Recreating the 2-Microphone Flaming Lips' "Yoshimi" Drum Sound | What's That Sound? Ep.18

[@kyleserafin9616]

This is such an eye-opening series, seriously underrated. As a guitarist, there's such a fixation around "tone" and gear online, but those conversations rarely address the recording and mixing techniques that transformed the tone in the room into the tone on the record.

[@DanielS10291]

Thats the hardest part about recording, drums are a pain and a joy at the same time. Guitar you just stick a mic right up to the amp and itll almost always sound good, maybe supplement it with a room mic if you’re getting adventurous. Bass you can fall back on a di. Vocals are tricky but if the singers good and you have a good compressor and a diy booth theyre not too bad. But drums are a different level

[@deputyrock3489]

It's 3AM. I've just finished a 14-hour session. My ears are shot. The band already left. I've tossed out all the beer bottles. I've emptied all the ashtrays. I've wrapped the cables and put all the mics away. I've shut down all the outboard gear. I've latched the loading dock door. All I want to do is go home and get 4 hours of sleep before I have to come back and do it again. Yet 30 minutes later I'm still at the studio-frantic, desperate, and on the verge of tears because I CAN'T FIND MY F***ING KEYS!!!

[@chinmeysway]

reberv definitely has em

[@nebstaism]

Check in the high hats 😂

[@AndySalinger33]

😂🤭🤣

[@Dep_nyc]

Mixerman is that you?

[@stevendrozd4564]

Sorry to be a buzz kill. There were no live drums on that song. All programmed samples by Dave and me.

[@nwallenberg]

Oh no!!! Oh well, I had to try. Always loved you guys and that record, thanks for all the inspiration man🙏

[@stevendrozd4564]

Can you try “When You Smile”?

[@nwallenberg]

Done! It’s going on the list

[@katielowen]

Big if true

[@angeloboltini]

Honestly, it's actually extra cool they managed to get the sound with acoustic drums.

[@huwvwilliams]

My friend Kliph used to play with them, he's telling me a load of great stories about Dave Fridmann recording techniques. A lot of it from what he said was to do mostly where the drums were set up in the room, sometimes with unconventional micing techniques but as he knew the room so well, he'd get the best results.

[@predeterminedmeat5024]

Kliph Scurlock??? That's guy's a drumming god

[@rileybowers20]

I miss kliph he was the man

[@devinwahl1274]

“Well - those drums are samples! I didn’t play kit on it. “ Stephen Drozd. Hahaha

[@DanielS10291]

🤣

[@adrianbarrientes]

lol is this true

[@devinwahl1274]

@@adrianbarrientessaid by the man himself

[@oqsy]

The trick to this sound was two sm57s, opposed 180°, suspended in lime jello along with a pocket’s worth of loose change, and input gain on preamps maxed. I assume there was THC in the jello.

[@IndustryLeech]

Please try to re-create the drum sounds from Elvis Costello's "Watching the Detectives". The drums in that track have always sounded incredible to my ear.

[@Jacobcfuller]

Yes!!

[@ChristopherT1]

I’m gonna check that out and listen more carefully. Thanks for the tip.

[@spiritparty]

would love to see that, great record

[@Rompler_Rocco]

The Lips are crazy, is my understanding. There does seem to be mystery around their studio techniques. I remember them saying that to have 6 mics in a kick drum would not be weird for them. Yet the huge drum sound on "Race for the Prize" is 1 mic for the whole kit. Steven Drozd is definitely one my favorites of all time. But there was a difference on Yoshimi, like the drums were being digitally manipulated after tracking, when compared to their 1993-99 stuff. Jessica did an amazing job of duplicating his feel! I've never been able to do it. This whole thing is 🔥💋💯

[@masonianbund]

I couldn’t hit LIKE fast enough. I love this series. You two are doing the Lord’s work.

[@booneh]

Much needed Dave Fridmann discussion. Hopefully you guys tackle something from Pinkerton someday. Perhaps “Across The Sea.”

[@heavymachete6235]

"tired of sex" has the best drum sound on that album in my opinion

[@booneh]

@@heavymachete6235 Can’t complain about that. I think it was engineered by Joe Baressi though.

[@booneh]

@luke5100 They produced it themselves, but employed a series of engineers trying to get the raw, live sound they wanted. The tracks that made the album were mainly engineered by Joe Barresi and Dave Fridman, who (I think) Baressi suggested to them after they played him The Flaming Lips’ Clouds Taste Metallic.

