9 Tips For Working With A Remote Studio Drummer

A real, unique, professionally recorded drum performance by a pro studio drummer is a great way to add life and feel to a song.

I’ve been lucky enough to record drums on hundreds of songs, and throughout that experience I’ve worked with artists and producers at many levels and identified some things that can help the process go well.

In this post I'm going to lay out some tips for working with a session drummer to make sure you get the best possible end product: the perfect drum take for your song. This is an exhaustive list, so feel free to use it as a reference.

1) Record your song to a click

In a remote collaboration, musicians are overdubbing performances ontop of each other. Recording to a click track will give everyone a true north to judge performances off of. Percussive instruments have a way of accentuating tempo and feel problems/mistakes. Your song might sound fine without a click when it's just vocals and acoustic, but the more instruments you overdub ontop of it (especially drums and percussion) will most likely make any slight tempo inconsistency obvious and distracting.

2) Get your song fleshed out

You don't have to have your song completely fleshed out before reaching out to a drummer, but make sure that at the very least you have your song structure, lyrics, and melodies finished.

Drums are a supportive instrument, so the first thing your drummer will do to determine what drums to use, how to tune them, mic them, how to play, and what parts to play is to listen to your song structure, vocals, and other instrumentation to design a drum performance that best complements the vibe of the song.

If you end up changing the lyrical rhythm, melody, song structure, or dynamics after drums are recorded, chances are high that the drum track won't complement your song as well.

Similarly, if you want a big rock song, a drummer is more likely to catch your vision if you send them a demo with some electric guitar rather than a simple acoustic and vocal demo.

3) Determine whether you need acoustic drums on your song

Every song doesn't need real drums on it. Here are some reasons that acoustic drums might not be right for your song:

• You aren’t able to play to a click

If you aren’t able to play consistently to a click and you like how your song sounds without percussion, it might be best to release your song as an acoustic track.

• Your song lends itself to more electronic drum sounds

Some genres just work better with drum samples: trap, EDM, and some pop. Think about your favorite artists in your genre; do their songs sound like they have real drums? These days, there are very organic sounding samples, but no matter how real your samples sound, or how good you are at programming, if you want your drums to sound real, and not like drum samples, a real drum will better help you achieve that sound.

4) Determine what kind of drummer you need for your song

Every drummer has a unique voice, style, and way of playing, tuning, and recording their drums. There’s technical masters that can meticulously orchestrate mind blowing polyrhythms (like a Neil Peart), improvisational wizards that jam and solo effortlessly for hours (Tony Williams), hard hitting rock drummers (Dave Grohl), groove players that pride themselves on their feel and minimalistic approach (James Gadson). While all the drummers I named are amazing, they do very different things and wouldn’t necessarily thrive in each other’s contexts. While most good drummers can do more than one thing, knowing who can deliver the perfect performance for your song is very important. Here’s some ways to make sure you pick the right person:

• Listen to their past work - a good studio drummer will have something they’ve played on that you can hear. If you can’t find anything that they’ve played on online, ask them to send you a link. Do you like any of the songs they’ve played on? Does the style of playing and sound of the drums sound like something that could fit on your song(s)?

• References - what are people saying about this drummer? If you have mutual connections that have worked with them, reach out to their past collaborators to get their honest opinions. Does the drummer have any testimonials from past clients?

• Price - different drummers charge different prices for their services. Like anything in life, you usually get what you pay for. If you are serious about your music, I don’t recommend going with the cheapest option.

• Ask about their process - do they offer revisions if you don’t like the first take? Do they deliver processed stems, or completely raw files? How quickly can they get a project done? If you want really specific parts, can they read charts or music? Do they have the ability to do a live video chat while they record? Can they record video of their take(s)?

5) Get your song ready to send to your drummer

At this point, you should have your song fleshed out and your drummer picked out. Here’s some things you can do before you send your track to make sure they are set up for success:

• Know your sample rate - This is simple, but if they record their drum take(s) at a lower sample rate than your song is recorded at, it can cause headaches down the line. Make sure to communicate the desired sample rate to your drummer.

• Know your tempo - If you followed tip #1 this shouldn’t be a problem. Just make sure you communicate your tempo to your drummer as this will save them a little time.

