For this week's episode of What's That Sound?, Noam and Jessica are in the studio to recreate a killer track from a musician who can do just about anything—Anderson .Paak's "Put Me Thru" from his incredible 2016 record Malibu. Of course—though perhaps a first for this series—these drums were both performed and produced by .Paak himself.
The kit this week was comprised of 14-inch Zildjian K-Dark Hats; a sleeping bag-stuffed Ludwig Vistalite kick drum with a felt beater; a Yamaha Jimmy Chamberlin snare wearing a ring, piece of fabric, and wallet for dampening.
As Noam explains, these drums definitely have a more modern sound—they're not distinctively Motown-style drums or trying to be of an era other than the here and now. However, they still manage to feel vintage. And that alerts Noam to the fact that there's some particularly special EQing happening here that he's going to need to figure out in order to replicate.
The low-end of these drums is also a particular sonic standout due to how controlled it is. These drums feel hip hop-esque in this sense. Today, Noam demonstrates how to replicate that particular type of controlled sound using some really creative gating techniques.
The microphones used in this episode include:
- Kick-in: Shure Beta 52A
- Kick-out: Yamaha SKRM-100 Subkick e)
- Snare: AKG C 414 B-ULS
- Ovehead: AEA R84A/A840
Check out the full video above to see the complete rundown of how Noam approached recording and processing these recreated .Paak drums. Then click the listing above to download a free sample pack of the drum sounds that we created here.