How to record V-Drums in Logic Express?

Johnka

New member
I’m trying to record my V-Drums through the M-Audio 2626 interface into Logic Express. I’m able to trigger sounds in the Logic Express library when I conned the MIDI-out on the V-drums to the M-Audio.

But I’d like to record the Roland drum sounds through Logic. Has anyone had success with this?

I tried connecting the audio out from the V-drums into channel 1 on the M-Audio with a 1/4-inch instrument cable. I can hear the drum kit through the M-Audio via the headphone jack, but not through Logic Express.

If anyone has successfully recorded Roland V-drums in Logic, any information would be helpful.

Many thanks for your time.
 
You can record the Roland drum sounds through Logic in two ways:

1. Connect the audio output from the Roland drums into your interface using a 1/4 inch cable, set your interface as the audio input for Logic, set up a new audio track in Logic, and set the input for the audio track as whatever input you plugged the Roland drums into. This should record a mono (or stereo if you choose to run two cables to the interface) audio track of the drums into Logic. I'm not sure why you were having trouble doing this before.

2. Since you can already trigger the stock MIDI instruments in Logic from your Roland kit, you could repeat the steps in option #1 to connect the Roland to your interface with a 1/4 inch cable. However, rather than just recording the straight audio track from the drums this time, you're going to want to sample each individual drum sound for the electric kit you want to use. Once you have each sample recorded, you need to split each sample into its own .WAV file, making sure the sample's beginning is pushed to the VERY beginning of the .WAV file. Once you have all your samples sorted out, follow the steps on How to Create a Custom Instrument with Logic’s EXS Sampler to create a new software instrument out of the samples. On that page, you can modify step 4 to click "Load Multiple Samples" instead of "New Zone" to speed up the process. If you modify step 4, skip step 5. Also skip steps 6, 7, and 9. Once you have followed all the instructions on that page, the final step is to make sure the Roland kit properly plays through the new software instrument you have created. You may have to look up what MIDI notes the Roland kit is triggering when you hit each drum pad so you can make sure your samples in your software instrument match up with the proper drum pad. When this is all set up, you should have a fully-functioning Roland MIDI-controlled software instrument in Logic!
 
Great response! I've worked through number 1 fine, but no sound comes through Logic, although I can see and hear it through the M-Audio mixer. I've tried inputs 1 and 2, and pointed to them both in Logic, but still nothing. Does it matter what output I choose for the Audio track (Bus 1)?

I'll work my way through no. 2 and let you know how it goes.
 
Your output should be "Stereo Out" rather than "Bus 1," unless you have Aux 1 routed to the Stereo Out. Try selecting Stereo Out for the output and make sure the track is armed for recording and not muted.
 
Your output should be "Stereo Out" rather than "Bus 1," unless you have Aux 1 routed to the Stereo Out. Try selecting Stereo Out for the output and make sure the track is armed for recording and not muted.

Ah, the track wasn't armed. Newbie mistake. Records like a charm now.

Thanks for such a detailed response. I'm interested in using your second option also, so your input wasn't in vain :-)
 
Cool, glad you got it working. If you have any trouble getting the second option to work, feel free to post. It can be a pain to get the second option set up, but once you have it all working it is really a lot better than recording direct from the drum module. You get complete control over all your different drums/cymbals and you get all the MIDI editing/quantization options, so it turns out to be worth it in the end.
 
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