• Edit your song - While a good session drummer can stay locked into a click while other instruments aren’t perfect, the tighter your demo is, the easier it will be for your session drummer to get a great take. If you aren’t confident in your ability to edit, reach out to your drummer - they might be willing to edit the timing of your song for an extra fee.

• Know what instruments are going to be replaced - You may not have the final guitar or vocals tracked on your demo when you send it to your drummer. That’s ok, but let them know what is staying and what is going to be re tracked, and what is going to be edited. If you are going to snap everything to the grid, then the drummer can play and edit his drums as perfectly to the click as possible. If you have final guitars tracked and want to preserve the feel (don’t want to edit them more) then your drummer should know that so they can make sure they lock into the guitars etc.

• Get some reference songs together - find some songs that have a similar sound/style to what you want them to play. If they have a song in their credits that features drums that sound similar to what you want on your song, let them know! Also, make sure you are specific about what you like about the drums in the reference songs you’re sending them.

• Think about song structure - Drums are going to define the dynamics of each section of your song. Before you send your song, think about where you want the drums to come in, if there are any parts where you want drums to drop out. Are there spots like a bridge, chorus, or solo where you want the song to be really big and climactic? Are there parts where you want a really complex signature groove like in the second verse? This is all great info to know.

• Define specifics - Do you have specific patterns, fills, or hits that you want the drums to play in your song? If so, you need to either communicate to your drummer in the form of a programmed drum track, a chart, or at the very least a voice memo beatbox. Do you want them to play a tom groove on the verse? Open hats on the chorus? Referring to specific parts of the drum kit in your directions is very helpful.

In the process of preparing to send your track(s), you may have realized that you have a really specific vision for what you want the drums to sound like, or you may have found you have no idea what you are looking for, or you may find yourself somewhere in the middle.

Wherever you fall on this spectrum, try and be aware of how open you are to them putting their unique spin on the drums, and try and communicate that to them! An experienced studio drummer will have worked on projects where they are following very detailed directions, and on projects where they have a lot of room for interpretation and self expression.

Let them know if your directions are more suggestions, or if you want them to follow your direction to the letter.

6) Send your track(s)

Now that you’ve got your track ready, and some good info to remove the guesswork for your drummer, it’s time to send the track. Make sure you follow any directions they provide on how they like to receive directions and files.

There’s lot’s of options these days for sending files. Some popular options are Dropbox, Google Drive, and Wetransfer.

Let them know what your timeline is, and sit back and wait for a first take!

7) Revisions

Once you get your drum track back, take a listen with an open mind and on different speakers. Hearing your song with drums for the first time might blow you away, or it might be disconcerting. Give yourself time to digest whether you like it as it is, or if you have anything that you want to be different. Most remote session musicians will offer revisions - sometimes its free, sometimes you have to pay extra. Make sure you know what their policy is.

If you do hear things that you want changed, make sure to make specific notes about what you don’t like, and what you want to hear instead. Including timestamps of where you want things changed is super helpful. For example:

“Halfway through the first chorus (at 1:35) the fill feels too busy. Can you make it simpler?”

Using song section names like: chorus, verse, bridge, solo, instrumental, outro, intro, etc. is also. helpful.

If you have specific rhythmic changes, providing notation of what you want to hear is great. If you aren’t sure how to do that, like I said earlier: sending a voice memo of you beatboxing what you want to hear can also work!

8) Mixing

Even if a session drummer is providing processed files, mixing acoustic drums in a song is a specialized art form. Unlike premixed drum samples, you have to do a lot of balancing and potentially processing of each drum stem in order for the drums to sound good. If you have never mixed live acoustic drums before, you should either take some time to study up on mixing acoustic drums, or think about hiring a professional mixing engineer.

9) Releasing The Song

When you release a song that features other musicians, it’s common courtesy to make sure they are listed in the credits and tagged in the social media post(s) about the song. This lets them know that the song is out, that you valued their contribution, and helps them gain exposure for their work. They might also help you promote the song giving you added exposure.

Do you need drums recorded remotely for your songs? Reach out to me through my contact page and let me know what you are working on. I’d love to hear about your project and see if I’m a good fit.