How to Integrate Stompbox FX with Acoustic Drums | Season Six, Episode 9

Why should guitarists get to have all the fun? We’ll show you the least expensive way to integrate stombox effects within your acoustic drum performance along with some worthy considerations, inspiration, and advice for getting started.
Microphone: Shure SM57
Stopbox: Keeley Caverns Delay Reverb v2 sladl.ink/Keel...
DI: Whirlwind IMP 2 Passive Direct Box sladl.ink/Whir...
PATREON:
This season is made possible by our Patreon supporters. Join us on Patreon for access to exclusive content such as Cymbal Sounds, our long awaited cymbal series, and MUCH more: sladl.ink/Patreon
PRODUCTION PARTNERS:
GIK Acoustics (sonic treatment): sladl.ink/GIK
AKG Audio (microphones): sladl.ink/AKG
Evans Drumheads: sladl.ink/Evan...
ProMark Drumsticks: sladl.ink/ProM...
Signal chain:
Mics - Focusrite Clarett 8Pre USB- Mac Studio w/Pro Tools 2022.5
Recorded at 48kHz / 24bit
Overheads: (Matched Pair in Glyn Johns - Cardioid) AKG C314 sladl.ink/C314...
Snare, Toms: AKG C518M sladl.ink/C518M
Kick Drum: AKG D12VR sladl.ink/AKGD...
Acoustic Treatment:
GIK 242 Acoustic Panels: sladl.ink/GIK242
GIK 4A Alpha Pro Series Diffusor/Absorber: sladl.ink/GIK4...
GIK Evolution PolyFusor Combination Sound Diffuser/Absorber: sladl.ink/GIKE...
GIK Tri-Trap Corner Bass Trap: sladl.ink/GIKT...
Drums:
Pearl Masters Maple Custom Extra w/70’s Ludwig Supraphonic
Cymbals:
22” Jesse Simpson clone of old Zildjian A, 15" Zildjian Kerope Hihats
Drumheads:
Snare: Evans G12 coated / Snare Side 300
Snare Wires: PureSound Custom Pro Steel 20-strand
Toms: N/A
Kick Drum: Evans UV EQ4/ EQ3 Coated White Reso
Hosted by: Cody Rahn
Production & Consulting: Ben O'Brien Smith @ Cadence Independent Media
New Merch! We’ve got bandanas, shirts, and hoodies! Visit our merch store here: sladl.ink/merch
Click for different colors, sizes, etc.
👂🏼👉🏼🥁
Leave your questions, comments, suggestions, requests down below and don't forget to subscribe!
*NOTE: Troll comments will be deleted. You're welcome to disagree with whatever you like but let's keep the conversation civilized and focused on drums.
--------------------------
Sounds Like a Drum is a CADENCE INDEPENDENT MEDIA production
For more information, visit www.cadenceindependent.com
Follow us on Instagram: / soundslikeadrum
Like us on Facebook: / soundslikeadrum

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

Have you used stombox pedals to affect your drums? If so, what's your favorite and how do you use it?

[@llRoBoBinHoll]

I love a very drippy sounding spring reverb. Instant vintage sound

[@GRedit1000]

big muff on snare or toms… very, very little and fiddle with the tone knob to see where the resonances are great. also running a contact microphone on snare through fx sounds pretty rad.

[@dusty9438]

a good two knob noise gate and some distortion (not in that order) can get you some hella drum machine sounds

[@WayneDdrums]

I use an Eventide H9 on snare at church. Mostly using reverb and delay, but the H9 has some wild stuff. SM57 into a Mixinglink pedal, H9 inserted in the fx loop of the MixingLink.

[@eugeivashchenko758]

Aric Improta is an absolute unit regarding this. He's used an SM58 running through a whammy pedal and done some incredible stuff while playing. He has been getting a lot of love lately, but still underrated in my opinion.

[@morrinsville23]

I have a radial vocoloco mic pre with efx loop so i can put any guitar pedal on my drums with a condenser! Autowah, phaser and flanger are all very cool on drums!

[@guestivity2063]

as an Effects Pedal Obsessed Drummer this is EXACTLY the video i needed in my life

[@kensamek6049]

I use an Alesis NanoVerb for effects on the snare. Works very well. I have used other effects units as well. It is a hell of a lot of fun experimenting with all of the effects. It opens up a whole new door to the drumming world. Thanks for sharing this. First video I have seen anybody else doing this.👍🤘😎

[@brentverrill]

I've got to mention Max Sansalone, dimsunk on YT, is very fond of these techniques. And let's not forget Stewart Copeland with that delay on the hi hat in Walking on the Moon.

[@disappt]

In interviews about his iconic drum FX on David Bowie’s “Berlin” era albums, Tony Visconti remarks that Dennis Davis achieved those sounds by monitoring the FX live as they were recording, responding to and playing the effect like part of the drum itself. This idea that we can tastefully adapt to unexpected sounds has always stuck with me!

[@mattlionmusic]

Lee “Scratch” Perry and King Tubby come to mind in the world of drum fx delay and reverb wise for dub remixes. DM Khan is doing cool things in this style currently. Snare bmbs have been a thing in metalcore music for a while too. Having a competent sound guy helps a ton too. I used to try and trigger them myself during performance but a dub mixer does it better.