[@jakerslucky24]

I love the drum sounds all over this album.

[@joshuareid3778]

Love the low end character of this sound!

[@henryhayth3303]

It's about time you guys talked about The Flaming Lips.

[@darwinsaye]

I think the biggest factor that makes the drum sounds unique on that album is the cut and paste technique. I read Steve say somewhere that since he became the bands main arranger, playing most of the instruments in the studio himself instead of just the drums, he started using his previously recorded drum parts, chopping them and rearranging them to fit new songs. Which is why a lot of the time you hear that unique gated sound where cymbals will just abruptly cut off instead of sustaining.

[@xHowieHoward]

Yo, I have never seen that keys/hat trick before! Cool

[@germangillig]

great job guys! I like to now how was record the drums for "see change" of beck in 2000s. the sound of thats drums are amazing. Keep on rocking and recording. cheers from argentina

[@maxgrymonprez77]

Do melody Nelson instead... sea change whole sound is based on that record.

[@BULLY_FINGER]

NOAM IS KILLING IT

[@gustavoberocan]

Flaming Lips published some videos about the production of this album for it’s 20th year anyversary. I guess the distortion might come from a tascam multitrack recorder they used. Why don’t you ask them? :)

[@essmunson]

they only used the tascam for demos -- recorded the final stuff with fridmann

[@Shrimpy08]

@@essmunson not exactly on some songs the 4 track stuff was used like the race for the prize melody

[@localgems]

Thanks again for another banger! That snare is so snappy and keys in the hi-hat...you guys are the champs.

[@eameshigh2245]

This is the best video series on the KZbin platform

[@snails9505]

Great series, pls can you start showing your actual eq curves in the DAW.. would be interesting, thanks.

[@DanielS10291]

Agree

[@sir_kafka]

I mean I would love to hear you recreate the drum sound on the Manipulator Ablum (The Connection Man for example) by Ty Segall. Love the series!

[@WyattBrown377]

I love the mix of gear in this series. $5k in mics? I saw that coming. $100 beater eq unit for distortion? Didn't expect that!

[@DanielS10291]

The snare is about $200 dollars too, being miced with 2 $2000 mics 😂

[@michealcarney853]

Please do the feels like we only go backwards drum sound or any sound of the first two tame impala records, would love to see you revisit his drum sounds in a more in depth video like these

[@Merlincat007]

Seconded!

[@DanielS10291]

Low fi and crushed to fuck drums. Kevin actually goes through them in his own video

[@WeraroaWizard]

@@DanielS10291what video?

[@HUSHMONEYBAND]

9:37 “best of every world” 😂

[@philipbard2333]

This sounds so good! Love this series.

[@brucethomson168]

Very cool. I love hearing about how to get unique sounds from the kit, Cheers.

[@_OopsieDaisies]

god this album is a masterpiece and the drums are one of the highest points

[@BillyRubensElevatedEnzymes]

I agree about Elvis Costellos drum sound. I've always loved it. Another good one would be that Pinkerton drum sound.

[@reisakakibara]

This is really great but damn I wish it was for race for the prize 😩

[@brutalbasspro]

My daughter and I love this song! We sing it at full tilt in my car!

[@tomiansek2873]

These are such great videos, thank you!

[@mmonks]

Amazing. Sounds awesome and only 2 mikes, wow, great job guys! Love this series!

[@squee-z6442]

I want a king gizzard engineering video so badly!

[@htaylor]

I’m probably demonstrating my ignorance here but I’ve been listening to a lot of Glenn Branca recently and the drums on ‘The spectacular commodity’ sound especially good. It could be to do with the guitars being so treble-ly but the toms and kick are seemingly just resonating along in a really nice way. It could be that the entire drum set has been eq’d to minimise high end and it’s just a standard acoustic drum sound. Either way that’s what I’d like to be done next!

[@grantwalkersound]

Great job on this one, big Flaming Lips fan and you nailed it... I've got a sound I've always wanted broken down... The vocal sound on "National Anthem" by Radiohead.

[@brettdevlin3441]

yesss weird tinny resonance on thom- national anthem sounds crazy

[@ghostdog_ninja]

oh yes! soooooo dope! and she nails it oh my gosh!!! great playing, great feeling,

[@felixm1716]

have forgotten my Keys in the HH several times.. and I always new that I will search for them before I put them in. Sounds really great!

