Jimmy Chamberlin is definitely one of the best drummers of the '90s and the alternative scene in general, he had such a unique style and is still one of my absolute favourite drummers
I love how Jimmy always followed Corgan's rhythm guitar instead of just playing a straightforward beat. It always gave the Pumpkins songs an infectious bounce, but also really fused a swing sound effortlessly with rock music.
Killer drumming, as always. It's too bad the copyright system is what it is. The guitars being close but tweaked to avoid a copyright strike threw me for a loop at first until I realized why y'all were playing it differently.
There's an isolated track on YT of Jimmy's drums. Super grooving, and very very live. Sounds recorded in a very live room and the drums are wide, wide open, no muffling whatsoever.
I love Jimmy Chamberlin’s drumming style and sound. He said the Pumpkin’s always record to analog tape which means his dynamics and time always has to be on point. So cool!
When I first heard Jimmy Chamberlin's style and sound I thought jazz. It's hard to mimic in a rock setting. Jessica was spot on and you guys got it. It's about the playing and recording. It's all about the feel.
Jimmy is not only a musical genius and an absolute antenna / transmitter of emotional energy through rhythms but also very melodic and sensitive in a orchestral or classical music kind of way. He really takes time to get the drums sounding right and the Siamese Dream album has nice clarity and punch, an idealized studio sound. I love how his snare can sit comfortably in the mix and whenever he hits extra hard or flams the rim it bursts through the mix. I have the jimmy yahama share and his sound can be found in many snares when played right but it's a big sounding snare. It makes my pacific kit sound small compared to the snare.. but it's great.
That was super accurate! Congrats you guys. Please more 90s. Oasis, definitely maybe era (not wonder wall era). The Owen Morris mixes have all kinds of tricks.
Chamberlin used a bunch of snares, but as he says in Modern Drummer interview you can definitely hear the Radio King on Today verses, along with his usual Pearl Free Floating 6.5" in the heavier chorus, which is a bit less dry than the hammered Ludwig here. Sounds like the Pearl or similar drum is what he used on Cherub Rock. Also to be pedantic, the snare higher in the mix here (very common nowadays) and the kick has way less beater than on the record.
Love these videos. I would be very interested to hear a bit more from Jessica about drummer's perspective on what she is doing to emulate the sound. things like; how hard she is hitting, rim shots or not, bashing or not, choice of sticks, heads, cymbals, and drums.
It's a pretty killer sound! Main thing I'd recommend is keeping the snare bottom kinda low but boosting a shitload of 2-5k on the top mic. Be careful if there's gonna be hi hats involved though
Great video. An important factor I don't see discussed a lot in these drum videos is tuning... The tuning of the drums is really important to this sound (and pretty much any drum sound).
You guys totally nailed the snare sound, tuning, tone, EQ, everything, it sounds amazing. The kick sounds a lot more punchy on the record though. I think it would have been better to put that RE20 all the way inside the kick drum rather than have it at the port, and maybe EQ some more upper mids into it.
There’s a segment in the Pumpkins “Vieuphoria” where they go to the studio in Atlanta. There are some brief glimpses of the room with full drumset. I remember seeing Overheads (2 u87 or u67) in an X/Y configuration over the kit. And a similar pair in an A/B in the room. Makes more sense for a mono snare/kit sound. Check it out in the RU-vid link. If you pause just right in a few moments you’ll see it. Pretty close sound here tho.
A dream episode! I loved the bit about the mono and centered snare and hi-hat, and never knew they use a sample. Are all the snare sounds on Siamese Dream combined with samples? That whole album is a production masterpiece.
According to the mixer Alan Moulder he said the blend of real snare to sample was probably about 70/30. The real snare and room mics are definitely more prevalent in the mix but the sample still adds a bit of extra “snap” to the sound and helps cut down on hihat bleed
Check out Produce Like A Pro - some GREAT album recording and mixing breakdowns WITH the actual engineers/ or producers themselves!! AIC/ Soungarden/ Foo Fighters/ Marilyn Manson/ Radiohead - FANTASTIC content and Warren Huart has the creds and awesome energy - Cheers!
@@bigkickleoWarren Huart is honestly one of my favourite people on the internet and one of the best interviewers I’ve ever seen. Always asks the right questions and only ever interrupts to get the guest to go into even more detail about what they just said
Excellent. I would love to see the legendary Low drum sound or Downward Spiral. Legend has it they created their own samples for Downward Spiral and used all kinds of studio magic.
Would love to see your take on the “Hard to Explain” drums by The Strokes. Just saw an interview where the producer said he just physically distanced the elements of the kit and then processed the pants off it but I have no idea how on earth it could have gotten there!
@@jeffrose1854 I wish I could remember where the interview was that I saw, but apparently Julian wrote it to a drum machine but didn't want Fab to not play for a song on their first album so the producer dude (blanking on his name) found a way to make it sound like a drum machine
@@JohnLawrieTWS That's awesome! It's possible that it was played on a kit and then maybe a measure or two was sampled to get that insane consistency. The chorus section does seem to introduce a slightly more natural feel (crash ride is very hard to replicate convincingly). Thanks for the info!