[@owenw6236]

Original topics. Always clear and concise. Love this channel. About time you smiled while playing. We can tell you really dig it

[@22222Sandman22222]

awesome video! i like to put my little pedalboard (with reverb, delay and autowah) to my snare, and cut the input to it with an ABY pedal. that way the reverb/delay tails can continue after "turning the effect off". dub fills are really fun to do live :D

[@MitchellSpille]

Love this video! super cool blend of worlds for a drummer + electric guitarist with tons of pedals

[@maxhammerum7705]

Hey I know that this is quite a late comment, but I want to quickly comment on the part about microphones and bleed. Theres nothing inherently different physically different about different microphone technologies and what they will pick up. This is quite obvious if you think about it for a minute. The physical energy that reaches the point of the microphone capsule is different, no matter what kind of microphone happens to be at the end point of that energy. What can impact bleed is the pickup pattern of the microphone and (in some capacity) the microphones frequency response. Only the former physically impacts it however, frequency response might back bleed better, but it also won't allow you to boost that frequency area without essentially "adding" the bleed back in. The pickup patterns of microphone depends entirely on the physical and electrical design of the microphone itself, and condensers can have the same pickup patterns as dynamics, even if the "standard" is condensers generally having wider pickup patterns. Not to dive too deep, but I just want to disparage the myth that dynamics somehow inherently "cancel" the room and/or bleed, which is simply just false. It's the same old thing with the classic SM7B recommendation that it's for some reason better for a bad room, which is not because it somehow picks up less room than any other equal microphone, it's usually because it leans towards you being closer to the microphone that you might be a condenser, and yeah, that will pick up a relatively larger amount of room sound.

[@alextibo]

New haircut is 🔥

[@The_Other_Ghost]

Stanton Moore, my favorite metal drummer!

[@GUSCRAWF0RD]

It’s worth noting that if you already have your drums mic’d into a mixer u may have these mod fx u can apply on the spot I would suggest extreme settings for some crazy vibes and like orchestra hits with your bass drum

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

Triggering samples is a bit of a different concept but something we'll cover in the future.

[@GUSCRAWF0RD]

@@SoundsLikeADrum not samples, but your drums recorded through a mixer, the mixer has an fix section filling in where your stomp boxes are

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

What mixer have you used that has effects to double up your kick with orchestra hits?

[@GUSCRAWF0RD]

@@SoundsLikeADrum the Behringer XYNEX X1222USB has a pretty decent FX section built in but most mixers have /something/ you can apply… I’ll make a video response sometime soon you may disagree with my concept of an orchestra hit 🤷🏻

[@GUSCRAWF0RD]

@@SoundsLikeADrum kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJfJi6SJd7idprcsi=St_MKoNOCe6TIglO

[@larrykingrey5647]

Have you (will you) discuss using a Sub N Up bass pedal by TC to add low end to your kick drum mic signal (FX) to your mixer for the bass drum signal?

[@llRoBoBinHoll]

I love effects (also on drums), but I’m against the fetishisation of guitar pedals lol. Any computer, tablet or even a phone with an audio interface can do the same with (free) software and sound just as good. And that way you don’t to buy a new little box for each new effect you want to try.

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

We hear you (though you won’t see us fetishizing pedals here…). Of course, there are some super cool pedals out there that are quite unique. The same can certainly be said for plugins. The method we’ve shown in this episode is just about the most robust option out there. There isn’t anything that can crash and very little that can go wrong so it’s simply plug and play. For getting started, this is an excellent way to go (especially if you can borrow some pedals from a guitarist friend).

[@patdeniston3697]

I was hoping to hear "when the levi breaks" lol

[@drummercarson896]

That is an awesome video

[@BadChizzle]

Instant Karma… … yeah… I think the Drums had a bit of slap back on that song. Ha Ha! It’s gonna get you! Ha Ha! What a Cool song.

[@craigchammings6580]

Is there any concern with impedance matching? Ive concidered doing this for awhile but thought you needed some sort of mic to instrument level converter for the pedal to pass sound cleanly.

[@llRoBoBinHoll]

As far as I know, it’s not really that important if the sound gets coloured by an impedance miss match. The wet reverb or delay signal can sound just as good when the balance of the highs and lows is a bit different compared to the ‘real’ sound.

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

We didn’t have any glaring issues in the making of this video that would prevent this setup from being 100% functional.

[@joostvansoest]

I have been having issues with this and gave up, because i did not get any usable results. I tried a passive reamp box but it didn’t do the trick i needed unfortunately. I did try it first with a couple of dirt boxes though. I believe i tried my fuzz factory 😅. Impedance mismatching is an issue with gain based pedals i found out. I hooked it up to the fx loop of my little mackie 1202.

[@matthewafrazer]

Another option would be a vocal effects pedal, like the TC-Helicon Mic Mechanic. It is designed specifically for a microphone input, and provides phantom power if needed. It also has a mic level XLR output so you wouldn't need the DI box.

[@assasinator1980]

Finally! An ancient prophecy fulfilled. Stompbox + drums. You speak the language of the gods. with great signs and wonders.. revealing to us arcane Knowledge that hath long been kept hidden. The beast hath risen.🙌

[@FernandoCuadro]

yes yes yes

[@GRedit1000]

HA! First to comment… just don't know what, yet. 😊

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

Enjoy and be sure to let us know what you think once you've watched the full episode!

[@c.l.4895]

Octave pedal on kick drum + crack in my foundation = coincidence? 🧐

[@larrycooper7261]

I could see using this in certain scenarios, but IMHO a little would go a LONG way. In small increments it could add a new dynamic to your playing. But using it to excess could quickly become annoying, and you'd lose the overall affect you're trying to achieve.

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

As always, tasteful use is key.

[@joc8]

I understand that some FX can work well in a piece of music, and I know it's being used by many drummers, but, let's not turn into drum machines. I wonder whether these things could de-skill, and stifle acoustic creatively. Thanks guys for an interesting video, and I appreciate that you both are still pro acoustic, and not all "electronic razzle-dazzle", but just demonstrating some options, if one wants to go down that road.