I took a few hours to put a site together entirely dedicated to advertising myself as an
Amazing.
I advertised on Facebook for just 1 day last week, and got quite a few inquiries, and have been steadily busy ever since. This will be the first time I’d actually make money from playing drums alone. On top of that, I’m doing what I love, and get to hear from great musicians and good people from all over the world.
My recommendation for drummers out there: Get into recording yourself, and get into it from your home studio or even your bedroom.
Lots of drummers think “I’m not good enough,” or “I don’t have enough money to buy all that expensive recording equipment.”
Believe it or not, the clients you should expect from advertising yourself as an OSD are musicians. We all know that musicians looking to record a demo, or musicians without a drummer from the get-go are most likely on a budget and can’t afford to make it into a professional studio with famous producers and top-of-the-line gear. Just find your sound, and be yourself. You don’t need to be amazing.
So don’t advertise yourself as a Dave Weckl, Mike Portnoy, or Vinnie Colaiuta!
Post up pictures of yourself, your gear, your inspirations, your past work, and some demos of yourself playing so people know what they’re getting into before they even email you. So when they do email you, you’ll know that they’re already satisfied with your sound, and there’s nothing to hide.
All you really need is a reliable a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), and a few mics, and you’re good to go. Most musicians and drummers (see what i did there?) that I know didn’t go to school for anything audio-related, but instead spend most of their time fiddling around with options and taking the trial-and-error route to get good sounds for themselves. It’s substantially easier these days with resources like google and youtube that even lead you to specific channels for video walkthroughs for recording, and some of them are even better than sitting in front of a professional lecturing you on the subject.
Here’s a few of my favorite YouTube channels for session drumming:
- http://www.youtube.com/user/sflogicninja
This guy specializes with recording techniques in Logic. His modest and articulate approach really makes it easy to sit through 10 minute videos with you wanting more. - http://www.youtube.com/user/timlovesdrums
Tim Kitchen is an online session drummer I’ve just found out who is kind of doing the same thing I’m doing, and has been for years. He’s got a few videos showing you how to record with minimal gear and on a budget. - http://www.youtube.com/user/shaftninja
Travis Orbin has been doing session drumming for years, and has access to a great studio and always has great videos of him playing for clients.
Of course I will be updating YourDailyFill with videos and audio once final tracks roll around.
If you need a drummer yourself, visit my page.
-andy