  This endearing quality prompted me to want to talk to the man himself, and he was kind enough to grant The Paradiddler some of his time.

In speaking with Mike I saw why he has so many raving fans:  his enthusiasm for drumming is infectious.  You can’t help but get inspired by his story, and he definitely has a story to tell.  He truly is a drumming success story, and he holds nothing back.  Some of the things Mike talks about include:

• How his persistence in increasing his drumming skills led to some very interesting jobs
• Why you should regularly check and refine your playing technique
• Why he saw the need to create the various instructional DVD’s that he’s produced, and why you want them in your library
• Tips for teachers on how to address the needs of the student
• How to land that gig, and how to get better ones (this is key)
• How and why (and when!) you should address your drumming weaknesses
• The proper attitude to have to continue pursuing your passion of drumming
• And so much more!

The interview is over an hour, and it is chock full of gems that drummers of all levels can grab from.  For convenience, the interview is divided into two parts, so the listener can easily set aside time for each.  Plus, this format makes it easier on the ears.^*

Will learning from Mike Michalkow make you the best drummer in the world?  Well, that’s a tall order for any teacher.  Can he help you be the best drummer you can be?  Now we’re talking!  Enjoy listening to a drum teaching great, check out his drum instruction courses, and prepare to up your drumming game.

In the previous articles in this series, we’ve discussed the following aspects:

• The reasons why many drummers do (and should!) record themselves playing drums
• What to consider for the drum cover to look good
• What to consider for the drum cover to sound good

Many will just flip the camcorder (or web cam!) on, press record, and play, without regard to lighting, camera positioning, the tuning of the drums, etc.  Well, you’ll get a recording, but it may not look and sound as you’d like.  A little bit of effort needs to be put forth for the recording to look and sound quality.

Well then, let’s say you do take the time to make sure your video looks and sounds good.  You’ve paid attention to the details as far as lighting, camera positioning, a good sounding mp3, etc.  You have the recording –  now what?  Now you want to publish the video for all to see.  For that, you’ll need video editing software.

There are a multitude of options in the market for video editing, with pricing ranging from a few dozen dollars to several hundred (and even thousands!) of dollars.  The program that will do absolutely everything for you is most likely out of range price-wise for most, so the quest begins for determining which program will suit the needs of the drum cover recorder.  But that presents a problem in and of itself.

We’re drummers and not necessarily videographers!  Even though we want to record good drum covers, the fact is that we really just want to play, and get better at drumming, so we spend a lot of time trying to get better at that.  Who has time to be an expert video editor?  or even a semi-expert?  Granted, this generation is more computer and tech-savvy than ever before, and some are adept at making clever videos.  But this isn’t always the case (as you can see in many YouTube videos!).

The drummer could hire someone to edit their drumming videos for them, but most simply don’t have the money to do so.  You could get a friend to do it, but that may be hit or miss – you may get a good final product, or you may not, depending on how good the friend is.  This may be an option though, if they know what they’re doing.  But in the end, it should be you, the drummer, who has the final say, on what your video should look like.  You’re the director!  It gives a lot of pride and satisfaction when you’ve recorded a drum cover, gone through the editing process, and produce a video where you had complete control over the content and presentation.  It is definitely something worth working towards.

As we mentioned, many video editing products are simply beyond the reach financially for most drummers.  There are some who have the luxury of expensive video equipment as well, but that’s not the case for most drummers.  However, there is a price that every drummer can afford:  free. And if you have [a computer and] Microsoft Windows, you most likely already have a video editing program that will get the job done as far as getting a decent looking and sounding drum cover.  That program is Windows^® Movie Maker.^*

Certainly, there are a lot of things that Movie Maker cannot do, and some may criticize it for being too ‘simple’ a program, or too restrictive.  But remember, we’re not talking about winning the Oscar for Editing – we’re just recording a drum cover!  And frankly, Movie Maker is very adequate for this type of editing.

Movie Maker is actually a better video editing program than most give it credit for.  I’m not here to tout the virtues of Movie Maker per se, but many will criticize it simply because it’s from Microsoft.  Yes, many times their software is released somewhat ‘buggy’, but they get corrected via hot fixes and patches eventually.  The fact is that this free video editing program is more than adequate for making not-so-elaborate drum cover recordings that look and sound great – the only thing limiting those last two little items is the equipment you’re using to record.

As far as the actual program itself, I use version 6, which comes with Windows Vista.  I believe it looks and works the same in Windows XP, but Windows 7 includes a revamped version of the program that I’m not familiar with.  Although I will be focusing on the Windows 6 version, the same principles will apply to all versions.

Here’s a screenshot of my workspace when I was editing my drum cover of Rush’s “The Analog Kid”:

Movie Maker has a simple layout, very unobtrusive, that will allow you to get right to editing your video without a lot of fluff.  At the top, you see the media list, both audio and video, that I’ve imported for this project.  There’s the mp3 of the original song, and two video takes.  Depending on what you want to do, you can merge different sections of each take via transitions and make it look as one take.  If you have only one camera, this is a good way of incorporating multiple camera angles.

Under the ‘Tasks’ section, you’ll find the ‘Edit’ section where you have a palette of effects (about 50 or so) that you can incorporate in your videos.  In some of my later covers (such as “Jacob’s Ladder” and “That’s What You Get”) I incorporate some of these effects.

