Good 80s drum recording

New Order got some great drum sounds. So did Los lobos.

s'm bitch. i stand corrected.

Stewart Copeland is probably my favorite 80s drummer with a signature sound--and he was into pretty high tunings. Omar Hakim also tended to rock a piccolo snare, did he not?

Ditto Bill Berry on Chronic Town.

Also Peter Gabriel's third self-titled (melt), where he and Phil Collins came up with the gated sound that would eventually overrun the decade. I seem to recall that Phil was steamed by that album's "no cymbals" mandate.

And come to think, "In The Air Tonight" sounded pretty mindscrambling when it came out. Talk about great WTF? - the track is practically nothing BUT percussion and ambient noises. Though again, it now has a lot to answer for.

I also recall a lot of love being poured out around here for Mutt Lange's Ultimate 80s drum sounds as found on e.g. Pyromania and Hysteria.

Why do Scandos rule so hard?

Hugo Burnham also sounded great, before expensive production values turned him into a synthesized handclap.

Chris Mars got a good sound of his kit, SST poor budget values notwithstanding.

Those are all drum machines.

http://www.geocities.com/bludegeon/rick41.jpg

I think Hugh Padgham get's the credit on the Gabriel album. As for Collins creating the gated sound you've really got to thank PIL's Flowers of Romance for that.

Oops, maybe not. I remember reading this which mentions using a Linn drum but only as a timekeeper during tracking. Then it mentions the Fairlight but it's not clear if they were sequencing sampled drums or cutting up recordings of live drums or what. Anyway, it's an interesting read...

http://gearslutz.com/board/showpost.php3?p=165056&postcount=4

This is totally OTM, and shame on me for ignoring Padgham (who would continue with Phil Collins) and of course Steve Lillywhite.

*pounds heel of palm on forehead*

Here's a fairly credible (if Collins-centric) version of the story, from: http://www.effingham.com/bishop/PhilCollinsInterview.htm

"Intruder" Peter Gabriel: Peter Gabriel III (recorded 1980)

The birth of the Phil Collins "face hugger" (as he called it) drum sound--here's where it happened. We've all heard it by now: that heavily gated, up-front drum sound that dominated the music and eventually the airwaves (on other Collins tunes) around the world. But "Intruder," the opening track on Peter Gabriel III, was the beginning.

"It's funny," Phil responds after hearing the tune, "I remember that sound as being further 'out,' more extreme and almost too hot in the mix. I guess we've all become used to it now."

How did it come about? "This was during a time when Peter couldn't afford to keep a band on full-time," Phil explains, "so I offered my services. I had been on the road with Brand X and had just gone through my first divorce. I was free--have drums will travel!

"So I arrived at the studio and the first thing Peter says is that he doesn't want me to use any cymbals," Phil laughs at the memory. "I said, 'I agree with you in principle, but couldn't I just use a hi-hat?' He said no metal on this album. So I didn't use any cymbals."

The recording sessions for "Intruder" ended up being an important event for Phil. It's where he met his longtime engineer/producer, Hugh Padgham. Hugh and Phil have had an amazing amount of success together ever since. "Hugh was just engineering on that, actually," Phil says. "Steve Lillywhite was producing. They set me up in the Townhouse's [London recording studio] stone room, and I played a bit while they fooled around with miking combinations, compressors, noise gates. All of a sudden, I heard this sound...."

That sound--that heavily gated, open-and-closed effect--inspired the drummer. He started playing a pattern that timed perfectly with the opening and closing of the gated reverb. "I just started fooling around with this beat, and the next thing I know Peter is shouting over the intercom, 'Don't stop! Give me that for ten minutes--just that!' So I played the beat, and then afterwards I asked him what he was going to do with it. What did he say? 'I don't know yet!"

The pattern for the song, while being very simple, has a great feel that works perfectly with the sound of the drums--a great performance to be sure. "It's very simple," Phil states, "I just doubled the bass drum part with a couple of toms. The challenging part was playing it for ten minutes without wavering."

My feelings about "In the Air Tonight" are complicated--it was interesting the first 6,000 times, and would probably still make me happy if I could hear it again with fresh ears.

Oh fuck! Nick Launay's production on that PiL album is fantastic! The drums sound wonderful.

The drums (and drum machines) sound great on early OMD recordings, and Breathless' first two albums have an excellent drum sound (and John Fryer actually pulled a Hannett and synched them in time with a drum machine, too).

Peter Gabriel 3
Psychedelic Furs, Talk Talk Talk
The Crossing, Steeltown
Boy, October, War, Under A Blood Red Sky

etc etc etc

Ditto on Jackson's own Texas (Laswell, 1988).

The late Bobby Chouinard. Still sampled regularly.

This opens up a potentially fascinating can of worms via Don't Say No producer (Reinhart) Mack, Giorgio Moroder collaborator and producer of The Game and Hot Space. Also worked with Sabbath, Sparks, etc etc etc.

Steve Lillywhite has produced not only some of my favorite rekkids Of All Time (e.g. the aforementioned Furs plus If I Should Fall From Grace) but also a lot of, er, bad and, um, hated material...