The Number One Nashville Tom Secret

In this video I show a great tom trick that I've learned from some of the best engineers, mixers, and programmers in Nashville.

[@asawiggins]

This is GOLD. Had to learn this the hard way!! Also, that a lot of the tom bigness and perceived sustain comes from the kit mics and verbs. Awesome video.

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks for watching Asa!

[@cominhomewithjohnalan9103]

Another great video Doctor Bob! Useful info with a hilarious touch. Keep on brother!

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks John Alan!!

[@whychromosomesmusic5766]

I've been primarily a guitarist for years and did play keyboards some in the past. But just this week I got a brand new Yamaha keyboard and it has drum effects! So I can go back and watch all the drum videos now and they will mean something to me. What a great Christmas present! Merry Christmas.

[@BobbyHuff]

Awesome man! Go for it and thx for watching.

[@sundogaudio851]

This is great! Thanks for all you do!

[@BobbyHuff]

I appreciate that Sundog!

[@DavidDiMuzio]

Great tip! Thanks! Some of my favorite tom sounds ever are the Elton John albums like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Madman, and Captain Fantastic. Especially Captain Fantastic.

[@jimflys2]

See, in the old days, they just took off the bottom heads and taped up the batter's. Now we have even better drums that we don't even need because it can be digitally made to sound like what we did years ago analog.

[@BobbyHuff]

So funny you should mention Goodby Yellow Brick Road... Last week I listened to that drum track solo'd up and it may be the greatest groove ever recorded. I love Nigels playing and this song is in my top 3 songs EVER but I never really paid super close attention to the drum part. .. Its Steve Gadd, Jeff Porcaro level and it literally brought me to tears.

[@dmark2639]

None of those drums were hacked up in pro tools like these. This approach will NEVER sound as good as a properly tuned and acoustically recorded drum.

[@BobbyHuff]

@@dmark2639 I respect your method!

[@jettjaguar8150]

nice work , thank you , great tip

[@Tyl-Fiedler]

Haha dude your Humor is so funny I laughed the crap out with your statement at the end =D and also a good quality of information thank you ! I subscribed so your wife , ex wife, girlfriend are happy :D

[@ultratone]

I do this already, but you did it much more severely and it still sounds good. Great to see.

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks for watching Ultratone!!!

[@AllenPendleton]

Good to see the old 421's in use. They used to always be my go to toms mics for years. Still have 4 of them but don't get to use them in live settings much anymore because they are so big and a lot of younger more in experienced drummers are not gonna have room for them with all 9,000 of their cymbals in the way.

[@BobbyHuff]

Hahahaha 9000 cymbals. Look up Terry Bozzios drum set.

[@rikodesinko]

Really? Every producer/engineer I know uses them still.

[@horowizard]

If you record children, stuff breaks.

[@3dogsnight]

Hey Bobby...thanks for sharing your knowledge and tricks. Love your channel. Any chance you have plans to do a video about any bass drum tricks you have up your sleeve. I'm talking....in your chest low end thump....like Nickelback. Keep up your videos coming. They are awesome.

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks for your kindness Chris. Yes kick drum videos and samples coming up...

[@keithrowe1007]

Most excellent. I find de-essers also have a mid of their own. I automate EQ dips everywhere there’s an S or T. Takes longer (thought copy and paste speeds it up) but the results are worth it.

[@collinjamesguitar]

For real though. They never do everything I want them to. They always do 90% and 10% of it isn’t what I thought I was putting in 😂

[@MrTalisman80]

This was one of my first jobs as an intern. The producer would track the drums and then when they took a *quick* break I'd be tasked with "cleaning up" the drums. You really learn how to fly on Pro Tools when you only have a quick smoke break to edit an entire take. As a drummer myself it used to make me cringe but I could definitely hear the benefit in the mix. Good stuff Dr. Bob!

[@BobbyHuff]

Wow that is a funny story. There are definitely advantages to clean mixes when all the transients are hitting at the same time. Thanks for sharing that story Mr. B.

[@pierheadjump]

Thanks Dr. Huff. ⚓️

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks for watching Keith!

[@My2Drumsticks]

You really need to do a video on Steward Copeland recording techniques back in the day

[@briancase6180]

Whew! Thanks. I've been doing this a lot lately, but I wasn't sure it was the right thing. I didn't think about adding back ambiance because I only way shortened the tail most of the time by automating a trim (or more often by chopping off 90% of the sound). Eq-ing and adding a tiny bit of verb will be an improvement in many cases.

[@BobbyHuff]

Nice Brian we think alike!!

