What are your favourite recorded drumsounds?

TomasHakkesBrain

Senior Member
What albums have your favourite drum recordings and drum sounds? I really enjoy a great drum sound, and i feel i actively seek out songs with good sounds, eg Zep 1, but a lot of later recordings of Zep i didnt like Bonhams sounds or the recording.

Danny Carey Lateralus
Bonham Zep 1
Lenny White Sorcerer
Dave Grohl QOTSA Songs for the Deaf
Elvin Jones A Love Supreme
Vinnie Colaiuta Ten Summoners Tales
Manu Katche Joe Satriani
Charlie Watts Exile on Main St
 
Pelagial by The Ocean. Check out the first song and you'll see what I mean. The lush cymbal painting, the timbre of the snare, it all just sounds amazing to me. The only downside is that while the album is musically and lyrically based around a journey down through the ocean's layers, nothing about the production changes from song to song. Unrelated to the actual sounds though.
 
I think my all-time favorite is still Kansas - Leftoverture. Dream Theater (at least the early stuff - I haven't listened to them lately), and Liquid Tension Experiment.
 
I love the snare sound in Badmotorfinger by Soundgarden. It has always been one of my favorites. As far as overall drum sounds, you mentioned most of my favorites in your OP.
 
I have a few, mostly snare drum sounds though.

Bonham's snare on Dancing Days & Misty Mountain Hop. Take the pattern on Fool in the Rain as "one sound". That drums only track can just go on repeat for half an hour :)

Peter Criss on the studio version of Shock Me, Larger than Life, Rocket Ride. The snare sound is perfectly not perfect. Lots of personality, and I like that more than total precision.

Mike Derosier on Barracuda. That whole kit, and the song is great. The fill down the toms, and that rack tom in particular... I always loved that tone.
 
This is old school, but the thunderous rimshot intro from the original 1954 version of Bill Haley and the Comets' Rock Around the Clock. Billy Gussack was the session drummer, and New York's Pythian Temple ballroom was the recording environment — so there was TONS of natural echo. Those snare hits sound bigger than life, and are what got me intro drumming since I was a kid and still inspire me to this day.
 
The drum sound on Bad Company - Good Lovin' Gone Bad
The snare on Yes - Roundabout
The drums on In My Time of Dying - Led Zeppelin
Snare sound on Soundgarden - My Wave
 
The drum sound on Bad Company - Good Lovin' Gone Bad
The snare on Yes - Roundabout
The drums on In My Time of Dying - Led Zeppelin
Snare sound on Soundgarden - My Wave

The snare on Roundabout is pretty sexy.
 
I love the way Kevin Shirley records and mixes drums. They're always thunderous and huge, unless they're not supposed to be. The last few Joe Bonamassa albums sound amazing, and I'll always be a sucker for Falling Into Infinity and Six Degrees by Dream Theater.

I love In Absentia by Porcupine Tree and The Raven That Refused to Sing by Steven for similar reasons - they sound so natural and clear.

Of course, any Zeppelin is pretty great.

I love Nick D'Virgilio's drum sounds on the earlier Spock's Beard records, namely Day For Night - I'm a sucker for roomy drum sounds and there's something about his snare drum sound that sounds like a pillow fight. Resolution by Andy Timmons has a similar drum sounds - it must have something to do with Mapex and Aquarian.

And, for totally different reasons, I love Phil Ehart's dark, thuddy drum sound from the first five Kansas records. I grew up on Kansas and can't think of those records being made with anything that takes up more space in the mix.

Dogman by King's X. It's how a rock record is supposed to sound. Super punchy.

Piety Street by John Scofield: Probably the most natural drum recording I've ever heard. The whole thing sounds like you're in the room with the band.
 
The drum sounds on "Sailing the Seas of Cheese" have always stuck out as incredible to me. I haven't listened to it in years, but I can hear them in my head--very natural and everything speaks clearly. I believe they were Yamaha recording customs that he used in the studio.
 
The drums on Paul Simon's "Boy in the Bubble" they're really prominent in the mix, they sound like recording customs and the snare is a mix of live and triggered sample.

Steve Smith's drums on his Vital Information album "Global Beat" pure Sonor goodness.
 
Here are some of my favourites:

-Art Blakey & Jazz Messengers - Self-titled album, especially the drum solo on the tune Infra-Rae - Wow!
-Abe Cunningham with Deftones - My Own Summer
-Herb with Primus on the album Sailing the Seas of Cheese
-Tre Cool with Green Day, especially the album Insomniac
-Dave Grohl with Nirvana on Nevermind and In Utero
-Pretty much anything David Garibaldi ever recorded with ToP. Squib Cakes is a long time favorite
 
The drums on Paul Simon's "Boy in the Bubble" they're really prominent in the mix, they sound like recording customs and the snare is a mix of live and triggered sample.

Graceland is a really cool album, but man, the drums are so awful at times. Boy in the Bubble isn't too bad; I'm not sure it's a sample, but there is a whole lot of gating and gated reverb on the drums. All Around The World (etc.) is one of my favorite songs on the record, but I can't listen to it because of the awful side-chain gated white noise on the snare drum... it's one of the worst things I've ever heard. It's probably a drum machine on that song, but still - there are some perfectly fine drum tones on that record (and all of the other instruments sound great); why'd they have to put that horrible gasp of desperation on there?
 
The drum sounds on "Sailing the Seas of Cheese" have always stuck out as incredible to me. I haven't listened to it in years, but I can hear them in my head--very natural and everything speaks clearly. I believe they were Yamaha recording customs that he used in the studio.

I thought they were Pork Pie drums. Anyhow, for me, those 18x18 bass drums just don't cut it.
 
I've always loved the sound of Neil Peart's second set of Slingerlands, which he used on A Farewell to Kings and Hemispheres.
 
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