Can we all agree that Metallica’s “Metallica” (AKA The Black Album, 1991) is one of the best drum sounds ever recorded?
Every hard rock drummer who walked into a studio since then - including yours truly - wanted, at least, the kick and snare drum sound from the Black Album.
Got close a few times, but not really.
Lars Ulrich has been playing TAMA Drums since around 1985, thanks to - believe it or not - a phone call from Neil Peart; Zildjian cymbals and - back in the day - Regal Tip drum sticks (before switching to AHEAD drumsticks thanks to Matt Sorum).
Did Lars play TAMA on the Black Album? Well, no.
The Drums
The drums used in the Black Album were a 1980's Gretsch Maple Kit. Yep, Lars played Gretsch. Sorry to burst your bubble.
1980's Gretsch Maple Kit
The kit consisted of:
- 2x 16”x24” Kicks.
- 10”x12”,11”x13”,12”x14”,14”x16” Toms
- 16x18 Floor Tom (yes, only 1!)
The only TAMA gear used was the 6.5 x 14 1980's Tama Bell Brass Snare "Terminator".
6.5 x 14 1980's Tama Bell Brass Snare "Terminator"
…And dozens of spare drum heads. One thing we can all agree is that Lars hits really, really hard (and back in the day, even harder).
The cymbals were Zildjian, though. But not the Z Custom he used to play live.
The Mics
One of the keys to the thunder cymbal sound, is that an AKG 451 mic was placed for each cymbal.
Legend goes that producer Bob Rock, together with engineer Randy Staub and assistant engineer Mike Tacci miked Lars’s drums to the extreme:
- Top and bottom mic for each tom.
- Top and bottom for the snare.
- Around 4 mics for each kick (inside the kick and just outside).
- An AKG 451 for each cymbal.
- Several room mics:
- Spaced pair on top of the drum kit
- X/Y pairs on each side of the drum set
- Room mics in several places, some placed behind gobos, etc.
The Room
Of course, the room helped a lot (One On One Recording Studios).
It looks like you can get a pretty good drum sound in this room…
Coming together
A few weeks ago the good people from LautenAudio got Ross Garfield from Drum Doctors - the owner and provider of the original drum set -, Mike Tacci - assistant engineer on The Black Album -, producer Darrell Thorp and drummer Gunnar Olsen at One On One Recording, with the original drum set, imitating the original miking set up (with LautenAudio microphones, of course) and made this video. I think I’ve watched it 10 times already. In case you haven’t seen it, you’re welcome.
That 5 count before the snare comes in... it's been 30 years, can't get enough.
