Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to All Your Questions About Recording Online Drum Tracks With Chris
Have Some Questions for Chris?
Below you will hopefully find everything you wanted to know about hiring Chris Brush for online drum tracks. The questions are divided into three categories — General Questions, Pricing Questions, and Why Use Chris for Your Remote Drum Session?
If the question you have is not covered here, feel free to reach out to Chris directly and ask away!
General Questions
Hiring a session drummer online should be the next best thing to recording drum tracks in a fully outfitted commercial studio. My years of experience playing and producing in studios in Nashville, TN ensure you will receive professionally engineered online drum tracks that feature creative, passionate performances — giving you options that satisfy and hopefully exceed your expectations. Watch the video below to see what hiring a professional online session drummer brings to your project.
Straight forward with the questions, huh? I actually have a whole section in the FAQ to deal with that.
On this page, you can see and hear examples of what you get when you hire Chris to record your custom drum tracks. In addition, you can download some drum multi-tracks for your evaluation absolutely free.
It depends on the project. I have divided my rates up into tiers for demo sessions, Basic Master sessions and Custom Master sessions. Each tier has rates per song, with volume discounts available. Each package yields top quality custom drum tracks. The rates are outlined here or you can always contact me directly.
It's a simple process to be sure. Find out all about it in detail here.
Nope! That’s the beauty of hiring a professional drummer for a remote session. I rely on my years of experience playing drums on numerous recordings to create dynamic performances that serve the song without needing to be guided through the process. Of course, I will always do my best to follow any guidance that a client gives me, but you don’t have to have your drum parts all figured out before sending me tracks.
Not unless you ask me to. I normally consider any programmed drum part to be a general guide and not a specific indicator of exactly what beats and fills to play. If some part of a programmed guide is really important to you, please make sure I know that before recording. If it is important to receive a note for note performance of your programmed part, I am happy to offer you a note for note transcription option for a $75 fee that covers my time transcribing and learning your guide tracks.
Yes, indeed! If you wish to customize your remote drum sessions, I offer that through my Custom Master session package.
I have several different kits and even more snares I choose from depending on the project. You can learn more here.
A fine question. I actually talk about the gear I use on my about page here.
Short answer: anything. Long answer: I think a good way of describing myself is as a rock/pop drummer with a jazz leaning who ends up a little left of center from the norm. I feel I have a creative approach to many styles. There’s a lot of diversity in the projects I work on and you can see and hear some of that on my examples page.
Absolutely. Found objects, crazy mics, weird filters, samples, drum triggers, etc. I can sequence loops with software and/or play and alter them live. This service is available as one of my remote drum session Add-On Session Services.
I do. In addition to the simple things like shaker and tambourine, I studied a decent amount of Latin and Afro-Cuban percussion styles and instruments during my formative years. In the interest of full disclosure, I’m not great at keyboard or mallet percussion like marimba, xylophone, or vibes.
Sure! I work out of my own studio in Nashville, TN. I designed and built it myself and it is where I record all my drum tracks as well as produce and mix projects. My studio features separate control and tracking rooms, can accommodate multiple musicians, great mics and gear, and even some unique equipment I built myself. Learn more about my studio here!
Of course! Tracking sessions are always more fun with other musicians. While this site focuses primarily on my remote drumming services, I do have my own studio and am capable of recording entire projects that I produce from start to finish. Reach out if you'd like to know more!
I do quite a bit of mixing and do a fair amount of writing and production. Learn more about it here.
Pricing Questions
Let me start by saying there are no differences in sound quality or microphone count between the packages. Rather, the difference is in the number of takes and additional services included.
I originally designed the Demo package for songwriters and publishers here in Nashville that needed high quality single takes without a lot of direction and a quick turnaround. In traditional recording sessions, a demo is never intended to be released for sale and is used to be pitch to various artists or labels with the intent of being re-recorded as a master. However, if you are wanting to keep the cost down and only need a single take of killer drums, I am happy to offer the Demo rate for songs intended for release.
The Basic Master package is my main offering — 3 takes of up to 23 microphones. With multiple takes, you can further refine and edit the performance by cutting and pasting between the takes (normally called “comping” as it results in a composite take) to arrive at what you feel is the ideal drum performance for your song. If you want great live drum tracks and some options to choose from, this is the package for you.
The Custom Master package is my top tier offering. If your song requires a very unique drum or microphone setup, if you want to have a hand in choosing the drum sounds you feel will work best, if you want to have additional part or percussion overdubs, if you want hit samples from the kit for use in mixing, or if you want the drum tracks edited to the grid or delivered in a certain way, this is your option.
I do offer discounts based on song quantity for both Basic and Custom Master Session Packages. The discount available varies with the size of the project.
I also offer custom prices and deliverables for certain projects — music library, TV/movie cue, etc.
Absolutely. That is something I handle on a client-by-client basis. Just ask.
I invoice and receive payment for online drum tracks through Venmo or PayPal under most circumstances. However, I am open to alternate payment methods. Just let me know if Venmo is not a preferred option for you and I’m sure we can work something out.
No. Normally I invoice via Venmo or PayPal after completing the recording. For first time clients, I am happy to bounce MP3 roughs of the drum takes against the scratch tracks for proof of concept. I only release the high quality multi-tracks after payment has been made.
