INSIDE THE STUDIO
DRUM SOUNDS AS THEY SHOULD BE
Yamaha’s DTX series of electronic drums has been popular with drummers owing to their comprehensive functionality and high-quality sampled sounds. On October 29, 2024, the V2.00 Firmware Updater was released for the DTX-PROX and DTX-PRO sound modules, adding drum sounds that are even more realistic and that offer even greater sound quality.
Until now, nearly all the sound content for Yamaha’s electronic drums has been recorded overseas, most notably in London, where Yamaha’s content development center is located. However, for the production of the Yamaha drum samples (PHX, Recording Custom) included in this software update, Yamaha’s strong desire was to provide direction in all aspects of creating the sounds from the Japan side.We brought together the finest instruments in a top-of-the-line environment with the best staff, for a first-rate sound.Two high-end drum kits were used for sampling: the PHX, the pinnacle of Yamaha drums; and the Recording Custom, which was developed in cooperation with world-class top drummer Steve Gadd. Yamaha’s staff, who knew Yamaha’s drums inside and out and were responsible for working with Gadd, were on hand to tune the drums to their best possible condition. The person in charge of sampling was Yuji Sugiyama.
What did Yamaha aim for with these new sounds for the DTX-PROX and DTX-PRO V2.0, and how were the sounds created? We asked Sugiyama, the recording engineer involved in the sampling process.
Creating the sounds: the most capable staff take to the task in the highest-quality environment with the finest instruments
Yuji Sugiyama started his career as a sound reinforcement engineer who was responsible for controlling sound at live performances and other venues. Afterwards, he moved on to becoming a recording engineer for famed artists such as Nav Katze, Soft Ballet, X JAPAN, L'Arc~en~Ciel, Luna Sea, Ryuichi Kawamura, Yoshiki and others, with a career that’s spanned 36 years.
“I had many opportunities to use Yamaha equipment from the time I started working. In 1990, I was given a demo of the DMR-8, an integrated recorder and mixer when it was first released, and my connection with Yamaha only strengthened after I later purchased that unit and began using it in my album production work.”
Sugiyama has been involved in creating preset memories for effects, evaluating effect units, and most recently in sampling the CFX for use in synthesizer voices.
“The first drum machines I used were the RX11 and RX-5, so Yamaha drum sounds may have played an even bigger part of my musical experience than I realized. Also, often, when I feel like I’ve made a good recording of drums on a given session, I find out that the drum was a Yamaha acoustic drum, or that the drummers I like are using Yamaha drums. That’s why I have always had a good impression of Yamaha drums.”
The acoustic characteristics of Yamaha’s new in-house studio where the sample recordings took place also played an important role.
“When you’re recording musical instruments here, you can get a well-defined, dead sound if the mic is up close… and you can also get enough room ambience if you put some distance between the mic and the instrument. It’s rare to find a studio that lets you capture both of these elements. The room reverberation—the ambience—is an important factor in getting a richer instrument sound. That said, there are very few studios in Japan where you can properly record that kind of sound. Of course, there’s a reason why Yamaha has chosen to record samples using overseas studios before, and there are some things you can only do at an overseas studio. Now that Yamaha has such a great in-house studio, I’ve had the privilege of recording this excellent sound on the flagship model, and it’s been very rewarding.”
Features “bleed” sounds that impart the sonic impression of acoustic drums
In sampling these new sounds, we came up with a new definition of electronic drums.
“My understanding is that to date, each sound sample in an electronic drum kit has been treated as a separate entity, with every drum recorded in extreme clarity. Naturally, drum machines and acoustic drums are two separate things. Drum machines play a role in creating new music, and they make certain music possible owing to the particular sounds they offer. We held an initial meeting to discuss which direction to go, asking whether electronic drums should evolve as drum machines have, or whether they should replace acoustic drums as something that’s better and easier to control.”
Sugiyama wanted to achieve the true sound of a drum kit—how the kit rings out when you sit down and strike an acoustic drum.