Speaking of transitions, there are several different kinds as well, such as fades, heart shaped, dissolve, spin, slide, flip screens, and on and on.  Sometimes the song you’re playing will dictate which effect or transition you want to use.  The more you use the program, the more creative you will become.

The bottom of the workspace shows your timeline.  Here is where you can split the video and add your transitions and effects, and add your beginning and ending titles (if you want them).  In this example, you can see the audio spectrum of both your video and your mp3.  You can actually zoom in and use the visual spectrum to align the video’s audio with the audio of the mp3, to ensure no ‘double sounds’.

Two of your best ‘friends’ in Movie Maker will be the ‘audio level’ feature and the ‘nudge’ feature.  The audio level allows you to control the volume of the video relative to the volume of the mp3.  That way, you can determine how loud you want your drums (in the video) to sound in relation to the drumming in the mp3.  If done right, both by your playing and the proper volume of your playing, you may be able to achieve that only your drums can be heard, and not the one on the original song.

The nudge feature allows fine audio/video alignment of the sound.  You can move the audio (the mp3) left and right in very small, minute increments to get the audio aligned just right.

The ‘Publish To’ section allows you to save your finalized video in a format ready to upload to YouTube, or any other video platform.  I almost exclusively use YouTube, except for very few exceptions.  YouTube is so pervasive that it’s almost not worth using the others, especially when starting off.  The only option I’ve used under this section is ‘This Computer’.  That way I have the video saved in its final format, and I can do with it whatever I want after that.

So, in this ‘recording drum covers’ series we’ve discussed the basics as to what it takes to record quality drum covers, with just your camcorder and Windows Movie Maker.  As mentioned, many drummers have at least these two items, so if you have them, you’re on your way!  But we’ve only scratched the surface.

TheParadiddler.com is in the process of preparing a step-by-step guide, from inception to production, on how anyone can record their drum cover, and be proud of the result!  Some of the subjects to be discussed in detail are:

• Why you should invest in a camcorder (it doesn’t have to be top-of-the-line - not even close)
• The importance of a quality mp3
• Drum tuning tips
• Lighting details
• Camcorder positioning
• How to ensure you start playing exactly when the drumming starts (when the drums start on the first note of the song)
• Putting video and mp3 together in Movie Maker
• Effective use of transitions and effects
• How to merge multiple camera angles
• How to ensure audio between video and mp3 is synchronized, every time
• and so much more!

Let me clarify what this guide will not be:  it will not be a manual on how to use Microsoft Movie Maker.  The ‘Recording Drum Covers’ guide has one purpose:  to assist drummers with limited funds to use Windows Movie Maker to edit quality drum covers – that’s it. So whatever features Movie Maker has that will help you edit a great drum cover, that is what will be discussed. There are books that are dedicated to Windows Movie Maker itself, but they are very general in nature.  If you want to use Movie Maker, which you most likely already have, to edit your properly recorded drum covers, this is your guide.

The guide will also be presented based on the author’s experience.  There hardly ever is just one way of doing something.  It may well be that you’ll see that I present how to do a certain thing, and you may think I’m going about it completely the wrong way!  If that’s the case, your input will be greatly appreciated!  I hope this becomes a collaborative endeavor, where ideas can be shared, where we’re all looking for the most efficient way of doing things.  Count me in!

Movie Maker is not the best video editing software out there, not even close.  But for being free, it is excellent!    One of the benefits of using Movie Maker, at least in the beginning, as discussed in the opening article in this series, is that once you get proficient at it, you’ll be better aware of what it can and can’t do.  This will allow you to make an informed decision on what more sophisticated video editing software you will upgrade to, if that’s what you want.  So you not only will make great drum cover videos, you’ll learn something about video editing in the process!  You’ll be able to talk from an informed standpoint to others more versed in editing, so there’s less confusion should you later ‘outsource’ your editing to someone else.

The guide is in the process of being put together (as of this writing), so if you have any requests or questions regarding what you’d like to see explained in the guide, just shoot me an e-mail and I’ll consider it.

There is great satisfaction when you work hard to prepare your drumming space, ensure the drums are well tuned, that the camera is in place, that you play really well, that you then edit the video – to then see a final product that you can be proud of, and that others viewing it like it too.  So stay tuned!  Hopefully this ‘Recording Drum Covers’ introductory series wets your appetite and incites you to not only play the drums well, but present yourself in a good light as well!

______________
^*The focus of this ‘Recording Drum Covers’ series has been on Windows Movie Maker.  Apple has very good programs as well for video editing, and some of the principles discussed in this series can apply to whatever equipment and software being used.

Sound Guidelines

]]> http://theparadiddler.com/2011/04/01/recording-drum-covers-presentation/feed/ 1 http://theparadiddler.com/2011/02/23/recording-drum-covers-sound-guidelines/ http://theparadiddler.com/2011/02/23/recording-drum-covers-sound-guidelines/#comments Wed, 23 Feb 2011 18:01:15 +0000 Omar http://theparadiddler.com/?p=2052

When recording video, you may think that what you see is what's most important.  It is a video, after all!  However, you may be surprised to know that the audio portion of the video may be just as important, maybe even more so.

On occasion I peruse YouTube to find various drumming-related videos, be it classic solos of my favorite drummers, or recent drum covers of, well, anybody.  I've found videos that look pretty good, but the sound is just awful.  Of course, you also find the videos that both look and sound awful (that’s just wrong!).