I do my absolute best to make sure that the drum takes clients receive (3 takes at least for both Basic and Custom Master packages) provide suitable stylistic options as well as incorporate all client performance notes. I can count on my ten fingers the number of retakes requested over the last several years of offering remote drum sessions.
That said, if there’s a revision a client wants made, I charge a reduced fee of $75 per song to deliver a single revised take. The fee covers my time in recalling the session notes and kit sounds.
I’m not out to break budgets or stick clients with all sorts of fees. However, super long songs can take a much longer time to record and I might request additional payment to cover my work.
I do not have a hard limit but generally say anything within the 6 minute mark is covered by the song rate. For longer works, I get with the client on a case-by-case basis. If one song out of ten is super long, I may not charge any extra because of the quantity. If one song is 7 minutes long but super simple, I may not charge anything extra. If you have a one-off 13 minute rock odyssey, we will probably need to work out a custom rate. Always feel free to ask.
I have found that some clients, while they LOVE live drums on their music, don’t have a lot of experience with managing and mixing drum multi-tracks. After more than a few clients asked for help, I decided to offer to mix down the multi-track drums from client remote session for $75 per song. I mix your custom drum tracks into more manageable stems that further tailor the kit sounds to your song. First, the client chooses and sends to me their preferred take or a take comped from the multiple ones I originally recorded. Second, I mix the final multi-track drums into stems:
- close mics
- ambient mics
- character mics and processing
- drum effects (verb, delay, whatever the song seems to need)
These stems reduce the number of drum tracks you have to deal with, are further made a part of the song with EQ, compression, and other effects, and still allow you to vary the balance between different aspects of the kit. My goal is to process the drums like I would in a mix, but not so heavy-handed as to box you in sonically. I want to leave room for further processing as the song develops.
Most of the time, clients expect me to play what I think appropriate for the song. Any programmed drum tracks are simply there as a guide or were a stock groove over which the song was written.
Occasionally, clients want to have at least one of my drum takes be as exact a performance of their programmed part as possible. I offer the Transcribed Take Add-On for $75 a song to both meet the client’s desires and cover my time in transcribing, learning, and performing the programmed drum part.
These days, a lot of artists, whether recording in traditional commercial studios with a full band or remotely at multiple facilities, like to have “in studio” footage of their songs being recorded for use in promotional materials (music videos, crowdfunding campaigns, social media posts). While not a video guru, I am happy to offer single-camera video footage of myself playing the takes that make up your remote drum session.
I offer this service for $25 per song and you receive a 60fps 1080p video looking over my left shoulder as I track. For $50 a song, I can add a second overhead camera angle or further edit the video by replacing the camera audio with a synced rough mix of the recorded drums.
If you have video ideas for what you would like to see, just let me know and we can figure it out!
Why Use Chris?
Chris has studied and played everything from Rock to Jazz and everything in between. Folky? Check. Hard Rock? Check. New Orleans Funky? Check. Country? Check. Spacey Electronic? Check. Latin? Check. Asian/Klezmer Sub-Oceanic Fusion? Well, I’m sure there’s SOME way. Check out some of Chris’ versatility here.
Chris is not a newcomer to the session scene or even as an online session drummer. Chris has been playing on various master and demo sessions in and around the Nashville area for over a decade. All that playing under the scrutiny of the mics has given Chris a great deal of experience in providing producers and artists with the professional feel, tone, and performance they desire in a minimum amount of time and with a great attitude. For the last several years Chris has brought that professionalism and passion to online drum tracks. Find out more about Chris here.
Part of what makes Chris such an instinctual and musically sensitive player is the fact that he also is an experienced engineer and producer. His production skills definitely come into play behind the kit when recording custom drum tracks. Chris listens to the song as a whole, and constructs a part that fits in and communicates the intent of the music. His engineering talents ensure Chris gets the sound a client wants for his/her music, be it in the recording or mix phase. Find out more about Chris’ engineering and production work here.
Chris’ Nashville studio is a fantastic, full-production facility. Chris designed and built it himself to be a well-equipped, vibey place to record. Chris not only tracks remote drums there, but also produces, records, and mixes full projects from his personal sonic temple. Learn more about Chris' studio here.
Each session is different. Producers and artists often want wildly different things from a drum performance. They want things done efficiently and don't have access to traditionally bigger budgets that provided for a dedicated engineer (and assistant), equipment cartage, and the studio time necessary for switching, tuning, and miking different setups. Chris addresses this issue by providing “overcapture” — different complementary sets of microphones recording the drums that allow you to dial in the sound you want for online drum tracks. Check out how Chris does it here.
Recording budgets are a shadow of what they used to be. Producers and artists are looking to get the most bang for their buck. Chris offers multiple pricing tiers to put choice back in the hands of the client. All pricing tiers yield passionately performed, top quality custom drum tracks. Premium packages offer valuable customizations to further enhance your session experience. Within each pricing tier, Chris offers discounts based on volume. Determine the package that’s right for your next recording project here.
Besides just recording great sounding live drum tracks, Chris offers clients additional services that can further enhance their remote drum session. Choose from Add-Ons like percussion overdubs, drum programming, drum samples from your session, pre-mixing drum enhancement, note-for-note performances of programmed parts, track editing and grid alignment, and more. Get more form your remote drum tracks! Find out about Chris’ Add-On Session Services here.