[@horowizard]

I'm not sure why you need to bounce it. Do the edits, fades and plug-ins take up CPU?

[@danieldalton8224]

Thanks

[@toddscotdrumcovers2341]

Awesome

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks Todd!

[@BigBoysStudios]

Great advice. I'm loving your channel. I'm not sure you mentioned, but the way you hit the toms also made a big difference ... in other words you didn't whallop them ... you played them sweetly. Too many drummers think that big drum sounds come from player super-hard.

[@BobbyHuff]

Very good point Steve!! Yes it’s easy to choke drums out by hitting them too hard! I totally agree. Watch my chasing 70s Tone video it definitely deals with that issue. Good points my friend!

[@BigBoysStudios]

@@BobbyHuff Yes fella. I've seen that one since. It's also a great video. Like I said. I'm loving your channel. It's great information, communicated very very clearly, and very entertaining. Magic!

[@BobbyHuff]

@@BigBoysStudios thanks Steve I sooooo appreciate it!! Seriously!

[@BigBoysStudios]

@@BobbyHuff Respect where it's due :-)

[@cary3428]

Someone who knows

[@TimMilliken]

What overheads are you using?

[@matthewjones8510]

Hey!...you’re doing a good job

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks Matthew!!!

[@adammurdock4319]

Good video as usual! Could you use strip silence and use a batch fade to do this? Also gates do act with a mind of their own. Ive had to automate gate settings to make them work in songs since I was supposed to, “keep the ambience”. But this sounds cooler and is more similar to the sound in my head.

[@BobbyHuff]

Hey Adam. Strip silence and batch fade would prob work... you would just wanna hit the sweet spot on those fades. I faded to quickly on my first try on the video so it takes a bit of finesse but not that bad. Thanks for watching man.

[@adammurdock4319]

@@BobbyHuff you’re welcome. Not a bad video yet. Are you still taking video suggestions?

[@BobbyHuff]

@@adammurdock4319 thanks and yea!

[@adammurdock4319]

@@BobbyHuff since you’re a drummer do you think you could do a video on playing along with percussion loops, programming electronic percussion loops to fit with a band, or maybe tips in the mixing stage to let them fit together? Just would be interested in using loops well in production as a topic. Just listing a few more specific aspects of the topic.

[@BobbyHuff]

@@adammurdock4319 yes great topic. Give me a minute but good one! You and everyone are ALWAYS welcome to hit me with topics. It’s OUR channel and OUR music.

[@anthonydicarlo9554]

Great Bobby, thank you for another informational video about editing and mixing drums.

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks Anthony. Nice seeing you out there on Ricks site too. I appreciate your support!

[@666dreamboat]

If you do this with gates use a band pass quite high up on the detector, works more consistently than a traditional gate.

[@BobbyHuff]

Great call Sean!

[@alexisjezreel]

I do a band pass pretty low on the detector, I will try that approach to see if it improves my toms.

[@BobbyHuff]

@@alexisjezreel Do it and see if you dig!!

[@GreenDayIsOver9000]

Thall

[@aaronrochotte6342]

Maple gum toms? They sound killer!

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks they are like the 80s Gretsch

[@johnnyt5514]

There is a cool trick to do this in Cubase: Use Hitpoint Detection, generate a MIDI Track from it and use the MIDI Gate Plugin from Cubase as Insert on the Tom Track. Full control, MIDI for additional Triggers and much faster than cutting all out manually.

[@BobbyHuff]

Love that!! Cubase hit point detection rocks!!

[@billyhughes9776]

I'm lazy and generally use a gate,..ha, but, I have done it similar to this in the past. Edit and then bouncing to a stereo track to lessen CPU usage I assume?

[@BobbyHuff]

Yes if I have a lot of plug-ins on the Tom and I know that it sounds great I will bounce it

[@EdwardSavin]

Awesome video. DM'ed you something on facebook. Thanks again for your videos!

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks for watching!

[@BobbyHuff]

Didn’t see anything. What’s ur name on FB?

[@EdwardSavin]

@@BobbyHuff Edward Savin. Maybe it's on the message requests?

[@BobbyHuff]

@@EdwardSavin Sorry man. Ha! I can’t find it. Prob my fault! Ha

[@kaislivesoundchannel4706]

I don‘t like gates as well....but there is always the SPL Transient Designer to help with this.

[@BobbyHuff]

aGREED kAI

[@kaislivesoundchannel4706]

@@BobbyHuff hehe are you trying to say I shouldn‘t use capital letters like this ? I‘m sorry , it is a second language.😎

[@BobbyHuff]

@@kaislivesoundchannel4706 no no!! Haha. I had my caps lock on by mistake!! Hahaha. My bad!

