What do I need to connect electronic drums to PC ?

mr.rudy

New member
A newbie could use some help...I want to buy Toontrack EZdrummer and some electronic drum kit -most probably by Roland (nothing out of the ordinary). I have an M-Audio 2496 soundcard. An electronic drum kit has a cable for every drum/cymbal, right? And each one of them should go into the soundcard, right? Since the soundcard has fewer inputs than an electronic drum kit needs, I assume I need something more than that :). I hope it is not as expensive as a mixer. Maybe some preamp?

pozdro
 
Electric kits do have a wire/lead for every pad but they all go into the brain and then there's one main output from there, so you'll probably be ok with what you have :)

It'll be line level output, so no preamp needed.
 
I just got done my first recording using my yamaha electric kit. Like the post says above, all of the triggers go into the drum module. I dunno about the Rolands, but mine has a right and left channel out of the module. I customized a kit to where the drums came out of the left channel and the cymbals/high hat came out of the right channel and recorded them to seperate tracks. While not nescesarily ideal (lots of guys seperate the snare, bass and toms), I found that I could get a better sound by working with those groupings seperatley (EQ, reverb ect.) and then mix them together. Hope this helps!
 
Yes the kit should have analog out - AND optionally - MIDI or USB.

I just picked up a Alesis DM5 pro (only 499 on ebay NEW there is a dealer that has several posted) 100.00 less than MF and other dealers.

Came quick and I had it all setup in 90 minutes. I'm THRILLED with it and the sounds and performance. I run the line outs (audio) into a GNX4 effects pedal that I no longer use for guitar. (I use this as a metronome and drum machine) for my guitar music. I now use it as a metronome for learning drums. It's a blask. It has USB so I could record through it, and (do to the onboard recorder). For computer sequencer software - I use the midi ports (has midi in and out) with the in, I can play midi songs on the computer in any player and they PLAY the drum parts on the electronic drums!

I can also play the drums and record the MIDI of the drums - as played..

P.S. why toontrack EZ dummer? why not just a kit... it has all the effects and sets... use midi files if yuo want automation.
OR - (since I have the GNX4 plugged into a Tone port UX8) the drum machine and or electronic drums also go into the UX8 which is a interface to the computer to record audio - (I can record 8 tracks at one time). Including the electronic drums. This set also lets you set pan for each drum trigger...
so you have put some drums centered in the stereo field and others left or right of the center of the strereo field. For example the 3 toms can got from center, to center right - to full right... as you do a fill, you hear it move from center to right. Hi hat can be in full left or center left...

This set is awesome.
 
If You're going with EZDrummer be sure to get a kit with a drum brain that has MIDI OUT. That's all you need if you are using the drum sounds from ezdrummer.

You'd only want to record the seperate pieces of each kit if you had a brum brain with samples on par or better than what's in ezdrummer, even then you would looses the ability to use mic bleed ect.

This determined the kit I bought when I went the ezdrummer route. As I knew I was going to solely use the EZdrummer sounds I just bought the cheapest eDrums I could. Even with the top of the line roland kits, you're paying more for the luxuary of more seperate outputs and a few better samples that are stored in the brain, none of which you are gonna use with EZDRUMMER.

As for what you need.....

you already have a 24/96...that comes with a midi breakout lead. You can patch that to the midi out of the drum module and still have the Left and Right analog inputs free fos a bass and a guitar, or a guitar and a vocal. You don't need any more inputs at this stage.

Good luck with it, I'm sure you will be impressed with what EZ has to offer. And check their website, they should be releasing Superior 2.0 at the end of the quarter

Alex
 
I should just add....

When you record into EZdrummer using MIDI your seperate drum tracks show up like this... Kick, Snare top, Snare bottom, TOMS (stereo track with each tom panable to where you want in the stereo field), OVERHEADS, (stereo track with the ability to turn the bleed from the rest of the kit on and off) ROOM MIC (mono or stereo)

Each track can then be processed any way you want with gates, compression, EQ, Reverb or anything else you want to put on them. Very versatile drum package.
 
You can control any soft synth with any e-drum brain as long as you have MIDI OUT from brain and IN to computer. I do it with an old Yamaha TMX, there's one on ebay now for $15.
 
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