Drum Tracking by Wyn Dorsey

wyndrums.com recorded in wyn's recording room.

Click the links below to access my other instruments… soon.
Absolutely none of my material / writing is generated or even saturated with AI. Not here. Take that garbage elsewhere.
Maybe… In Another Universe
I found a way observe alternate universes, and contacted myself with a time beacon I engineered with spare parts. Turns out in Universe 8472, I'm an award winning action film star. Multi-millionaire jet-setting philanthropic genius playboy with an ego problem. Dude travels with his own film crew but refuses to share the screen with anybody but himself.
Demo Jams
This is the raw music I put together with minimal editing. Few dynamics aside from gain and reverb. Practice. They aren't polished, but they do provide a fairly accurate sonic reference of my studio. These are the ideas and "mess arounds" that I record. Hopefully there's a progression in the quality and musicality of the jams. Growth isn't necessarily graceful, but it is growth.

Dropbox

Finally Something Heavy (3:48)

Released 1/10/2025. Finally a heavier mix. Live drums and my white Strat amped and mic'd. No computers/amp sims. This is the new direction.

Dropbox

Keen - Atlantik Jam (6:23)

Released Wednesday 1/8/2025. Inspired by Atlantic by Keane. Simplistic, non-dynamic, but the drums and the mix were what made this one worthy of sharing.

Dropbox

Random Tuesday (Slower Jam) (7:29)

Released 1/7/2025 (Tuesday). Slower jam. Drums, synth, bass. Kinda my staple for these jams. There's a break in the middle, slowed down, trying to sound like The Flaming Lips. I like it, I'm going to loop it and record acoustic guitar over it. I'm going to build it up like TFL would, piece by piece.

Dropbox

Alone (6:26)

Released 12/6/2024. This minor-heavy jam has a lot of parts that turned out better than I imagined. This jam features my 14x10 maple Anchor Drums snare. Heavier psych elements in this one.

Dropbox

Everybody's Pal (1:42)

Released 12/4/2024. More to come...

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Untitled Medley with bass and synth (Long mix 28 min)

Released 11/9/2024. Another tone test, has some bass and synths thrown in. Some good stuff about half way through.

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Slow Jam with Synth

Released 11/9/2024. Freestyling at 55 bpm. Half time for the whole time. Slow roller.

Dropbox

The Volta Brothers - Summer Breeze Jam (Wyntronus Cover)

Released 10/15/2024. Rough Mix. This solo jam started out as "Summer Breeze" by the Isley's, but by about half-way through it turns into a Mars Volta progressive type thing.

Dropbox

America - Daisy Jane (Wyntronus Cover)

Released 10/14/2024. Rough mix. Dialing in the drum signal chain a little day by day. Getting the tones I'm listening for. Adding some synths for texture. I've wanted to cover this song for a while.

CLICK HERE to access message archives
Messages
March 2025
Monday 3/31/2025
I took a hiatus from all things musical to focus on video/animation. I bought a few StickyBones with ground/air stands, a few T13 posables, and a gimbal with a remote controller for stop motion. At some points these projects will merge in a short film I'm working on. Until then, there are a few action shorts from another universe wherein I was an action film star. Completely ridiculous, ego stroking, and silly.. but extremely addicting to film.
This summer I'm taking another trip to New Orleans. Two more weeks of the current goings-on. Two weeks.
January 2025
Thursday 1/23/2025
The more my brain has to process and compute during the day, the more creative I feel in the following studio session. I have previously believed that it would be ideal to have nothing to do other than make music. When I'm in these situations though (summer vacation, winter break, or any extended time away from work), I find myself looking for ideas and inspiration. Writers block. But when my day is jam packed with stuff- good or bad, it's so much easier to just come up with stuff.
Friday 1/10/2025
Finally started working on guitar chain. Drums are right where I want them. The added acoustic treatment dried out the drums even more, so snare and kick in particular sound so, so good. I'm still on my SOAD kick, so this new direction of heavier music is just beginning. I still love psych music, and adding psych elements to music, but today I had the revelation that the next WTP record will replace the last. Indefinitely. TLISBT will be completely removed from streaming services.

Another revelation I had is the new album being drums, guitar, bass only. Vocals on top, of course, That's it. Practicing all these jams and sound checks has me working on other songs that I don't share. I am re-energized to make music. After the tracks are mixed, I'll have to decide if I want to mix in synths or keys. As of right now, the plan is to keep it simple and straight-forward. Lots of writing, lots of chopping, lots of brainstorming and messing around in the studio, just enjoying the space and the whole recording process. Lots of things in the works.

My overall plan, and it is on schedule, is to polish the new work off in the summer, and hopefully have the whole thing done by winter 2025, at which time I plan to focus on collaboration and tracking.