[@musicproductioncentral4540]

Tune the tom next time.

[@bonescheffel7795]

Why not just tune the drum?

[@timallison8560]

nashville. hahahahahaahaaahaaahaaahaa

[@BobbyHuff]

Is Nashville that funny??? I need to get out more!! Hahaha

[@thechazdarby]

god I hope everybody doesn't start squashing the hell out of the drums. Tuning is key.

[@BobbyHuff]

Tuning is very important but as mixer and drummer I find it goes much deeper than tuning and dampening when 5 to 10 other instruments are competing for you tom low end. Perhaps tuning alone works for you Charles and if so that's great man! Thanks for watching!

[@thechazdarby]

I didn't say tuning alone works. I think you took my comment differently than I had intended. I agree about clamping down on unwanted overtones.

[@BobbyHuff]

@@thechazdarby My bad Charles! Thanks and sorry for the mix up...Still on coffee number 1. hahaha

[@thechazdarby]

@@BobbyHuff Love your videos!

[@BobbyHuff]

@@thechazdarby I appreciate it Charles!

[@ryanfreese2031]

Want less rumble from the drum ,tighten up the drum heads tighter than! Specially the bottom resonance head.

[@WhyTheHorseface]

Nope

[@jimflys2]

No, take off bottom heads. Welcome 1975 back. Reverb it and sell the DWs for an old Slingerland.

[@simonsmith2642]

Do you also record guitars 1 string at a time so you don’t have string bleed? Lol.... Good luck with that12 string acoustic and piano mandolin xylophone track! Hahahah

[@jobelewis6416]

Tuning the tom for the track would be even better, without comparison. This trick would kill the vibe on a slow track

[@BobbyHuff]

Hey Jobe....disagree it is GREAT for ballads. Dont like the sound of these toms? I thought they were pretty dope. Thanks for watching.

[@samchoate1719]

Bobby Huff I think they sound great, but I know some people will spend a very long time tuning the drums to the key of the song. I think it’s unnecessary personally

[@BobbyHuff]

@@samchoate1719 I have a video about tuning the snare to the root note of the key and I think that is a very good idea. I normally tune toms to the best resonance of their shell. Starting with the floor tom and then a fourth interval up on the mid Tom and then a major third up from that in the high tom. Hope that helps! Here is the snare video kzbin.info/www/bejne/sHyzkKmoirufha8

[@samchoate1719]

Bobby Huff thanks for the info! I’ll check it out

[@jobelewis6416]

@@samchoate1719 Does it seem unnecessary after hearing the frequency beating exhibited in this video? Every project is different but if I had a really important band to produce I’d personally take the extra step

[@willsnyder8735]

My wife, my ex wife & my girlfriend hahahahaha

[@BobbyHuff]

HAHAHAHA!!!!

[@wateroperators2173]

and just like that - you suck the life right of the track. Hooray for digital manipulation!

[@dmark2639]

I hate this approach. Save yourself a whole lot of editing time and learn how to tune and acoustically damp drums to record them properly in the first place. Drums are musical instruments that deserve to be treated just as carefully and as respectfully as any other.

[@BobbyHuff]

If we both get the same result in the mix we both win with our own techniques right??

[@dmark2639]

@@BobbyHuff No. The results are not the same. This approach to recording and editing drums is akin to auto-tuning a singer like Luciano Pavarotti and calling the results "the same". Drums deserve just as much respect for quality and naturalness in the recording process as the finest Gretsch or Martin guitar or your favorite singer with the perfect tube microphone. Shortcuts and corner-cutting might be "good enough" for some people who can't hear the difference, but trust me, there are plenty of people who can hear and appreciate a higher recording standard. Use your time to improve your acoustic techniques and capture a great sound naturally instead of relying on trying to "fix it" with digital tricks later in pro tools. You'll end up with much better results, and I'll bet you'll gain more respect and customers for your expert knowledge.

[@shadowself8901]

@@dmark2639 You know who can hear the difference? SOME engineers and SOME drummers -- as in, almost no one. 99.999% of listeners aren't distracted by such minutiae.

[@dmark2639]

@@shadowself8901 Great reason for not improving your craft, good for you. Believe me there are plenty of people that can hear the difference, especially when they hear an A/B comparison on a high fidelity system.

[@charlesdivers4592]

Please forget about the "comedy" bits in your videos. They're not funny. They just distract. The guy throwing up in the toilet? Useless.

[@BobbyHuff]

Hahaha! Sorry man. Part of my thing. I appreciate you watching!