Studio Sausage (Session Notes)

One Drum Kit – Endless Sound Options

When we look at the drumset we are looking at a thoroughly modern invention.  It was only since the turn of the 20th century that this instrument even EXISTED!  We’ve gone from ‘low boy’ hi-hats and tacked head toms to remote cable hi-hats, every depth and diameter of tom, bass drum, and snare drum imaginable; not to mention enough cymbal varieties that we could sheath the great pyramid and still have bronze left over.

Here’s the thing though.  Maybe you don’t have that much gear.  Maybe you have a nice sounding 4 or 5 piece kit with a ride, a crash, and a set of hi-hats.   Why do the cats with the big kits have to have all of the fun of making interesting noises?  Have you ever asked yourself: ‘How can you get more sounds out of my kit?’

It’s easier than than you might think?  In this post I hope to be able to offer some ideas (some my own, some I’ve knicked from fellow drummers, articles, etc…)  These are just some of the ideas available for you to create your own unique sounds on your kit.

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Studio Sausage – Recent Sessions and Revelations

Over the past couple of months I’ve been doing a wide variety of sessions for clients including Vox Lumiere, Tyrone Wells, Nickelodeon, The Voice, Robin Grubert, Ronan Chris Murphy, Lee Ferris, David Bowick, and Michael ‘Smidi’ Smith.

I’m humbly grateful for all of these experiences.  They enrich me in a variety of ways.  There’s the obvious financial one (so I can keep the lights on), but there are plenty of others.  One of them is re-imagining what a drumkit is and can be.  These sessions got me thinking about some of my favorite players.

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Session Notes Archive – Freddy and Francine

Freddy and Francine was a wonderful project that was fronted by Lee Ferris and Bianca Caruso.  Their songs were wonderful slices of pop goodness that also had the ability to make your heart ache and pull on your emotions in a wonderful way.  These sessions would become what turned out to be our second and last album – The Forest and the Sea.  I miss that band, but am so glad that I can call them friends to this day.

Session – Freddy & Francine
Dates – 5/27-29/10
Studio – Big Fish Studios, Encinitas, CA

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Another round of Session Notes

Session – Bart Ryan
Studio – Phantom Vox, Hollywood, CA

This session was an E.P. so we only did 6 songs.  Unfortunately, I can’t recall when we recorded it.  It  was sometime in 2010.

We had done pre-production a week before so we had the parts locked and it was a great time tracking.  I should mention my esteemed colleague holding down the low end for this one.

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Session Notes Volume 2 – Groovin’ for Uncle Daddy

Greetings music fans.  I’m here with another installment of ‘session notes’.  These are posts about studio stuff I’ve been doing over the past year or so and highlights the drums and mics used, what kind of room I was recording in, general vibe, etc… everything that went into capturing the sounds and getting keeper takes.

This time out, I’m sharing information about a series of sessions I did with Uncle Daddy.  Tongue in cheek name aside, this is a very talented and eclectic band that includes two acoustic guitars, mandolin, violin, and cello… and yours truly behind the kit.  This unique instrumentation makes for some pretty wonderful music.  So, here’s the run down of some of the stuff I’ve done with them:

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NAMM wrap-up and the new kit…

Well, NAMM was pretty interesting this year.  While it lacked in innovation (in my humble opinion), there were some interesting things to check out.  This year though it was really all about being on the floor and hanging out with friends and seeing faces I only get the chance to see for this brief sonically challenging weekend in January.  I wouldn’t say I got the chance to see everything I wanted, but amongst the madness, certain things stood out.  Here are my rather biased highlights…

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Session Notes – Doing that voodoo that we do

This is the first of a new series – Session Notes.  This will be a place for me to geek out with you all about different sessions I’ve been on and talk about the gear used, general philosophies about the sounds we went for, and how we got them.  I’m excited to share this information and it’s just a lot of fun to geek out.  So, enjoy.

Session – Circe Link
Dates – 3/26-27/10
Studio – Stagg St. Studios, Van Nuys, CA

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