Here's How to Get Huge Drum Sounds in a Small Room 

Bro. You're gonna be YUUUGE BRO.

"I'm JUST a drummer". But "here's my Neve, DXb , 421s through a BDS 360 distressor...." lol

for not "being an engineer" you sure have some great gear.

I seriously don't know if I've ever heard such an accurate recreation of that hardy Bonham sound.

You say you're not en engineer but you have some extremely high-end rack gear, excellent plugins, superb mics and you know how to use the stuff. I'd say you're an engineer. Great drumming and great sounds. Nice work.

One thing you left out: Monitoring WITH the compression/fx is soooo important unless you're a seasoned session player, and even if you are, the result will be better when you hear the actual sound of music WHILE playing it. I find that if you aren't playing with compression/limiting, you're never going to nail "the sound", whether its John Bonham, Dave Grohl, Kevin Parker, or even Phil Collins. You have to react to the compressor in real time, not apply it in post. Monitoring into a brick wall limiter is like a dance between you and your dynamic control.. I know that this is difficult when trying to eliminate latency... but try it, see how many plugins you can put on before latency occurs. even with a super simple setup and stock plugins, you can make this sound in your monitors. You just have to get the performance right. "getting it right at the source" doesn't mean monitoring dry; that can often make things feel flat and lifeless, and you may hit harder or play differently in general as a result of a dry headphone mix. For me, "getting it right at the source" means about 10-15 minutes of listening and adjusting in the room, then the next 3-4 hours are me playing INTO the mix, not waiting till its done later. Kind of top down, but moreso just to create an inspiring starting point. Try the Protools "smack" plugin if you're a protools user. It works like a charm, and it doesn't cause any lag when tracking. I even use it in final mixdowns a lot.. good shit!

Dude you gotta make a vid about that sick ass marimba back there that has been teasing me this whole time

That low camera angel that just vibrates with drums are just awsome.

The finished drums sound great! Based on the final mix, I would never have guessed that the drums were recorded in such a small space. Very well done!

Having that iPhone mic was awesome, now I know how it should feel behind the kit! it was always confusing knowing that whatever tuning i was doing was going to be completely different under the mics. Cheers man, so much knowledge here

bro i literally went straight to my studio and did this... it worked soooo well. using 16" crashes as hi hats is the key. I never realized how that could be the most significant part of the bonham sound. using a kick w/o a port hole is pretty important, but wow.. this is easier than i thought. Though, a crucial part of the 70's/bonham sound is using 1073's.. so I'll have to save up for a few more channels of those bad boys!! I tried Gylnn Johns on the overheads, which sounds great, but it's making my kick lopsided, to the right speaker.. so I think I'll experiment with placement or move back to my typical spaced pair, which never fails, but may not be appropriate for this specific vibe. (I use ribbons on overheads so the glynn johns method was a no-brainer.) I think I either have to accept the fact that the drums are lopsided or shift around different placement, but then again, all the old classic rock drum recordings are lopsided.. often with the kick or snare vaguely placed more to the right, or the hats more to the left.. agh. Recording drums is fun, but man.. the stereo field is a bitch and a half! I was doing mono overheads & stereo rooms for about a year, and while it sounds great for pop & indie drums, it ain't great for capturing realism, which only stereo can truly offer.

Good to see that you're using actual real drums. Most people fire up a shitty electronic 909 like VST with it's plastic sounds and have the nerve to call those sounds "drums".

The whole bit about the build up on the big drums and you cut to you sitting there looking bored before the big crash on the 1 is just comic genius. I think you made a style here. Entertaining and informative.

HiI! i'm a sound engineer, you're making it sound good, on one care what your EQ's look like. mix with your ears ! you just got it man

Great drums comes with great quality players and Jake is a balance drummer

The sound and the playing is absolute fantastic, Bro!! Not just for a small room, but for every room!

