So I've been listening to a lot of soul, funk and disco lately, and I've noticed quite a lot records in this genre have a very specific drum sound. It most cases, the drums have this very tight and warm character. The kick is compact and short and has this warm, round, "knocky" punch to it. The snare is very similar in character; very tight, snappy and warm, but still has a lot of punch.
Just a few example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_DE8ZGT0zI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imYJpr09IgQ
Also a lot of the drums in the older Earth Wind & Fire records have this tight and punchy character (a bit less warm than in my previous examples, but still very short and snappy).
Maybe it's a typical 70's drum sounds, but I don't really know to be honest. I've also heard similar type of drums in some Dire Straits and Eagles records.
I'm still a newbie at drum recording, and I would like to go more in depth with the techniques. I'm very interested in this particular drum sound, so if anyone can help me out it would be much appreciated. Whether you can tell something about the type of drum kit, mic placement, room acoustics, processing, it's all welcome.
Tips on recording tight and punchy (70's style) drums
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fluffy_little_something fluffy_little_something https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=281847
- Banned
- 12880 posts since 5 Jun, 2012
It was an acoustic bass drum 
I also love that kind of music
I also love that kind of music
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 129 posts since 2 May, 2014 from The Netherlands
Thanks for being a troll. Very helpful...fluffy_little_something wrote:It was an acoustic bass drum
I also love that kind of music
Turn off your Brain & Turn on your Heart
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fluffy_little_something fluffy_little_something https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=281847
- Banned
- 12880 posts since 5 Jun, 2012
Why? I was being serious. Acoustic bass drums usually have that short, juicy punch, while electronic ones often have a long decay of what is almost a built-in bass, which can interfere with the bass line.Ari-S wrote:Thanks for being a troll. Very helpful...fluffy_little_something wrote:It was an acoustic bass drum
I also love that kind of music
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- KVRian
- 992 posts since 27 Apr, 2005
70's funk drums were pretty dry and recorded in small rooms. Probably a bit of new york style parallel compression/eq to make them punchy like that. I was a very small child in the 70's, so can't be really helpful. mixing boards/tape tracks were small and budgets for studio time were tight, so I would doubt they used a whole lot of mics on the kits, probably 4 max?
