Best way to record a drum machine to tape?

[federationofide]

Hi. I have an analog drum machine (Boss Dr-110) that I'm recording on my Tascam 8-track. I've been recording it by going direct from the drum machine to the mixer, but the recordings have come out sounding "flat". What sort of outboard gear would I want to run the drum machine through to get bigger and fatter drum recordings?

thanks!

 

[soulsonic]

maybe try a compressor? How hot are the levels? I recorded some drum machine recently on tape and I thought it sounded great when I hit the tape extra hard with it. Any chance to add some distortion should be explored.

 

[Chilljam]

Also, another thing you can try is to play the drum machine through some external speakers and record the drum machine by mic'ing the speakers. This method gives you so much versatility with your sound depending on what speakers you use.. what mic(s) you use... mic placement etc.

 

[lo.fi.love]

Record the drum machine as direct to tape as possible. Does your drum machine have a line out? If your mixer has channel inserts (if it's a Tascam mixer, "Send" and "Receive" jacks) then connect the drum machine via the insert receive, do whatever EQ you want on the channel, and then pipe its direct out to the tape machine. Try to get your peaks around +3 and don't use dbx.

That's my recipe

 

[Blue Jinn]

An aural exciter (aka spectral enhancer) may help as well to add some "'sparkle." I've used that on an aux send to fatten and brighten the sound.

 

[thunderstation]

Hi. I have an analog drum machine (Boss Dr-110) that I'm recording on my Tascam 8-track. I've been recording it by going direct from the drum machine to the mixer, but the recordings have come out sounding "flat". What sort of outboard gear would I want to run the drum machine through to get bigger and fatter drum recordings?

thanks!

I'm using a tascam 488 - 8 track with an alesis 216 drum machine & this seems to work well for me.
Use a signal splitter and connect the drum machine to 2 different channel inserts. record 1 side dry and the other using an effect ( reverb or maybe a flanger) you can then bounce that signal to 1 track clearing the other two for recording different instruments.

 

[Astralography]

With no disrespect, why not get a real drummer? I can't imagine any song sounding better with a drum machine than if you have a real drummer worth his or her salt. Drums are not as complicated to record as you might think. You can get a hell of a sound with 4 mics. An SM 52 two feet from the kick, two SM 58's
ambient placing left and right of the set, and a decent overhead condenser mic. I mean drums don't have to sound like Def Leppard to be good, I promise.

 

[jpmorris]

It's an analogue drum machine, so he's almost certainly trying to get that 1980s drum machine sound, 808 hihats and things like that. A real drummer isn't going to help there.

In the more general case, reasons to go for a drum machine include: lack of space, lack of skill, inability to find a drummer willing to work for free, inability to pay for a session drummer, bedroom studio in an apartment (i.e. noise problems), the fact that the drum machine will give you a stereo pair, and the fact that you can go back and edit the drum track is often helpful.

But then, I'm one of those sequencer kiddies so I would say that ;-)

For more realistic drums, e.g. Korg Triton, I have been experimenting with fairly heavy compression and the results have been rather pleasing to me. However, I wouldn't do it for an 80s New Wave sound.

 

[Blue Jinn]

All of the above re: drummer vs. drum machine.

I'd rather have a live drummer, too, but I picked up a Kawai XD-5 which has 6 individual outs, so you can eq and effect individual sampled drum sounds, and I had some fun years ago with an old Wurlitzer ballroom "beat box" I picked up at a garage sale, and sadly got rid of during a move to a smaller place at some point. Talk about analog, it had a small motor and a disk thing with a bunch of connector points that rode on it, like a hot wheels car to trigger the various sounds.

BTW, I got a decent drum sound with a SM57 on snare, a knockoff SM57 in the kick, and a condenser overhead the ride and floor tom, and separate spring reverb for the snare and overhead.