Thanks for the pointers. Can not wait to try it out. Keep up the good work. Loving the content so far.

Not a gear guy? Look at all that gear! You are a bonafide recording engineer, and that drum sound came out amazing

Best drummer, this side of the entire western hemisphere!

H U G E ! Outstanding show sir. Just starting out on the recording end of drums. Yourself and Andrew Masters are helping us learn. Get to watch again and again and again and no rewind! Thanks.

For that size room, I love the drum sound.

This is a DAMN FINE video. Suuuper entertaining. Super funny. Really really informative. And just hella fun. Thanks! You’re really good at “making”. Please keep it up. I’m showing this video to EVERYbody. ✌🏼

Holy shit. This was exactly what I needed in a recording and drumming perspective and was a lot fun to watch! Keep it up!

Wow for a guy that isn’t really an engineer you’ve got them slappin pretty hard bro, good job 👍🏽

Love all your doing. It’s educational it’s inspiring, motivating and it’s funny dude

Dude is your face timed to the end of the ad because I died. If it is, you are the best youtuber and I love you for making me feel cared for

Sweet, that was fun! Thanks.

Some of the best drum recording information on youtube. Thank You!!

You're an inspiration man. At first I was like "wow, this guy's mic collection and gear alone puts his sound out of range." Nice 500 series preamps BTW. I built the GroupDIY version of the 11 pre rack (and separate power supply). That said you're completely right. It's really your talent and training hitting the drums at specific intensities as well as the tuning that really achieves those excellent tones / sounds. Thanks a lot for sharing. I'll continue to drool over your gear collection and excellent vintage drum specimens. :-)

So basically about $30K of gear, very nicely tuned kit, high-end cymbals, and TALENT. Got it! ;)

THOROUGHLY enjoyed! Jake, you are absolutely doing it RIGHT. You're a heck of a producer/engineer. I've been working on my drum sounds for 2-3 months. I'm not even CLOSE! LOL! :)

Drums sound gooooooooooood...

I like the big sound of your drums. I’m still learning how to get my drums to sound big. I don’t have all the things you have. I have three mics, one condenser mic above the kit, snare mic, and the kick has a mic. I have it ran through a four channel mixer. If you would like to hear how my kit sounds you can go to my RU-vid channel to let me know what you think and give me some pointers. I make drum covers on my channel.

Great stuff, I appreciate the broad scope of going from playing technique through plugins. Best line: “I don’t have a stairwell”.

Yeah, this is great

just found out your channel thanks to the blessing of The Algorithm ™ and I'm already loving all your videos

Drums sound awesome and alive man.... Good job... Keep it up

Super helpful thanks!

😂 I’m really tired and as I’m watching this I start to fall asleep. Then your voice pops in with, you’re not getting bored yet are you? Perfect timing. I’m awake, I’m awake. Ha! But it’s not boredom causing my narcolepsy. Great vid!

2:05 mad respect broo that sounded phenomenal!

Killer video man! Awesome info and room/equipment. I first found you through Andrew's page.

This is the most entertaining and still super informative audio engineering video on RU-vid. And I have watched waayy to many. Would love to see some more videos on drumming and engineering from you. Or just anything, make videos about boiling water, I don't care, I will watch them.

The iphone often sounds SO good. Some of the best drums I have heard are from my iphone in a concrete room (garage) next to a sound controlled room (my studio) with the door open to where the drums are being played. I liked it so much I considered throwing the iphone audio into the mix on my DAW.

Dude that was AWESOME. Really liked that you went player-geekery and gear geekery. Gotta get some giant cymbals for hats now....

8:39 Real talk. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 Awesome sounds Jake. Subscribe button smashed.

Awesome, it sounds huge ! It's kind of comforting people like me that having a small room is not the biggest issue ;)

So good man!

Man, it sounds fantastic, thanks so much, enjoying your videos on this topic particularly the 70's sounds one

Good stuff bro! Love your drumming. You say your not an engineer but everything sounds pretty well engineered to me!

