Today’s Modern Drums Sound Like ’80s Pop Drums

Posted October 22nd, 2009 by Robert

A lot of ’80s pop songs had a drum machine taking care of the beat, usually something like the Linn LM-1, the Oberheim DMX, or the Roland TR-808 and TR-909. There were plenty of recordings that had real drums on them too, but electronic drum machines were very widely used.

Over the past few years, a similar trend has emerged in modern rock. I’ll start with an example. Check out West End Girls by The Pet Shop Boys and pay attention to the kick drum. It’s clicky, punchy, and impeccably consistent. Now take a listen to Borderline by Madonna and Don’t You Want Me by The Human League. Consistent, mechanical kick and snare. Fast-forward to 2007 and Paramore’s Misery Business. The kick and snare are as solid as can be, perfectly spaced, with no variation in dynamics. Another example is Relient K’s Come Right Out And Say It, also from 2007. The kick is particularly punchy and robotic.

So, what’s going on here? There are a few factors that have brought about the shift towards drum-machine-type drums, and I believe the main one is the huge advance in recording technology. Not too long ago, the only way to get solid electronic-sounding drum track was with a drum machine, or a robotic drummer. Since there aren’t many Josh Freeses among us, the drum sounds of the ’90s weren’t nearly as robotic. You could hear the distinctive sounds of a human drummer: variation in snare and tom hits, slight tempo changes, and normal inconsistencies that come about from real acoustic drum playing. Drum triggers were available, but they still sounded fairly unnatural.

Enter Pro Tools and computer recording. All of a sudden, the editing limitations of tape and even early digital recorders were out the window. An engineer could go in and fix a late snare hit, or a strange-sounding kick drum hit. Pretty soon, engineers realized they could make every drum hit sonically perfect – and that’s how we arrived at the modern drum sounds of today. How? Line up the drums so they’re perfectly in time. Then, take a snare drum hit from the song, or pull one out of the various drum libraries available for sale, and replace every single hit with that sample. Do the same with the kick and toms, and all of a sudden you have “perfect” drums (and by “perfect” I mean “accurate”). There are many who wouldn’t agree that the modern drum sound is musical. I happen to think it’s awesome. It’s safe to say that the majority of music you hear on popular radio, whether it be rock or top 40, has “hyper-edited” drums.

I should be clear that when I say modern rock drums sound like ’80s pop drums I am referring mostly to the timing and feel. There is obviously a huge difference in tonal quality between the two. But the accuracy of the drum machine has been replicated by having a solid drummer (or even some not-so-solid drummers!) tightened up by modern recording techniques.

Here are some more examples of modern rock with “perfect” drums:

What do you think? Do you like this modern drum sound? Had you noticed the trend towards roboticism?

MAtt

Robert,
Thanks for discussing this. I do notice that drums today sound "perfect" (no timing fluxuation or dynamics). But also keep in mind that playing to a click has become the norm in recording, and more importantly, in rehearsal and live playing... so therefore many young drummers' timing have become spot on from an early age. But it even goes back to when these young drummers were first learning how to play by jamming along to their favorite recordings ("perfect" drums). I've seen for my own eyes how perfect and consistent some drummers can play. And Im not talking about "world class drummers" like Kenny Aronoff and Vinnie Colaiuta. But as a result, a lot of young drummers have forgotten all about using ghost notes and swelling a tom fill. But it's not their fault because the loud guitar tones these days make it useless to play anything that isnt a primary hit...because it can't be heard. Therefore very even, consistent strokes is what they get great at. I just want you to believe that near "perfect" drum tracks can be played. But...that being said...I agree that drum editing has gone too far. The problem is that to be competitive in today's top 40 and rock scene, your recording must sound like gold(unless your purposely avoiding that). And to get a mix that's as clear as the ones you mentioned above, it's necessary to have really consistent drumming. If every snare hit is the exact same than you know what frequency it's at so you can make sure the other instruments don't collide with it in the mix. And if the timing of the drums sway away from the guitar on the first note of the big chorus, it will sound mushy. Basically, you're damned if you do edit(cheating)and damned if you don't edit(weak mixes by today's standards). From a drumming standpoint I look at it like this....do your best to always give each note its value and even if you can't hear the ghost notes being played(live or in the studio), keep playing them, but always make sure to smash the primary notes. Dynamic playing makes you a better musician! But ultimately it's the engineers fault. ha ha!
Jason K

I noticed the trend of users of said modern technologies losing their mind in the idea that uniformity and great are synonymous. But then again thats why the aforementioned records above (Pet Shop Boys), sound REAL dated, because in the minds of their producers the process of using the technologies they used to create them was every bit as important as the music. And clearly as time has shown SO SO many times. Its not. Not that beat detective is a horrid thing, but the concept that you use it on a song you just track because "THATS WHAT YOU DO" is fucking retarded.
ivan

great article, i really appreciate it