But I digress.  Sometimes I’ll find a video that looks pretty good, but the sound is very bad.  I lament that it couldn’t sound better, and move on.  It feels like for those videos you have to work too hard to determine what the thing is supposed to sound like.  At other times, however, I’ll find a video that doesn’t look good (or maybe it even looks pretty bad), but the sound is very good.  I’ll at least give it a listen!  Why is this?

We’ve been accustomed now to expect good audio with good video.  Take for example cinema and home theater.  When movies are being edited, much attention is given not only to what you see, but also to what you hear.  Can you imagine movies like Star Wars without the attention to sound?  Yes, the lightsaber is a very cool looking weapon, but its humming sounds when moved about and crackling when struck against another lightsaber make it the most memorable weapon in all of science fiction.  Not only that, but the sound is perfectly synchronized with the movement of the weapon, to the point that it looks absolutely convincing – it is ‘real’.

So huge now is the emphasis on home theater, and uncompromising sound, that movie makers now ensure that their movie will sound great not only in the cinema, but when played at home as well.  Yes, sound is a big deal.

Another example of the importance of sound is an attraction I went to at Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park called “Sounds Dangerous with Drew Carey”.  It’s a theater where you are given special headphones, and shortly into the presentation everything goes pitch black.  All you hear are sounds coming at you from all directions.  It’s a fantastic example of how impactful sound can be, sometimes even without the aid of video.

Growing up, my father was a television repair technician.  ‘Back in the day,’ television was all about the screen, and not about the speaker.  Television technology was very much focused on getting a quality image, but the sound was for the most part ignored.  In my teens I started to notice that televisions were starting to incorporate stereo speakers, and at that time I thought they sounded just awesome.  I had to convince my father to buy one of these, but he saw no need for it.  We had a very good Sony television, and he was adamant that television is for viewing, not really for hearing.  I finally convinced him to buy a pair of cheap external speakers that connected to the ‘audio out’ of the TV.  My Dad had an epiphany when he heard the difference, and then understood how sound actually enhanced the viewing experience.  From that point on, and to this day, everything goes through the receiver. 

So the bottom line is, if you want to make a video that stands out (and in this case, our focus being drum covers), then there’s no getting around it – it must sound good! Being that the case, we need to determine what aspects we have control over to ensure a good sounding video.

For a great sounding cover, the things you need to pay attention to are:

• Room acoustics
• The drums themselves (i.e., tuning)
• The sound quality of the song being played to
• Microphone placement (i.e., the flexibility of camcorder placement)
• The ability of the drummer

Let’s talk about each of these aspects for a bit.

As far as room acoustics go, for many there’s not much that can be done about that, and it’s a little beyond the scope of this series, but it’s definitely worth a mention.  In the Yes documentary YesYears – A Retrospective, Bill Bruford mentions that during the recording of Close to the Edge (1972), the band would start recording a song.  Of course, they still would be playing gigs, so when one came up they would break everything down, drive up to the gig and play it.  Gig’s up, so they then would set up their equipment to continue recording the song they started, at an entirely new location!  That meant, of course, that the sounds would be completely changed due to the different acoustics of the new location.

Point being that, yes, the location where the drums are does have an affect on the recording.  Since most have only one location in their homes where their drums can be, you may just have to make due with that.  If there is more than one location where you can have the drums, if you want to take the time, and if it’s practical, you may want to experiment in those locations and determine where the drums sound better.  You may not even be able to tell the difference, except possibly in a recording, but it may be worth the endeavor. (For some soundproofing ideas, check out the article “The Thing About the Neighbors”.)

Here’s where the rubber meets the road, so to speak.  If you want your recording to have any chance of sounding even half-way decent, there’s no getting around it – you must learn how to tune your drums.  This to me is the least favorite part of drumming, but it is an integral part.  It is part art, part science, and it’s good to get practicing it to the point of at least slight familiarity.

In the article “Name That Tune”, I explain an occasion where it was a good time for me to break down my entire kit and set it up from scratch (kind of what I did in the “The Paradiddler’s Kit Part 3” video).  I went on to detail the methods I used to tune the three major sections of the kit:  bass drum, toms, and snare.  They all have their little idiosyncrasies, so it’s a good idea to get familiar with them.

There are also many sources of instruction pertaining to drum tuning that are very good, which you’ll want to check out.  Mike Michalkow’s “Drum Tuning System” is a great resource for tuning your drums for different genres of music, as well as for general drum kit maintenance.  Alfred Music Publishing’s “The Drum Set Crash Course – Tuning Edition” hosted by Russ Miller is also an excellent DVD.  And practically anything by Bob Gatzen on YouTube is bound to be highly instructional as well.

I won’t get into all the technical aspects of tuning here (you can see that in the aforementioned “Name That Tune” article), so I strongly encourage you to really get to know the sound of your kit using any of the videos mentioned here.  Your videos (and their viewers) will not be disappointed.  You can make an expensive kit sound awful with bad tuning, but you can make a cheap kit sound decent with proper tuning.

What song will you be playing to?  How does it sound?  An approach I’ve seen some do when recording a drum cover is that they’ll blast their stereo, and play along to that.  I don’t recommend that method for a couple of reasons.  One, the volume of the stereo will have to compete with the noise of the drums, and that may produce a ‘noisy’ sounding performance.  Two, you’d really have to turn up the volume of the stereo to be able to hear it over the noise of the drums.  If you’re not hearing the music clearly enough, your timing may be off, resulting in ‘double drumming’ (hearing two drummers).  ‘Double drumming’ may be ok at times (it may sound like a cool effect, if that’s what you’re after), but if you constantly go ahead and behind the music because you can’t hear it very well, the performance can become unlistenable.

