Recording drums is now an opportunity available to anyone. Thanks to the abundance of free information and the reduction of entry costs for computers, microphones and audio devices, it’s almost inevitable to sooner or later end up experimenting with this dimension of making music with our instrument.
It’s no longer about being able to afford it, but instead knowing how to do it.
I belong to a generation that was fortunate enough to learn invaluable lessons through direct experience in the field.
Unfortunately that is almost entirely missing today. We all play at home, by ourselves or at the most in front of a camera: rehearsals, concerts and records, once part of a musician’s everyday life, are now the exception.
What’s missing the most is actually working in a recording studio with producers, songwriters and sound engineers.
Years ago, to help fill this gap, bring awareness among drummers and provide an opportunity to gain hands-on experience, I created a drum clinic, called ‘In-Session – The Drummer in the Recording Studio’.
A touring, mini recording studio, which purpose was to allow drummers to have a go at the studio session experience.
The results were so mind-blowing, and the students were so inspired and motivated, that I decided to organize the materials and methods used in the clinic into a focused program that everyone can reproduce at home.
The result is this course, which is aimed at drummers who are eager to learn and want to understand the mechanics of working in the recording studio, so that they can then utilize the internalized tools to freely create and express themselves.
In a word, become studio session masters.
The program is structured in three phases:
– Awareness: The first part of the method is dedicated to discovering how a recording studio works, how records are made, what happens during a session, how to work with a producer, and a whole series of additional fundamental skills: how to create a drum part, how to handle the pressure of a performance, how to set up professional headphone or monitor mixes, and so on.
– Experience: Then it’s time for the more hands-on chapters, containing studio drumming technical exercises that deal with how to generate a great performance (sound, accuracy, groove).
The essence of the method, however, is the section focused on recording scenarios, which covers the four contexts in which session drummers work, with actual studio session simulations: click only productions, sessions that use loops and samples, sessions with preproduction demo tracks and also live in the studio productions, all as if working with a real producer.
– Growth: To wrap it up, the third part of the method covers tools to optimize growth: how to use editing without compromising the truth of our performance and our musical personality, how to set up our own Home Studio, how to choose drums and cymbals, how to use a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), how to work with takes, and how to process sounds and mix like a good sound engineer.
In total it’s 180 pages of materials, and more than 2 hours of video content, in which you are going to find all the solutions you need to become an outstanding session drummer, who can effortlessly handle every aspect of working in a studio.
All video demonstrations included in the method are available in two versions: the recording of the performance of each exercise and then the screen recording inside Pro Tools. The reason is that visual feedback is an additional powerful tool to improve accuracy and timing (as explained in a dedicated chapter).
In this free excerpt we are going to focus on exercises from the Production Simulator section, where we dive into actual studio session simulations, working with a producer who gives us tracks to record, charts, comments and directions to follow.
Since one of the most common scenarios in the studio today is to record using preproductions that include electronic loops and samples, we are going to study four variations on this theme, to simulate four hypothetical requests of the producer.
Practicing the exercises included in this booklet will instantly boost your studio drumming skills.
You can download it here:
The Production Simulator chapter, the practice chart, the audio files, as well as the table of contents of the method, are included in this 13 page PDF.
Each example is linked to its video demo, which you can access by clicking on the links or the transcription. If you want to check out the whole 6 minute video demo on YouTube, click HERE.
To find out more and to buy the method you can visit the dedicated page here:
‘In Session – How To Sound Great On Records‘
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