[@jamesd.6979]

I absolutely love this series, and I usually think these guys pretty much nail it. I've learned a lot from this series that I have 100% stolen and used on my own projects. But am I the only one that thinks they completely missed the boat on this one? I got so excited when I saw the video title, Yoshimi is easily one of my top 15 favorite LPs ever (right there w/ The Soft Bulletin).. I'm just not even remotely hearing the Yoshimi sound on this. Am I seriously the only one who just isn't hearing it??

[@handssmelloh9173]

The Strokes drum sound on either Hard to Explain or Reptilia would be cool. Both are different but interesting.

[@heavymachete6235]

i just wanna contribute my suggestion to the next sound yall should do. "tired of sex" by WEEZER. its such a room-y dirty drum sound im so curious about it

[@notEggsLamar]

IMO this is the best sounding drum tone in this whole series, I know its not everybodies cup of tea but holy crap do they snap crackle and pop

[@bryancahill2949]

YOOOOO ive been trying so long to get figging 2 mics on a kit sound good and this both reaffirmed i was on the right path and aired out some problems i had on it. Thank you for answering the questions i didnt know how to ask!

[@jamiegustkey2573]

Steven DR(long O)ZD… Which is close enough I spose… 🤷🏻‍♂️😁 He’s a beat wizard… Thank you for this * 👏🏻

[@aeproductions701]

Love the clean sound as well as the dirty - great job!

[@5dteatree]

great breakdown! would love to see the drum deconstruction on This Heat's 24 track loop

[@matthewleger5605]

so sick. love these! thanks

[@cjbcarr1]

hell yeah. one of my favorites. also, steve's playing is so fucking cool......that's a majoer ingredient. are you a hypnotist? is probably my favorite drumming on that album. there's some cool stuff happening with the cymbals. there's also some interesting layering of what sounds like sampled bass drums layered in that album, which i love. another fridmann favorite of mine is sparklehorse - king of nails :) good job!

[@freakingethan]

When are y’all gonna do “Funky Drummer”?

[@danielwetzel7777]

Y'all are awesome. I love these videos even if I don't know the song and in a few cases dislike the song

[@katielowen]

Lightning Bolt - Blow to the Head next 🤩💪

[@JakobAmr]

Awesome like always. ❤

[@churricardo1457]

Now that I hear the drum pattern on its own it reminds me a lot of where is my mind lol

[@BillyRubensElevatedEnzymes]

Dave Fridmann and Steven Drozd forever!!

[@Merlincat007]

Would have been great to hear the difference with the baffles soft side or hard side facing the drumset!

[@Merlincat007]

In general, I'd love to hear more direct back-to-back sound comparisons in this series. Talking in between examples makes differences hard to discern.

[@WyattBrown377]

Agreed! The room has such a big impact, especially on these minimal mic setups. Don't expect to get these same results in your dry with disastrous low end bedroom or your flutter echo chamber cement garage.

[@DanielS10291]

You need a large, oddly shaped room for good bass response. I have a very small but treated room and the bass isnt a problem as such, but that’s because there isnt much and the room is harsh sounding and trebly

[@ReeseChown]

Very important album to me.

[@PrimalNote]

Could you try something from Glassjaw - Worship and Tribute, or Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium?

[@chinmeysway]

that kick sounds quite great

[@GM-cd5rt]

me explota el corazon!!!!

[@za4310]

Its nice to see room mics. The sound of music made with only near field mics, DI, midi, sounds like butt. I have plenty of mics and lately ive been using only ONE ribbon mic for everything. I place it where i want someone to be sitting if they were listening to me play.

[@rupellovonmatterhorn4273]

Nice sound, but this clean bass drum is killer! What's that beater? Is fiberskin also on the beater side?

[@terrorbirds9835]

Did you need to account for any phase issues between your parallel signals? Sounds great 👍

[@MantasticHams]

its almost always a consideration with drums unless you track each drum totally isolated. if the tracks are effected differently it might not be too noticable, and sometimes it can even do something nice, but it will always have an effect on the transients, either exaggerating or muffling them. But usually muffling, in my limited experience. And you will get certain frequencies resonating or cancelled out, as usual with phase issues, but that can often be more a matter of taste if you are adding it subtly.

[@music-ti7fu]

Can you do the White Stripes’ Elephant drum sound?????

