Capturing THAT drum sound of an era

[Pocketplayer]

I have an opportunity to do a gig covering 70's pop tunes.
Stuff like Starship's Rock Music & Jane, Looking Glass' Brandi,
Sweet's Fox on the run, Atlanta Rhythm Section's So Into You,
Lee Michaels' Do You Know What I Mean, Cliff Richard's Devil Woman...
Real syncopated stuff. I need to pull our Chaffee's stuff here!

There is a specific sound I love from this era and I am trying to get it.

I feel DSOP will chime in here...he has helped in the past...this sound
is a blend of both Ansley Dunbar and Steve Smith from early Journey,
before Escape, especially with the snare sound...it call it a "boxy pop"
sound...Moon had it as well.

Any ideas as to gear, especially snare and head combos/tuning to achieve this Live?

[DSOP]

I think you're better off just using a contemporary setup and forgetting about the "old ways". But if you really want to be authentic, take all the bottom heads off your toms (make sure your smallest tom is no smaller than 12") and use coated emperors tuned a bit tighter than medium. On the snare (ideally a Ludwig Supraphonic), use a coated ambassador or black dot, tuned on the loose side of medium, with the snare-side head fairly tight. Lots of padding in the bass drum, with the front head removed.

[matthughen]

Nice mics, tube pres and hitting tape also help get THAT drum sound.

[Pocketplayer]

Very cool...thanks...DSOP, I knew you would hit it hard here.

I actually really dig that sound myself, so no stretch here whatsoever...
It breathed more organic to me...some of the toms sound like boxes,
but it is really more the snare, hats, and ride...tuning and head combo
significant I think to move in this direction.

The Rock Music drum sound I love...Ansley's sound is ripe to me.

[DSOP]

Ansley's sound is ripe to me.

Speaking of....

I was a big fan of his way back when, but man, the drum sound he got on Journey's "Infinity" has got to be the WORST recorded drum sound in history. I love that record, but those drums, that snare, holy cow.... completely horrendous!!!!

[langmick]

If it wete perfect the song would not be the same. Some Zappa recods horrible drum sounds. But they were defintely different.

[gretsch-o-rama]

I kinda like the drum sound on Infinity. It's apart of that warm sound that a lot of that 70's music was going for that is horrendously absent from today's music. some of the early Journey albums are among my favorites, especially the original Journey album.

[DSOP]

some of the early Journey albums are among my favorites, especially the original Journey album.

Maybe so, but Infinity is easily one of the worst recorded drum sounds ever. I know he was using concert toms with black dots, but man, that snare is ultra-crap. Bass drum has no definition. Toms are cardboard (and trigger enormous snare buzz). Cymbals pretty nice. But all in all, a big fail.




It almost works in this one, mainly due to the flanger on the outro:


One of my favorite drum tracks from this era was from Alan Parsons:




And here's a fave from the 70s with tons of compression on a very loose snare drum:

[Pocketplayer]

YES...HORRIBLE sound on Infinity...horrendous no doubt...wow forgot how bad that was.

Then in JS he killed it imo...

Love the way they groove out this one at the end (2:00)...like this snare a lot!


This is deceptively simple...catch the hats always pulsing

[DSOP]

Then in JS he killed it imo...

Oh yeah. I don't blame him for Infinity, I blame the engineer or producer.