Gavin Harrison here!

Hey Gavin! I had a couple questions at some point, but I can't remember them now. Instead though, I recently discovered "Peace for 4." The metric modulation in that tune is really compelling. And then I heard the fill section... and suddenly gained the urge to transcribe it. So I did. For anyone wondering how that part around 2:08 is notated, this is what I came up with.

The notes highlighted in red are ghost notes. And the one above the staff shaped like a rhombus is a china hit. Also, all four cymbal hits in the beginning should've been specialty crash-chimes and bells. Happy listening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoAfOpf6t00

Cheers --Peter
 

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Gavin,

When you first started playing live gigs and such, how did you deal with criticism? If you played a groove that you were proud of and somebody said "that was complete rubbish!", did it ever make you feel discouraged or even angry?

I guess it would really depend on childhood factors, personality type, how sensitive one is to others approval/acceptance.

It's just a question I've been pondering for sometime, and to be honest, I was always very nervous and self-conscious when I played the few live gigs that I did. I still had fun, but I was riddled with anxiety on the inside. I'm always thinking that the audience can hear every mistake, so I go overboard trying to concentrate on NOT making a mistake, and then I lose the "feeling/groove" of the song. Would you say that's a normal feeling for the first couple times you play live?

Thanks for your time Gavin
Eric
 
Hi Gavin,

I just bought your Signature Protean Snare Drum from Sonor. I was not able to test it yet, cause I'm travelling for business at the moment but I can't wait to try it out. When I had the chance to play it, I'll post my experiences here!

I read an article of you on the SOS Homepage about your studio, your equipment and some stuff about your recording techniques. You mentioned that you use a gate on your second snare drum mic (bottom), so that you can turn it quite loud to hear all the ghost notes. It would be really nice if you could be a bit more specific regarding the settings of the gate (treshold, ratio, attack). My guess is that you control it over the attack controller. Am I right?

Thanks in advance!

Best regards

Christian
 
"are you having drum lessons? A good teacher can guide you well with this and once you have a good grasp of it you should start to make transcriptions and have a teacher check it."

Thanks for you advice Gavin. I have made a point to look for someone that is able to help me in this way and found a teacher that had studied at drumtech in london, so thanks for helping me to make this decision.
If i may be a little bold I would ask that you include Glasgow into your clinic tours at some point, it would be awesome to see your drumming for me and many others. The guys at rhythmbase can sort you out I'm sure.
If it's a possibility please use the contact info below, I am quite sure they would be amazed to hear from you! lol

Thanks again, happy drumming and future learning,
Tam.x

Rhythm Base
31/33 Commerce Street
Glasgow
G5 8AB

Telephone:
0141 429 3799
 
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Hi,

thank you David for the quick answer. I recognized that it's quite a long way between setting up the first mic and and getting a nice drum sound. I got to the point where I rely on useful basic tips and doing the rest on my own, trusting my ears and comparing the results to professional drum recordings. I know there are a lot of one ways streets but the learning factor to me is more important than the quickest-way-to-get-a-perfect-drum-sound.

So long story short, my question about the gate-settings is kind of obsolete at the moment, cause I also found a way to make it sound good without any gate.

But if you or Gavin or anyone else have any must-have-insider-tips, I would be flattered if you share them with me and other not so experienced forum users.

For Gavin: I love the protean Snare Drum. My old one wasn't really a good instrument but I never expected the difference to be so big! It simply sounds if it came from another galaxy compared to my former Snare! Thanks to you and the Sonor crew, for making me smile whenever hitting this fantastic piece of wood and metal!

Cheers

Christian
 
But if you or Gavin or anyone else have any must-have-insider-tips, I would be flattered if you share them with me and other not so experienced forum users.

...The trick is - you have to mix your drums as you are playing them.

Really have a read of what Gavin is saying here in his last post...I think its some of the best advice to a 'new-to-micing' drummer.

You can practice this...just record yourself and listen back to it...adjusting your playing instead of mic placement or processing.
 
Really have a read of what Gavin is saying here in his last post...I think its some of the best advice to a 'new-to-micing' drummer.

You can practice this...just record yourself and listen back to it...adjusting your playing instead of mic placement or processing.

I thought I read all the recent posts, but must have missed that one. I spent the whole week in my reheasal room and I think I got the basic setting done. I will take the advice you mentioned!

Now I don't want to run too 'off topic'. So thank you for your advices!

Cheers

Christian
 
Hi Gavin.
My god. I've spent the past month devouring Porcupine Tree. Between you and Steven Wilson I am completely rejuvenated and inspired. I have pre-ordered your book, my Protean snare should land in the next 2 weeks, I'm seeing your clinic on Monday and am having breakfast with you and the other South African Sonor endorsees on Tuesday...
It has been, and will be, a complete honour. What an incredible band PT is, I cannot get enough of it. I'm so looking forward to Rhythmic Composition.
Cheers brother :)
 
Hi crystalfunky

The more I practised the luckier I got.

