Andrew Scheps on Recording Drums 

He reminds me of some of my best college professors. He manages to give you a deeper understanding of all the stuff he talks about and he doesn’t over-complicate anything. Seemingly such a cool guy. Every time I try to apply the stuff he talks about, my mixes are instantly better. The mix bus 100Hz and 10kHz boost was a game changer for a newbie like me.

Every musician, producer, engineer etc. should pay notice! I totally agree with Andrew. It 's my philosophy as well for almost 40 years in the stdio as a musician, producer and engineer! Be to the point, down to earth. Learn people, learn!!! :) I would have loved to actually see him on the job in this clip!

Everyone who makes music needs to hear this

Absolutely gold ✨

He is such a wonderful communicator, and very honest and humble. Thanks for posting!

Aaaaaaaand this is why I love him, such wise words, get over yourself and just serve the track, would love to record with him, oh the dreams. :)

Finally someone speaks the truth about samples and vocal tuning! I've had far too many arguments about this with musicians and AS is right, 99.9% of people could give a s***. If people only knew how many vocal takes were done/comped to get the final version of what they hear on the radio/favorite records, etc..haha!!!

Ahhh wisdom....

Amen. It is very useful for audio engineers to go through the process of trying to make the kick or snare or poorly recorded guitar sound really good with the tools other than samples, but at the end of the day, it is just another tool. Same with producing vocalists; As a producer, the more passion you can squeeze out of *that* take the better. But-- great take with a word off/out? Fix it!

anyone know where I can find music from this band?? Can't find it anywhere...

Do you need some W-40 for the chairs?

what a great bit a total pro like andrew says doesnt matter if its robert plant or justin bieber no one can sing right through perfect just cant do it wel maybe barbara striesand or celine dionne but the average rock pop singer not a chance if you have to correct a few sharps and flats big deal ....fix em and shut up

Does anyone really need 16 mics on drums?

Put some oil on your damn chair. Jeez. You're meant to be sound engineers and you let a squeaky chair sneak its way into the mix.

One that I would trade my Hou$e For :)

If 3/4th of the way you start thinking about dinner, maybe you're not really fit to be a true musician. Music is passion, it's art. It's practice, concentration, pushing yourself constantly to further heights of your craft... not about thinking dinner and losing focus in the studio.

The puzzled pet holly retire because grey externally squeak pro a smoggy rowboat. womanly, ill-fated crown

I come back to this interview about every 6 months.

Is this vintage u87 in figure8 instead of lavalier mics?

6:07 -> The End Wow! As a creative… that is such a freeing statement.

"If I can make a record that's more fun to listen to by using samples, then I'm going to use samples." Excellent. If you can give the listener a better experience, do it.

What kind of recording studio is that? Where is the laptop and Ableton controller? Just some weird table with lots of knobs.... :)

Holy lord! 18 mics on a drum kit! Woah mama this guy ain't fooling around. I don't even own that many mics lol!

Yes. It is all about what people hear. Not how you do it, what did you use, where did you put the mic... It is about result, final product, that people enjoy or not. Most important, that you enjoy music you're making.

Bruh I have to share this somewhere. A local producer, here in The Midwest, made a post saying “saturation before compression, always.” Odd, but inoffensive comment. But then he followed up with why: “when it comes to drums and cymbals, the transients are way too sharp, and CoMpReSsOrS rEaCt StRaNgElY tO tRaNsIeNtS. I use saturation to blunt the transients so they don’t cause the compressor to react so much.” My friends all agree his mixes sound blunt and lifeless, taking the power away from the exceptional bands he’s recorded, and I’m pretty sure this is why. 1) a compressor is a VCA being controlled by a detection circuit, reacting to transients is literally the whole point. Taking transient information away from the source signal just gives the compressor less to work with. I would never do this unless the sound was simply too attacky, at which point I would probably ask “do we have any better sounding drums we could use???” 2) adding so much harmonic distortion (AKA saturation) that it changes the balance of the transients is the anti-thesis of what guitarists want in the studio. They have spent hours and hours adjusting their distortion settings, you are there to capture not change! If the tone does need thickened, you’d be doing that at the mix phase anyway unless you were actively experimenting in the recording space. As far as drums, if you need that much saturation (first in the signal chain, no less) to make the, sound good, then again GO FIND BETTER SOUNDING CYMBALS. 99 percent of “I don’t like this drum sound” can usually be fixed up front by switching out the drummer’s cymbals. 3) years of presenting clean, high fidelity mixes to local bands I’m in, only to constantly be told that I don’t know what I’m doing, while they put on some local hustler’s track that clearly sounds like “let’s try this plugin… let’s try this one… let’s try this one” with no understanding of what the signal chain is actually accomplishing has driven me to the point of insanity. It’s gaslighting, plain and simple. This guy has a million dollar studio and everyone walks in so impressed by it all, only to find out he has an ass-backwards understanding (or lack thereof) of his own equipment, yet no one involved knows enough to call him on it. Stop the ride, I want to get off.

I like need to record with you I have a few guitar tracks bass tracks keyboard tracks and especially raw acoustic drums, I have a bunch of songs to record from grunge to rock to punk to blues to folky, So that's what I'm told

It seems that nobody likes that bottom snare or outside kick mic. I learned a neat trick from TLA, where you compress the absolute heck out of the bottom snare and not the top. I like to add a little 150hz to the bottom snare to get the beef, because I've already gated the life out of the top snare. It helped me realize that the bottom snare can alleviate the need for a sample sometimes. You can get quite a bit of tone out of the bottom snare because you don't have to gate it as much, especially if you angle the mic so it can pick up the snares but reject the kick (side and back rejection).

love his philosophy here too. 99.9% of listeners neither know nor care..... not that anyone is listening to what i've mixed 😆

Andrew Scheps sounds exactly like Adam Scott

Just checked the price of 421's...ouch. Still if the studio has them wouldn't you ?....I would .