[@cookingwithashfaqahmad]

lovey muic my dear stay connect👍

[@betojmd]

dave fridmann is an underrated genius

[@TheKirby366]

Just heard Steve Albini talking about the keys in the hi hat trick yesterday

[@morioh6505]

PLEASE DO JOY DIVISION DISORDER INTERZONE WHATEVER

[@matthewcloutier493]

Please do “Shelter Song” by the band Temples! PLEEASE?!!!

[@isfahani]

I used to put my knit hat in my hi hat to dumb it down on gigs where I was stuck in the corner and setting up on concrete floors...

[@kowloonbroadcast]

really great work, guys. i loved everything about your approach here - from the mindset to a dog-shit kind of equipment that’s been used. it’s almost literally carving art from a pile of shit loool, which I enjoy doing myself. it’s often amazing how cohesive and stylish the result may sound in the end. the final sound also reminded me of what Black Keys do with their drum sound production, something out of “Brothers” LP period with a slight difference that BK’s sound of that album often had more elongated kick with massive low-mid freq boost. at that time they also used the same kind of obscure gear to add a similar kind of distorted lo-fi vibe to the whole record. -- as for suggestion for future break downs: it would be cool to see you figuring out some of *Spoon’s* drum productions. In this case my vote would go to *“The Hardest Cut”* , they did a great job on kit there.

[@danielburns4483]

suuuper helpful vid. huge, clear and nasty sound with two mics. will be using!

[@tdrum21]

Dope sounds fo sho

[@andywildrick]

How did yall know to go get that Ashley graphic EQ for this?

[@huldraslaat225]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE could you do the an explanation of the drum sound from System of a Down’s Toxicity

[@levekonline]

would love to see kendrick lamar - wesley’s theory or herbie hancock - actual proof bill withers - lovely day

[@axelb.o.7963]

Any chance you'd recreate the techniques behind drum sounds à la Beastie Boys or JSBX ? Thanks !!!

[@OB-LA]

I kind of like the dirty track, would be cool on the right song

[@theparttimepunk]

Could you try to recreate the drum sound on open water by king gizzard?

[@roflol65]

They actually show a lot of it in a video they made themselves called Peeling the Microtonal Banana

[@theparttimepunk]

@@roflol65 I now and have watched it many times but it would be cool to hear some more expert opinions and explanations of the techniques and mixing.

[@roflol65]

@@theparttimepunk tape saturation and a lot of compression is key here i think

[@kirklandwhatley]

If anyone really likes the snare in this video, I have a live listing on Reverb of this exact model! Cheapest one available too

[@parallellmusic1552]

U gos to do Pink + White by Frank Ocean. Kind of my ideal drum sound. (or Lost)

[@DanielS10291]

Whats that muffling thing on the snare?

[@Floppa-oz1kp]

Lmao I thought that was Yung Gravy in the thumbnail 😂😂

[@rocksully]

Id love to find out how this drum sound was originally created

[@cobb_thedrummer]

She’s a black belt in karate

[@thebeerheart]

Love Dave Fridmann

[@NTD2827]

Do the drum sound for "dead cowboy" by Lightning Bolt

[@1BigBucks1]

🔑🔥

[@ltandrepants]

the e.q.-ed kick has a slight delay

[@AL_KING777]

With all due respect he’s hitting the drums twice as hard, inevitably going to change some dynamics. Old maple, oversized drums will also change some dynamic

[@orlandofdz]

Try The Strokes - Hard To Explain Interesting Sound!

[@DanielS10291]

My guess, gated bottom snare mic???

[@nunopedrosantos8790]

You picked the wrong song!! Please do Race for the Prize instead! One of the most bombastic drum sounds ever recorded! Ultimate proof that Fridmann and Drozd are Gods!!

[@martenthielges1179]

oh how I wished all the drummer that came to the studio weren't cymbal bashers

[@adamhenaghan4417]

anything from Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest

[@ltandrepants]

i see she left her keys clipped to her waist! i did that a on a few recordings and left it in on some!

[@UncleBillyBob732]

My girl can thump.

[@joermnyc]

How about some Modest Mouse in memory of Jeremiah Green? RIP

[@bert9717]

Very simple microphone set up with 2 mics that cost over $5,000.

[@thomasdevlin3846]

only 18 "right" 's in this one

[@rogerl6220]

Cool but wouldn’t it be more helpful to the average Reverb customer to show how to approximate the sound using more shall we say affordable equipment? 5 grand for the mics alone