how to record drums

  • Thread starter Thread starter tenkas
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tenkas

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hi!
I dont really have a home studio right now, put I am planing on building one this summer.
My current setup is a typical sound blaster live 5.1
I will change the soundcard... I was browsing around and I heard about the Echo Mia... I also heard about the m-audio audiophile. The Echo Mia is said to be a better sound card.
I the realised the echo mia had 2 ins and the audiophile 4 ins...
When I get my sound card, I will record bass, drums and guitar, not all at the same time, but I wonder, how will I be able to record drums if I have 2 ins because I will have to use more then 2 mics to mic up the drum...
A mixer is maybe a solution, but I would like to know, how can you edit the drum after feeding the mic in the mixer then into the sound card?

Could someone with an echo mia or someone with a lot of knowledge tell me how I could record drums with a 2ins soundcard? thx a lot guys
 
You'll need a soundcard with multiple ins/outs.... lots to choose from.

Slackmaster 2000
 
The way I do it is with multiple ins on the sound card. I use on average 7 mics on a typical kit all on discreet tracks (I have 24 ins and outs on my system). But, if you have only two inputs a mixer would definately help. You can then either submix the kit to a stereo pair and record that to two tracks or for a little more control at mix time, maybe sub mix the lit minus the kick to one track (right channel of the cards input) and the kick by itself in the other track. This gives you mono drums but at least you can semi control the kick/snare relation ship when you're mixing. With a 4 input card you could have a lot more control. You could isolate the kick to a track, snare to its own track, and two overheads in stereo. For me, this would be a bare minmum of what I'd want to have.
 
the Audiophiles 4 inputs are 2 analog and 2 spdif, same as mia's (though the audiophiles analog input are unbalanced)...you may wanna look into the Delta 1010lt @ $249, it has 8 analog inputs/outputs, especially if you wanna do drums right........
 
I'm in the same boat. I would not recommend the Audiophile if you are planning on recording drums. I have an Audiophile and two weekends ago I did my first drum recording session. I used 5 mics into a Behringer MX 802A and then into the Audiophile. I was happy with sound since it was the first time I tried to seriously record a drum kit. But I was very disappointed with the control I had over each mic. You basically have to do the drum mixdown before you record! I'm am going to sell my Audiophile and get a Delta 1010lt.

Gigde: Where you can you get a Delta 1010lt for $249?

This of course leads to another problem. How to get all the mics (separately) into the Delta? What I want is a separate track in Sonar for each mic on the drum kit.

How does everyone do this? Are you using stand-alone pres for each mic on the kit? I've been looking at mixers and it seems that only the real expensive studio mixers have direct outs for each channel. I've been looking at buying one or two stand-alone pre's... but I didn't realize I'd need to sell a kidney to mic a drum kit.

Cheers!
 
It is possible to record a drumkit with as
few as three high quality mics in a good room.
Most project studios don't have the great
mics, and don't have a good room. So
most of us use lots of mics.

I have had decent results with six channels of
sound, from eight mics. But having
more channels makes it easier. That is
one of the major reasons I bought a second
Delta 1010, so I could use eight or so tracks
for drums and still have tracks for bass, guitar
and scratch vocals.

Flectcher has a good writeup on three mic
techniques on his www.mercenary.com site.

Don't forget to get an eight channel preamp to
match your eight channel I/O card.
 
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