Recorded a demo with my phone mic in a parking garage to see what would happen

I set up my drum kit in an empty parking garage at night and recorded a punk demo using just the voice memos app on my iPhone. The reverb was insane but I got a weird hollow thump from the concrete floor that ruined the kick drum sound. Has anyone else tried recording in weird spots and gotten a surprise sound you couldn't fix?

2 comments

2 Comments

matthew_baker1mo ago

Flip that around on you for a second. That hollow thump is actually a gift, not a problem. Punk is supposed to sound raw and janky, not polished. If your kick drum sounded clean and perfect you'd just be another generic band that recorded in a treated studio. Concrete floor thump is the sound of being broke and desperate and I honestly love it. Bands like The Stooges or early Black Flag had all kinds of fucked up sounds on their recordings and that's what made them legendary. Your kick drum being weird is a feature, not a bug. Lean into it and call it "character.

parkerrodriguez1mo ago

Are we really acting like a shitty kick drum sound is some kind of artistic statement now? I get that punk is supposed to be raw but there's a difference between intentional grit and just bad recording technique. The Stooges and Black Flag had that energy because of their playing and songwriting, not because their kick drum sounded like someone kicking a cardboard box in a basement. If you're going for that "broke and desperate" sound just be honest that you couldn't afford a proper microphone or a decent room to record in. Slapping the "character" label on it feels like a way to avoid improving your actual recording skills. I'd rather hear a punk band that sounds clear and tight than one that hides behind bad audio quality pretending its punk cred.