The Tame Impala Drum Sound: How to Mic, Mix, & Select Drums | Reverb

[@eduardomedrano4702]

2:09 "We've put a pillow and a tshirt for additional muffling" Okay I get the pillow.......but what type of tshirt? 100% cotton? what color should I buy? so many questions unanswered. A muffling so specific only a tshirt can give you, I've always said Kevin's drums sound kinda tshirty.

[@mitchellwilliams4955]

A 1985 led zeppelin tour shirt in neon gray, flying Eagle designation. If you think they broke up before that, your not ready.

[@schottmusic9]

I'm still testing this out but it's definitely not a blue one, it sounded terrible. If you find the right one please send me a response ty

[@joshiewashe9486]

Eduardo Medrano tie dye of course

[@phasergim2154]

Joe Montaro just like ringo

[@christopherfarish4965]

I can’t take these videos seriously when they don’t answer these important questions. Obviously cotton is darker than polyester! Is it a blend? We audiophiles need to know

[@jake_dumb]

holy cow she even got the tom rim shot on mind mischief lol spot frigging on. 👏🏻

[@parker9907]

jacob orion spencer that blew my mind

[@jungleb]

Do you know where I'm the video so does it? Really want to see. That might be awesome

[@ImASDFx2]

Pedro Zinn Hensel Nunes 8:42

[@ArchieBC]

Jessica knows her shit! Plus she straight up slams that kit without pity. That’s how it’s done!

[@chasekrank]

yeah but she didnt do it right

[@blashuvec]

he actually compresses the side snare mic a lot and the overhead a lil bit already before the drum bus compression but you guys nailed the flavor. tastyyyy.

[@chruseruserable]

source?

[@blashuvec]

@@chruseruserable tame impala interviews and listening lol

[@leeonardodienfield402]

great musician

[@CodyJacobCamacho]

blashuvec so the mics get compressed both on the track and on the drum bus? Compressed twice? Thanks.

[@blashuvec]

@@CodyJacobCamacho the first compression I think is to get the tone first. like if he wants the snare to sound distorted etc. the drum bus is for glueing it all together and for making it pump I guess. doesn't have to be the same steps over and over though. no one knows what kev is really doing but that's like the "known" starting points he probably does.

[@aidenmarshall6478]

I was messing around playing drums through my daw the other day and just experimenting with different ideas. Gated reverb, different compressors from usual, distortion, gates, and just stuff like that when i had a “this will be funny” moment. I was currently using a vintage drum compressor from logic for some light to moderate compression. I then tried taking the ratio up to 30:1 and bring the threshold back a bit. Suddenly i stopped in my tracks. And i heard the voice of Kevin Parker saying “I am proud of you my son. I am proud.” It truly was the tame impala sound.

[@Mr.MagnumDong]

Can you please do a how to get a khruangbin drum sound!

[@mhillier97]

This^

[@CodyJacobCamacho]

I watched an interview where the drummer from Khruangbin said the vibe of their band is playing quietly and bringing the level of each track up.

[@Mr.MagnumDong]

@@CodyJacobCamacho what I really want to know (through mic placing and mixing I guess?) Is how they make the kick sound so soft yet strong enough to give it a pump and how it sounds so upfront in their tracks. Also the sound of their massive, buttery floor tomb and crispy, thin snare!

[@paaao]

Jaime Diaz, side chain compression is how they do it.

[@Mr.MagnumDong]

@@paaao I don't think that's the actual factor, sidechain compression has that pump sound even at low levels. I think it has to do more with the eq, volume levels and maybe the use of certain hardware gear that gives those kicks its charm.

[@zachcunningham7607]

Kev uses the overhead to bring out a lot of the high end when mixing. He also compresses his stuff with a slow attack and fast release to get a nice drum pumping effect. Saturation is usually added from the level loc / DBX 165 combo, and Dave Fridmann probably bounces to tape during mixing.

[@wesleygeofferson5171]

dave mixed the first two records, kevin does mixing and mastering himself.

[@bridog6996]

​@@wesleygeofferson5171 All Tame Impala albums have been mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound

[@evanposteraro5094]

This was a treat reverb. This was the sweetest treat you’ve ever offered viewers. My heart, my whole heart right now....

