drum kit for home studio

A

axeman_ukl

New member
if you were going to buy a kit only for recording at home in a spare bedroom would a smaller shell pack be better 8 10 12 and 18 bass or would this sound too small or a fusion size kit or a normal size kit ?

would a small size kit be easier to control the sound or would it sound small on the recordings ie not beefey enough

sorry for this not sounding right but i can not think of another way of putting it
 
I play a tiny kit - 10, 13 toms and a 16 kick. As much as I like it personally, it's definitely a niche sound. For general recording I'd stick with something more versatile like 10 12 14 20.
 
The problem with small kits is most drummers try to tune them too low. Tuning a small kit low will not make it sound like a bigger kit, it just makes them sound dull or lifeless. Small kits have their use and sound great on certain songs. Most of the drummers I've met preferr more of a full size set up, at least something cloce to the size sets they are used to using for live gigs. My kit has 12, 13, 14, 16 inch toms, 22 bass and 14 snare. This is a pretty standard size set and seems to be cloce to what most drummers are used to.
 
I have to agree with Dr Josh and Dani Pace.
I have a small kit (18 kick 8-10-12 toms) and it sounds good, but I don't like it on everything. It has a punchy sound that works on lighter music arraingements.

But I bought a second (and third) kit that I use by FAR the most that is a 20" Kick 12-14-16 toms.
It works on pretty much everything light or heavy.
 
If I had to choose one kit for recording it would be a 20" kick with 10", 12" and 14" toms. That provides enough flexibility for almost any genre of music

I have three kits (4 if I count my V-Drums) my mahogany kit has an 18" kick with 10 & 14 toms - my maple kit has 22" kick with 10-12-14-16 toms and my birch kit has a 20" kick with 10-12-14 toms.

The birch kit is my "go to" kit for acoustic recording (although the V-drums get used more than any acoustic kit for recording)
 
so for home recording would you favour e drums with something like bfd ?
just for the ease of quality of sounds and noise levels
 
axeman_ukl said:
so for home recording would you favour e drums with something like bfd ?
just for the ease of quality of sounds and noise levels
Click to expand...

Naturally, it depends on what you want to achieve. While an electornic kit will never sound better than a quality, well tuned, well mic'd kit - there are many advantages to an e-kit.

A decent 5 piece, acoustic kit can cost about $500. A set of decent cymbals (say a ride, 2 crashes and hats) can cost another $500. If you chose to close mic with overheads you can be looking at another $500 for decent mics, cables, mic stands, etc. You then need at least 7 channels to track the drums - this mean either a decent sized studio board, a sub-mixer or plenty of A/D channels.

After all that cost, you still need to know how to tune the drums well and have a decent sounding room to record in (the room is often a weak spot in most "home studios"). Since drums are very loud instruments - you either need a secluded location.......or very cooperative family/neighbors.

While e-kits vary in cost and capabilities, my V-Drums (TD10 kit) allows me to send up to 8 seperate channels of drums (I have a 32 channel mixer to send to) - or I can simply choose a stereo or even mono send. I don't need any mics, stands etc. Naturally, if triggering something like BFD - all I need is a single MIDI cable to send the drum performance to the computer.

I don't really have to know how to tune drums (although since I'm a drummer with many years experiance - I do know how to tune) and I can literally dial in hundreds of drum, cymbal and percusion sounds.

I don't need a great sounding room............and I can record any time day or night without disturbing anyone - I do most of my recording at night - often well into the early morning and most of my neighbors don't even know that I play drums.

So - while I can't tell you what is right for you...................yes, I personally favour e-drums for a home studio. I have used BFD and was very satisfied with most of the results.
 
Mikeh has really hit the nail on the head.
I really prefer as a drummer, to play a real kit.
The enjoyment and complexities of nuance and expression can not be matched with todays offerings in E-Drums.

Having said that, the support gear (and facility)for doing a reasonably good job of recording will bloat your gear costs tremendously over what you would spend recording any other instrument I know of.

I played E-Drums for years and finally took the plunge to build my own facility so I could have my cake and eat it too. Now I have payments on that cake!

I'm not saying that someone can't get good recordings with 3 mics and a bedroom, but the effort in working with that may not be worth it to you. the trade off for using the e-drums of having consistantly good sounds even with the limitations of dynamic expressions and funky cymbal sounds, sure makes it appealing for many.
 
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