Nigel Olsson's Snare

I've been listening to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and I'm really intrigued by Nigel Olsson's unique snare sound. It sounds soft and mushy but tight at the same time. I know that makes little sense. Does anybody know how he got that sound? It's really prominent on Love Lies Bleeding, Bennie and the Jets and Your Sister Can't Twist.

 

I hope this won't be considered a hijack, but since the subject is Nigel Olsson's drum sound... I've always wondered about his tom sound, on Don't Shoot Me... in particular.

The way those toms just crack and slice through the music on that album... oh man, I've always loved it. Some of the drum fills just make me shiver when I hear them! ("Have Mercy on the Criminal" readily comes to mind. ) The only album I've ever heard with a similar tom sound is Devo's Duty Now for the Future. (Also engineered by Ken Scott!)

I'd love to know the story behind this, though I wouldn't be surprised to find this exact sound wasn't deliberate at all... or was it?

 

Hopefully Ken will chime in here but it sounds like there's a lot of the bottom snare mic coming through. Most of the time we hear more of the top snare mic for that crack sound. I guess I like more of the snare sound than most people do but I really dig the engineering on Yellow Brick Road too.

 

I've read many times that Gus Dudgeon and Nigel worked quite closely on drum sounds, culminating with the Capt. Fantastic album and particularly the track "Better Off Dead". I could be mistaken, but part of his sound was using a Slingerland concert tom drum kit (no skins underneath), close miked, with heavy compression.

 

I like the sound as an effect for a particular song, however I think as a "signature' sound it gets a little over bearing, almost distracting. I do recall on "Better Off Dead" they worked to get that sound, which I think is much different from the sound on GYR. I always liked his wooden kit, that was pretty cool looking.

 

To my knowledge, Nigel always used single-headed Slingerland drums on the classic Elton albums. Single-headed, or "concert" toms, were popular in the 70's. They're more easily tuned to specific pitches and are very attack-y (think Phil Collins, who has used them 99.9% of the time), but lack that big "chesty" depth, owing to the lack of the bottom, or resonating, head.

Never been able to find any info on what snare he used, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was a deeper wooden one. I have a 7" deep Slingerland snare from the 80's, and it has all those thick qualities when recorded. Crap, even my woofer moves when I listen to a playback. It's Nigel all the way!



Dan

 

That was going to be my guess too. A deeper shell could produce that kind of sound and still retain the "crack."

 

Just going by memory, but doesn't the drum sound on Better Off Dead have almost an ADT like sound, or a heavy tape delay?

 

Nigel has the best live drum sound i have ever heard, by a long way

 

I swear I thought you asked about Nigels "Snarl" I was thinking maybe he is talking about Elvis?

 

Sounds like he put a light towell on the snare to me... The high end on the snare seems kind of boosted as well.
Davey said they always used a lot of mics on the drums, even back then.

 

Well, it's split between left and right channels so you are remembering it correctly!

The punch of the Gus Dudgeon drum sound is considerably lost on
trebly remastered cds/sacds. The older cds sure flatter this
particular aspect of these Elton/Dudgeon/Olsson recordings.

My mom's bf and I used to discuss this drum sound at length
and here we are 25 years later STILL discussing it.

 

Nigel had to double track Better Off Dead. In an old radio interview in Atlanta, he said it was a bear playing with himself.

Yeah cool tom sound on Don't shoot me. Love it on High Flying Bird.

Anyone ever notice that he overdubbed the hit hat work for Funeral for a Friend?

 

I'm not a drummer, just a music listener. But I always thought that Nigel was really reserved with the cymbals. Seems like where most would hit the crash, he just lets it go. Kinda builds up and doesn't release. Anyone else think this or am I crazy?

 

No you're not. A good example is one of his tom fills near the end of Someone Saved My Life Tonight. Again, going by memory, I think he does one of his patented bum, bum ba bomp .....and then, no cymbal.

 

Check out his drum fills on the outro of Curtains from the CF album.

Musically that's such a great record for all who participated (mainly the band).