[@sumyupee]

Short answer: Shure Level-Loc

[@justinbrown8214]

lol right?

[@tidusandjecht10]

Shorter: sound toys devil-Loc

[@RJ1J]

I noticed the most common plugin used on Mixing Master talks/demos, was Devil Loc Deluxe (and FF ofc). Finally got in a big reduction sale recently after over a year of waiting.

[@tidusandjecht10]

@@RJ1J dev lock is great. What’s “FF”?

[@sumyupee]

@@tidusandjecht10 yeah I have that plug in and do use it but you have to set your input really low and/or blend the wet mix or run it parallel without out it completely destroying and washing out the transients of your drums. The real one is much more open sounding, more ultra high definition, depth, punchier low mid warmth. If you're careful though it can work. I also prefer running a fairchild compressor type of plugin on a drum bus, occasionally on individual drums, or in conjunction with the devil loc, it tends to add back some of that punch.

[@JessyTeddles]

the actual exact kit he used is in my friends studio about 2 mins from here. he re-recorded a whole bunch of those drums from the first 2 albums there also.

[@otsop]

No phaser on overhead microphone? :(

[@charliereadclarke5277]

EP vibe

[@chaz7557]

Otso Pänttönen it’s a flanger i think

[@carsonyuh]

XaZ p it is

[@jakekremer218]

@@chaz7557 only on a few songs. i think patience

[@Rexis95]

@@jakekremer218 well, the Currents and the new singles drums' are a little quite different than the "rock" albums of Tame

[@finnoates4490]

" So kevin uses towels and tape but here we've used $50 of dedicated muffling"

[@AFTERDARK7776]

Thats crazy!😂 Fr

[@carsonyuh]

If you’re using a vintage Ludwig set I’m sure you can shell out some extra money for muffling, beside the point they’re using moongels and a big fat snare donut, which is like $30

[@edwarddelavilla3475]

@@carsonyuh and more importantly... its the wrong thing to use to get the tame snare sound...

[@carsonyuh]

@@edwarddelavilla3475 agreed Kevin uses a 6.5 supraphonic

[@rmdomings]

SERIOUS PROPS to Jess on the rack tom "mistake" in backwards.

[@dude5skater]

So since this is the earlier drum sounds of Tame Impala, can you also talk about some of his most recent drum sounds. There are some drum sounds that start to sound different compared to his earlier stuff(list of people to forget about) and his blending of regular drums and drum machines(eventually, beverly laurel). Thank you very much for reading if you happen to see this!

[@nicksimms3771]

Pretty similar, but I’d love to see you cover how to get Todd Rundgren’s drum sound on Zen Archer

[@ardobkin]

This was awesome. Great to see the process from micing to mixing. Would be great to see more of this style for any instrument from any great band!

[@njachiu]

how have i never heard of her? she's an amazing drummer!

[@kingalex29339]

Ugh the absolute bloody genius of Kevin Parker

[@Akshobhoyo]

Close, but there's subtleties being missed. Snare/Tom's are a touch too low, most people confuse the muffling technique used with low tuning. You can really hear that it's not low tuning in "Alter Ego". Secondly, the compression isn't nearly enough. Kevin typically used two compressors for everything. As result you don't get that "crunch" sound from the high hats, the highs are still too present and too wide. It's a lovely drum sound you have there, but it's not quite there. Mics and techniques are spot on, though it's worth noting Kevin does sometimes point the SM58 at the snareside head. Finally, when you record with four mics only, HOW the drums are played is most important. The players dynamics aren't as adjustable when compared to a full microphone set up, and it shows here. The player is beating the hell out of the kit and missing the lightness of touch Kevin uses, which means when it comes to compressing, the headroom for boosting the volume isn't there.

[@Shankopottomus]

Honestly, I feel like using a tube preamp before or using a tape emulator after in the chain would get you 99% there with what they have in this video.

[@gardensforever]

hell yeah

[@kadendaniels934]

I agree I feel like with many of these videos they just tune everything so low to emulate compression and damping you can see the damn ripples in the heads

[@tannerjmatheson]

This was helpful thanks 👍

[@GUiTERtUbE]

I NEED MORE OF THIS !! next with King Gizzard or other instru production remain pleaseeee

[@User15275-g]

Take a shot every time they say vintage

[@alecalfaras5936]

Harry Kaden hahahaha so true cringe cringe

[@ArchieBC]

I came for the recording and mixing insight. I stayed for Jessica!

