Bass vs. drums challenge video - released here first :)

Andy

Honorary Member
Hi Guys,

just back from the studio, & keen to get this first video of the session up here for your enjoyment. Recorded live in one take. A few rehearsal runs through from scratch to agree bass grooves, but other than that, improv on the individual drum parts. A nightmare to record with everything live in the room & no isolation, a few mistakes, but hey, it's real. A massive thanks to Yolanda for agreeing to do this

Hope you enjoy this as much as we did making it :)


http://youtu.be/CePiOjxfcHo


More session videos & behind the scenes clips coming in the next few days.
 

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Great stuff guys! It's always fun to see how different drummers approach the same riffs. Yolanda Charles is on fire with that bass guitar. Looking good too. :)
 
Amazing! Omg I'm in love with the segmented kit. What punchyness, unbelievable... What snare was David playing?
 
They sound good but did you consider using pillows?
 
Now that's how you make a video. Well done!
 
Hey I just noticed those spurs are like the ones on the Ludwig Club Date drums. Now Lesismore is never gonna own a set of Gurus either ;)

I can't get to this video at work - they've disabled our computers the flash plug-in to play videos. I'll have to catch it when I get home. Looking forward to it!
 
Sweet!

That looks like so much fun!

Great variety of sounds from the 3 kits.

Yolanda sounds excellent! (The smidgen of Mark King influence totally works for me too.)
 
Yeah, I also found it a bit hard to place the bass drum notes/sounds given just how open they were. I'm sure that will be more prominent in the individual kit demos, though.

David's kit was my favorite sounding (and David my favorite looking ;) ) of the bunch, but then, his kit was definitely the 'middle ground' kit. I love it. All very impressive. What were the snares?
 
That made me smile from beginning to end! I love the way the beech & ovangkol sings, but my favourite - unexpectedly, given my usual preference - was the walnut: I enjoyed the weight and depth of the sound.

(and David my favorite looking ;) )

Dream on, chicken: he's marrying my daughter. Couldn't help noticing that Yolanda kept smiling at him though - not that I blame her!
 
Yolanda joins Andy as a patron saint of drummers :)

Great playing all round and good to hear the different styles and kits. Especially interesting to hear the walnut kit played rockier for contrast between the two beasts. Didn't suit some of Yolanda's grooves but worked best in others.

David, was it pre-arranged that you'd be the ride cymbal guy?
 
Guys,

thank you so much for chiming in :) A bit more detail rather than a rambling individual answer thing:

This session wasn't about slick clear sounds or playing, it was all about the vibe. We stood almost no chance of capturing clean audio of the kits. We decided to do this old school. There's 20 mic's in there, all picking up everything else. The close mic's were there simply to balance the kits, especially the other two kits vs. that walnut thunder machine. You wouldn't believe how that loaded the room, & had to be dialled right back. Same with the bass guitar firing directly into the kits. Everything picked up everything, & the room sound was huge. I'll be uploading the Honest Capture individual kit videos in the next few days. You'll have the chance to hear the characteristics of these drums very clearly.

Comments re: pillows & Clubdate spurs are not going to wind me up, I'll leave that to the Hyde when he chimes in ;)

We all turned up in the morning with a sketch of a plan. Yolanda fleshed that out by choosing popular song grooves (might help us get some bass player exposure). A few times round just to rehearse the structure, then this take. Less than perfect, but perfect was never the goal. For something done "on the fly", I'm very pleased. For those who think this is easy to pull off "hybrid old school", it isn't. If this was corporate land, it would take three days, isolation screens, detailed automation, & more camera angles than you can handle.

Each player was asked to take a specific approach to the grooves. Dave McKeague was asked to take a fairly displaced semi jazz vibe, George big ass grooves, & David a fusion approach.

I'm just editing some zoom handy cam shots that I hope you may find interesting.
 
Loved it for what it was, mate. Smokin' grooves. Killer room sound. Great vibe.

Kits sounded great. Although I was surprised to find that I wanted to make some changes to the walnut (cough.....swap the snare out with one David was using, slap some coated heads on it and pitch the toms up a shade......cough, cough). But overall, I thought the drums sounded awesome. I'd happily have one of each.......just to suit my mood.

It was fun, it was funky and it had me groovin' in my chair. Job done, I would have thought.
 
Oh wow so many responses already :)
Making this video was sooo much fun :) (Not just because Yolanda was there ;) )

Anon La Ply said:
David, was it pre-arranged that you'd be the ride cymbal guy?

Ha, no it wasn't, but I just noticed I used the Ride quite a lot.... :)


Magenta said:
Dream on, chicken: he's marrying my daughter. Couldn't help noticing that Yolanda kept smiling at him though - not that I blame her!

Oh am I? :p
 
A special mention to Dave, George and David to actually managed to play after the sexy husky " One, Two..." from Yolanda.... (just kidding)

This video is the next best thing to see it live... which I did, thanks to Andy to invite me to this dream trip.

Wonderful playing from everyone... and beautiful sound engineering and video editing :)

My that kit in the center sounded so phat and full...
...unexpectedly, given my usual preference - was the walnut: I enjoyed the weight and depth of the sound...
Especially interesting to hear the walnut kit played rockier for contrast between the two beasts...

The Walnut kit was absolutely amazing in the room, you felt every stroke within your body, George did bring the hell out of that kit, wonderful and tasty :)
 
For the Walnut is way too fat, but I can understand the interest in it. I blends so well with the snare which is also tuned low.

Anyway, loved David's kit and overall all top players. Definitely they followed their specific approach to the grooves. Great stuff here! Want to see more! :D
 

Don't tell me you've given up just because she said no? You lightweight!

Or have you thrown her over in favour of Yolanda?

Then again, if you prefer Porter, that's up to you. I happen to like him very much too :)
 
Thanks again for all the positive comments guys. Yes, I would usually tune the big walnut kit higher, but it was tuned that way to reduce some of the room loading, to suit George's playing, & offer a greater juxtaposition to the other kits. You'll hear it a touch higher in it's Honest Capture video in the next few days.

Here's some "behind the scenes" clips from the sessions. All shot on my Zoom Q3HD. Hope you enjoy them (1 minute clips)

Yolanda, Aaron, & George playing drums https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGiOpriiRBM

Dave McKeague noodling on:

The Origin kit at bop tuning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLFmyvpac3g

The In-Tense ash kit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hOHbxozo5k

& the big walnut In-Tense stave kit prior to being tuned correctly (still sounds epic though) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zX6B-O0tUM


I'm just off to a big party gig (about 400 people - it's for Oz, our unfortunate lighting engineer). Verden Allen is in the audience, & we're playing "dudes" in the set. No pressure then, especially as Oz has told him our version is better (WTF!!!!!) Enjoy your gigs guys :)
 
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