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In-depth Feature:
DrumsForYou.com - Online Recording Studio
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Upload an MP3 - hours later get your drum track
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Drums For Us?
Lets face it, can be a real headache recording live drums – if it wasn't, the drum machine wouldn't have such a long and distinguished career, let alone the plethora of software plugs and apps that are supposed to take the drummers place. You've got to get the right room, mics, preamps and outboard etc - oh and lets not forget - the right drummer too.
So why do people bother?
Drums can give a track all those things that machines can't : life, dynamics, a living groove not to mention the odd surprise. How do I get this for my track , I know nothing about the drum recording process? You may well ask, and this is where DrumsForYou.com comes in. Based in Los Angeles CA, they are a new breed of recording service, using the internet to receive and deliver tracks, therefore keeping down the costs and the client out of the studio - thus saving time. And time does after all equal $money.
DrumsForYou.com specialise in taking demo or guide MP3/wav recordings uploaded via their web site and recording full drum sessions to your instructions. They have the room (check), the mics (check), studio and processing (check) and of course the drummer (check) to record a high quality drum track.
Elad Fish, the brains and beef (he's the drummer) behind DrumsForYou.com says:
"Our sound has evolved over the course of 2000 plus drum recordings in the last five years. We've eliminated setup and sound check time and so can spend more time being creative."
Elad and his team aren't just there for doing drum tracks. As well as offering bass, keyboards, guitar and full demo production ($475 for the full monty), their studio is also used for recording tracks for commercials, songs plus work for tv and radio. With clients like NBC, Fox networks, T-mobile, Renault and the like, you can assume that the end product is going to meet a certain standard.
I took a look around the artist sites that had left glowing testimonials, clearly Elad has plenty of satisfied customers. Some of the music was pretty good and the drums were always on the mark. Though I didn’t hear any really radical drum tracks, that, in truth is down to the artist. If they choose to take the 9 drum stems (raw or EQ’ed), in the mix they can do what they like, what I did hear were well recorded studio drums, played with an understanding of the songs structure and dynamic. Which is a pretty good basis for any drum session - whether you are in the same room, or halfway round the world.
The kick and toms sound beefy and don't leave any sonic holes - indeed you might find your own recorded tracks might need some extra love to achieve the same high standard and match up.
One thing that is really pretty impressive is the turnaround time - they guarantee 48hrs, but more often than not the tracks are ready in around 12 hours (though I guess if you submit your demo at 8pm Christmas eve, you might have to wait a tad longer). Elad says "A songwriter that stops their recording progress for too long risks losing their inspiration."
Surprisingly, all this costs a mere $99 bucks per track for a stereo drum mix. You get an MP3 for approval, then you can have up to two modifications for the basic price. Other extras include having all the individual drum stems, either processed or dry for you to fiddle with – this will cost $26 for the unprocessed or $71 processed stems. Anyone who’s ever had to print out stems will understand the extra value this represents and those who don’t, think of the extra flexibility you get on mixdown.
$99 bucks for a drum session?
That's got to cost less than hiring any studio equipped to record drums for a couple of hours, let alone a drummer session fee, engineer and all the stuff that goes with it. Even if you add the cost of individual stems, it's going to be hard to beat.
But as with all these things, it's down to personal taste. Elad has all the right credentials to give you something totally professional and world-class, but you can never guarantee that something magic will happen, as with any recording session - best try it for yourself and see - if you really aren't satisfied they have a money-back guarantee.
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