Nicko McBrain

Lego said:
To my knowledge, BNW is the only album where the drums are essentially entirely sample-replaced.

On basically all other reunion studio and live albums at least, the kick and snare (and sometimes the toms) are augmented with samples to a certain degree, but it's just certain songs or parts of songs and not entire albums, and in most cases the natural drum sound is still present, so it's not fully replaced.

Check out this isolated drum track of The Wicker Man and you'll hear how the toms, kick, and snare are sample-replaced. The cymbals are still live though.
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His playing in the chorus of ''The Wicker Man'' is incredible - it sounds like a double bass pedal, but it's not.
 
Lego said:
To my knowledge, BNW is the only album where the drums are essentially entirely sample-replaced.

On basically all other reunion studio and live albums at least, the kick and snare (and sometimes the toms) are augmented with samples to a certain degree, but it's just certain songs or parts of songs and not entire albums, and in most cases the natural drum sound is still present, so it's not fully replaced.

Check out this isolated drum track of The Wicker Man and you'll hear how the toms, kick, and snare are sample-replaced. The cymbals are still live though.
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Does anybody know, where to get Wickerman snare and kick samples?
Btw even if snare/kick mics aren’t used in the mix (except for triggering samples), they are naturally in the overheads, so they aren’t removed “entirely”.
 
jazz from hell said:
Does anybody know, where to get Wickerman snare and kick samples?
Btw even if snare/kick mics aren’t used in the mix (except for triggering samples), they are naturally in the overheads, so they aren’t removed “entirely”.
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I'm pretty sure this drum track is pulled from a video game like Rock Band or Guitar Hero.

You're right the natural drums are still in the overheads, but on other reunion albums the close mics for the drums are also in the mix. On BNW there's basically no natural close mics in the mix.
 
IMO you should use samle replacements everywhere in this kind of music. It's just more pleasant to have a nice full sound everywhere. Who are we kidding, heavy metal was never acoustic in the first place.

Auto tune the guitars, sample replace the drums and use the compression and tuning needed on the vocals to make it sit well in the mix and produce the most professional sounding album possible. Doesn't mean it is fake. It just makes it sound well produced and unlike a band in a rehearsal space.

What I don't like is bands using 30 backup tracks in a live setting played to a metronome. That's not live.

Edit: https://physician-news.umiamihealth...sage-not-to-ignore-persistent-vocal-problems/

Has this been reported anywhere else? According to the article, Nicko had cancer in 2020.
 
Maturin said:
IMO you should use samle replacements everywhere in this kind of music. It's just more pleasant to have a nice full sound everywhere. Who are we kidding, heavy metal was never acoustic in the first place.

Auto tune the guitars, sample replace the drums and use the compression and tuning needed on the vocals to make it sit well in the mix and produce the most professional sounding album possible. Doesn't mean it is fake. It just makes it sound well produced and unlike a band in a rehearsal space.

What I don't like is bands using 30 backup tracks in a live setting played to a metronome. That's not live.

Edit: https://physician-news.umiamihealth...sage-not-to-ignore-persistent-vocal-problems/

Has this been reported anywhere else? According to the article, Nicko had cancer in 2020.
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It was reported in an article a few pages back. However AFAIK it was discovered early and after a simple operation Nicko is back at 100% while keeping regular checks at the hospital.
 
Maturin said:
IMO you should use samle replacements everywhere in this kind of music. It's just more pleasant to have a nice full sound everywhere. Who are we kidding, heavy metal was never acoustic in the first place.

Auto tune the guitars, sample replace the drums and use the compression and tuning needed on the vocals to make it sit well in the mix and produce the most professional sounding album possible. Doesn't mean it is fake. It just makes it sound well produced and unlike a band in a rehearsal space.

What I don't like is bands using 30 backup tracks in a live setting played to a metronome. That's not live.
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Sorry but this is Maiden.

Maiden = LESS fake than the average 21st century metal band.

It is good to know Maiden never took it as far as BNW again. When I look at it, for me it is not just about sound. It's also about authenticity. Maiden is an institute you're not going to replace the drums in. Just fuck that.
 
I had no idea about the samples. At least it's not quantized, you can hear it's not perfectly on the beat all the time. Gives it a bit more of a live feeling.
 
Yes the sample replacement is a weird sonic detail, while playing to grid would ruin Iron Maiden 100%.

I mean you can have a live band with electronic drums and keyboards, they still play live.
 
Forostar said:
Sorry but this is Maiden.

Maiden = LESS fake than the average 21st century metal band.

It is good to know Maiden never took it as far as BNW again. When I look at it, for me it is not just about sound. It's also about authenticity. Maiden is an institute you're not going to replace the drums in. Just fuck that.
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Sorry, but no one complained before. If you want to complain about the drums being fake, complain about the guitars being tuned. There's no way you are going to make a decent sounding record without tuning the guitars in post production if you record live with three guitarplayers.

It's just another effect.

Want to get into recording the new album's songs in sections as well, pasting them together in post production?
 
Nicko plays ''Losfer Words (Big 'Orra)'' live in 2009. Does someone know more info about this?

 
Kalata said:
Nicko plays ''Losfer Words (Big 'Orra)'' live in 2009. Does someone know more info about this?

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London Guitar Show. Nicko lots of those with Phil Hilborne.

In 2006, they did Tie Your Mother Down with Bruce as a guest on vocals, but the video of that is gone.

Other songs they did through years are the likes of RTTH (with Bruce), Trooper, Lady Double Dealer, Gates Of Babylon, Black Night, Smoke On The Water, Little Wing, Going Down and so on.
 
Nicko played TWOTW during one of his shows in Rock 'N Roll Ribs a few days ago:


Here is the full setlist:

Moonchild
The Clairvoyant
Blood Brothers
Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
The Clansman
Infinite Dreams
Hallowed Be Thy Name
The Writing On The Wall
Running Free
Fear Of The Dark
The Trooper
Wrathchild
 
Nicko also played....... * drumfill *

INFINITE DREAMS!

GO TO 14:51!


Man I hope Maiden will do this. Someone, send this to 'Arry / the band!
 
jazz from hell said:
Yes, it’s very cool, both kick and snare are great imo. I’m interested in Kevin’s samples...
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The key is the tuning and the compressor/eq Shirley uses. He used the same approach for live releases which had no sequencing data attached to them, like ME'88 - check out the snare sound vs the original snare sound.

MIDI is a finesse here, icing. Done to process the dynamics of playing in a slightly different fashion and have that as a layer in the mix. The samples are probably the samples of the Nicko's drumkit. I am interested about this and would like to know more, I presume what I wrote due to some humble experiences...the idea is to not lose the smacking timbre of a snare or bass drum hit very hard, even if you're playing less agressive and the part is "more silent" because the guitars are a wall. Set the sampler to play the peak hit from a same kit sample, but adapt volume as input hit velocity changes, mix that up with real drum track, and you still partially retain the full timbre even on less intensive playing. (The more wet you go in this direction the less natural the drum dynamics get)

Imho, this is what's missing on the Dance of Death. Guitars are still 'wally' but drums are not as explosive.
 
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