Ideally, you’ll want to hear the song through what I call ‘drummer’s headphones,’ or simply isolation headphones.  For example, the headphones I use when playing to songs are the Vic Firth Isolation Headphones.  They are very reasonably priced (around $50).  They reduce the volume of your drums significantly while still allowing you to hear them clearly.  At the same time, you can adjust the volume of the music you’re playing to a level that’s loud enough to hear alongside your drumming, but without blowing out your eardrums.

This is important because, instead of recording your drums (with the camcorder) competing with the stereo, you’re just recording your drums.  Later on, you can use Windows Movie Maker to synchronize your playing to a clean, high quality version of the song you played to.  That makes for a more polished sound.

And speaking of the song, how does that sound?  When you’re playing a drum cover, you want to have the performance give the impression that you’re the drummer.  If the song is a clean version, you’ll more likely be able to achieve that.

I recommend using mp3 versions of songs rather than wav files.  If you want to be a real stickler, you could use the wav file format since it is more of a ‘lossless’ file format.  But really, for many music types you can’t tell the difference, so I recommend using the mp3 format (the data is compressed).  Mp3 files are considerably smaller than wav files as well.  If you start storing all your songs as wav files, you’ll run out of hard drive space fast!

The bit rate of the mp3 file is also something you may want to consider when recording and editing your drum cover.  The absolute, bare minimum, lowest bit rate you should use is 128kbps.  Any lower than that and the listener may tell the difference between the original and the mp3 (they may already be able to tell at that bit rate).  So, the higher you go, the higher the quality of the sound of the song.  Anything above 256 might be overkill as far as being able to tell the difference between the CD version of the song and the mp3, but that’s up to you which bit rate to use.

In any case, the idea is for the audio to sound so good that it sounds like you’re the drummer.  Ensuring the song sounds as close to the CD as possible is part of the equation.

Actually, we’re talking here about camcorder placement, since for many of you you’re using the microphones that are built into the camcorder.  The placement of the camcorder will have an effect on how the final product will sound.

If you want to have an equal distribution of left/right stereo sound, then you’ll need to put the camcorder squarely in the middle, in front of the drum set.  If you want the whole set to show, you’ll have to position the camcorder back enough to display the kit.  How close or how far you’ll need to place the camcorder to get the entire kit in view will depend on the lens in the camera, how much of a ‘wide angle’ shot you can get.

The proximity of the camcorder to the drum set will affect the quality of the recording.  You may need to experiment with how close you can put the camera without the recording sounding distorted.  You may need to set the camera back further and zoom in a little.  However, although not completely necessary, try to avoid ‘digital zoom’.  If your camera has ‘optical zoom’, ensure you’re in range to use that since there are no calculations being made to the image to get the shot – it’s not ‘doctored up’ by the camera.  However, I doubt anyone will need to put the camera far enough that the digital zoom feature will kick in, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it.  Just throwing it out there!

If you want to use multiple angles, however, things change a little bit.  If you want to place the camera behind and above you, it will sound different than placing it in front of you (and, actually, the left and right stereo will flip).  If you want a shot above and to your right, that will also sound slightly different.  If you want a close-up from your left side, that will sound different again.  I present these scenarios so you are aware that when using one camera, using the built-in microphones will cause the drums to sound slightly different for each angle.

The above can be totally avoided if you’re using an external microphone and placing it in one spot, and move the camera around for each take.  This ensures the faithfulness of the left/right stereo separation, and there’s no ‘flipping’, per se.  But the details on this option is for another day.

Well, if there’s no drummer, there’s no drum cover!  Of course, the drummer is the one who will mostly affect the quality of the sound.  However, the purpose of recording ourselves playing is to go back and see where we can improve, show off to our friends, and just have fun. The latter's the main goal.  So if you’re playing doesn’t come out ‘that good’, never to worry!  With practice, you’ll get better.  Accept the kudos humbly, and take the constructive criticism and run with it. 

Up to this point we’ve talked about video and audio.  But how about putting it all together for presentation?  The next article in the series will touch on this aspect of ‘recording drum covers.’

Seeing Is Believing | Presentation

]]> http://theparadiddler.com/2011/02/23/recording-drum-covers-sound-guidelines/feed/ 1 http://theparadiddler.com/2011/02/10/recording-drum-covers-seeing-is-believing/ http://theparadiddler.com/2011/02/10/recording-drum-covers-seeing-is-believing/#comments Thu, 10 Feb 2011 15:30:03 +0000 Omar http://theparadiddler.com/?p=2017

It used to be that, if you wanted people to see you play, they had to come over.  If you were good, or you liked the attention, you’d make sure you’d have your kit in a place easily accessible to your ‘audience’ (if you had the room, else everyone would just go to the bedroom ).  It could get ugly if you lived in an apartment or a small house!

Nowadays, that’s just not the case.  Enter YouTube, and now you can put your kit wherever you want.  Just set up the camcorder, transfer your performance to your computer, upload the video to YouTube, and presto!  Now anyone all over the world (potentially) can watch you play (your friends can still come over if they want ).  YouTube makes it incredibly easy to publish, well, anything you want.

Being that the case, amateur drummers (the main focus of this series, although anyone can benefit) have jumped into the fray recording their playing, and there are just a slew of videos on YouTube of drummers playing in bands, doing drum solos, and playing to songs.