[@MrCornelius234]

Great video, learned a lot from it. Lately, I've been trying to achieve the drum sound that Nate Smith has on the newest Fearless Flyers EP. If you do another one of these, maybe you can consider covering that.

[@Behine.DeChilis]

No kidding. I would definitely love to see that.

[@graham.broome]

me legendary drumming+drum mixing on that album

[@Velvetbag]

check out the “banana crusher” compressors. it’s a modified shure se30 that friddman’s tech made into compressors and that’s the stereo pair over the drum buss definitely on innerspeaker, you can hear the steering across the stereo field with it / distortion as well from those boxes

[@iamnotbabyblue]

FINALLY IVE BEEN WAITING SO LONG FOR THIS.

[@davideats9255]

That was actually pretty accurate. This is a good series.

[@cornerliston]

Keep wondering how the snare would sound with pure hits instead of rimshots. Great drumming and nice to see these tips you do, even if you're not nailing it perfect you come pretty close : )

[@PolaBurrr]

please cover al greens drum sound

[@DylanBrady1]

truuu

[@nowavecharles]

Hell yes. The production on his 70s stuff is so warm and gritty

[@klokmedia]

This is brilliant, really thoughtful way to replicate his sound

[@100timezcooler]

theres a vid somewhere out there with fridmann also running through how me mixed the drums

[@DavidAlexanderMusic]

Any lead on finding that video? I"d be very interested in seeing it.

[@jamesp9069]

Thanks for making this, very interesting see your take on the sound, some sick playing too! Is there any chance you guys could release a sample pack of the dry drum sounds? I only have an electronic kit that I use to trigger drum samples, but would be great to be able to mix the dry sound myself using the techniques you've mentioned. Thanks :)

[@iamnotbabyblue]

Kev also said used overdrive on the drums for Lonerism and earlier.

[@bondyunit101]

it sounds similar but i feel like it's missing something - it would be awesome to do a behind the scenes with Kevin Parker!

[@justindjtapefire9220]

Perhaps the Kublah Kahn

[@jamesrobinson529]

This is extremely dope!!! I don't know if you've already done this, but I think a Black Keys tutorial would be popular.

[@eddypalogrande]

Love the Tame Impala series! Thanks for the insight

[@viniciuscruz796]

do the drum sound of Them Crooked Vultures plssssssssssssssss

[@emiliomontesdeocagonzalez681]

So... Dave Grohl's?

[@maciekomis]

loving that double stroke roll

[@Taylor_King]

I would have thought he'd be hitting the snare more in the centre than rimshots?

[@genuinecellophane]

Taylor King yeah feels like shes playing way louder than he would too

[@Taylor_King]

@@genuinecellophane yeah definitely

[@seth6691]

Yeah she always plays rimshots. It’s stupid. Rick beato also always says “use rimshots for almost everything” but a lot of records and drummers don’t do rimshots

[@myousickoflife]

@@seth6691 Yea I don't think she is very good. Which makes this video somewhat useless. And I love rimshots when I play but I do them on purpose and you can hear it as a louder snare accent which is what its supposed to be. She just has the drum lined up so her sticks hit it by accident.

[@antoniohinojosa8370]

my gosh, brilliant!!!!!!! new drummer here. I am a music major in college that is about to go nuts in quarantine and probably get a kit soon. what is a good move for a solid kit? cmon drummers i'm counting on you lol. cheers!

[@RetroDrew]

Forget the Level loc and get the soft tube Tube Tech CL1B compressor plugin, high threshold, about 8:1 ratio, 0.1 attack time. 0.1 release time, and you've got the exact sound if not really close. Also the CL1B is a versatile compressor that sounds good on everything and is also the go to vocal compressor for Kanye West

[@dingbatjack1234]

DBX165A. Essentially how the entire drum sound is produced. Dont know how you didn't mention this. Good luck finding one though $$$

[@reginaldperiwinkle]

She's a great drummer and this was educational. I actually preferred the sound of the drums with no effects at all at 5:10. It would probably sound great with just a touch of compression.

