How to hook electronic drums up to record on a laptop?

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stinosaur

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Hey there,

I'm new to recording and just bought an electronic drum set (a Simmons SD5X.) I'm having some trouble learning how to record the sounds from the set to Audacity. I bought a MIDI cable thinking that would work, but now I know that doesn't actually send sound. I want to actually have the sounds from the drum set be recorded, not just MIDI notes. I have plugged an auxilary cable in from the headphone jack on the drum module to the mic input on my laptop and had a little success, but the quality is poor. Is there an easier, better way to do this using a mixer and/or interface or other tool? What would I need to buy to make this work? How do you then hook up the pieces?

Thank you :)
 
Using what you have, you would want a cable that would go from the line outs into the input on your laptop. You may find that adjusting the headphone input and the input level in Audacity that you will find something that will work for you.

An interface would be a better option for capturing the audio. The drum brain has a USB midi out, however Audacity isn't going to be your solution for MIDI data. For starting out, just use the audio outs. If you get to the point where you want to edit what you played, you will want to find software that will work for you.
 
The quality is poor because you have a level mismatch. Headphone outs and microphone ins don't play nice together. Headphone outs are also stereo and a microphone in is mono.

The proper way to do it would be go from your stereo line outs, which the drumkit should have, into an audio interface, into your computer which is running anything else but Audacity as its DAW. At the same time you should record the MIDI hits anyway via a MIDI cable either through your interface or direct into the MIDI sequencer that "anything else but Audacity" probably has.

Whether you go this, or any other route depends upon why you want to record your drums?
 
Hiya
You're going to need get some kind of high quality audio AD/DA interface, preferably with multiple inputs in order to capture each component separately (I think this unit has 6 outputs?) or you could get the balance between samples right in the box and record your performance as a stereo audio file if you go for a cheaper 2-channel audio interface.
The mini-jack mic input on the laptop will not be your best option for getting the best sound from the unit, or even recording from a mixing desk.
You might get away with using the stereo line input on the laptop but my experience with audio inputs on soundcards is that they tend to be noisy buggers.

If you can afford to get a 6-8 channel audio interface, you can record each drum on its own separate channel and then be able to process and mix to your heart's desire in Audacity.

Have fun!

Dags
 
Armistice said:
The quality is poor because you have a level mismatch. Headphone outs and microphone ins don't play nice together. Headphone outs are also stereo and a microphone in is mono.

The proper way to do it would be go from your stereo line outs, which the drumkit should have, into an audio interface, into your computer which is running anything else but Audacity as its DAW. At the same time you should record the MIDI hits anyway via a MIDI cable either through your interface or direct into the MIDI sequencer that "anything else but Audacity" probably has.

Whether you go this, or any other route depends upon why you want to record your drums?
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for your help! Would a $30 behringer interface do the job? Or do you have a recommendation for a different interface? I'm looking to (for now) record drum covers and duets. Also, do I hook an interface up via USB or also with cords to the mic input? And would a different program be better than audacity?

Thanks again!
 
Thank you to everyone else for their help too! Any input on the above questions are welcomed from anybody!
 
Well, you can't get hyper quality with the stock sounds of your drumkit. If you wanted to invest more money, you could get an interface which has midi in and Superior Drummer 2 or Ezdrummer software to get better sounds...

Or then you can get the 30$ Behringer interface :D All up to you. I'd recommend the Behringer, because 30$ is not a big investment if you happened to lose your interest.
Also, check out Reaper DAW, I'd avoid Audacity as long as possible... Reaper is sort of free too :D (Practically unlimited trial and the licence is 60$).

Anyway I hope you'll get better answers than this one :D
 
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