Electronic drum recording with laptop?

S

shrinebuilder

New member
Hi,

I am about to buy my first electronic drum kit. The reason is because I need to record, and I don't have room in my student accommodation for an acoustic set or a bunch of mics and the like.

I don't really know the best drum kit to get for this, but my main question is this: I have a pretty normal laptop I got from Sam's Club in the U.S. for school reasons, I use it for all my Uni stuff (ie essays, projects, etc.) I have the money for an e-kit and some software, but I have no idea where to start at all.

What software should I be looking at, what would be best for drums? How would I hook up the kit? How would I set up said software?

Thanks very much. Totally new to recording, let alone laptop recording.

-K
 
Tough to say on the Laptop. Check the specs and make sure it meets whatever the requirements are for the software your going to run.

My advice would be to just use a MIDI interface and record the MIDI data and use that to trigger something like EZ Drummer. For recording software you could check out reaper, it's free to try so if your laptop can't handle you don't lose anything.
 
EZ Drummer with Drumkit From Hell expansion? =D Well perhaps not. It's great for Metal and a bit of Rock, but dunno what kinda music you'll be playing. EZ Drummer is a good place to start in general though.

Have a look at Alesis for actual kits. They do some pretty good stuff and for fairly cheap. generally around the same price as a regular kit, rather than the huge price e-kits usually have.

Definitely make sure you can handle it on that laptop too. They aren't really the best option for recording, but if you're lucky, you'll be able to get something good.

You could probably get away with a cheap MIDI interface for connecting. No particular need for a proper interface unless you're planning on using some real audio instruments too.
 
I'd second a MIDI interface. Almost invariably you are going to get better drum sounds out of a software program like EZDrummer or Superior 2.0 than you ever will except with the most expensive e-kits...and even then you might find yourself wishing for more flexibility than the limitations of the e-kit brain can offer.

I'd skimp a bit on the kit and save up for a quality drum engine like S2.0.
 
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