RECORDING ReMastered – Better Drum Recordings Through Tuning

Welcome to the launch of  RECORDING Remastered.

As we approach our 40th anniversary, we’ve been reflecting on the legacy of this magazine—and the wealth of knowledge contained in its pages. Over the decades, RECORDING has amassed an extensive archive covering the science, art and craft of making and recording music. With this new column, our goal is to revisit standout articles from years past and, when appropriate, update them with fresh insights and context for today’s readers.

For our drum-focused January issue, we begin with a gem from June 2006—an article by session drummer and audio engineer Pat Bautz.

A recording engineer with even a basic understanding of drum tuning and damping can truly save a session. If you begin with a mediocre-sounding kit, you’ll end up chasing the problem—overprocessing the mix to compensate for issues that should have been fixed at the source, or resorting to sound-replacement software to patch things up. And while those tools have their place, they often sacrifice the very elements you hired the drummer for in the first place: dynamics, nuance and feel.

Here are some ideas to help you get a better drum sound.