Drums

[Mark.]

I play the guitar, and i have messed around with recording before, but the one thing that has always annoyed me, is the drums.

I think it's the main reason why i don't tend to record much stuff. What im after is something that will let me program drums with ease, be it drag and drop loops etc.

I would like authentic sounding drums. Previous recordings of mine, the drums have sounded fake, and IMO kindof spoils it. Any advice is appreciated.

I am very tempted to buy Drum Kit From Hell... just the cheap standard one. How easy is it to use? (if anyone has had expierience) Any decent places i can buy from, that would do quick delivery?

Is there anything out their for free that would rival DFH? (I doubt it, but worth asking)

Thanks!

 

[ez_willis]

I play the guitar, and i have messed around with recording before, but the one thing that has always annoyed me, is the drums.

I think it's the main reason why i don't tend to record much stuff. What im after is something that will let me program drums with ease, be it drag and drop loops etc.

I would like authentic sounding drums. Previous recordings of mine, the drums have sounded fake, and IMO kindof spoils it. Any advice is appreciated.

I am very tempted to buy Drum Kit From Hell... just the cheap standard one. How easy is it to use? (if anyone has had expierience) Any decent places i can buy from, that would do quick delivery?

Is there anything out their for free that would rival DFH? (I doubt it, but worth asking)

Thanks!

Register at RP and hit the collaboration Forum.

 

[brendandwyer]

we;ve found that a very quick and easy way to record drums that sound decent can be done for relatively cheap.

You need an old speaker, and a decent condensor mic. We use a large dia. cond. as an over head when we're doing demo ish tracks to get a decent representation of the kit. Here's how it's done: Position the ldc over the drummers left shoulder sort of pointing in towards the top of the bass drum.

Now, take an mic cord and cut the male end off. Strip it down and then connect up the bare leads to the leads on the speaker. Reverse wire it so that it acts as a microphone. Plug it into your mixer. These require little or no gain.

Don't eq or compress anything as you track. Mess around with the placement of the overhead. try it out in front of the kit. roll off some bass, switch it to omni(if it allows), try it 20 feet away in a hallway.

You might like some of the results.

 

[gcapel]

i think they sell drum kits in a box at Walmart. I looks like the drum kit from hell.

Some may think Im a little out of line but, I get good results with a mini tape cassette recorder with the built in mic. After I lay down the drum track I play it back and hold a usb mic to the cassette recorder/playerp to get it in to my computer. Forget about it, with a little tweekage in the software it's good as gold.

 

[punkin]

DKFH sucks in my opinion. It's not user friendly and the support/documentation is poor at best. I have it, tried to get along with it but ended up removing it.

If you don't know a drummer, I would definitely look into a collaboration website. You might even stir up a few drummers right here (but in the drum section of course)...it's been done before.

I would rough cut it with a simple midi drum track just to get the idea in place then pass it around and see what comes back.

 

[brendandwyer]

ah ha, i missed the point. he's trying to make fake drums sound real, not real drums sound real.
derrrr

 

[David Katauskas]

I really like the DFH2 package. Once you learn how to use it, things should go fairly smoothly. It will require at least 1 GB or RAM.

The only complaint is that the tom samples are limited, so they may take some work. There may be some DFH2 songs in my link below...'Morning Comes' is probably still there.

 

[gcapel]

sorry I thought this was a phony thread. I thought you meant allmost literally a drum kit from hell. I have no experince with the DKFH product.

Do not take my last post seriously.

 

[punkin]

Another possibility...I don't have any first hand experience with this; http://www.smartloops.com/index.htm

 

[Mark.]

Another possibility...I don't have any first hand experience with this; http://www.smartloops.com/index.htm

Cheers for that site!!

Seems i caused alitle confusion! I'm after a software drum machine, that i can drag and drop loops.

either pre recorded loops, or midi loops, that trigger off drum samples.

That site has many free loops, and to me, they sound really good, so i'll see how it works out.

 

[punkin]

Cool, what ever floats your boat, crumbles your cookies, wheys your curds, rocks your world, grills your weenies, pops your top,...um...glad we could help.

 

[ez_willis]

Cheers for that site!!

Seems i caused alitle confusion! I'm after a software drum machine, that i can drag and drop loops.

either pre recorded loops, or midi loops, that trigger off drum samples.

That site has many free loops, and to me, they sound really good, so i'll see how it works out.

What kind of music are you writing?

Certain styles call for a human being to be kicking and beating on acoustic drums.

 

[Markaholic]

i use Groove Agent 2 and love it.
No need to mess around with loops and all that BS.
http://www.steinberg.net/158_1.html
And its pretty decently priced at a mere 219.00 bucks!
http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--STEGROOVE2

 

[beezelbubba]

Mark,what software are you using for multitracking?
Here's a great free drum sampler that does not require a gig of ram
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/25.html
Her's some free drum samples to use with it,courtesy of HR.coms own Tom Hicks:
http://www.artistcollaboration.com/samples/drums/

 

[Mark.]

ez_willis: I will be recording instrumental rock.. similar genre to the likes of Joe Satriani.

Markaholic: Tried the demo of that. It was quite good, but didnt really get the hang of it. Didn't feel like i had much controll over it when recording. I did try using a midi track, and they trigerd the sounds of groove agent, and now i have got loads of midi drum loops, i could possiby do it like that. I hated programming my own loops because they took so long to do! Think i might give it another go.

beezelbubba: i am using Cubase SX 2 for recording.

 

[e-man]

acid + www.betamonkeymusic.com = joy

he has a good variety of styles. check them out.

i build my drum tracks in acid, render them and import them into n-track.

later...

 

[beezelbubba]

ez_willis: I will be recording instrumental rock.. similar genre to the likes of Joe Satriani.

Markaholic: Tried the demo of that. It was quite good, but didnt really get the hang of it. Didn't feel like i had much controll over it when recording. I did try using a midi track, and they trigerd the sounds of groove agent, and now i have got loads of midi drum loops, i could possiby do it like that. I hated programming my own loops because they took so long to do! Think i might give it another go.

beezelbubba: i am using Cubase SX 2 for recording.

I'm not sure,but I believe Cubase is excellent for midi.I would get familiar with your piano roll,or drum view,or whatever and start programing you own drums.There is a learning curve,but it will be alot more effecient once you know how,to make your own drum parts than trying to find or slice up a loop to fit your needs.The 2 links I posted before are for usable and adequate freeware that will work nicely with Cubase.Their are commercial programs(DKFH)that you do amazing things with.I would at lest give it a try and see if it will work for you.

 

[breeeeza]

Cool, what ever floats your boat, crumbles your cookies, wheys your curds, rocks your world, grills your weenies, pops your top,...um...glad we could help.

rubs your coin

 

[Mark.]

I'm not sure,but I believe Cubase is excellent for midi.I would get familiar with your piano roll,or drum view,or whatever and start programing you own drums.There is a learning curve,but it will be alot more effecient once you know how,to make your own drum parts than trying to find or slice up a loop to fit your needs.The 2 links I posted before are for usable and adequate freeware that will work nicely with Cubase.Their are commercial programs(DKFH)that you do amazing things with.I would at lest give it a try and see if it will work for you.

I've tried doing it like that yeah. Very time consuming though. Cheers for the links, i will take a look!