poor drum mixing

Since all I know about recording, mixing, and general acoustics will fit comfortably into a thimble, I might be on the wrong track here, but the overall picture makes me think this is not just some abnormality created by my equipment or listening space.

I also don't know very much about drums or drumming, but I do know from observation that it is not unusual for a drummer to sit at the focus of a half circle, more or less, about six to eight feet across, with a variety of percussion devices arrayed for easy pounding. I also know from reading in this forum that it is not unusual for the drummer to be recorded via perhaps a half dozen microphones, each to a separate track.

The "poor" mixing most often comes in when the drums are solo or with few other instruments immediately contributing.  A significant example, the one which initiated this tirade, occurs somewhere around half way through side one (as on my LP) of The Dark Side of the Moon." The drummer is suddenly front and almost center. He (she?) is apparently using two drums, sounding to me similar but not quite the same, one on the right, one on the left. The apparent distance between the two drums is now at least as big as life; it occupies most of the space between the two speakers. It is like listening to a ping-pong match up close.

This might be great in a music video where the camera zooms in to the drummer for this bit. One's viewpoint is supposed to change and the close up drum set is supposed to take up the entire field. When simply listening to music, possibly with my eyes closed, it is too discontinuous and out of place, and breaks the mood/concentration/trance.

Today was the first time I really thought about it as I was hearing it, but I have experienced it before. Often the drums are in the background, occupying proportional space with the rest of the performers, as they do on most of this Pink Floyd recording, but sometimes they have that widely separated, out of place, alternating between the two speakers, effect whenever they do anything beyond providing a steady background beat.

I like to sit and get into a flow with the music. Perhaps this is an induced alpha state or some such. When some percussion is being presented as above, however, it is quite disruptive and disconcerting. It is almost painful and tends towards producing a headache.

While I don't know for sure, I suspect this is a mixing choice, allowed by the individual tracks for individual instruments. It is a choice to not present the percussion balanced to the entire group of musicians, as it might be perceived by a listener in a more or less "normal" position relative to the band, but instead brought forward and emphasized.

I don't personally like it, but I am not expecting to make anyone change. I have no desire to limit artistic choice. Mostly I am just curious about responses that tell me this is what other people perceive or that suggests that there is indeed something screwy with my set-up.

I don't think the latter is the case. After the above recording, I listened to a female vocalist. There was some kind of guitar front left and some other stringed instrument front right. These sound like they were pretty much in the position of the left and right speakers. She is further back and center and the other instruments, including drums, are arrayed behind her. This is more "normal," except that often all instruments are back beyond the speakers. Those two in front where hardly unique, but not what I notice all that often. All of which is to say that my set-up gives me an approximation of what I expect on many recordings and thus the belief that it is being true on the others.

Well, all I can tell you is you're not alone. I absolutely DESPISE the way drums are mixed a hellofa lot of the time. That is: bone dry and way up front and heavily panned and waaay too loud.

I hate it, I tell you. Most of my favorite 70s records suffer from this weird "drums up front and wide" disease. Lenny Waronker is a particular culprit. He produced a lot of my favorite 70s artists (Randy Newman, Warren Zevon, etc.). And they all have the drum malady.

Chris

A significant example, the one which initiated this tirade, occurs somewhere around half way through side one (as on my LP) of The Dark Side of the Moon." The drummer is suddenly front and almost center. He (she?) is apparently using two drums, sounding to me similar but not quite the same, one on the right, one on the left. The apparent distance between the two drums is now at least as big as life; it occupies most of the space between the two speakers. It is like listening to a ping-pong match up close.

I presume that you're talking about the beginning of 'Time'. If you are, you clearly can't distinguish between the sound of what may be hand-held bongos of some description, that the player can freely walk about with, and a drum kit, which is fixed. Whilst you're perfectly at liberty to complain about a perfectly valid, and arguably quite legitimate mix, I think that just about everybody else would disagree with you over this particular example - I think that you may have missed the contextual point completely.

OTOH, the general point about a lot of kits being mixed too wide, and often too far forward is quite valid - there are loads of examples of this around, and many of them become quite disturbing to listen to when reduced to mono. In fact, if more producers actually bothered to listen to their mixes quietly in mono, they might be more inclined to mix the drums properly as instruments, instead of as an effect.

Mind you, most examples of this pale into insignificance beside the (quite deliberate) 'Black Mass:Electric Storm In Hell' track that David Vorhaus produced in 1969. Just over 7 minutes of this at a reasonable volume will help you to stop complaining about anything else at all for a while!