Recording drum solos is the easiest of the aforementioned because you’re not playing to something you have to be in sync with.  ‘It is what it is’, as they say.  In this instance the quality of the recording depends on the recording device.  Well, as far as the sound goes, anyway.  If the solo’s crappy, at least it can sound good!

If you’re playing in a band, you the drummer are the main timekeeper (although it’s really everyone’s responsibility).  If the performance is to be recorded, there’s no separate audio track that the drummer needs to be in sync with – he (or she) is the audio track, or for simpler setups, the whole band becomes the track.

However, recording drum covers has its own idiosyncrasies.  If you’re playing to a song, you’re not only hearing the song, but the drums.  If you’re using headphones that do not reduce the noise level of the drums, the drums may drown out the song.  This can cause you to play out-of-sync with the drums in the song, and it will be noticed in the final video.  If you play out-of-sync, it can sometimes sound like two drummers, and that’s most likely not the effect you want.

Regarding the sound, it may also be that the microphones installed on the camcorder are not capable of recording drum sounds without an incredible amount of distortion.  I used to own a JVC camcorder that used tape, and after I set up my drum kit I tested it to see how it would fare.  Well for one, the video was very grainy (I didn’t remember it being that bad!).  For the other, the drums sounded awful. Every time I hit any drum in the kit there was an incredible amount of distortion, and there was no way of regulating it.  I determined right then and there that if I wanted my recordings to sound any good at all, I needed a new camcorder.

That may be the realization that many may need to come to.  You’ve recorded your drum cover (or just playing your drums by themselves), and they sound, well, not good.  In that case, you have a decision to make.  Here’s where you need to determine how good you want your drums to sound.  Here’s where you need to determine the quality of the final video, what image you want to present.  Depending on what your goals are, you may not care too much how your drums sound.  Maybe you just want to post your video however it comes out.  In that case, you’re pretty much all set!  Set your web cam and off you go!  Not much else to do.

But it’s very likely that you want to look and sound good.  If you’d like to get a respectable amount of views on YouTube, and if you want to showcase your skills and have viewers recommend your video, then you may need to review your video equipment and make a decision.  You may need to bite the bullet and buy a new camcorder.  (Note: Although there are some pretty good web cams out there, for recording quality drum covers I do not recommend them.  They do have their place, and they may be significantly cheaper than an actual camcorder.  But you will get what you pay for.  To get close to the quality [video and audio] you’ll get with a camcorder, you’ll need a top of the line web cam.  Might as well just get the camcorder!)

Although it’s a little beyond the scope of this article, there are some things you may want to look for if you determine that you need to buy a camcorder.  Let’s start with how I ended up with my current camcorder (the Canon FS100).  After I determined that the aforementioned JVC camcorder simply was not going to ‘cut the mustard’, I started to determine what features I required, and what features I would sacrifice for my purchase.  I did not have a lot of money set aside for this, so while I saved a little I went on a little information spree.

At that time, I had just discovered DrumChannel.com, and I saw a video posted of a drummer playing a little solo, and the drums actually sounded very good.  I asked the poster of the video what equipment he used, and to my surprise he said it was the Flip camera!  I could not believe it, but he insisted that that’s all it was.  The fact is that newer digital camcorders have better microphone technology than previous generations.  The microphones on these cameras use some sort of sound compression when recording, so distortion is minimized.  In any case, I had to try it.

I wasn’t quite ready to make a purchase just yet.  So, for testing purposes, I obtained a Flip camera, and recorded Tool’s “Crawl Away”.  I also recorded Rush’s “Malignant Narcissism”.  The playing wasn’t very good, but really what I wanted to see is if the Flip could handle the drum sound.  For what it was, it wasn’t too bad!  It was a good thing that I got the camera in my hands, because in using it I determined in the end that this was not the camera for me.

I foresaw the need to have the camcorder feature a built-in mic input jack.  Whatever camera I chose, I wanted to be able to attach an external microphone, of higher quality than the built-in microphones of the camera.  If I were to start off with an inexpensive camcorder, I thought that this option would allow for an easier upgrade path as far as microphones and sound recording goes.  Yes, you could record the drums separately from the video, and then sync the drumming audio with the video whilst muting the video, but that just adds extra steps.  The mic jack on the camcorder would allow the recording of great sounding drums right with the video.  Then it would be a matter of synchronizing your video with the song you played to.

Hence my decision, when I was ready, to obtain the Canon FS100.  I wasn’t in a position to purchase a high definition camcorder at the time, but this camera had enough features to get me by (the model is now discontinued).  Of course, the built-in mic jack still allowed recording flexibility for when I purchased an external microphone or digital recorder.^*

The advantage of using an external microphone or digital recorder is that you can place the camcorder anywhere you want, while keeping the recorder in a fixed location.  There are at least three benefits of using the digital recorder in lieu of the built-in microphone on the camcorder:

1. Allows for optimum placement of the recording device for best drum sound recording
2. You can record multiple angles (multiple takes) with the camcorder, but the drums will still sound the same because the recorder’s location is fixed
3. The quality of the drum sound is enhanced by the recorder’s superior sound quality recording

But that’s in the future!  You can always start with an inexpensive camcorder (preferably a relatively recent model), and it will do the trick – for now.  Just make sure it has left and right (stereo) microphones built-in, which pretty much is the norm these days anyway.