Wow thats really interesting. What do you mean with your last sentence?
Can you tell me/us a bit more about that? people didn't just came into your practice room right? ;)


No I was just joking. The more practise you do the better you get.

Hi Rítmico

Do you add a compression effect in your snare drum?
If yes, could you share your settings (attack, release, etc...)?


Attack 2:00
Ratio 7:1
Release 100

I always be impressed with the sound of your ghost notes (even when you are playing on loud situations with PT). I always can hear the ghost notes and they are very clear sound. Is this due the way that you play the snare and/or the mixing settings?

A compressor will help a bit - but you have to play them really clearly, precisely and at the right volume for the song and it's surrounding instruments.

Hi AllenS

At what point in your musical career/journey did you feel that you really started to develop your own individual voice and personality on the drums, in a way that made you and other listeners say, "Wow...this is Gavin (as embodied by the music resulting from the drums)!"-ie, when did you feel confident and mature enough to go beyond emulation of your heroes (we all have them, and we all need them!) into developing your own distinct sound and style?

that's a tough question. I guess I always sounded like me to some degree - I was lucky to be in musical situations where people were asking me to create my own drum parts and I just followed my nose.

Hi K_HiHats

I recently discovered "Peace for 4." The metric modulation in that tune is really compelling. And then I heard the fill section... and suddenly gained the urge to transcribe it. So I did. For anyone wondering how that part around 2:08 is notated, this is what I came up with. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoAfOpf6t00
The notes highlighted in red are ghost notes. And the one above the staff shaped like a rhombus is a china hit. Also, all four cymbal hits in the beginning should've been specialty crash-chimes and bells. Happy listening.


It took me quite sometime to understand what you've written there. Your software has made a REALLY bad job of displaying it. It is almost impossible to read the way that the stems are grouping the notes...but it seems that the values are correct - so well done!!! You don't need to write ghost notes in different colours. You can just put brackets "( )" around the ghost notes.

Hi euphoric_anomaly

When you first started playing live gigs and such, how did you deal with criticism? If you played a groove that you were proud of and somebody said "that was complete rubbish!", did it ever make you feel discouraged or even angry?

Yes I know this feeling well. I was criticised many times in the early musical situations I was in. Shouted at by band leaders and older members of the band and occasionally fired from the job. I felt discouraged...but not enough to give up. My father was very supportive and it drove me to practise harder.


Hi Christian Beck

I read an article of you on the SOS Homepage about your studio, your equipment and some stuff about your recording techniques. You mentioned that you use a gate on your second snare drum mic (bottom), so that you can turn it quite loud to hear all the ghost notes. It would be really nice if you could be a bit more specific regarding the settings of the gate (treshold, ratio, attack). Another guess is that you use the top mic channel as side-chain for the gate of the bottom mic. How close am I ?

Yes that's correct - I haven't done it in a long while. That article was written in 1998 I think.

I love the protean Snare Drum. My old one wasn't really a good instrument but I never expected the difference to be so big! It simply sounds if it came from another galaxy compared to my former Snare! Thanks to you and the Sonor crew, for making me smile whenever hitting this fantastic piece of wood and metal!


Glad you're enjoying it !!!

Hi Bradley Cooper

My god. I've spent the past month devouring Porcupine Tree. Between you and Steven Wilson I am completely rejuvenated and inspired. I have pre-ordered your book, my Protean snare should land in the next 2 weeks, I'm seeing your clinic on Monday and am having breakfast with you and the other South African Sonor endorsees on Tuesday...
It has been, and will be, a complete honour. What an incredible band PT is, I cannot get enough of it. I'm so looking forward to Rhythmic Composition.


It was very nice to meet you - I hope you enjoy the snare drum and the book !!!!

cheers
Gavin
 
Hi Gavin,

I noticed while watching some clips on Youtube that your hi-hats seem very loose.

In this clip of Open car (around 4:05, from the DVD ''Arriving Somewhere But Not Here") you can see it very clearly.

What is the trick ? :)

Does it have to do with where the bottom cymbal is resting on?
Is it standard or did you change it somehow?

And what is the main reason ? Feel or sound ?
 
Hi Gavin,

I couldn't find an answer to my question on this forum, so I'm gonna put it here;
As we are currently starting recording drums for our first CD, I'm using PT's cd Fear of a blank planet as reference CD for the drum sound of my kit (Yamaha Recording custom).
I'm wondering which snaredrum you're using on the title track? Is it miked with a Shure SM57?

I hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,

Harald
Amsterdam
 
Hello Gavin, hope you are doing well!

A quick one, hopefully:

a fill in Fear of a Blank Planet, just before the hard part, at about 5:00-5:05
a fill in Hatesong (from Arriving Somewhere dvd), just before Steven starts to sing
a little fill in What Happens Now? (studio version), just at about 3:48

I hope I am hearing it all well, is it the same 'trick' in all these fills? How do you play that? This is really tasty and I would like to learn to do this. Could you explain a little bit about it?

