Drumdrops Modern Folk

DrumDrops Modern Folk is a painstakingly recorded selection of modern-sounding live folk-rock drum tracks taking influence from a range of modern folk songs and artists with a few old classics thrown in. The tracks were played by legendary drummer Martyn Barker (Robert Plant, Rufus Wainwright, Billy Bragg, Peggy Seeger) and recorded and mixed by the incredible producer/engineer Phill Brown (Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, John Martyn, David Bowie, Ray Davies, Arthur Brown). Recorded at the historic Livingston Studios in London in the brighter sounding live room this kit was close mic’d using the incredible selection of microphones in Livingston’s collection. The kit used was Martyn’s 1980’s Gretsch Maple.
The drum tracks take reference from Artists such as Ray La Montagne, Elliot Smith, Bon Iver, Goldfrapp, Little Feat and Bombay Bicycle Club amongst others. Ranging in tempo from 80 BPM to 184 BPM there is a huge range of tracks and grooves to choose from, played with both brushes and hot rods.
For the sound Phill Brown close mic’d this kit in a modern recording style. Mics used were classic drum mics – AKG D112 on the Kick, Shure SM57s on the Snare, Sennheiser 421’s on the toms, KM84 on the Ride and Hi-Hat, Coles 4038’s as overheads and two room mics – a Sony C48 and Neumann U89. These pick up the ambience of the drum room. All of the mics were recorded through the SSL G-Series mic pre’s and recorded straight to 2” tape on a Studer A80 with a 16 track headblock before being transferred into Pro Tools.
The 1980’s Gretsch Maple 4416 Kit consists of a 22” x 16” Kick drum, 10” x 7”, 12” x 9” and 13” x 10” Rack Toms and a 16” x 16” Floor Tom. The snares used were a combination of two Ludwig Snares. A Ludwig 400 14” x 5” and Martyn’s Ludwig Brass Shell 14” x 6.5”. Cymbals used were Zildjian Top Rock 14” Hi-hats, a 20” Rock Ride, an 18” Zildjian Paper Thin Crash and an 18” Plain Paiste Crash. On a number of tracks we added shakers and tambourines.
Martyn Barker has had a career playing the drums professionally for over 30 years. He started his career with the band Shriekback and is a busy session drummer recording and touring. Martyn has played for artists such as Martha and Rufus Wainwright, Richard Hawley, Katherine Williams, Lou Reed, Peggy Seeger and he also played drums on Joe Boyd’s ‘Way To Blue’.