Then there’s the issue regarding lighting.  Here’s the bottom line regarding lighting:  have lots of it.  The more, the merrier.  One reason for this is, if you have too little light, your camcorder will have to work very hard to render an image, and the result will most likely be a grainy mess.  Unless, that’s the effect you’re looking for.  But most likely you’re not, so make sure you have plenty of light.

Sunlight is the best source of light, so if you have windows where your drums are located, by all means, open the shades!  Of course, that won’t help you at night.    You also have a few options here as well.  You could get one or more studio lights that photographers use for when they take pictures.  These are good because the light is diffused and not glaring, and are easy on the eyes.  But they can be a little expensive.  If you can’t go that route, then your other option could be working lights, such as the ones used at work sites.  Those can be had at places like The Home Depot or Lowe’s, some for less than fifty dollars or so.  These can be aimed away from your face, towards the ceiling for example, so the light getting to your eyes is reflected, and you won’t feel like the sun is in your face.

If you want to get a little fancy, you could get more than one of these lights, aiming them away from your face.  If you experiment enough, you could get an image with no shadows (or at least not too noticeable or distracting), while having plenty of light.  Again, an abundance of light will ensure the best possible image for your camcorder to record, and thus a better visual result.

So we’ve mostly discussed the visual part of our drum cover:  making sure we get the best shot, with what equipment we have.  Of course, that’s only part of the story.  In many cases, if a video looks good but sounds bad, it ends up being a turn-off.  But if the video’s only so-so, but the sound is good, then the viewer more often than not will bear it (funny how that works)!  We touched on it a little, but there are several other things to consider to ensure your videos not only look good, but sound good as well.  The next installment in this series will focus on this very critical aspect of recording a drum cover.

Record Yourself Playing Drums | Sound Guidelines

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^*“External microphone” and “digital recorder” are interchangeable terms in this article.

]]> http://theparadiddler.com/2011/02/10/recording-drum-covers-seeing-is-believing/feed/ 2 http://theparadiddler.com/2011/01/17/record-yourself-playing-drums/ http://theparadiddler.com/2011/01/17/record-yourself-playing-drums/#comments Tue, 18 Jan 2011 02:53:41 +0000 Omar http://theparadiddler.com/?p=1985

Why do you play drums?

Oh, so many reasons abound!  For some, drumming is a means to an end.  You may be an aspiring professional drummer.  Your goal may be to play in a band, making a career out of it.  Many are heavily influenced from childhood, admiring their favorite drummer from afar.  Eventually, the admirer dreamt of playing behind their band mates, while thousands of fans air drum to their playing.  All the while, you’re thinking that you were once the air drummer in the audience, but now, the drummer is you.

But the dream may not be that far out.  Perhaps playing in a local band gives you all the satisfaction you're after, playing covers of your favorite bands, or covering just one band.  You might even throw in the occasional original song for good measure.

For others, and maybe the majority, drumming isn’t a means to an end, it is an end.  Many play purely for the enjoyment of playing, whether they’re in a band or not.  How many of us haven’t strapped on some headphones and played to our favorite drumming songs (much to the chagrin of our neighbors, perhaps!)?  And yes, we were awful. But we didn’t care.  We were having too much fun.  When we had the chance, we got together with our music friends and jammed.  Again, not all of it sounded good, but man was it fun.

It was fun at first to just play at all, but you feel the itch to progress at some point.  If you stay at the same level of play, it starts to become ‘not fun’, and you may even get bored.  That’s true of any instrument, and actually, any skill or activity for that matter.  So, be it right at the beginning or after we’ve started, we endeavor (or, our caretakers endeavor for us) to improve our playing via some sort of instruction.  This can take many forms, such as:

• drum lessons with a teacher
  • local
  • online
• DVD instructional video
  • entire courses
  • specialized, focused instruction
• online instruction
  • free
  • subscription-based

From the above, a student could combine several methods and tailor them to their needs (or personal preferences).  For example, some may prefer the one-on-one method of student to teacher, and actually, most may say that this is the best method of learning.  One of the main advantages of the in-person teacher-student method is that you get immediate feedback.  Your instructor can right away watch you play, correct bad tendencies, encourage good technique, and basically tailor the lessons based on your skills and preferences in music.  This method may be costly, though:  in many cases well over $1,000/yr!

Others may opt for self-teaching methods.  Whole drum instruction courses are available to help the absolute beginner establish a solid foundation of skills and techniques, and you never have to leave your home.  Many just prefer to do it on their own, and although not the case in yesteryear, an aspiring drummer can teach themselves with these courses, and if followed through thoroughly, the student can play reasonably well within a relatively short period of time.  A couple of good courses available are:

• Mike Michalkow’s “Drumming System”
• Dann Sherrill’s “Learn and Master Drums”

There really isn’t a ‘one drum course fits all’ program, but the above cover a lot of what beginners, and even intermediate drummers, need to improve their drumming skills.  The fact that you can follow the instruction during your own time, at your own pace, and that they are very inexpensive compared to personal one-on-one teaching ($200-$300 total, and even less than that at times) is appealing to many students.

Online drum instruction has proliferated as well, and there’s a surprising amount of free lessons that, if the student has enough discipline to organize all of that content, they could get the necessary skills for basic drumming technique.  FreeDrumLessons.com is a fantastic resource to that end.