I can’t believe you don’t have a million subscribers! Your studio looks like mine when I get one! 👍

Great video and great sound! Bravo. The real thing. Thanks.

Great drum sound .... I can dig it ...I'm an Albini kind of guy...

Your comment about how you hit the drums being responsible for most of the sound is spot on. I used to produce music and record bands and the biggest thing that ruins a drum recording (in my limited experience) are players who hit the drums way too hard.

This SUPER inspired me. I'm getting off youtube right now to work on my own drum space. Thank you!

Sounds great, and great feel/playing!!

sounds great!! great chops, dude!

Bang On!

Wow - impressive video Jake! That kick sounds INSANE!!!! Andy was telling me it's a 50's era and 22'' x 14''' - that's YUUUUGGGGEEEE. You need to sell shirts that say 'I came for the stash but I stayed for the sounds.' Lol.

Man, you have some nice gear

DaMn that intro sounds so good. Great vids so far. Keep it up.

you sure nailed it

Just subbed. I hope i can watch you blow up over the the next years (: Love the humour and your vibe. Cheers from Germany (y)

This is best drum recording video on youtube, there is no intermediate recording content of this quality. Usually just bottom barrel do it stock, or crazy 8068 with Neumann Jim Scott Eric valentine shit. You should go into your gain staging of preamps into compressors more specifically, and how hard you hit tools etc. Never thought the ULS would sound so open, not bright on toms. Killer

Super helpful thanks

awesome

great video!

Amazing. If it sounds good it is good! Good stuff here.

The intro hit me so hard i heard there goes my hero

great tips man, and great sound

This is an excellent video

Great playing and sound ~

Sounds great!

Really digging your videos, Jake. Funny & backed up by the sauce. Nice groove on this and great sound. The 70s vid was very cool too. BTW, I saw the KRK V8 in here - I've got a setting being delivered tomorrow - can't wait!

Waouh great sound !!!! and great drummer !!!

Wowie! Killer sounds dude.

Thanks for the information. I have liked and subscribed.

The Best i'v ever seen!!

you're such a great drummer wow

Use your ears. You are doing it right because it sounds great. Just like Headley Grange. And you have no delay like they used.

Makes sense

Totally dialed. Props bro.

this is gold! thanks you so much Jake.

Loved it mdude. Wanna 2nd the request for a drum tuning video. Now it’s back to the endless effort of trying to play the cymbals quieter.

sounds really great man!

love it

Heard about you through the great podcast you did with Tim Buell and this video was great! I’m definitely going to try the x3 room rule and see how that works in my room! Thanks for all the tips and info to how you do it! Cheers! 🤘🏼

It was helpful insofar as it was funny. I'm right at the beginning of learning studio stuff and I mostly though "lots of hardware outboard, nice variety of mics, great playing, hilarious editing". Yuuuuuuuge, huge, big, huge sounding, big drums. #huge

Great! Another 3% for bigger room might be taking SPL Transient Designer, lowering Attack and increasing Sustain.

Excelent!!

Thank you

Brilliant!

That 4038 is bananas.

well, this was sick

Good stuff, dig it!

man.. Yea. Thank you very much for sharing that!

Thx, dude, you are great. Using similar approach to record friends little band. Greetings from Ukraine!

Thank You for this valuble information. I'll add a room mic to my setup next and try to mess around with it. My room is quite small, dry (carpeted walls) and has a low ceiling. So lets see what happens.

Loved this! I covet the Coles 4038 🤤 I think I need a pair :)

AWESOME. small room tip, you don't need the rule of three if you're adding enough predelay to them roooomz- also pointing them away from where the other mics are pointing like the wall or floor will help prevent phase issuezz

Dude, Jake, thank you for this video!!m I got some room mics this week and gonna give some tries thanks to your insights and sharing knowledge.