Recreating Classic '70s Disco Drums | What's That Sound? Ep. 19 

I’m not a drummer,but this is probably my favorite series from Reverb

FINALLY. Giving the people WHAT THEY WANT

Can't believe I survived the NYC Disco era to say this but....as a former punk drummer...this is my fave hands down.🗽🛸🎧📼♥️

Please break down the sound of Bernhard Purdie's drums on "Babylon Sisters" by Steely Dan!

If you can't get an AKG D12, I recommand the Electro-voice RE20 in the kick drum for this 70s funk, soulful, disco sound. Cerrone used to do 2 or 3 rec passes, 1st kick + snare + toms, 2nd hats + cymbals. And of course more claps! You nailed it guys.

Fantastic series…please do the Martin Hannett Joy Division drum sound!

I'm a rocker, but I love disco!

I always thought the hats were overdubbed on Donna Summer records! What the heck!

They sure do love that vistalite… maybe it’s a sign of a good time

Side note, if your drummer is a heavy hitter you're going to need that huge wall of baffling and don't bother with room mics. If you're in a smaller, less desirable room with little acoustic treatment like most home recording enthusiasts you are going to have to ask the drummer to play VERY quietly and most likely will have to rerecord the kick, snare, and hats for sample add-ons later for that true modern dry pop sound. Great educational video Reverb!

How about ‘80s? Either “Too Young to Fall in Love” by Môtley Crüe (huge reverb, or a delay?), OR “Freedom of Choice” by DEVO (is there a synth “drum” in there or is it an effect on the kit? Also was Alan Myers secretly a robot?)

These sound great! Thank you for the free kit will use and record with these!

Having one just crash cymbal is all you need for a lot of songs. Simple gear is sometimes better

Spot on. Nice work. Adding this to the drum sounds in Superior Drummer 3.

i got hold of a ton of multitrack stems from disco tunes of that era - they were pretty much all: kick, snare, hats & toms/OH together. always miked that hat individually. you got a great sound but the hihat sounds not quite right to me)

Nailed it, very authentic sounding 👍

Love how intricate the process is! Thank you for such informative videos. Would love to see a Jeff Lynne breakdowns too!

I'm not a drummer, but I was always curious to know how they made the drums sound, that's what Disco music is like.

I like this a lot, thank you for the information 🙂

Thank you so much guys! they always do an amazing job. I came to the RU-vid channel thanks to your series and now I consume Reverb every day, the content is wonderful. The Cocteau Twins drums on "Treasure" are very spacey and dreamy, the sound here is a reference for gothic rock, dream pop and shoegaze drums, it even reminds me of Portishead's trip-hop. Could you do the following tutorial on any of the songs on Treasure.

Perfect! Thank you)

Nice job! It sounds really awesome.... ✌️

Wow this is brilliant!

It would be super interesting, if you made a video about drum sound from Robert Glasper's "Black Radio" album. Especially from tracks like "Letter To Hermione".

I am not a drummer nor do I listen to the drums first in a song, but damn! That tone is soooo good!!!

Thank you both of you :)

Thank you! My MPC thanks you too

Love this series. Can you do an episode on getting the drum sound on John Cage's 4'33"?

Thank’s for share tips, really good

The Gap Band

What's funny is you have Mix with the Masters...where engineers just talk about themselves and how to "work with egos" and then you have Reverb just giving away all this incredible insight for nothing.

LOVE it ! :D

Most late 70s disco recordings featured a crisp click of the kick beater on the head - as well as a good old 'thud' component. I can't see how you'd get that with only one mic - outside a kick drum filled with sleeping bags. They'd absorb all high frequency sound surely ?

Could you show us the night fever drumbeat ? the used it in 4 different songs - tks

love it

Gotta love it...2thumbs up

Groovy

Sounds absolutely amazing, regardless of genre, and Jessica has never had more pocket. Seriously, great job on this one.

Drums in the style of AM (2013)?

Really cool !! How about something off Elvis Costello’s My Aim is True? Or This Year’s Model? Or you could compare and contrast as it was two different drummers.

Can you do an episode on the 70s T Rex glam drum sound? Like on Ballroom of Mars

Tutorial de batería más exceelent. Muchas Gracias

Wow, it's years I've been looking for that kind of video ! What's the bass drum head you used, please ? Thanks :)

Tips for attack and release/ration on the 1176? Thx

Is that an authentic 70's cloth with the rainbows? How much is that on Reverb? :P

You guys had me on Flaming Lips process... But what about Beatles "She Said She Said" Drum sound? Everytime Ringo plays the crash and bass drum it makes a "wooosh" kind of a sidechaining effect of the whole track. So my Q is: Is that a compressor effect? How to make this? Youre awesome, thx!

damn that snare has a snare ON TOP of it?!

Is this an empty Wallet on your snare? I've got that too.

Do early 80's metal drums (concert toms with Remo controlled sound heads, miked from inside).

i’d love to see you guys do something that sucks…. perhaps saint anger??

hot damn

Drums in the style of El Camino ?

yo what was with that knockoff Fight Test intro

She plays so great that a cheap mic would sound cool.

Can you guys try “Disorder” by Joy Division?

Sittin' here eatin' my heart out waitin' Waitin' for some lover to call Dialed about a thousand numbers lately Almost rang the phone off the wall Lookin' for some hot stuff baby this evenin' I need some hot stuff baby tonight I want some hot stuff baby this evenin' Gotta have some hot stuff Gotta have some love tonight (hot stuff) I need hot stuff I want some hot stuff I need hot stuff ... 😆 THX for your work 🙏🙂

If you hit the drums and cymbals half as hard as in the video you will get more dynamics, less bleed and even more musical sounding results...

*"lop" off

Immediately Hot Stuff came into my mind,

WHY PEOPLE HATE THE MUFFLERS WHAT CAME WITH THE SNARE MAN HAHAHA NOW PEOPLE PUT MOONGELS OR TOWEL

As much as I appreiate the effort put into this and the guy's obvious knowlege, this isn't quite there. This is an extremeley modern sounding approach to 70's disco drums, and it doesn't sound authentic. First off, drop the BFSD muffler (it changes the sound in a way that you wouldn't have heard in the 70's), and instead muffle the snare like drummers back then muffled them, remove the cloths on the toms and ad tape instead, and remove a lot of the muffling in the bass drum. The lack of a reso head on kick is correct, but the kick shouldn't be that full of stuff, and there should be some heavy blankets on top of the kick to isolate it. The toms should have tape either going across the head near the edge, or in a cross pattern (it doesn't have to be ducktape either). The mic choices were excellent! And the idea of using the overheads as cymbal mic's are the right way of doing it, however, don't be scared of bleed!! Leakage was the sound of the 70's, but it was done very particularly. The tom mics largely handled the ambience of the entire kit (so don't gate them), and most often there wasn't any hi hat mic, the snare mic captured both snare and hi hat. The whole point of getting a good 70's sound is that the bleed sounds natural and works together as a whole. The sounds are largely isolated, but are not supposed to be fully isolated. I am afraid that the 70's sound is becoming lost knowlege, and that in the future, this is what people will think you have to do to achieve that sound.

First like and comment. Yes!

How many 20's in that wallet to get the right amount of muffling? Will $1's work as well on a budget?

Sadly the drummer has no training on how to actually play disco beats. At all. Sounds like a metal head playing disco. Great job on the sound though!

theres no exact spot of anything... dont try to build a mistery. use towels. done. interwebs. smh.