Thanks!
 
Hi Gavin,

Out of curiosity, are there any music genres that you shy away from? For example, if you were approached by a metalcore band, would you go for it? What if you were asked to be a session drummer for a "top" 40 "artist"?

Thanks,

Josh.
 
Hi Gavin, although not directly related to a thread about you, I'm wondering what your impression of Simon's London gig with Hiromi is? I think you were there on the Sunday night. Room sound challenges aside, I thought it was inspiring on many levels to say the least :)

Andy.
 
Hi Drizzle

I noticed while watching some clips on Youtube that your hi-hats seem very loose.
Does it have to do with where the bottom cymbal is resting on?Is it standard or did you change it somehow? What is the trick ? :)


There's no trick - they just sound better when you let them breathe. In that clip I am hitting them pretty hard (they are resting on a normal big wide hi hat bottom cymbal felt) - so if the top cymbal was clamped really tight - I would probably have broken it. I like to do a lot of pedaling and splashing with my left foot - and it doesn't work so good if the top cymbal is clamped tight. It's also important to not have the top cymbal so slack that there's a gap between the cymbal and it's felts. Once I get the balance right I tighten the two locking discs above the top cymbal with a pair of pliers so they can never work their way loose.

Hi MWGSdrummer

As we are currently starting recording drums for our first CD, I'm using PT's cd Fear of a blank planet as reference CD for the drum sound of my kit (Yamaha Recording custom).
I'm wondering which snaredrum you're using on the title track? Is it miked with a Shure SM57?


The snare drum was a 1982 14x5 Yamaha Recording Custom with rounded bearing edges on top and bottom. It was the inspiration behind my Sonor signature snare drum "Protean". Although the Protean is greatly improved over that old Yamaha RC drum. Yes the close mic was a Shure SM57. There are SO many other factors in getting that drum sound on that album - please don't think that if you use a Yamaha RC snare drum with a SM57 that it will sound anything like that record.

Hi scottishhaggis

a fill in Fear of a Blank Planet, just before the hard part, at about 5:00-5:05
a fill in Hatesong (from Arriving Somewhere dvd), just before Steven starts to sing
a little fill in What Happens Now? (studio version), just at about 3:48
I hope I am hearing it all well, is it the same 'trick' in all these fills? How do you play that? This is really tasty and I would like to learn to do this. Could you explain a little bit about it?

They are of course three completely different fills. The only thing that I can hear that they have in common are snare drum ghost notes. Is that what you mean?

Hi Illusion1409

Out of curiosity, are there any music genres that you shy away from? For example, if you were approached by a metalcore band, would you go for it? What if you were asked to be a session drummer for a "top" 40 "artist"?

There isn't a genre that I shy away from - I only try to avoid what I consider to be 'bad' music - of which there's plenty of it around regardless of genre. If a metalcore or top 40 artist wanted me to play on their songs - first I need to hear the songs to see if if can connect with them.

Hi keep it simple

I'm wondering what your impression of Simon's London gig with Hiromi is? I think you were there on the Sunday night. Room sound challenges aside, I thought it was inspiring on many levels to say the least :)

I thought it was great ! Unfortunate room to play in as a lot of the detail of the drums were lost. I think it would have sounded better if I was down in the front row.

cheers
Gavin
 
Hi again Gavin,

First of all, it is very kind of you to have it looked for me!

Yes, I could always hear those ghosts there and I pretty much understand that all these are different fills. I think what I meant is that you play them similarly, with same...technique? I find it difficult to explain myself on this one... :D

If it's not understantable again then lets forget it, not really a big deal.

I also wanted to mention one more important thing. I want you to know now that your interviews are very inspiring and uplifting. It seems that you always have a lot to say about everything besides drumming, things about music industry, artistry and so on. Even though you speak a lot about how long and how difficult it is to become a working drummer and you keep saying that it takes a big big effort, all this inspires me a lot, and other drummers as well I think. There are plenty of things you speak about that even non-drummers can find useful and inspiring. You are a real human drummer.

I thank you for keeping this alive, taking time answering all our questions and being patient.

Please keep us inspired like this for many years to come.

Thank you Gavin Harrison.
 
Hi keep it simple

I'm wondering what your impression of Simon's London gig with Hiromi is? I think you were there on the Sunday night. Room sound challenges aside, I thought it was inspiring on many levels to say the least :)

I thought it was great ! Unfortunate room to play in as a lot of the detail of the drums were lost. I think it would have sounded better if I was down in the front row.

cheers
Gavin
Agreed Gavin, the room was a challenge, as I pointed out in my gig review last week. I was downstairs about half way back. It wasn't too bad, but the drums were all attack & reflection. I did take a quick listen in the gallery, & it was fairly horrible :(

Anyhow, thanks for responding.
 
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