Drum Triggering

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Muffin

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Hello all,
I've been doing research looking into getting steady drum volumes with recording. Case in point, I play in a Hardcore style band and I looking to get the Kick volume steady. With quick blast beats to steady 1/4 beats I want each hit to sound the same.
I've noticed a number of people using electronic triggers in addition to mics with the triggers running to a module then recorded. I've also heard of some using the midi out on their module, then to a program like ultimatedrummer. I know nothing about those drumming programs.

Is this the only way to achieve this even sound? I have no problem in investing into electronic triggers but I just want to see all my options before I dish out the cash.

Thank-you for your time.
 
http://www.boxsounds.com/vst.html

Look at replacer. I haven't used it but it seems to be a free trigger. You can put your kick sample there and have it sound robotically consistent.

Your kick will sound more alike a lot of the sounds on recent hardcore records.
 
Muffin said:
Hello all,
I've been doing research looking into getting steady drum volumes with recording. Case in point, I play in a Hardcore style band and I looking to get the Kick volume steady. With quick blast beats to steady 1/4 beats I want each hit to sound the same.
I've noticed a number of people using electronic triggers in addition to mics with the triggers running to a module then recorded. I've also heard of some using the midi out on their module, then to a program like ultimatedrummer. I know nothing about those drumming programs.

Is this the only way to achieve this even sound? I have no problem in investing into electronic triggers but I just want to see all my options before I dish out the cash.

Thank-you for your time.
Click to expand...

The "normal" way of doing that is by using a compressor/limiter. The ones in Cubase are great and you should be able to get them to give you near exactly the same volumes on your kick pretty easily. Make the attack and release as fast as they'll go and gradually lower the threshold until it sounds right. I normally use higher (approaching infinite/limiting) ratios.
 
dintymoore said:
The "normal" way of doing that is by using a compressor/limiter. The ones in Cubase are great and you should be able to get them to give you near exactly the same volumes on your kick pretty easily. Make the attack and release as fast as they'll go and gradually lower the threshold until it sounds right. I normally use higher (approaching infinite/limiting) ratios.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that Dinty. I know that is the proper way to do it, but on some of my spurts it's simply too quiet. I do plan on using the technique you described on my snare, thanks for the additional info.
 
With that trigger program or Drumagog (which is much better IMO), you insert it on the track that you recorded the kick mic. It senses the kick and fires off the sample.

It works on the same principle as a noise gate, any signal over the set threshold, it fires a sample. If your kicks are so quiet that the snare is louder in certain parts (through the kick mic) than the kick is, you will get a lot of mis triggers. The way around this is to get a trigger, like the DDrum triggers. (don't get the redshot's, they don't work as well) All you have to do is record the trigger just like it was a mic, record the audio from it onto a track and then use a replacer like Drumagog to trigger the sample.
 
Farview said:
With that trigger program or Drumagog (which is much better IMO), you insert it on the track that you recorded the kick mic. It senses the kick and fires off the sample.

It works on the same principle as a noise gate, any signal over the set threshold, it fires a sample. If your kicks are so quiet that the snare is louder in certain parts (through the kick mic) than the kick is, you will get a lot of mis triggers. The way around this is to get a trigger, like the DDrum triggers. (don't get the redshot's, they don't work as well) All you have to do is record the trigger just like it was a mic, record the audio from it onto a track and then use a replacer like Drumagog to trigger the sample.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't need a module or drum brain for this? I could just plug the trigger straight into my Presonus Firestudio?
 
Muffin said:
I wouldn't need a module or drum brain for this? I could just plug the trigger straight into my Presonus Firestudio?
Click to expand...
Nope. The only thing the drum brain does is either output a sound or turn it into midi.
 
Farview said:
Nope. The only thing the drum brain does is either output a sound or turn it into midi.
Click to expand...

Great I'll give that a try, thanks for the help.

On a side note, what's the difference between the red shot triggers and the pro acoustic triggers(DDRUM). I thought the only difference was the Pro had heavier casings.
 
The redshot kick triggers attach to one of the lugs on the kick. It doesn't fit every design, and it puts the trigger pad too far away from the edge. What ends up happening is it either bounces off the head or it picks up too much of the head vibration between hits.

The pro trigger clamps to the rim (any rim) and had the trigger pad right at the edge where it really only picks up the hit. I've tried both, it took endless hours of tweaking to get the redshot to work, but the pro version was almost plug and play. It's worth the extra $30 just to keep you from pulling out your hair.
 
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