Hybrids of the above also exist, where a form of online plus personalized instruction gives students some of the best components of each method.  Mike Johnston of MikesLessons.com has set up his web site and drumming instruction in a way that permits drummers to benefit from beginner, intermediate, and advanced lessons regardless of where you are in the world.  TheParadiddler.com interviewed Mike and he goes over all the details of how his instruction works – it may be just for you.

And even on top of all the above, enthusiastic students may combine many aspects of the aforementioned to really receive multi-sourced instruction, so no matter what their situation, their needs are covered.

But there’s another method of instruction that I feel is just as important as any of the above, and should be incorporated in whatever you do, whether you’re practicing, playing in the garage with your band mates, or playing live.  To tie it all together, recording yourself playing is essential.  (For the purpose of this discussion, ‘recording’ means using a camcorder to watch your playing afterwards.)

Whatever method of instruction you choose, watching yourself play afterwards not only can expose your faults so you know what to correct, but you’ll also gain a level of satisfaction when you play correctly and look good doing so!  Also, building up a library of videos serves as a progressive catalog, where you can watch yourself, well, progress, to levels you may not have been privy to had you not recorded yourself.

I submit myself as a prime example.  Mind you, I have a long way to go as far as getting to a level that I’m satisfied with.  In fact, I may never get there (it’s about the journey, not the destination!).  Nevertheless, if I hadn’t been recording myself, I may never have known where I was, or where I was going.

I had many problems when I was starting out.  Let’s take, for example, the first time I ever recorded myself playing.  It was a drum cover of Tool’s “Crawl Away”.  Mind you, I didn’t do the song justice (who knows, maybe I’ll re-record it someday).  It’s a good example of why, in addition to whatever method you use to learn to play, recording yourself is essential.

While playing, you’re not necessarily aware of your mistakes until you see them afterwards.  While playing, I thought I was doing just fine!  But when I looked back at it, I was exposed.  For one, I played in a very reserved way – not wanting to hit anything hard, with authority (“The Thing About the Neighbors” explains why).  Since the headphones I was using were ‘open ear’, the noise of the drums interfered with the song I was hearing, so I played out of sync many times.  I was out of sync in so many places that I couldn’t correct it when I did the mixing afterwards (more on that later).

And it wasn’t only the playing – my recording technique wasn’t so hot either.  For one, since I didn’t really have a handle on lighting, the resolution ended up a little grainy.  And as far as the sound goes, I was depending solely on the camcorder’s microphone.  Although it was not bad, due to the camera’s position relative to the kit the part of the kit closer to the camcorder was slightly disproportionately louder than the part farther away.

Now, if I had not recorded myself, and I just played to the song, I would not have noticed any of these things, at least not so quickly.  I got immediate feedback from my video, and I knew what adjustments I needed to make.  Even if the adjustments were difficult, at least I could focus on them because I could see them, hence they could be corrected sooner.

Fast forward several months later, and now I’m playing to Van Halen’s "Girl Gone Bad".  Again, although not perfect, to me it’s a way better performance than the first video.  Now I’m using Vic Firth isolation headphones.  This drastically reduces the noise from the drums, while allowing you to raise the volume of the music to a point where you can hear it without blasting it over the noise of the drums.  This subsequently allows you to hear the music well enough to play in sync with the song.  Also, I’m hitting those drums and cymbals much harder than before, which is required especially for a song played by Alex Van Halen!  Although not very bright, the lighting is sufficient so the video is less grainy than previously, which allows the camcorder to record the video better.  The camcorder is positioned in front of the drum set, which allows for a more even sound distribution regardless of which part of the kit I’m hitting.  Even the video editing is better, with a title, and fades in and out included.  Again, these are things I may not have noticed without recording myself, or at least it would have taken much longer to notice.

So in addition to helping you improve your playing, recording on a regular basis teaches you how to make better videos, as far as getting to know your camcorder and video editing software.  As time goes on, it allows you to get creative as far as special effects, and possibly using multiple camera angles even with one camera (for some examples of this, see my drum cover of Rush’s “Double Agent”).  Increasing the quality of your playing and video creation and editing will allow you to give a more polished presentation of yourself, in case you ever were to submit your playing, say, to a contest, or as an audition to join a band.

So really, then, what is required to make quality recordings of your playing?  As a minimum, you need the camcorder, the video editing software, and, of course, the drums!  Actually, there’s a fourth item needed, if you really want people to see you:  a publishing platform, such as YouTube.  Although there are several of these platforms, my focus remains on YouTube, since it’s by far the most popular platform for publishing your videos.

I have to pause for a bit to explain the audience for this article (and subsequent articles).  There are extremes to the spectrum of video recording, or more specifically, recording your drumming sessions.  At one end, you have setups where there are multiple cameras for multiple simultaneous angles.  Also, microphones for every part of the drum set are in place to be able to control how each piece will sound in the final cut.  Complex mixing consoles and mixing software, both for the audio and video, ensure a professional final product.  As an example, check out Railroad Media’s Jared Falk covering the song “I’m Sorry”.

But most likely, many are at the other extreme.  Many who have drums at home and play for fun, or are taking lessons and the like, may want to record themselves play and possibly later post their video on YouTube.  They have their camcorder, and maybe the only video editing software they have is Windows Movie Maker.  I’ve seen some of these videos, and I see that many leave much to be desired!  The sound of the drums are very bad, or the video looks way too grainy, or the video’s out of sync with the audio, strange camera angles, etc.

As I’ve noted previously, my videos haven’t always been great, but with practice over time, whatever improvements I’ve made I’ve attributed to insistence in practice, both in drumming and recording.  Now I’d like to present to you how to do it.