“The sound you hear when playing a drum that’s part of a kit as opposed to just playing an individual drum on its own as a musical instrument is quite different. For instance, when you strike a floor tom, you won’t hear sound from drums on the right side coming from just a single point. Also, when you play the bass drum, you’ll hear the entire kit reverberate with a boom. It’s that reverberation that occurs at the point where you strike the drum that gives you the sense of being in the moment, playing that drum there. In terms of recording the drum kit itself, a talented team has already put together a fabulous drum kit in the best possible condition, so we wanted to record those sounds.”
For this recording, many people may envision several mics positioned both closer and farther away from the drums.
“As I had confidence in the original sound of the instruments, I decided to use just a minimal combination of mics for recording. The more mics you use, the more frequency interference you get, as various frequencies tend to get stronger or cancel each other out, which causes the sound to diverge from that of the original instrument in unexpected ways. The important thing is to choose the microphones that capture the sound properly, and set them up in the right places. By placing the mics at the focal points of the sound, you can get the sound of the entire acoustic drum kit without destroying the overall sonic relationships.”
“The important thing is to properly recognize whether the sound has changed, and whether you can make that determination. My experience allowed me to find a way to compare the sounds.” We mainly used condenser mics, to capture all the room reverberations from the drum kit as an instrument. We then processed the sound with effects such as EQ and compression to maximize its potential while preserving its original quality.
With our sampling this time, we also added the sound of the drum bleed, something we’d never sampled before.
“Probably the defining characteristic of electronic drums thus far has been that each drum is captured with great clarity. On the flip side, I’ve felt that when the sound quality is extremely pure, to the extent of excluding other reverberations, you get a sound that’s somewhat removed from what you’d normally hear when you play an acoustic kit.”
When we looked for a way to reproduce what an acoustic drum player hears, we found that the bleed sound was the answer.
“I felt that a sound that wasn’t too orderly—a sound in which the bass drum, snare, and toms each resonate with each other—would create a playing feel closer to that of an acoustic drum kit. We set up the mics in different positions than you would if you wanted to capture the room reverb with ambient mic-ing, which let us get the bleed reverberations from the entire drum kit.”
The major characteristics of these new samples are that they work well with a wide variety of music and ensembles, featuring the sound pressure levels and sounds that stand out in the mix with other instruments and sound sources.
“When you want to bring up the drums in the mix, it’s important not to cut out too much of the sound, since that results in lower sound pressure levels. With what we’ve done this time, I think drummers will be able to feel the difference in sound pressure levels and how the drum sounds stand out when you’re playing in an ensemble with basses, guitars and other instruments. In particular, the bleed sound is a crucial factor when you’re bringing up the sound pressure levels in an ensemble.”
“Being able to create these sounds together with Yamaha, a Japanese brand, feels like a dream come true.”
Sugiyama generally works on recordings for a number of artists and is often thought of as an “artistic” engineer, but he says that it’s important to think logically. This attitude has certainly played a part in the production of the sound content he has created for the DTX.
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DTX-PRO Firmware V2 Sound Demo
The challenge of focusing intently, putting heart and soul into each sound
Sugiyama also relates how he found a different aspect of sampling intriguing.
“Normally, when I record drums, I consider the relationship between the drums and other instruments; but this time, we focused on just capturing one sound at a time like the snare, bass drum and so forth. In a way, this was a challenge for me. I felt a different kind of excitement doing this than when I usually record, as we had to focus intently on each sound.”
“I’d like to keep working on new versions of these samples. Down the road, I think it will be a lot of fun if we can also build spatial sound effects, such as creating the spaces where the drums are being played.”
We believe that the upcoming evolution of sound content will spur drummers on towards new experiences in drum performance.
Profile
Yuji Sugiyama
Born in Osaka in 1964. Sugiyama began his career in 1988 as a sound reinforcement (SR) engineer and has since worked with many artists as a recording engineer and sound producer. In April 2022, Sugiyama released the book “Shin-Rekodingu/Mikishingu no Zen-chishiki (Zen-chishiki Series)” (Everything A Recording Engineer Needs To Know, And More!) through Rittor Music. His experience with Yamaha products has included effect units and recording gear, as well as sound contents for digital pianos and synthesizers.
