Chords for Simon Phillips, studio tips and tricks

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An [Em] acoustic drum [Dm] kit is an extremely [C] complex piece [Dm] of machinery.
There are multiple components, a massive range of tone colors,
a colossal dynamic range, and many different volumes that need balancing.
There are resonances and rings, and lots of mechanical parts that can squeak or generate unwanted noises.
Above all, it's driven in a very literal sense by raw human power.
We're very fortunate to have with us a British drummer
who has worked with [Gb] countless British artists, American artists in [Fm] the studio,
and perhaps more notably with [Db] The Who, Live, and now with [Ab] Toto, _ [Bb] Mr.
Simon Phillips.
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The drum kit is made out of many parts, but to me, I always look at it as one instrument, like the piano.
Because if I take these four toms away, _ this snare drum will sound [Db] different.
I like to keep a very open sound.
Whatever you're recording, the instrument has to sound great, because _ _ you're starting on the right foot there.
So acoustically, the instrument's got to be tuned right, it's got to sound right.
And there are certain things that, over time, you get to know what a microphone _ [A]
likes.
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[Dm] _ _ _ _ There was a time, was there not, when [Em] the bass drum [Dm] _ _ [C] became known as the kick drum in modern times.
But the bass drum was almost unrecordable.
It was considered just a huge nuisance.
A nuisance, loud, and lots of [N] sustain.
In the 60s, we found out a way to really record a bass drum.
Suddenly, there was this much thicker sound, distortion, which we used to our advantage.
But that old bass drum wasn't cutting through.
I don't know who first took the head off, but somebody did.
I don't know who's responsible for that.
But somebody figured out, by taking that front head off, you could get rid of that boom sustain,
and get a much more instant sound that was more recordable and more useful.
_ _ And that was even before anybody figured out about putting stuff in the bass drum.
_ So that was the_ Overcoats and_ Piano covers.
_ All sorts of newspapers.
People used to tear up newspapers and put them in the bass drum.
When did the idea _ happen to _ put a hole in the front head?
Well, I think when drummers got tired of the look of a bass drum like this,
and also the rattling of all these, by the time you'd taken all the tension rods out,
these rattled like crazy, and rather than putting tape on each one of these,
it's easier to just get a head and cut it out and put it back on.
But the head itself is quite slack, is it?
No, actually, my front head _ is actually quite tight, yes. _
_ Sometimes, especially live, if it's too loose, you get some feedback problems.
It seems to work better a little tighter. _ _
_ But we're still hearing mostly the sound of the head being hit, right?
Not the front head?
Ah, I see.
That's why I use a front head.
It really changes the way the drum sounds.
Basically, what's happening right now is all of the air is coming straight out.
So we've lost a lot of _ volume, _ we've lost a lot of low end, we've lost a lot of high end.
It's a very mid _ -sounding thump at the moment, which for some music is great, but it's very undynamic.
And personally, I find it very hard to play and a little unmusical.
_ _ So what I do is, there's another little technique, _ _ is as well as the dampening there, I take a paint can.
What that does, it's just mass.
Again, _ _ microphone friendly.
It makes a very complex sound with a lot of low end floating around.
It tightens up that low end and makes it easier for this boy to understand.
_ By putting this on, _ what that does is it brings back a little more low end, definitely more high end, [Dm] and more dynamics.
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_ [Dm] _ _ _ _ If you push here and the weight goes onto the rim, it's going to tighten the bottom [Ab] head.
_ So if I do it there, so I'm pushing against the head, then it'll also stretch the bottom head.
_ _ _ So if I do this, _ _ _ that's fine, but I'll go to this head and _ _ see _ _ _ _ it drop down.
[G] _ Now if that was a new head, [E] it would do it even more.
And I use the same _ _ _ concept for every drum. _ _ _
And I tune the top and the bottom head [Am] exactly the same.
As Simon said, it's important to [Bm] take the same approach with [Am] the tuning of each tom so that they work well together.
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What did you do _ [Eb] tuning wise to achieve that?
I just detuned it.
Just undid a couple of the bottom ones and a couple of the top ones.
So it's really reverberating.
So the tension is not even around _ _ the_
I'm just loosening these two off and two down the bottom.
A drum is a completely airtight container, is it?
No, no, no.
It has to let air out.
Right there.
And in fact, the amount of air you get out of there is incredible. _ _ _ _
[Db] It shoots [Abm] out of there.
I can actually_
Sometimes I'll be playing.
Here.
[C] _ _ [Cm] _ Oh yeah.
Yeah.
[E] Oh yeah.
A lot of air.
Quite a little air.
In fact, I seem to remember Alan White with Yes years ago had a tube coming out of here connected to a compressed air.
And he could change the tone by the amount of air going in and coming out.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it was quite fun. _ _ _ _ _
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