Thank goodness I don't have to pay for studio time. I've been in the studio for hours upon hours.
December 2024
Friday 12/6/2024
The jam "Alone" that I released today has promise. I've been cutting up some of my jams, piecing together songs. I'm aiming for 3 solid songs (EP) as opposed to 12 mediocre songs with filler music. As far as sound goes, the drums are right where I want them. My synths and keys are sounding lush, the strings and mellotron are so sweet sounding.. and that bendy synth harmonica just does it for me.

The last thing left to tackle in my studio is my guitar. DI Box with an amp sim, sure. But I want to mix it with an actual amp with fuzz and distortion pedals. Thick and lush, kinda crunchy. The past few weeks have been blissful as far as studio operations go. The whitenoise is finally gone, and the gain staging is so much better.
Wednesday 12/4/2024
Practicing my mixing and mastering with these jams and mini jams has been a fantastic learning experience. Before this, I would start projects and never finish them, getting hung up on the small things expecting perfection. I've got hundreds of 25% finished projects. Not being able to get clean and hi-fidelity recordings is probably the biggest motivation killer one can experience in the recording process. On the flip side, when you can hear your tracks getting better, tighter, and sounding cleaner, it is a HUGE motivator to keep pushing.

Right now I'm loving how my drums sound. I thought I was loving them two months ago, but now I'm REALLY loving them. The signal chains are working, the mics are cooperating, interface is sounding clean and clear. Removing the toms led to a huge increase in quality (and motivation). I can always go back and record the tom parts with no snare. I feel like I just entered a cheat code in the recording process and it's AWESOME.
November 2024
Wednesday 11/20/2024
I bought 2 el cheapo phantom power boxes for my condensers since the R24 can't handle phantom power without that hissing white noise… and as I'm writing this I just realized I left them on. All night. Hopefully our power doesn't go out. Anyways, yesterday's playback yielded the bass drum track totally unusable, pure distortion like the mic went bad or the gain was cranked.. not exactly sure what's going on, but thoroughly irritated. Never had this problem before with any of my recording methods. God, the whole process is just so finicky. Will have to spend some time troubleshooting. Yay.
Friday 11/8/2024
Studio recording is such a finicky process. One of my small diaphragm condensers (Sterling Audio ST31) went bad. It was the one over the snare side. There was a constant white noise proportional to gain. I swapped cables, swapped inputs, and swapped mics— swapping mics was the solution.

I just ordered a "matched" pair of Behringer C-2 small diaphragm condenser mics for $45 on Amazon.. since they're all made and manufactured the same, I'm not sure how they wouldn't match.. ? Anyways, they arrive tomorrow. I figured I might as well replace both mics at the same time. I'm going to try mixing one C-2 with one ST31 just for kicks. I'll use the ST31 that works on guitar amps.
Thursday 11/7/2024
Now that the drum tracks are sounding like the bands I like as far as quality and fidelity, I'm going to focus back on the room. I've previously installed quote a bit of acoustic foam on the walls and ceilings, but left quite a bit undone. At the time, I couldn't really afford to splurge on tiles or treat the entire room. I bought what I could for the booth and the room, and the setup worked for 4ish years now. It could be better though. I want the room to have a bit flatter of an EQ curve like the booth since I'll start recording guitar soon.

Now I'm ready to finish treating the room. I just placed an order to Foam By Mail for forty-eight (48) 3" acoustic wedge tiles, twelve (12) 4" acoustic wedge tiles, and thirty two (32) 3×3×24" corner blocks. A side-effect of this treatment is that it should also help reduce sound bleed to the rest of the house.

Next signal chain up is guitar. I previously setup a few mics on amps and tried some amp sims in Reaper on a DI boxed guitar signal, but nothing solidified. I didn't really like what I heard, so I'll have to hit the drawing board and rethink the chain from the bottom up. I've got a few guitars, a few pedals, and a few mics. But for reference, I'm going for that thick distorted 2000s guitar sound. SOAD, Papa Roach, and Alien Ant Farm are all good examples of where I want my guitar tracks sonically. Rick Rubin is
The band. We have a strong online presence.
WYNTRONUS THE DRUMMER, Height: 193 feet
WYNTRONUS THE GUITARIST, Height: 195 feet
WYNTRONUS THE SYNTHESIZER, Height: 58 feet
WYNTRONUS THE VOCALIST, Height: 438 feet
Drums Daily Sound Checks
It's not all sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes stuff sounds rough. Sometimes you find gold by mistake. These sound checks are how I hone my tone to get it where I want it to be. So much music is recorded that ends up unused or discarded. These are some of those gems. I've sectioned out bits and pieces from these jam sessions into other works.
Sound Check 1