[@m.o.n.d.e.g.r.e.e.n]

great drumming and i love at 8:50 she catches the rim of the tom like the record. i always wondered if it was parker's mistake that he left in. anyway i always love those weird things in records and was so fun to see it put in here

[@diegooliveirabenjamin]

Precious video! I produce records for a living for a long time and yet I still learned a lot. Thanks

[@greham]

Nice effort but the snare is wrong. It's meant to be meatier, then compressed and EQd to tighten it up. I'd say you need a bigger one. Also, he almost never changes cymbals, not a drum gear geek. Their sounds is extremely steady on the tracks and over the records. And as someone pointed out, the color brought by the DBX 165 is key.

[@justindjtapefire9220]

Perhaps the Kublah Kahn

[@JMLRecording]

Why did it take us so long to get a badass female representative behind music tutorials? She is a great educator. Hope to see more from her! Great video overall too, well done Reverb! Level Loc has long since been used on tons of great drums sounds.

[@zynthio]

The reason there aren't as many females in music tutorials... is because females dont make as many music tutorials as men do... lmao Don't act like it's some kind of sexist thing that's been going on. No one is keeping women from making music tutorials

[@braxtonolita]

could u please do one for currents? that’s the one most of us love the most & want to know more about. thank you

[@NIKONGUY1960]

This band keeps coming up in my Sirius XMU channel. Quite the sound.

[@Miltersen]

Awesome content. Good job Reverb.

[@pwhite102]

I've always been curious about the overall sound of Good Apollo IV. Nothing sounds obscured and everything has it's place in the mix

[@harveyjones8119]

A huge discography and you choose to play Solitude Is Bliss?? Thank you!! :D

[@RJ1J]

Did they make a sample pack from this session?

[@jeremycharbonneau9727]

It’s probably asked for a couple times here, but I’d love to see you do one on flaming lips’ soft bulletin - yoshimi era drums.

[@manymystics]

Super rad video! So helpful to go through every step like this, gonna try it today. Also J is a smoke show

[@nebstaism]

I wish I had that shure level loc... I’ll just settle for the sound toys devil loc ... those drums sound tight by the way 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@FabioPoianMusic]

This is fantastic, thanks for making this!

[@metezehir6233]

Well i wouldnt fully say “the tame impala sound” since i can see so many inspirations to that sound, also imo flaming lips had a big role on devoloping this neo-psych sound, especially on their album “embryonic”. It is clear that Kevin Parker had it as one of his big insp since he did a few covers from that album

[@cyrusjulian187]

I'm also a fan of Flaming Lips but bro, you gotta go back to the OGs the Beatles if you want to be specific. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mXyYeGuchdKKm6M You're welcome

[@TurkAllah]

I dont own these drums but I do plan on sampling them

[@andreisidro6544]

Great video! I think the biggest diference is that it sounds to me that Kevin plays way softer and with no rim shots on the snare. Other than that you guys nailed it!

[@pottingplants_]

awesome sound!! i literally showed my engineer friend this exact vid last time i went to record drums... we did our best to get something similar, but still missing the depth and weight of the kick drum

[@BloppityBloopity]

I thought he used a 160 for drum comps! Where did the insight about radio comp from? pics of the studio or something? very cooooool.....

[@sandervisser790]

Can you guys do a video / some videos about amplifying instruments for live use? For instance: drums for gigs with 1, 2, 3 and 4 mics including tips, how to set up every instrument on stage for good live sound, how to do sound checks as a band without sound engineer?

[@Levibetz]

A little obscure, but Menomena has some fucking crraaaazy compressed drum tones that would be really fun to try to reproduce.

[@DannyGentler]

This video is exactly what I was looking for

[@caputinga]

Thanks for this, was think about this yesterday

[@enmanuelestrada25]

very inspirational both of you, thank you so much

[@FiragoMusic]

Second vid I've seen of her, she's so good

[@biglucidhorse1995]

Great video, great presentation. Thanks so much for this

[@tannerin]

wish i’d seen this when i was 13 and starting to record at home, i just wanted to sound like innerspeaker/lonerism

[@user-pb3ue5cp5b]

The dbx 165a compressor is crucial for the snare sound

[@isaac_hagos]

ABOUT TIME!!!!!

