REQ: Drumdrops - 60'S Motown Kit
To recreate the 60s Motown drum sound is almost impossible. Kits varied from session to session as did the drummers, drum heads and the equipment but Producer / drummer Timmy Rickard studied the sound and we think we nailed it. Recorded in a large live room at Livingston 1 studio in London, the room was mic’d up as if there was a full Motown band in the room – brass section, vocal mic and then two mics on the kit – a kick, and a kit mic placed above the bass drum, between the rack toms and below the ride. Mix these mics into a 60s kit and voila the 60s Motown drum sound is created.
For the kit we used Timmy’s 1960s Ludwig club date kit with a 20” x 14” kick drum one 12” x 8” rack tom and a 14” floor tom. Four snares were used – two Ludwig Pioneer Snares, a Ludwig Hollywood Snare and a Slingerland Shelbyville Snare. We used two cymbals, a Zildjian Trans Stamp and a Zildjian Constantinople Hammered cymbal (both doubled up as rides and crashes) and some Zildjian vintage hi-hats. Across the tracks there is tambourine, claps and congas. All the drums used Remo Ambassador heads. Mic wise we used Neumann Valve U47’s & 67s, Coles ribbon mics, a Sony C38b and an AKG Valve C28. Mic pre’s used were UA2-610’s, Telefunken V76s and a Neve 1073. All of the mics were recorded without EQ or compression except the overhead microphone which used an EAR valve EQ and compressor.
We paid the utmost attention to the to original Motown recordings to try and make the drum sound as authentic as possible. We noticed that on a lot of the recordings, the drums had a crunchy, overdriven sound. We've replicated this in some way by driving the mic amp's and analog eq's and compressors during both recording and mixing which give the drums some intentional mild distortion at the higher velocities. We realise that this may not be the sound for everyone and if you're at all unsure then please check the sound demos. These are accurate examples of the sound of the kit using exactly the same samples supplied in our packs.
As well as the kit we include some percussion samples - congos, a tambourine and hand claps. Due to the number of mics we used to capture the sound the seperate mic packs come with a lot of samples. In the Kontakt and BFD packs there are over 30,000 samples used to recreate this kit. We think you will love this 60s Motown Kit.
For the kit we used Timmy’s 1960s Ludwig club date kit with a 20” x 14” kick drum one 12” x 8” rack tom and a 14” floor tom. Four snares were used – two Ludwig Pioneer Snares, a Ludwig Hollywood Snare and a Slingerland Shelbyville Snare. We used two cymbals, a Zildjian Trans Stamp and a Zildjian Constantinople Hammered cymbal (both doubled up as rides and crashes) and some Zildjian vintage hi-hats. Across the tracks there is tambourine, claps and congas. All the drums used Remo Ambassador heads. Mic wise we used Neumann Valve U47’s & 67s, Coles ribbon mics, a Sony C38b and an AKG Valve C28. Mic pre’s used were UA2-610’s, Telefunken V76s and a Neve 1073. All of the mics were recorded without EQ or compression except the overhead microphone which used an EAR valve EQ and compressor.
We paid the utmost attention to the to original Motown recordings to try and make the drum sound as authentic as possible. We noticed that on a lot of the recordings, the drums had a crunchy, overdriven sound. We've replicated this in some way by driving the mic amp's and analog eq's and compressors during both recording and mixing which give the drums some intentional mild distortion at the higher velocities. We realise that this may not be the sound for everyone and if you're at all unsure then please check the sound demos. These are accurate examples of the sound of the kit using exactly the same samples supplied in our packs.
As well as the kit we include some percussion samples - congos, a tambourine and hand claps. Due to the number of mics we used to capture the sound the seperate mic packs come with a lot of samples. In the Kontakt and BFD packs there are over 30,000 samples used to recreate this kit. We think you will love this 60s Motown Kit.