Thank you for saying it so well about samples

Funny how he suggests VERY expensive mics for certain parts of the kit, vs an AKG in the kick. Lol (I bet he's good for mid level mics on a good kit w good drummer in a proper room).

So the bottom line is...have a lot of inputs and a lot of expensive microphones with a nice sounding drum kit. GOT IT!

I love his view on samples and correction. It's not how you get to the final result that matters but what quality the final result is. Anyone who cares enough to ask if you've used samples or other correction after they've listened to a mix, probably won't care too much about the answer. Because, if you use correction right, you would have enhanced the song and not replaced what made it musical in the first place.

Andrews voice is clipping?

Depends on how much time you want to spend mixing, too. If you're recoding live, you can get a great sound with a D6 on the bass drum, a 57 on the snare and a LDC/Ribbon in a mid/side configuration just over the drummer's head. You need a well-tuned kit with a lot of resonance as well as beautiful cymbals, and there will be a lot of bleed. If you're peeling track by track, isolation is really important.

I first read Andrew Schoeps, talking into a Neumann, and wondered ... lol

I love this guy, hes so simple and smart...

I was sold by the first minute or so. GREAT vibe this guy has. Thanks!!!

I'm absolutely in love with this man's philosophy.

Amazing advise. I love how he’s such an experienced engineer and knows most listeners have no idea what is happening mix wise so he experiments! Working fast is so important. Great knowledge here thank u for letting me soak it up and reinforce my using of my mixing toolset 🥂

Great interview here. Something that I'll gladly admit that I needed to hear. Especially, his point about 99.9% of people don't care how you made a recording happen. Just get it done right.

Andrew Scheps is an mind-opener. The things he’s saying are to let go of your boundaries and do what needs to be done for the song. Don’t get me wrong: I wouldn’t use it willy-nilly instead of retakes, but would certainly advise its use to correct something that has the feeling but wavers slightly in pitch and we didn’t get better during retakes. Ok autotune isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but used sparingly works just as well as and is easier and less time-consuming than a dozen retakes for the sake of one word. I’ve done that countless time in the mix and had to lie about how I got his/her vocal to sit by telling them in a jocular manner that I have “magic fingers”. They generally express no further opinion. Whereas Autotune used as a noticeable effect and used to make people who have no talent sound like they have talent is one of the worst and most underhanded ways to exploit money from the everyday listener the entire music world has endured.

Never got to overheads.

Andrew is my hero.

Good one.

Brilliant! So informative.

So true, lay people couldn't care less about audio quality and play music as background for a pool party for example, they don't listen to music in an acoustically tuned room critically

Excelent. I have no idea who disliked this. Maybe that 1%..

squeaky chair in the studio check!😁

I have more in common with this guy than I would have thought. As in, "If it works, do it"....

I truly believe in Andrew's beliefs and approach.

finally one guy with a clear perspective....

This interview confirms my suspicion. When I win the gigantic lottery I will hire Andrew to come help me create some amazing beautiful music. 😎 What a guy, what a great attitude, what a great end result.

Cool post! There is something in the vibe lost when layering samples over live drums, on the other hand you get your preferred tone. It's a trade off. Vocals, yeah just tune them and don't even tell the singer..too many takes kills the vibe anyway.

I'm down! Thanksforsocializing.com

Simple wisdom from a great mind.

Russel Cottier: some feedback, take it for whatever it's worth: consider staying quiet when your interviewee is talking, the continuous stream of monosyllabic "mm yeah ok sure ahh" in the middle of their sentences and thoughts is both distracting and unnecessary. It doesn't signal that you're listening, in fact it signals the opposite, and I don't get the sense that people like Andrew need your agreement or acknowledgement on every little detail of what they're saying. Also, looking down at your notebook when they're talking to you is bad form, and again signals that they don't have your full attention. For the record, I am nobody of any import, just a student of human interaction.

Great interview ...thanks .

Genius speaks.

I love his honesty

Buy a top of the line electronic Drum Set - download expansion packs that model top studio drum sounds.....and forget the whole studio thing.

Brian Cox has arrived.

Great chair sound!

Huh... not Tom hanks at all.

What's jablin jables! It is I jablinski.

If you can't concentrate on what you're doing, you need to be a better musician

Dude, so much low rumble coming from your mic.

So many haters. This isn't a video about how to get a slamming drum sound in your crappy home wanna be "studio". This IS a video about how HE gets HIS drum sound. Hen works on a different level than you - in a world you will probably never experience. Yes - massive desk - yes - huge expensive mic locker - yes - tons of experience doing that very thing for several decades. Some people recording at "home studios" are simply afraid to spend money on mics and gear and always seem to speak poorly of those who do have the resources to produce professional audio for rich clients with large budgets. To compete at the level he works at every day he must have loads of inputs - loads of expensive mics - and loads of experience to go with it.

8068 Ch 02 Input for the Podcast Mic. Got it.

I hate auto-tune.

I mean, a hit or two isn't a big deal... but if my snare isn't coming thru, I'd prefer to explore other options than slapping a sample over my track... like dubbing a hand clap or a cowbell or something. A fake snare sample would only be acceptable to me as an absolute last resort.