Starry Nights afternoon…

Before our gig tonight at Orleans, I got together with Jeff and Dagmar to lay down drum tracks for the Starry Nights demo. They had tracked 4 tunes, but no drums, so I overdubbed my drums onto their existing tracks. Normally, putting drums last on a jazz record shouldn’t work, but it went OK. The tunes themselves were quite short and succint, as the demo is purely for the purposes of showcasing the band to book gigs, as opposed to a true “jazz” record, with longer solos and improvisation.

The session was quick, about an hour of tracking, and we got a decent sound with only two mics in their home studio. Here’s some pictures:

Jeff Simard, guitar and recording engineer, having a conversation with my hihats.

Recording kit, from the front.

…from the back.

Here’s the setup I used:

RIDEAU drums:

14×20 bass drum with an Aquarian American Vintage front head and a REMO Encore Coated Ambassador with a felt strip vertically from 1 o’clock to 5 o’clock, no muffling inside.

14×14 floor tom with an Evans Coated g2 on the batter and a REMO Coated Diplomat on the resonant side, no muffling

Pearl Sensitone Elite Aluminum 5×14 snare, REMO Coated Ambassador batter and Clear Ambassador snare-side

PAISTE cymbals:

14″ hihats: Traditionals extra-thin crash (top), Signature Full Crash (bottom)

18″ Sound Formula Full Crash or 18″ Traditionals extra-thin crash (with duct tape)

Regal Tip brushes, Zildjian Arnold Reidhammer sticks

DW & Gibraltar flat-based hardware and a Pearl Eliminator throne