These videos always make my day and inspire me. Amazing work as always! I would love to see you guys try to recreate the drum sound of Dookie by Green Day
I enjoyed this more than i expected to when the video title popped up, thanks. Albini next possibly? 😗😗 where is my mind, bone machine - pixies (surfer rosa) or possibly ‘oh!’ Or ‘doe’ By breeders (pod) would be amazing!
Before I listened to your take on this song I went back and listened to the original. When it got to the solo I was kind of underwhelmed because my memory was of something more epic and intense. As it was concluding I suddenly imagined that Billy Gibbons would have been an amazing and brilliant guest feature in a 21st century remake. I'm not sure if he could handle the non-shuffling vibe of the tune but his amazing high gain tone and pinch harmonic sensibility seem like a wonderful match. Billy Corrigan is a difficult person so maybe it would be doomed but I'd love to hear a sincere Billy Gibbons interpretation. Okay, I'll listen to the rest.
I assume you had to change the parts for copyright reasons? Too bad. Didn't you use the actual parts in the other videos? Or was it just isolated drums?
Gonna go back and listen to see if I can discern a sampled snare in the mix. I never noticed it. Overall, a good video. I do find the bass drum a little too round for my taste but I'll compare it to the record to see how accurate that sound is. I do remember seeing and reading about Butch's bass drum tunnel he would set up on Jimmy's bass drum.
Very well done, once again. Esp. nice thinking with the two complementary snare top mics. Might have tried a mono room. Regardless of whether it matches the record exactly, it's a bitchen drum sound - could be used in a modern track too. Maybe add a touch more click/beater on the kick.
One of these Days by Camper Van Beethoven. Or really the drum sound on anything from Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart or Key Lime Pie. Pretty please. :D
If you search for "the unbearable likeness of manny" you can see exactly what mics were used and the kit too. Great playing and nice effort - I don't want to go further but y'know Jimmy had been playing Yamaha kits back in those days...
You can't make a video showing that getting the Smashing Pumpkins drum sound is accessible and then use the JC Signature snare which is IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND!
Isn't the 414 on snare bottom placed backwards? it doesn't sound like it, but from experience the side that has the model number is the back and it looks like that is aiming at the drum, am I crazy?
I think there's a longstanding industry convention that says that songwriting is essentially the lead melody and chord progression but everything else (including drums) is considered "arrangement" and is less protected and often considered less valuable. It isn't always fair and it doesn't make sense for some styles of music, but my understanding is that this convention got carried over from the early days of recorded music when artists didn't typically write their own material, but instead performed the work of professional songwriters.
It's not just convention, its how copyright law is drawn up! You just can't copyright a drum beat. It became a huge controversy in the 00's when Greg Coleman, who performed the legendary Amen break, died homeless coz technically only the topline (which was almost never sampled) was copywritten.
@@lightfuserunaway2508 Yeah, it was a similar situation for Funky Drummer, where James Brown got all the royalties even though the most memorable and lucrative part of the song was Clyde Stubblefield's drum beat (though thankfully, he didn't die homeless or hungry, and I don't think he ever went to court over it). I say "convention" just because, imho, the laws reflect a certain cultural bias that makes more sense for some kinds of music than others. For example, in the great American songbook era, composition was largely separated from interpretation, arrangement, and performance, and those songs were all about top-line melody and chord progression anyway, so the system worked. On the other hand, there are genres like hip-hop, which often doesn't have any top-line melody, or roots reggae, where the bassline often carries the tune and could be considered the main hook. Most drumbeats in use today probably shouldn't be protected by copyright because they've already been played thousands of times over in other songs. But every now and then, when someone plays something really original Funky Drummer, or 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, I wish they'd "give the drummer some".
Now you don’t need to record 100 guitar tracks, just play an EQD Hizumitas Pedal on full blast. How about something from The National? Either “Abel” from Alligator or “Mistaken for Strangers” from Boxer. Very interesting band as the drummer and bass player are brothers, and the guitar players are identical twins (and one of them has produced the last few Taylor Swift albums).
Usually you're uncannily close, but this time it feels that the recreated sound is too dry and dynamic, the original sounds much more compressed and "hi-fi", especially the snare, with more of the "room sizzle"..
Man, with a drummer like Jimmy and as specific a setup as he’s used for decades you guys kinda missed the mark on this one. Yes the overall mix is similar, but this is such a pared down version of anything remotely close to what he would’ve been playing in the early 90s. I think you could’ve gotten a little more in-depth with this kit, but maybe that wasn’t really the focus of this video.
How much longer is the world going to remain waiting for you to do a video on The Shaggs "Who Are Parents"? Arguably one of the greatest songs ever written, and some of the best audio engineering in the entire history of modern recording. Shame on you for taking so long!
Love this series, but for me this one is way off. Everything from low end to EQ to overhead mix to compression and reverb feels off to me! I don't get it, you often nail these
