Have you practiced today?

[nkf31]

Blurred...I see where you're coming from. Its important to specify which genre you're tagging the advise to...otherwise those beginners looking into jazz or latin will start pounding the bass drum like there's no tomorrow....

However, regardless of genre....there shouldn't be a only "one-way" feel...listen to recordings and learn as many different ways to groove as possible. Even rock/pop settings have many ways to groove. Here's 2 examples from 2 killer drummers with great groove thats has different balances....

Eg.

1) I will survive by Cake: Bass drum is on the softer side...hats is the big one here

2) You oughta know by Alanis Morissette: Bass drum softer again...hats and snare are much louder

Moral of the story is...check out as many recordings as possible at your own free time....

Just a question, i was wondering if actually some of this was not totally intentional during the making of the track - the bass drum could have been much louder but miked down? So actually the drummer could have been playing very loud.

Cause i feel that most drummers (sans jazz) actually hit a lot harder than they sound on the record.

That said being able to recreate acoustically is important as well.

 

[ahpek1]

Just a question, i was wondering if actually some of this was not totally intentional during the making of the track - the bass drum could have been much louder but miked down? So actually the drummer could have been playing very loud.

Cause i feel that most drummers (sans jazz) actually hit a lot harder than they sound on the record.

That said being able to recreate acoustically is important as well.

Yep, basically, some recorded drummings are fused with drum loops and sometimes, the producers mixed the track according to wat they want the sound to be.
But still, the drummers play as normal, the only thing in live, there's should be lotsa dynamics.

Personally(lemme say this again, others might differ = ), from my 20 odd years experienced, most of the local/asian producers/musical directors etc like Casey, Indra etc are very particular abt drummers they're choosing to support they're artistes. from their own words, they need drummers who can groove, good timekeeping and hold the groove down with their loud and clear bass drum..

 

[alvinthedrummer]

Just a question, i was wondering if actually some of this was not totally intentional during the making of the track - the bass drum could have been much louder but miked down? So actually the drummer could have been playing very loud.

Cause i feel that most drummers (sans jazz) actually hit a lot harder than they sound on the record.

That said being able to recreate acoustically is important as well.

Yup, many times the drums part does get mixed down a different way it was originally played....but if we could please the producer from the beginning with the feel he calls for, then we save loads of time for him and the engineer.

Bottom line here now is "feel" right? So, with the way the tracks are mixed...do they feel good??? If yes, then we might want to study why it felt so good and try to recreate it live....its a great way to practice really....also, many things are changing and very rapidly...so must be versatile in your dynamic control...in alot of the newer rock/pop recordings alot of the drum tracks are mixed very differently from 10 yrs back...so we really need to ditch the "one" way to do one thing mentality. If we can ditch this mentality soon enough, our next generation might be working with top european/american producers and earn some real bucks!!! haha...

P.S. I'm a culprit of the old school mentality too...and its not easy...but the sooner we realise it, the sooner we can improve....