[@sergiocolmenares9482]

This video is GOLD, thanks for the tips

[@cherrybumman541]

he also doesnt use a shure level loc he uses a shure se-30 similar circuitry, but not accurate, and he uses the dbx 165a thats the majority of his compression and then he saturates it with his shure se-30

[@henryhill92]

He specifically mentioned the Level Loc in an interview years ago

[@cherrybumman541]

nah he never personally owned it, dave fridman has it though in his studio, but it was never sepecified if it was used

[@cherrybumman541]

+ you can actually see the shure se30 in his bedroom which is basiclly the same unit as the level loc

[@The21GreenDayGuns]

You almost nailed it perfectly, great stuff! I get kinda turned on by Kev's drums. Is it weird?

[@picure]

Please do a tutorial on Dungen’s drum and organ sound!

[@leeontos]

I don't think he muffles the ton on lonerism, just the floor ton (a little bit)... you can clearly hear the "open resonance tons" on Mind Mischief rolls and NTHSFHBAWCC... You can clearly hear the resonance at tons about 0:22 on Elephant drum rolls

[@opusmagna3346]

This is great and all, but Kevin will have seen, or probably has seen this video and probably will be like: "Even I didn't know this! Lol"

[@Lugburz666]

This drum girl plays great!!

[@SonicSupremeSGT3]

Observations on drum sets: Tama is the King, Pearl is the Queen, Ludwig was the Prince and the Princess of Drumming would be Roland. (Laughs.) But yeah, the Tame Impala Drum Sound really inspired the whole Roc-A-Fella Sound back in the times when Just Blaze did "Show Me What You Got" and when former Dipset member, J.R. Writer [who now goes by Zeus] had a few breaks coming from the influential Tame Impala drum breaks. On the real, though- the way y'all EQ'ed and Compressed these drums made the Tame Impala Sound life-like and monstrous.

[@yuufeternal5837]

I love the beat for Elephant....sounds so tricky.

[@jao9850]

You guys are amazing, how to get the 70s funk disco sound on the drums ( the stanley jordan sound )

[@TEFIVintageLab]

6:27 is there a Farfisa FAST3 combo organ there? :O

[@SarekGMusic]

Spot on!

[@adamjames6010]

Great stuff! I’d love to see you do Darren King’s drum sound from You Are Mine by MuteMath. Or any song off that record for that matter 😁

[@Fig5000]

Nicely explained-thanks!

[@devssaluja2865]

Never seen something like this. Amazing you are 👏🏻👏🏻

[@NowyouknowMusic]

I wonder what it will take for Dave Fridmann to just show his mixing techniques for Impala's first two albums.

[@noahdinsdale257]

How to get the tame impala drum sound: PHAZE SHIFTER ON EVERYTHING

[@kwichangcaine27]

Could you the Knack drum sound ? Thankyou

[@zayisweird78]

It’s very rare for me to see a female drummer, we need more of them

[@MacetazzOpina]

Do you guys think this applies with the first melodys echo chamber album? I think the drums are kind of more stereo, theres even a song where you cam hear the stereo open

[@tfmii6704]

Did they make a kit for this???

[@latrellemusic3062]

Great video! Could you all give a shot at Chris Bear’s drum sound? That’d be stellar

[@jonathanwingmusic]

pretty sure also the DBX 160 or 165 is a big part of his drum sound.

[@pedestrian_0]

Yes that bounce sound is 👌

[@cankucuk17]

thanks for the video, real nice! But I think the tdr limiter's clipper would make a better emulation of that final character. I know it does

[@Salantsoundstudios]

Nice vid, thanks guys!

[@levistine6733]

I needed this today

[@mvrkxv]

Thank you very much for this video! 🔥

[@alexbreyer6921]

Hey Reverb, take this up a notch and just cover how Tchad Blake gets drums to sound on so many wonderful albums he's recorded. Level Loc, Sans Amp, PVC tubes

[@SoundSignals]

Cool vid! Unknown Mortal Orchestra drums would be good.

[@simonepippi5353]

Love it!