Drum Spotlight - "A Day In The Life" - The Beatles

Share this video with ‪@ringostarr‬ to thank him for this incredible performance!

This was my tribute to the monumental sound Ringo and Geoff Emerick achieved on "A Day In The Life." You hear nothing else like it anywhere else, ever. Ringo was 26 at the time, which is just unfathomable. Just a legendary performance.

For the performance, I took the isolated tracks available from the Beatles Rock Band video game and slowed down each fill. Over eight separate days, I practiced his fills until the feel was there. As I've said before, getting the notes right is one thing; getting the FEEL right is an entirely different task.

For all questions about gear, plug-ins, and microphones, here's a comprehensive list:

The Kit: The set I'm using is a 1969 Ludwig Black Oyster Pearl No. 980 Super Classic (9x13 / 16x16 / 14x22), nearly identical to Ringo's favored 1964 Super Classic kit, which Ringo used on this track and owns to this day. The skins I'm using are original to the kit - yes, they're 50 years old.

Microphones: I followed in Geoff Emerick's steps for my recreation by removing the bottom tom heads, putting one microphone beneath each tom, and detuning them until there was barely any tension. For you gear heads, there were 6 microphones on the set:

Floor tom: 2 Shure SM57's (one above, one beneath)
Rack tom: 1 MXL V250 Condenser Mic (beneath the tom)
Snare: 2 Cad Audio Stage7 Drum Microphones (one above, one beneath)
Bass Drum: Cad Audio Stage7 Bass Drum Mic

Mixing: Each track was mixed separately, i.e., I added plug-ins to each individual track.

Floor tom: StudioOne ProEQ, Waves AbbeyRoad Plates Mono
Rack tom: Studio One ProEQ, Waves AbbeyRoad Plates Mono
Bass drum: Studio One ProEQ, Puigchild 670 Stereo Compressor (East Kick)
Snare drum: Studio One ProEQ, Puigchild 660 Mono Compressor (British Snare)

I then exported a Wave file of the above mix and added additional plug-ins to the overall track:

Drum track: Puigchild 670 Stereo Compressor (Pop Vocal)
Drum track: Studio One ProEQ

Enjoy! Thanks for all the appreciative comments on my full band cover!