Up until this point, almost all of my videos have been made using the Canon FS100 camcorder, and edited with Windows Movie Maker software (Windows Vista version, although to my understanding this version is similar to the ones found in previous Windows operating systems).  Yes, there are better camcorders, and also ‘yes’, there are better video editing software programs.  But there are at least two reasons why you should start at ‘the bottom’ when recording your drum covers.

One, it may be all that you have, or can afford!  Many who have Microsoft Windows already have Movie Maker on their computer, so might as well make use of what you have.  And as long as you have a camcorder where you can copy your videos to the computer, you already have what you need to create your drumming videos.  By the way, it is recommended that the video file format for importing into Movie Maker be .avi or .mpg.

Two, Movie Maker is simple enough to teach you the basics of creating your own drumming videos.  Over time, you’ll get better at recording, and then editing your videos.  With this comes the understanding of what features you’ll need that Movie Maker does not have, and if you decide to upgrade to a full-blown video editing program, you’ll know what to look for.

Of course, you can forgo all of the above and have someone else do all of the recording and editing for you.  Maybe a relative could do it for you, but you may not have complete control over the final product.  You could pay someone, but the ‘problem’ with that is, well, you have to pay them!  And that brings up yet a third reason why should do it yourself, at least at the beginning.

Once you get comfortable with recording and editing your own drum covers, be it using Movie Maker or more sophisticated software, when in fact you do decide to have someone else help you out, you’ll know exactly what to communicate as far as what your end product should look like.  You’ll be able to talk about lighting, mixing, editing, final production, etc.  Since you’ve been doing it on your own for a while, you’ll be able to have intelligent conversations with those who will be doing the actual editing as far as what you’re looking for.

So, the question is, would you like your videos to stand out from the crowd?  To that end, TheParadiddler.com will be posting a few articles to assist you.  With just a little effort, you’ll be making quality videos with just your camcorder and Windows Movie Maker, which will be the focus of the articles.

The main focus of the series will be how to record drum covers, but really you could transfer what you learn to recording other subjects as well.  Some of the topics that will be covered include:

• Song selection
  • Audio quality
• Lighting
• Preparing your drums
• About your camcorder
• Video editing
  • Cutting & merging
  • Audio & video synchronization
  • Effects
  • Transitions
  • Volume adjustment
• Resources
• and much more!

The goal of this information is to get you motivated to record your drum covers, and be proud of the final result.  You’ll see that you really don’t need expensive gear to come up with a quality recording – you may already have what you need!  So let’s get started.

Questions and comments are always welcome (and encouraged!).  Feel free to comment below on what concerns and questions you have, and what you would like to see covered.  In the meantime, get drumming!

Seeing Is Believing

]]> http://theparadiddler.com/2011/01/17/record-yourself-playing-drums/feed/ 3 http://theparadiddler.com/2010/11/03/drum-fills-lesson-playing-the-right-ones-at-the-right-time/ http://theparadiddler.com/2010/11/03/drum-fills-lesson-playing-the-right-ones-at-the-right-time/#comments Wed, 03 Nov 2010 06:36:05 +0000 Mike Veny http://theparadiddler.com/?p=1889

Drum fills can be one of the biggest challenges for drummers at all levels.  Whether it's the constant search for fresh fill ideas or the challenge of executing fills within a song, drummers are constantly in search for an answer.  Lately, fills have come more naturally to me than ever before.  In fact, I don't even think about them when I play nowadays.

This wasn't the case a few years ago.  Frustrated with my lack of progress in this area, I decided to bring my fill challenge to a new teacher, Tobias Ralph.  Known for his insane technique, grooves, and fills, Tobias is a top-notch professional drummer.  Through studying with him and Drori Mondlak, I developed some important concepts that have changed my drumming forever.

A drum fill is a short musical passage played to transition into a different section of a song, to embellish something else happening in a song, or just played randomly in a song.  A drum fill can be one note, many notes, or complete silence.

The challenge many drummers have with fills is that they think of them as totally different than drum beats.  For example, many people practice playing a drum beat for seven measures, then playing a fill on the 8^th measure.  By thinking of the fills and beats as two separate islands, flowing between them naturally becomes difficult.  If you listen to any great drummer performing, their fills sound like they are part of the beat they are playing (even if the rhythm is different).  It's important to learn to think of fills as part of the beat.

This might be one of the most difficult, but liberating ideas you will ever learn as a musician.  While playing a song, there are times when you will start thinking about filling.  It might be that you know a new section is coming up or you’re just bored and want to change things up.  Regardless, if you learn to allow fills to happen naturally they will sound perfect.  Here's the secret to doing this:  don't judge what you play.

If you learn to stop thinking of beats and fills as two separate islands, and you learn to trust what comes out naturally, you will always play the right fills at the right time.
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About the author:  Mike Veny is a professional drummer based out of New York City.  He has been happy playing drums since 1989. He performs with Sean 360x & the universoul spiRitual Ankhestra alongside Ramsey Jones of the Wu-Tang Clan family.  Sean 360x is a MySpace chart-topping artist and has been #1 on the ReverbNation Electronica/Dance charts for over 16 weeks.  He also performs with Kim Oler, an Emmy Award winning composer for ABC’s All My Children, As the World Turns,The Tracey Ullman Show, and The Guiding Light.

For more articles from Mike Veny on how to improve your drumming, visit MikeVeny.com.