Mixing an Electronic Drum Kit

[Pocketlint]

Hey everyone,
I'm currently recording all of my drum parts on an electronic kit because an acoustic set is too loud for the house I'm living in, but I'm having trouble getting a realistic sound out of the recordings. I'm recording punk/ska music so having the fake electronic sound doesn't fit at all. So far I've found that having one track record the line in and another pick up the midi hits to use in EZDrummer is working fairly well but I need some mixing tips on how I could get it sounding more realistic overall. So if anyone has any tips or techniques it would greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[JohnRick]

No easy way really, and not a mixing issue. The sounds in a drum module are rarely any good, even in Yamaha's or Roland's top of the line products, so basically you need to either record an acoustic kit, or play the VST's (like I do) to have it sound realistic enough. Then the drummer comes into play too of course...

 

[Chili]

Well, i have never used an e-drum kit before, but for EZDrummer there are a couple of things you can do.

First is to assign each drum to its own track. EZD defaults to a stereo track. In EZD open the mixer and right click in one of the channels and you be able to select multi-track or something similar.

Second is to turn down the room mic. By default, it is wayyyy to loud.

Third, you might consider putting a gate on the snare and kick so they don't ring as much. That will give you a drier sound.

 

[Pocketlint]

Thanks for the replies,
I've been playing for a while now so the performance Isn't an issue
On my part the kit however isn't top of the line so sometimes the pads don't pick up a quick run of notes or they add a few extra but I've gotten the hang of it over the years. I'm not that familiar with ezdrummer so i'll try the multi-track thing cause that would make things a lot more flexible to work with. I'll definitely have to try using a gate too, thanks again for the tips.

 

[Guitargodgt]

Any way you can shell a little bit more for a better EZ drummer expansion? The stock rock kit sounds meh at best. Nashville and Metal Machine are both really good without sounding weird.