Electric Drums

  • Thread starter Thread starter TelePaul
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TelePaul

TelePaul

J to the R O C
Hey all, very much a drum newbie.

A band I know from college are interested in having me record them, but due to logistical problems, micing a full kit isn't really an option. They have an electric kit, and I'm wondering can you get away with recording drums that way? I'm curious as to whow the samples work, are they panned to give the impression of a stereo miced kit?

Cheers fellas.
 
Hey and welcome to the drum world!

A very common drum newbie mistake that I have noticed is people think that do to lack of mic pres and all the other great equipment real studios have that it isnt possible to get a good drum sound. I would say they are right and wrong.

You can get a good drum sound with just a decent acoustic drum set, the standard two overhead mics, a 57 for the snare, and a bass drum mic. With this approach you are going ot have to to spend that time that your problably looking to bypass by using an electric drumkit but id say your not gonna be saving very much.

Depending on what your doing if you wnat your eleectric set to sound real enough and get away with recording drums with to be using a drum sampling program like ezdrummer and connecting the the elctric set via midi so you cna control the snare, hat, toms, cymbals, all on a mixer and are also able to use the great samples that ez drummer comes with.

Good luck.
Dave

Electric kits are good for demoing if your going to go back and redo it but alot of the times they sound good but not good enough to sound like real drums. I think using ez drummer would help u accomplish a real life set sound though. try it.
 
Electronic drums...not electric.
Sorry...a peeve of mine. You were saying?
 
PYRRHO said:
Electronic drums...not electric.
Sorry...a peeve of mine. You were saying?
Click to expand...

Guitarist here.

Well as was said above, I know I'd be better off with the real deal but my interface only allows for 2 inputs. So micing is very much out of the question.
 
A lot depends on the model of electronic kit - however, every drum module I've ever worked with (at least a dozen plus) have a minimum of 2 outputs (to allow stereo panning).

Drum modules will (should) have panning control parameters which can be adjusted to say, pan the kick and snare center and then the other sounds to some degree right and left (normally at least 7 degrees to each side).

Hopefuly the drummer knows how to operate the parameters - but I would suggest you ask him to bring the instruction manual - just in case.

Can you get away recording electronic drums - certainly. I get very realistic sounds from electonic drum modules - with a lot less headache than trying to mic a cheap, poorly tuned kit (which unfortunately, many drummers use).
 
mikeh said:
Can you get away recording electronic drums - certainly. I get very realistic sounds from electonic drum modules - with a lot less headache than trying to mic a cheap, poorly tuned kit (which unfortunately, many drummers use).
Click to expand...
.

I agree many drummers do not know how to tune a set and until they upgrade to an expensive professional kit its hard for them to come in and get a good sound with what they got. Thats why I have gotten a lot better at tuning drums. Plus I fool around with my own set all the time becuase you do need to retune a lot.

One other thing that I would like to say is when I was limited to only two inputs and I needed to mic drums I just used a little yamaha 4 input mixer and miced it up recorderman style and went stereo out into the two inputs on my interface. I dont know its something to think about. You can always get away with the electronic drums and I just set up my yamaha drum pad through midi to ezdrummer and I might use it for a song and see how it goes. I like that I am able to program and change all the sounds afterwords. You can really fall in love with midi :D.

Peace out,
Dave
 
Hey dude, check out my v-drums, I recorded these with minimal effort too.
Check out the first song on my soundclick and the one called Words I say. I think they're ok for homestuff definitly! It'll give you a good general idea of what you can do with them as a beginner anyways.
 
Dumby said:
Hey dude, check out my v-drums, I recorded these with minimal effort too.
Check out the first song on my soundclick and the one called Words I say. I think they're ok for homestuff definitly! It'll give you a good general idea of what you can do with them as a beginner anyways.
Click to expand...
Dumby, those don't sound bad at all. How much processing do you do to them? They come out as a stereo mix from the module, correct?

I have an acoustic kit, but want to get something like your setup for our cabin...I want to paractice, but need to just hide in the basement. :D

I could easily live with this sound. :cool:
 
if they're looking simply to record a demo, and the drummer can play fairly well (balance his playing of the different areas of the kit well) then i think you can get away with an overhead and kickdrum mic. *shrugs* it's not going to be the hyper miced punchy sound that they might be looking for, but i'd personally choose that over an electronic kit. but i suppose it depends on the style. maybe for metal or *very* poppy music, it'd be better to use the electronic stuff.

Andy.
 
Personally I dont like that sound dumby. It kinda is a little too cheesy for me. You should try recording midi and using other samples.
 
Dogman said:
Dumby, those don't sound bad at all. How much processing do you do to them? They come out as a stereo mix from the module, correct?

I have an acoustic kit, but want to get something like your setup for our cabin...I want to paractice, but need to just hide in the basement. :D

I could easily live with this sound. :cool:
Click to expand...
Left mono dude, I just double track them. Like I said, plain and simple measures at home. I turn the Ambiance effect off the brain of the TD-3 and I add the stock reverb from a BR studio after. That's it!
 
DAS19 said:
Personally I dont like that sound dumby. It kinda is a little too cheesy for me. You should try recording midi and using other samples.
Click to expand...
I agree to an extent, it's not the best way of doing it, but it is one way of doing it. For the weak and simple minded. To record them via midi...I will need step by step instructions! None the less, it's a good starting point and the sound works for me screwing around.
 
I was like that but midi isnt that hard once you get to be friends with it. and let me tell you, you can become best friends!
 
Im in the middle of writing/recording an album of my own stuff and also have aband that is frequently in and out of my studio recording demos. I am almost done with that bands first track and ill post it up when its done.

unless you meant my own written music then youll have to wait.
 
Listen to the clip of "The Neo Angelics" on my page for an idea of what you can get with an electronic drumkit + doublebass pedal routed out to the PC via MIDI and using EZDrummer on a VST host. It's a lo-fi mp3 but you should still be able to hear that it sounds authentic.

http://www.ryosa.com/content/view/21/
 
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