Dropbox

Sample 1.mp3

Recorded 9/26/24

Sound Check 2

Dropbox

Sample 2.mp3

Recorded 9/27/24

Sound Check 3

Dropbox

Sample 3.mp3

Recorded 9/29/24

Sound Check 4

Dropbox

Sample 4.mp3

Recorded 9/30/24

Sound Check 5

Dropbox

Sample 5.mp3

Recorded 10/10/24

Sound Check 6

Dropbox

Sample 6.mp3

Recorded 10/11/2024

Sound Check 7

Dropbox

Sample 8.mp3

Recorded 10/13/24

Sound Check 8

Dropbox

Sample 8.mp3

Recorded 10/13/24

Sound Check 9

Dropbox

Sample 9.mp3

Recorded 11/1/2024

TBD
TBD
TBD
Tracking Options
1
Live tracking
Live acoustic drums. No loops or samples.
2
Looped tracking
Live acoustic drums looped verse/chorus. No samples.
3
MIDI tracking
Virtually drummed MIDI tracks with realism.
4
Sample Packs
Pre-made sample packs with all my drums sounds.
Wyn's Recording Room
Wyn's Recording Room is the name I dubbed my studio. I track guitar and bass as well. Sometimes I mix on the 1s and 2s. Sometimes I scream in the mics as hard as I can like Matt Saunders.
I was given an electric guitar and a 100 watt amp as a high school graduation gift. It was a Washburn WI-66V with dual humbuckers. It's still my primary guitar.
Shortly thereafter I bought a custom used AO solid body electric bass and an Ampeg BA115.
Then I bought a Roland SH201 synth. It was sick. I loved that thing, but it eventually broke and I never replaced it.
Why I Play Drums
A friend got a drum set and let me play on them. I couldn't do anything, but it was fun, but I felt like I could teach myself. I begged my dad for a set and he eventually got me one. The rest was history.
What and Who I Like
I enjoy drumming, but love hard rock and metal (SOAD, QOTSA, A7X). When SOAD dropped H/M, they were on repeat. I also love psychedelic music (Pond, Tame Impala, The Flaming Lips).
Technical Information
I use a 32-input analog mixer fed directly via 8 busses to a Zoom R24. I use anywhere from 6 to 12 mics to capture my drums. I multi-track record into Reaper and finalize in FL Studio.
Drums Anchor Drums Galleon Series (# 247)
My custom drum set on delivery day, May 13, 2013. Unless otherwise needed, I typically use a one floor tom configuration. Two floor toms for extended low end.
Drums Snare Drum List
  1. 14×10 Anchor Drums Galleon mahogany with maple re-rings
  1. 14×10 Drum Maker custom maple snare in dark walnut
  1. 14×8 Tama Art Star 80s 1" thick shell in piano black
  1. 14×7 Orange County 25-ply vented in silver to black sparkle fade
  1. 14×6.5 Ludwig Acrolite Reissue with diecast hoops in brushed chrome
  1. 14×10 Anchor Drums Galleon maple (set snare)
The Process
1A
You Provide a Drumless Track
Give me a track and I'll add drums over it.
1B
You Provide a Description
No drums? No problem. Describe the sound.
1C
You Provide a Drumming Track
Have me reinterpret your percussion track.
2
I Record The Percussion
I'll create the percussion track for your song.
3
You Approve / Revise
Listen and approve/revise as needed
4
I upload to Dropbox
When you approve, I upload HQ track(s)
Hardware+Software Gear
Drum Set
Anchor Drums Galleon Maple

Dark Walnut with a Burnt Walnut center stripe with white pearl inlay
26×20 kick
14×10 snare
14×9 rack tom
16×16 floor tom
18×18 floor tom
Snare Drums
I typically record with the Acrolite and play live with one of the deep snares.

14×6.5 Ludwig Acrolite Reissue
14×8 Tama ArtStar 1" thick shell
14×7 OCDP 40-ply vented snare
14×10 Drum Maker maple snare
14×10 Anchor Drums Maple (set)
14×10 Anchor Drums Mahogany
Traditional Cymbals
14" K Custom Dark Top Hi-Hat
14" A Custom Bottom Hi-Hat
15" A New Beat Hi-Hats
15" A Custom Mastersound Hi-Hats
18" K Custom Dark Crash Thin
18" K Custom Dark Crash Medium
20" A Custom Medium Ride
20" K Special Dry Ride
20" K Custom Dark Ride
21" K Brilliant Crash/Ride
Microphones
Audix d6 / Audix i5
Shure PG57 / PG58 / SM57 / SM58
AKG Perception 220
Sennheiser e609
Sterling ST30
Nady Jumbo bass
VXL 2200
SM57 clones
Nady SPC25
Low Volume Cymbals
2x 14" Hi-Hats
2x 16" and 18" Fast Crashes
2x 20" Crash Ride

These are the cymbals I typically use to track with. They're clean, fast, and quiet. They're perfect companion cymbals for a studio recording drum set.
DAWs
FL Studio [Mastering, MIDI, electronic elements]
Reaper [Multi-Track Recording, general tracking]
Ableton Live
Korg Nintendo Switch
Timbaland PSP Beat Machine